Stone-Hedge Equine

03/12/2024

With the right management, this disorder doesn’t have to be a death sentence for your horse’s performance career.

03/12/2024

“I’ve always had a good attitude towards my horses – because I have been brought up that way – but the older I get, the more I truly understand how incredible they are," Janika Sprunger tells WoSJ. All photos © Jenny Abrahamsson for World of Showjumping.

03/08/2024

In the first section of our two-part series, top hunter/equitation coach Michael Dowling shares a creative jumping exercise for tuning up your position and track-riding skills.

03/08/2024

A friendly reminder that our horses may surprise us at this time of year. Northern hemisphere, it’s spring, southern it’s autumn.

Right now our horses will be synthesizing a huge amount of dietary protein to shed and regrow their coats. Their nervous system which held on standby their physiological state to pass through the end of winter/summer has now kicked back into gear.

Change.

Expect potential
- behavioral differences that you can find no obvious cause for
- increased skittishness or
- increased lethargy
- higher than usual sleep demands or
- higher than usual positive stress (seeking/dopamine)
- reduced threshold capacity/ closer to threshold limits

Be kind to yourself and your horses. It’s the season for ‘unexplained’ accidents. Go slow. Demand less. Don’t ask for that extra trot. Finish training sooner. Take preparation measures.

Feed extra protein if the shed causes your horse to look like a shriveled balloon.

Immediately restrict grass intake to a moment here and there (pictured) or remove grass entirely if your horse has metabolic concerns. Sanson here may be a chunky draft with several chronic health concerns but he is tested negative for metabolic issues, has never foundered, is trimmed weekly, and has been on a very powerful anti-inflammatory diet for several years now. So ten stolen sunshine minutes on grass is fine.

Check your hay supplier- they will be running low on stock or running low on time as they prepare for harvest, depending on your hemisphere. Check the hay you get for mold and contaminants as this is the time of year where suppliers scrape the barrel.

A great idea to use a mycotoxin detox supplement at this time of year to be confident and if you deworm, now is the time to consider swapping your medication, please avoid Ivermectin!

Be prepared with bug spray, but also, rain sheets if you rug. Sudden cold snaps can happen, and if you have a compromised horse, half shed its warm winter fur, caught in a Spring cold snap, you can get into trouble. Colic, tying up, etc.

As horse owners we can do best for our horses by being very thoughtful, pragmatic and proactive towards preventing as many issues as we can!

Stay safe this transition season guys!

11/15/2023

USEF ‘R’ judges Patrick Rodes and Chris Wynne offer tips on how to impress the judges and ride a winning hunter round.

10/25/2023

Within the 263 pages of Geoff Teall on Riding Hunters, Jumpers and Equitation, Teall covers an impressive multitude of topics aimed at helping riders increase the effectiveness of their time spent in the saddle. From setting goals and finding the right trainer to high-level jumper course work, the n...

09/16/2023

BY ABBY FUNK If there is one thing that we can all agree on, horses probably need to jump less than they do. Between the demands of learning, practice, preparation, and actual horse showing, it can sometimes be a difficult balance to keep the number of jumps to a manageable level. In this article, w...

08/31/2023

Has your trainer ever told you that your horse needs to be rounder? There’s a good reason for that.

07/23/2023

LA CHARGE ALLOSTATIQUE
Qu’est-ce que ces mots barbares ?

Imagine, tu es en train de cuisiner. Un peu distrait ou fatigué, tu rates ton coup en rangeant le paquet de riz dans l’armoire et le contenu se répand sur le sol de la cuisine.

Comment est-ce que tu réagis ?

Probablement avec un soupir un peu agacé, tu prends une brosse ou ton aspirateur, tu nettoies, et c’est réglé.

Imagine maintenant la même situation, sauf qu’on est un vendredi soir du mois de novembre, ta journée au boulot a été infâme, tu as été bloqué 1h dans les embouteillages ou les transports en rentrant, et ton chien a déchiré un coussin en t’attendant. Ta réaction est-elle pareille ? Ou est-ce que cette fois, tu hurles ta frustration et tu réponds de travers quand quelqu’un vient te demander ce qui se passe ?

La charge allostatique, c’est ça. L’accumulation du stress, et l’impact que cela peut avoir sur nos vies à court et long-terme.

Chez le cheval, la situation est moins étudiée, pourtant, on l’a tous vécu : “Oh mais il est trop bête ce cheval, ça fait 20 minutes qu’il passe devant la brouette dans ce coin, et c’est seulement maintenant qu’il fait un écart ! Il se paie ta tête, c’est sûr !” Vraiment ? Ou est-ce que ça fait 20 minutes qu’à chaque passage, il accumule un peu plus sa peur, sans la montrer … ?

La charge allostatique, c’est comme un seau d’eau. On peut le remplir goutte par goutte, ça va prendre très longtemps, mais si on ne le vide jamais… Il va déborder. On n’a peut-être pas même vraiment remarqué qu’il était en train de se remplir, car c’était si progressif. Pourtant, une goutte après l’autre, ce seau vide a fini par être rempli !

Ce phénomène peut se produire avec tous les éléments stressants du quotidien du cheval, beaucoup dont nous n’avons pas conscience ou dont nous ne sommes pas témoins. On sait rarement ce qu’il s’est passé dans les 2 heures avant qu’on arrive à l’écurie, ni si le cheval a eu la possibilité (et la capacité) d'évacuer ce stress.

C’est ainsi qu’un jour, Caramel se laisse do**her sans trop remuer, et deux jours plus t**d, il tire au renard à la vue du tuyau. Ce n’est pas parce qu’il est bête, mais parce qu’un jour, sa charge allostatique était trop élevée pour supporter la do**he.

Notre résistance au stress est variable selon les circonstances. Des stimuli qu’on digère facilement durant une journée normale peuvent provoquer des réactions importantes quand nous avons déjà dû encaisser trop de stress sans avoir eu la possibilité de l'évacuer.

Pour le cheval, c’est pareil.

Allostatic load is defined as the cost of chronic exposure to elevated or fluctuating endocrine or neural responses resulting from chronic or repeated challenges that the individual experiences as stressful.
From: International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2001

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/allostatic-load #:~:text=Allostatic%20load%20is%20defined%20as,the%20Social%20%26%20Behavioral%20Sciences%2C%202001

06/28/2023

Alternatively, I could say that I was promoting the concept that comfortable horses are ‘happy’ athletes and providing evidence that they are likely to perform better than horses experiencing discomfort. I also had the opportunity to spend several hours watching the warm-up arena for the showjum...

06/16/2023

Bill Steinkraus told THM in 1983: “I cannot stress too much the vital importance of restoring all aids to their normal state as soon as the horse has complied with them. Once the horse has gone forward, ease up on your driving aids; once it has shortened, open your fingers again enough to reward. It is very common to see exactly the opposite: the rider gets the horse to come back once, but never releases his closed fingers again, and spends the rest of the hour hanging in the horse’s mouth, or, having gotten the horse to go forward, spends the rest of the day with his legs stuck halfway through the horse. The reason you want your aids to be effective is so that you can teach the horse to respond to them more and more sensitively – and so that you can use them less and less."
https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/2021/08/four-showjumping-masters-part-2-william-steinkraus/

05/15/2023

If you own a horse/pony that wind sucks PLEASE give them something soft to wind suck on. This photo is of 2 horses of the same age. Both are quite severe wind suckers. The top does so on a metal door. The bottom is my own horse and I give him rope (his choice) to wind suck on.

I know the temptation is to cover the door or surfaces in metal to prevent damage. However you can replace doors, and wooden posts, you can not replace the horses front teeth. Once they are gone, they are gone.

Some of my clients have come up with fantastic ways to save their horses teeth. One gets out of date carpet samples from her local carpet supplier and puts these over the door. When the horse wears through, she just replaces it. Another takes old tatty rugs that are beyond repair and simply hangs them over the door. Readjusting as the horse wears through until the rug is no longer fit for the purpose and she replaces it. Other clients use rubber matting, and others like myself use rope. The possibilities are endless. It just takes a little imagination.

Obviously some horses avoid this issue altogether by wind sucking in mid air but these are unusual.

Please do not comment recommendations of forcing a horse to stop wind sucking. You will find a post on this further down my page if you are interested in the science behind wind sucking.

Remember, dentistry is basic care, not a luxury!

05/07/2023

05/07/2023

05/06/2023

Teething young horse?…. Give them a lead rope to chew!

I always tell my clients this, but I’m not sure if it’s general knowledge.

People often give Jolly balls or dog toys, but these only help with the front teeth, the back teeth go all the way to the horses eyelevel and the horse can not get these toys back there.

Often these youngsters discover lead ropes on their own. Unfortunately unknowing owners tell them off, when actually lead ropes are one of the best things you can give a youngster to help with the painful process of teething. The cheek teeth start coming through at 1 year old and continues until 4 year old.

Note - although it is unlikely the horse will swallow the fibres, please use a natural cotton rope just in case and replace if becoming frayed. Also  don’t forget to remove the clip, you don’t want any accidental nose piercings!!

03/02/2023

🤣🤣🤣🤣Naughty pony!!!

02/21/2023

Great opportunity‼️
Sum and Substance will be available for an in-barn half lease when we arrive home from Florida. “Robbie” has many miles in the hunter ring and would be available for a rider jumping 3ft and under. Please message for details.

10/26/2022

Confidence

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10/25/2022

Lateral work is extremely useful as a part of your horse’s dressage training, helping to develop suppleness, throughness, connection, and collection.

09/18/2022

Martina Hannover, a product of the German System, tells us:“Riders don’t think enough about having the horse straight. If you don’t have the horse straight you can’t feel the push coming into your hand, sometimes you have to push a little bit more with the left leg, or a little bit more with the right, to get the right feeling in the hand. If riders don’t have the horse straight then they will never get this feeling of the horse being over the back, and that is the most important thing – to make horses go well over the back and allow them to come more under with the hind legs.” “Everybody has to be able to ride with longer reins – does the horse let you sit? Does he accept the leg? That is always the sign that there is something going wrong – if they go against your hand. It doesn’t mean that you don’t have the rein, it’s like a rubber band but you have to learn to control the horse more and more on the outside and not so much hold them on the inside rein.”For More: https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/2020/12/martina-hannover-talks-about-the-position-of-the-horses-neck/