What do you do to keep your horse 'on the road'?

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Lolo

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When I think, I'm dangerous :D

I was wondering what everyone had to do to keep their horse going at the level they want to. So from veterinary input to supplements to a specific riding style...

For Reg, he has his hocks injected (he's just done 6 months so we're keeping an eye out for changes now), and next time they're done he might have his big fat fetlock drained. The big fat fetlock is from where he bashed himself hard enough that the tendon lost it's elasticity and so fluid pools from it- when he's worked, the fluid gets reabsorbed, and his leg goes down. Nothing to worry about, but a bit unsightly for a showing horse :D

In terms of supplements, you name it he's on it. He has Vetrofen for his creaky joints, SupaHoof for his falling-apart feet and UlcerCalm for his dodgy tummy. He gets a lot of feed (ERS pellets and Omega Rice seem to be working well though), and micronised linseed is useful in keeping him looking well.

He is quite a creaky horse, really. He's had a hard old life, and so keeping him on the road and going well is quite a lot of effort. He lives out as much as possible (comes in for feeding, but otherwise is out) and is on a small, private yard with quite a set routine and the same companion all the time which keeps him very chilled and happy.

What does everyone else do to keep their horse going?
 
Millie's pretty easy (so far *touch wood*:o) but we've just moved yards to get some proper off road hacking . She has physio about every 3 months (more for my paranoia than any significant issues) and we've been prescribed more galloping to keep her back soft and mobile :D That's a management change that I can happily cope with :D

Other than that - she lives on thin air and just has some chop/balancer & a cheapy joint supplement. :cool: Long may it continue :eek:
 
Nothing.
I really dont believe in competing horses who need a lot of veterinary intervention to keep them sound as it just doesnt seem ethical to me to keep putting a lot of strain on damaged structures with something to mask the pain.
Obviously every horse is different and every horse will tolerate a different amount of pain and still keep performing. My old eventer started showing signs of not performing to his best aged 14. I retired him from competition after a work up did not reveal anything obvious, I just knew he physically couldnt play the game anymore.
 
Whoah! Seems like so much to me!

Got it fairly easy over here in regards to the whole "what hard feed is best?" debate as we don't have much choice! So he's on 2 feeds a day with 1/4 sugerbeet, 1/4 pony nuts and 1/4 chaff with 3 hay feeds a day as we don't have grass :)

He used to be on glucosamine supplements for his joints when we were doing a lot of jumping but now were focusing on flatwork he's only on NAF general supplement for his coat and general condition.

He's got very mild sweet itch so have a special shampoo and are poss. Considering steroid injections if it gets any worse but other than that he's super easy to keep :D he's the kind of horse that could live off fresh air!
 
It's not really that much, I wouldn't say. 3 supplements (Vetrofen being the most important), and then every 12-18 months he has hock injections to help his arthritis... He loves his work, but when the time comes he'll be a super happy hacker too :D
 
Mine being only 5, I'm acting more preventive! So feed wise he's on a balancer and joint supplement (Riaflex) He's out 24/7, currently having a break to allow himself to fill out and grow. Prior to that I always ensured he was warmed up and cooled down sufficiently, lots of walking on roads, legs cold hosed when been xc or fast work, regularly chiropractic check ups for both of us, shod every 5 weeks so foot balance always correct.

Main thing I do believe in particularly for youngsters is little and often, also believe hacking should make up a large proportion of a horses work (you can still school out hacking!) horses aren't built particularly well to trot round and round in circles in a school and feel this is where the breakdown of many horses begins!
 
Everything and anything!

Squirrel is the single most important thing in my life, I love him to pieces and he's already paid for himself ten times over in the last 2 year with fun (and he's trying hard to pay for himself with cash prizes too lol) so I will do anything I can to keep him sound and comfortable.

He has physio minimum of every 3 months, he practically has to swish his tail the wrong way then I get her out...but she sponsors me so it's free so that helps. He's on a couple of joint supplements and a general over 14s supplement.

I have a massage pad which he wears before being ridden. He had his hocks medicated last year and think its happening again today as we had a few stops on Saturday which is pretty much the tell tale sign for him.

IMO I have a horse who LOVES the job, he gets so excited when he sees the lorry and really enjoys going out and being useful. I don't think there's anything wrong or cruel with giving him help.

One day he won't want to do it anymore, and i know him well enough to be sure I'll know when its time. Until then, I'll do everything I can to keep him going.
 
Whatever I'm doing I'm not very successful :(

PSD, tenosynovitis and tendonitis all in different legs, over the last 3 years - still have 6 weeks (at least) box rest with walking out to go on the last injury atm. Anyone have any tips on how to keep him sound? The only thing I'm thinking about changing atm is his turnout. He's kept in a herd of 5 on a very hilly field, I'm thinking off fencing off a small flattish area and making that his field, and his only field. Anything else? Ice boots after every hack? He has a very low mileage :o
 
As well as the usual tack checks, teeth checks and farrier visits Pip has the equine massage therapist out every 6/8 weeks because when she locks up (UFP) it can make her quite tight across her quarters and this just helps keep her happier but I have some little exercises and stretches to do I between but since I have made this more regular than 6month physio the difference is amazing :). Feed wise after trying alsorts with not much success have recently switched onto equilibrium winergy medium and that is working great, supplement wise she gets brewers yeast for skin condition/sweet itch and a new net-tex gut balancer which has her looking great. She also has little homeopathic tablets for the sweet itch. Because of the UFP she spends as much time as possible in the field so just comes in for a few hours in the day but longer when it's really hot/loads of flys because of the sweet itch. Lots of hill work is also import to build the muscles to support the UFP. And do as little school work as possible, loads and loads of hacking as thiskeeps her happy, and as many regular lessons as i can manage so that i keep us going in the right direction.This is all for the cheap pony that was low maintenance! ;)
 
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Well my two both have back lady and saddle checks every 4-6 months, vet gets called out as soon as i suspect anything might be off with them, teeth done every year. Shoes are done every 4-6 weeks and i have an excellent farrier. Tb is on pure condition and baileys outshine and micronised linseed and ISH is on D&H safe and sound and D&H competition concentrate and equine america propel for extra rocket fuel. They both get given electrolytes after a competition. They are both out during the day for about 14 hours and in at night, no boots in the field as i dont like it as they rub and overheat legs. When they are ridden though they have allround boots and overreach boots, they do lots of hacking and minimum jumping and i make sure they are warmed up and cooled off sufficiently. Obviously use cold boots after doing any really hard work and they always have one day off a week, sometimes 2 after comps. I try not to do things that are unecessary so as neither need supplements they dont get any but of course if they needed them they would get them.
 
TheMule said:
Nothing.
I really dont believe in competing horses who need a lot of veterinary intervention to keep them sound as it just doesnt seem ethical to me to keep putting a lot of strain on damaged structures with something to mask the pain.
Obviously every horse is different and every horse will tolerate a different amount of pain and still keep performing. My old eventer started showing signs of not performing to his best aged 14. I retired him from competition after a work up did not reveal anything obvious, I just knew he physically couldnt play the game anymore.
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I guess you aren't that keen on high level equestrianism then? ;)
 
Ex racer has TopSpec Super Conditioning Flakes and Dengie Alfa A Oil which he loves. He only has front shoes though one foot is having a little bit of work done on it over time due to seedy toe and he has to wear boots in the field, not because he precious but because he's allergic to buttercups :rolleyes: ;) Oh and he has his back done fairly regularly because his pelvis isn't (structurally) perfectly straight and can go wonky-er

The only maintenance our connemara has is the constant repairing of electric fencing and his grazing muzzle ;) And he musn't do anything on hard ground (he also has cranial massages, but that's because he loves them and he's spoilt) :o
 
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Wow some of you must spend a fortune! :o

Im quite lucky so far....(touching lots of wood here!!!:D)

Just the normal routie checks; saddle, teeth and vaccs etc and chiro every 6 months. Good farrier & lucky enough to get away with just having fronts on year round.

ETA; I have to agree with 'the mule'. I wouldnt be keen on competing a horse who needs a lot of vetrinary effort put in to keep it sound. Everyones different but it doesnt sit well with me.
 
Well so far Beau hasn't shown signs of discomfort but he has DJD in both hocks and the time will come when he'll be injected.
He's on superflex as a preventative treatment although ill be changing to a new supplement that has collagen in it once we've finished the tub
 
el_Snowflakes said:
Wow some of you must spend a fortune! :o

Im quite lucky so far....(touching lots of wood here!!!:D)

Just the normal routie checks; saddle, teeth and vaccs etc and chiro every 6 months. Good farrier & lucky enough to get away with just having fronts on year round.

ETA; I have to agree with 'the mule'. I wouldnt be keen on competing a horse who needs a lot of vetrinary effort put in to keep it sound. Everyones different but it doesnt sit well with me.
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I think 'sound' is quite difficult to quantify in most scenarios involving things like hock injections. Reg is sound without the Vetrofen, and sound without the hock injections. But he's better with them...
 
OAP (20) Pony has had her hocks medicated in the past - and has a joint supplement (Suppleaze Gold), magnetic boots and nettle tea for her arthritis. She doesn't jump much and I'd never ask more of her than I felt she was comfortable with.

Little mare (5) currently on box rest for a DDFT injury has regular physio, and will have whatever else will support her. Again, I'd never ask more than she was willing/able to offer me.
 
Not alot!

Herbie has GastriAid for his tummy and Electrolytes during eventing season with some Alfa-A, pony nuts and slow release mix.
Back lady once every 6 months, dentist once a year, normal shoes.

I can't cope with high maintenance, my bank balance doesn't allow me to!
 
Stencilface said:
Whatever I'm doing I'm not very successful :(
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Me neither :(

My horse is my pride and joy, I would do anything for him. He had regular physio treatments, usually every three months, regular shoeing 5 weeks, dentist annually, if he so much as trips/sniffs the vet is here, he does not have any supplements other than a balancer, foot sup and electrolytes because I need to eat ;) he has in the last 18 months had KS surgery, a mild tendon injury, navicular and unidentified bellyache and is currently an ornament :(
 
Chaff, comp mix and haylege.

Dentist once a year, physio and saddler every six months or when required.

Farrier every 6/7 weeks.

Rugged as lightly as possible, would live out if yard allowed it.
Boots only for jumping or fast work, ridden 5 times a week, at least once jumping.

I tend to treat him as the Irish half of his breeding and ignore any prissy WB tendencies :p
 
Genuine question:

Those of you who have had your horse's joints injected - how did you know on the first occasion that they needed this if they showed no signs of lameness? Was it a matter of them being a little stiff and the vet recommending it?

No intention of getting at anyone here - I am genuinely interested as I've never tried to keep an older horse competing before as my last one seemed to lose his enthusiasm. My current one is 15 and loving her job, and I want to do everything I can to keep her happy.
 
Not a lot tbh *touches wood madly*.
Osteopathy every 3ish months and a joint supp. Mainly for my benefit really so I have peace of mind.
My old horse who was competing up untill he died aged 26 had no special treatment other than a low starch diet for tying up. He never had a saddler or back person see him :o and was the soundest horse I knew.
We regularly school ours to keep them supple, lightly compete them, always watch the ground and keep them fit butnever work them too hard and this seems the best method of keeping them sound :).
 
Mine has 'lifeforce' general supplement to support his ulcer diet as he has had them twice

Other than that it's preventative joint supplement farrier 5-6wks
Chiro 3 times a yr as maintaince and anytime I feel he isn't quite right. Dentist every 6 months

Hopefully it stays this way for a long time
 
sweet_decline said:
Genuine question:

Those of you who have had your horse's joints injected - how did you know on the first occasion that they needed this if they showed no signs of lameness? Was it a matter of them being a little stiff and the vet recommending it?

No intention of getting at anyone here - I am genuinely interested as I've never tried to keep an older horse competing before as my last one seemed to lose his enthusiasm. My current one is 15 and loving her job, and I want to do everything I can to keep her happy.
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I did a lot of research because Reg was consistently having the same problems pulled up every time the physio came, and it wasn't really adding up with how he was overall and how he was working. I suggested it to mum, and so after he'd had his holiday he went to the vets for a work up to see what was going on and they agreed it was in his hocks. So they medicated to see if it would help, and it completely changed him. He wasn't unsound before (and was getting decent marks for his dressage), but now he's much freer and moves more easily and his SJ has improved considerably too.

It's tricky- I think eventually he'd have shown proper unlevelness/ lameness, but it was caught before he did.
 
TheMule said:
I think there are plenty of horses out there at the top who dont need anti-inflammatories injected into their joints in order to compete
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Hmm. I guess we'll have to agree to disagree on that one then. I suspect the majority of horses at GP level/4* level have had a joint medicated at some point. Not all but a lot.

I only suspect it from chatting to vets. I have no proof. Like I have no proof that a lot of them have had PSD surgery but I bet they blimming have ;)
 
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Well... we're not really looking at any level at all, as we're only just really starting out together (after 8 months of owning him...:o) but...

he gets Dengie unmollassed, just changing to D&H ERS (was using saracen releve), fenugreek, micronised linseed & alltech Lifeforce (fantastic alround & stomach supplement).

Its all about his tummy, having recently got him through stomach ulcers. hacking he always wears boots, and now he has back shoes on again, over reach boots, same for jumping, i dont worry so much about flat schooling. He's out 24/7 with one other horse, although if the weather is awful this winter he will come in on occassion.I try to keep stress levels as low as possible for him.

Having had my old mare pts on Saturday just gone (am missing her so much) Mickey will probably be wrapped up in cotton wool for a few weeks while i get over her loss...
 
id go as far as to say 99% of horses competing internationally at top level of SJ/dressage/eventing have hocks, coffin joints, backs, necks and stifles injected regularly (one,all or a mixture).
horses were not built for us to sit on, to jump 5foot on, to bounce around on the spot on, if they need synthetic joint lubrication to allow them to do *the job* then i dont see the issue? if they didnt do *the job* the industry would collapse and there would be a lot of un wanted horses!

CS has a sports massage every 6 weeks, feet trimmed every 5 weeks, dentist twice a year.

Supplement wise-suppleaze gold (for joints), Egusin SLH (for his tummy), Alcar (for his muscles), electrolytes as needed.

wears a magnetic rug and leg wraps overnight, travels in a magnetic rug or back pad depending on weather.

gets a dose of omeprazole before and day of a show to make double sure stomach ok.

ive loosely said ill take him for an evaluation next year, to see if he needs his hocks injecting yet. He'l be 9, raced as a 2yo and schooling GP, he'll proably need it next year or year after.
 
sweet_decline said:
Genuine question:

Those of you who have had your horse's joints injected - how did you know on the first occasion that they needed this if they showed no signs of lameness? Was it a matter of them being a little stiff and the vet recommending it?

No intention of getting at anyone here - I am genuinely interested as I've never tried to keep an older horse competing before as my last one seemed to lose his enthusiasm. My current one is 15 and loving her job, and I want to do everything I can to keep her happy.
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Squirrel never went lame, but he started throwing in the odd stop. Only a max of 1 or 2 a session but for a horse that never stops, it's enough.

My vet never had a moments doubt whether I should continue to compete him, it was just never on the cards. It was a case of - ivknew he was a bit stiff in th hocks so when he started stopping, we got them x-rayed (when I had him vetted he failed on hocks, bought him anyway as had him on loan, but didn't need anything done yet as he was sound and comfortable apart from flexion) tests), the joint had deteriated so vet said do injections and that was that.

Within a couple of weeks he was back to normal so i don't think is a big issue...it seems silly to retire him when he is so happy to do his job and a bit of help keeps him happy.

I kinda...relate it to HIV. Now obviously not the same thing AT all so don't jump on me but just a comparison I quickly thought of. You can give people with HIV medication to prolong the period of time before it turns into Aids and starts affecting their life. In the same way, there is medication available to keep older horses comfortable and useful, so why not?

Its not like the horse minds, assuming the injections do the job and therefore st the pain. Workinng the horse isn't goinng to make it worse or do it any harm, you'e just take the pain away.

IMO anywa :)
 
Nothing! :)

Other than the usual back, teeth, saddle etc. Luckily for me Boo is a pretty sturdy creature, although a dutch warmblood he is as solid as a rock.

Only thing I do is after a week long show where he's jumped nearly every day I just put some leg ice on and bandage him up to give his legs a nice cool down. He's only 8 and never ever over jumped so only do it when he has had a tougher week.

**TOUCH WOOD** none have gone lame or had any issues with us

Feed wise etc he doesnt have any supplements, neither do any of our other horses. Don't know how or why but they just seem to keep going!

:D
 
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TheMule said:
Nothing.
I really dont believe in competing horses who need a lot of veterinary intervention to keep them sound as it just doesnt seem ethical to me to keep putting a lot of strain on damaged structures with something to mask the pain.
Obviously every horse is different and every horse will tolerate a different amount of pain and still keep performing. My old eventer started showing signs of not performing to his best aged 14. I retired him from competition after a work up did not reveal anything obvious, I just knew he physically couldnt play the game anymore.
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I totally agree with this! We retired my mum's old mare at a similar age, she had qualified to run intermediate but at that age taking a step up (and considering her limbs weren't the best to start with) we stopped at Novice. My old JA jumping pony was kept going for a good 4 or 5 years on nothing more than a paddle in the sea 3 times a week which was interspersed with hacking and one schooling session and one or two shows a week jumping (2 or 3 classes). I think anything more than basic 'assistance' is a little 'desperate' ......
 
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