How much tuen out/excersize does your EPSM horse get?

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George123

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Hi,

If there is anyone out there with an EPSM horse, I would be interested to hear from you regarding how much excersize/turnout your horse gets..

My horse has now been on the EPSM diet for 3.5months, she has improved in a lot of ways but is still not 100%. I know this can take 4-6 months but I am wondering whether I can help her further by changing her routine.

Currently, she is out at night and in during the day - I did this to avoid her grazing when the sugar levels are high. My mare was suspected of EPSM in Spring as her condition was bought on/accelerated by the spring grass so I have always tried to keep her off the grass.

Now though, I am wondering whether more excersize will help her. She Comes in around 7AM and then I ride her between 2 & 4PM everyday, straight from the stable...She has good days and bad days and the good days seem to be when I ride her earlier, which would make sense I guess as there is less time for her to get stiff. She is stabled with a magnetic rug and she is hacked everyday between 1 & 3 hours. She is still struggling to canter, especially up hills - she takes off as though she wants to go and then just runs out of steam after about 5 strides....this is an improvement though!

Anyway, I am contemplating turning her out for a couple of hours before I ride her to see whether that helps her, but it seems like a catch22 as I also dont want her to have more grass....Our paddock is pretty bare now though.

Does anyone have any experience whether more or less turnout v grass works for your horse?

Thanks for reading this lenghty post!

George :-)
 
My gelding Winston has EPSM, he was diagnosed a couple of years ago. We have to bring him in to get him to eat the amount of oil he needs - if he is allowed to graze all day he is not interested in the feed offered!! So he comes in about 8.30am and stays in until about 4.30ish. This is now unavoidable as he has also been diagnosed with pollen allergies and needs inhalers twice a day (2 of them!) plus ventapulmin. It also helps protect him a little bit from the pollen.

I think there is a real dilemma between giving these horses enough movement but keeping the grass down!! Winston only has the condition mildly - his allergies are much more problematic to be honest so he survives being boxed all day. I did read a research paper which indicated that british owners of EPSM horses do often end up stabling during the active grass season which as we know can vary accordong to weather.

I have often wished we had a sand "field" for non-grazing turn out but alas we do not!!

I sympathise with the difficult management you are facing - persevere the oil will kick in and help loads.

Diane
 
Thanks Diane,

I started a slight change to the routine today and have bought her in as usual at 7 (same re: eating the oil!), but instead of leaving her in till 4 I turned her out at 1:30 for a few hours before I ride, it will be interesting whether she is worse, due to the extra grass or better due to the increased excersize - I shall post later to advise,.

Thanks for your advice re sticking to the oil.....I intend to, but I must admit I am getting a little fed up. I have emailed Beth Valentine who assured me (after seeing a vid of her lunge) to stick with the oil diet as she looked like a classic EPSM case - and that some horses take up to 6 months to show improvements.

You mention your horse has been on the diet fot 2 years, can you remember how long it took for the oil to kick in? My Mare has been on the diet for 3.5months....She is better, definately. However, she still has very little energy whereas others report their horses being almost instanly better and lively...She is certainly looser and much better after a long slow warm up (which is why I am hoping turning out before riding will help)...She still really struggles with canter, on a hack even with another horse infront of her - she sets off as though she's really up for it and just slows up after 5-6 strides and physically cant keep going....this is better tho, as she couldnt canter at all 3 months ago.

My vet says that when the oil kicks in you almost instantly know, he has known of people that have been hacking and their usually backward, reluctant horses suddenly take off with them!! Well, I wish! and I am everyday hoping will it be today!! Did you experience this?

I do get doubts in my mind as to whether I am on the right track or wasting time - If she had always been this way since I owned her I would probably think by now she is just maybe the laziest horse in the world!! But when I got her (Oct 09) and bought her back into work (she had been off for a year and now I wonder exactly why!!) she was totally different, used to bolt with me and I couldn'd hold her - I could ride her off a headcollar now!

Anyway, thanks again for spending the time to tell me your experiences - If you get a chance to answer my queries that would be great and I shall update later as to whether the turnout before riding makes a difference!

Regards,

George
 
I feed corn oil......infact, her diet is this:

550ml corn oil per day and I soak that up in:
1.5KG Saracen Re-Leve
1KG Winergy Equilibrium Condition
30ml red cell
1mug (about250ml) Xlint Gel
1 scoop Biotal Gold
Electrolytes and salt

the amounts of the above two feeds bring my Vit E up to 1300IU and my horses requitement is 1212 IU and Selinium at around 2mg - She needs 1.2mg and the max amount is 3mg...This saves me having to supplement her diet with Vit E and Selinium..

Her height is 16.1hh, she is 550KG Warmblood (Dutch/Selle francais) 8YO Mare...

Hope that helps - it took at lot of maths!! But my Vet (Willesley in Glos) speciailise is muscular things so they weighed her and gave me the diet....I could have fed 100% Re-leve - but for her height/size and work, she would have needed 2 bags a week which would have cost £26 - I find this way much cheaper..

george :-)
 
As far as I can remember it took about three months to see the end of the stiffness. He has gradually got better and better at bend and coming onto the bit which were real problems for us as was muscle wastage and poor performance for nearly two years. The diagnosis finally came when he went bizarrely lame on the left hind. He looked as if he had stringhalt but without the snatched action and when at rest would stretch the leg out behind him as if trying to get rid of cramp.

He did give me a very hard time after just a few weeks on the oil - so much so he took me right to the edge of my confidence, this settled after about 4 months on the oil.

I feed linseed meal from Charnwood Milling - it is about £30 for 25kg bag and is 34% oil. He has this with Sugar and Cereal Intolerance Diet from Allen and Page (snappy title for a feed is'nt it!!), pure alfalfa (Simple System Lucie Nuts - they have to be soaked), a vitamin e and senium suplement and a bit of garlic as he likes it!!

I too emailed Beth Valentine and she was really helpful as Winston's muscle enzyme levels were not that high and the muscle biopsy showed some abnormal polysaccharide but not much - she is of the view that some horses are less affected than others but my own vet was not sure. If he does not have PSSM then the high oil diet has dealt with something as he muscled up well after a few months on the diet and has had no further stiffness.

If your mare is still laid back it maybe because she is having to come back from a long period of time where the PSSM was not treated - I am thinking of your comment about being out of work for a period of time before you got her. It does cause muscle damage - does she look well muscled for her type, age etc???

Hope she improves soon!!

Diane
 
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