Ace is an absolute angel. He truly has a temperament to die for. I bought one of these, to use instead of the heat lamps when I take him to a show in the lorry:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Equilibrium-Massage-Therapy-Massage-Pad-SAVE-50-/280972164187?pt=UK_Horse_Wear_Equipment&hash=item416b3efc5b
I tried it on him this morning while I was riding Woody, and when I came to tack Ace up his back was toasty warm and I was very hopeful of a good result. I got on and I was suspicious that things were not right. He did not tense up, but he felt almost imperceptibly not quite right. We walked around on a long rein and quite uncharacteristically he was sticking his nose right on the floor. I brought him up a little and asked for trot and again he trotted with his nose on the floor. We cantered and the same thing happened. This is just not him. He's never done it before. He had also completely lost his feeling of fluidity which I have become so used to since the heat lamps.
I picked up the contact and he did not want to work to it. He did not misbehave at all, but he kept asking to be allowed not to have to hold his back up and to drop his head. I took him off the arena and went up the road instead, letting him stretch as much as he wanted. He was very happy to be out and swung along on a road he has never been on before. On the way home, he picked up his back, rounded up in front, and was completely free and easy coming back down the hill.
So I repeat, he's an angel. He was unhappy, possibly in some level of pain, and he never put a foot wrong.
The pad is for sale on eBay as we speak!
Woody started much better than usual today and was accepting the contact within half a circuit. The straight lines were less of a problem than last time, but boy was he a dork in the walk trot transitions. You would have thought I had electric boots on. I just put him on a big circle, gave the aid, let him shoot off, brought him back to walk and when the walk was re-established (sometimes only after several left and right turns to unlock him) asked for the trot again. He worked it out quite quickly and then the trot was improved enough for me to introduce some figures of eight with change through walk for the first time ever. We finished on long and low-ish trot figures of eight, with some really decent changes of bend through the middle. Good progress, shame about the daft bits!
C.
ps have I told you? Ace is an angel :-)
It sounds like the problem is in his withers, not his back except referred pain. The heating pad doesn't go to the front of the withers, but covers his back effectively.
ReplyDeleteI saw this once in a horse with damaged withers from flipping overy on a rear. The nose on the floor really reminds me of it.
That's an extremely interesting observation. He has an abnormal shaped wither. Nothing very obvious, but two of his wither knobbles make a straight line instead of a curve.
DeleteThe puzzling things are that he has never done the head on the floor thing before, and that he is definitely comforted by a quarter sheet, nowhere near his withers.
The other things that still make me think that it's his back are how badly the physio managed to hurt him by pinching his spine. She didn't work on or comment on his wither at all.
And that infra red heat is very penetrating and warms him inside, not just the surface as the mat would have done (the vibration is really light, not penetrating at all).
But I would still like to know why his wither is that shape, and if he starts to buck again ever I will have it xrayed.
I could see wither damage showing that way. Similar to myofascial pain in humans, if the wither gets in the way of arching the neck by pinching or instability, it would hurt to arch the neck and round the back. I could see it generating trigger points in the deep muscles of the hindquarters without obvious tension in the back. Myofascial triggers hurt for days after manipulation, often excruciatingly.. They also respond favorably to heat.
DeleteThis kind of syndrome tends to show up after an injury that messes up the mechanical balance to the body somewhere other than where it hurts.
example.. My right shoulder is injured. The pain shows up on the occipital knob of my skull. Heat helps, but manipulating or putting pressure
On the trigger in the shoulder aggravates the neck muscles. It tends to have nerve pain components as well.
DeleteAnother one, is a trigger in my hip hurts to touch even lightly by those who dont know it is there. This pain shows up in my knee and ankle through muscle spasms and referred pain. Heat on the sore spots help, but the true pain is in my hip abductors.
DeleteIt's pretty intense stuff, but googling myofascial pain might get you started!
Very interesting. Curious that the massage pad did not help, whereas the heat lamps seem to do the trick. It does make you think it's something in his deep muscles that needs the prepping before you ride.
ReplyDeleteRegardless, how nice to read your repeated "angel" comments. All the time you've spent figuring out what's best for Ace has paid off in a big way. Since Radar was nearly so honored on your last ride out, that only leaves Woody to enter the realms of the Seraphs. I'm predicting it won't be too long!!
Do you know the US TV show, "Charlie's Angels?" Your Boys will be "Caroline's Angels" instead. *G* Just hope they don't have to go out crime fighting, though. *lol*
Oh but the HAIR Jean :-) How can they compete with the hair???
ReplyDeleteyes, we got Charlie's Angels!
C
Think I've mentioned this to you before but I've got one of these that I used to use on a horse with kissing spine, well scans showed the bones weren't kissing but there was intermittent pinching. http://www.blazewear.com/heated-rug/blazewear-rug-3.html I would have to dig it out to check where the heat pads are because on the website it shows them towards the rear of the back but it's got 12 pads in and I thought they were a bit more widespread than this.
ReplyDeleteRechargeable battery and multi heat settings, looks just like a stable rug really, very easy to use.
I did look at it, then went for lamps instead and thought, wrongly, that the massage pad would work for travelling. I'll have another look.
DeleteC
Styric that really is interesting. The physio did myofascial realease on his back muscles and crippled him.
ReplyDeleteAs I said, his wither is very slightly misshaped.
And serious cold backed behaviour didn't start until after he had that terrible hock infection that nearly did for him.
On top of that, I have foot changes coming in that clearly show that he is using himself totally differently now that I warm him up before every ride. And the improvement was not a one-off, it appears to be cumulative.
I wish I could justify £200 of xrays for a happy sound horse, wouldn't it be interesting to know why that wither knobble is flat?
C
Incorrectly done, or overly intensive myofascial release can cause such awful cramping that it reacts like nerve pain. I had it done to me once, not even morphine helped. It took almost a week to settle. Myofascial pain can also be triggered by intense illness or injury, lasting long after the original insult is gone :)
ReplyDeleteIf you take a look at July last year Styric, that is exactly what happened. He was completely crippled, obviously in awful pain. It took a week to wear off.
DeleteShe was a list A physio as well, and refused to accept that anything she had done had caused it.
C