Jess’s daughter’s pony had become a Head-Shaker
Here is a typical real-life example of our message in last night’s post (and why to become “Grass Smart”)!
Thanks Jess for sharing the journey!
We brought our lovely young (6) Connemara pony home in mid-December 2023 for my 11 year old daughter.
We didn't ride much in December and January because of the weather but, when we did ride, we noticed she was quite snatchy with the reins. We didn't overly think it at the time but instead brought some balance support reins to help support my daughter when she did this which became increasingly often (I would ride her without them).
However, looking back now I think this was the start of our pony exhibiting ‘grass-affected’ behaviour.
The pony, lived out 24/7 on stressed, overgrazed grass with our other 3 ponies who have never exhibited any issues in the 4 years that we have kept them at this location.
The grass is also heavily rich in clover in parts which I now know to be detrimental to their health.
After the rein snatching behaviour and as we headed into spring, the head shaking started in earnest.
We did all the normal checks - teeth, saddle, bridle, bit, back etc and everything was absolutely fine but the head-shaking had worsened so much by June 2024 that we really could not ride our pony (even with a nose net (of which we tried various types!) and which provided some relief but not much) and cancelled all planned outings.
I also realised having done a lot of research that the pony was probably in pain a lot at this point and we did not want to hurt her or us.
She head-shook on the lunge in a head collar and whilst ridden out hacking and when turned out on grass. Interestingly, she showed no head shaking behaviour in an arena so we were able to keep her schooling up to a limited extent in an arena but could not ride her outside where she was a bit ‘footy’ as well.
We were in contact with the pony's previous owners who assured us tha
Angus had a mild Head-Flick along with serious Muzzle Twitching!
Laura contacted us about her horse Angus back on 21st August
Over the previous 4 - 5 months Angus had begun showing the odd ‘flick’, become tight in his back and hind-quarter muscles, didn’t want to be bridled and became agitated when tied up.
He had also developed incessant twitching of his muzzle shown in the video and wanted to rub his head a lot.
His teeth were checked (no issues).
Veterinary assessment was ‘Trigeminal Mediated Head-Shaking’.
We helped Laura make some diet changes which included eliminating the short, green grass as much as possible, increasing hay consumption, altered his daily feed and switched him to our CHH supplements (which we know how to use for horses with these issues).
Less than a month later Laura can’t believe the difference in such a short time. Even her Mum says he is a completely different horse, 'his eyes have relaxed'.
“He’s even filled out, and the body worker said his muscles feel really good, no tightness or tightening and his top-line has improved even though he is out of work”.
All the ‘symptoms’ Laura listed are frequently seen in HS horses so they all tend to resolve along with the HS.
Thanks so much to Laura for sharing!
Calm Healthy Horses – not just for horses!
Myskee contacted us because her young pet pig (Pickle) became tender on her feet, jumpy, grumpy/ not wanting to be touched, pushy, unsettled and tense.
She wanted to know if our products would be safe to feed to pigs.
Based on the issues she was displaying we recommended AlleviateGold. Myskee gave her one scoop (10g) for 2 day’s mixed in with her food.
Within a few days:
“Our baby girl is feeling much better!
She now has a big smile, loose wagging tail, back to being affectionate and is overall way more comfortable!
Your products are honestly magic in a bag. Thank you so much”.
As the products are minerals with vitamins, there is no reason they should not address the same mineral imbalances horses suffer from and way back in time, horses and pigs, believe it or not came down the same evolutionary line. Pigs too are mono-gastrics.
All mammals in fact, share the same basic physiology.
GRASS AFFECTED SYNDROME - IS THIS TRUE?
More and more horse owners are keen to learn about the grass their horses are grazing, because they wish to avoid their horses becoming ‘Grass-Affected’
Hence we are starting a series of posts around the subject so everyone can “Get Grass Smart”
Before we begin a few points need clearing up. We were astounded to read a recent post by a company denying that there is any such thing as a ‘Grass Affected’ horse. Instead, horses grazing spring grass are merely ‘fresh and uppity’. If only that was all they were!
Here are some facts around the matter.
There are plenty of owners who manage their horses just fine out on their pasture, often with the help of appropriate supplements, but sometimes one or more aspects of the grass overwhelm the horse’s metabolism, as is the case with the horse in the video.
This results in horses becoming hyper-sensitive, dangerous to handle, let alone ride, get sore feet and laminitis, some develop sacro-iliac issues, head flicking, or staggers - to list just a few examples. The safest, quickest, and many times the ONLY way to help these horses and keep their handlers/riders safe, is to take them off the offending pasture. Safety is paramount.
The horse in the video had suddenly become very stiff, couldn’t lower her head to the ground, couldn’t even get to the water-trough. The vet ran blood tests and we addressed the mineral imbalances - actually signs of 'grass tetany'. Her owner did a great job in difficult circumstances and now the horse is steady and sound again (took around a week).
We don’t advocate at all, locking horses in yards or pens (except as an emergency short term measure) rather we give in-depth advice about how to manage horses in their particular situations.
It was asserted that ‘Grass Affected Syndrome’ is not a veterinary defined term – we would say YET because many vets are now recognising this as a very real issue as we are getting more and
Head-Nodding/Flicking/Shaking/Ear shy .............
In our experience these are 'neurological' issues and are nearly always directly attributable to nutrition.
When this owner contacted us about her horse who had rapid onset of 'head-nodding’, we knew what to suggest because we have prior experience of successfully managing this and other metabolic conditions.
In the first video you can see how miserable he is!
Although not as common as ‘head-flicking/shaking’ (where the horse involuntarily flicks his head upwards), ‘head-nodding’ or flicking the head downwards is a variation of head shaking that we have encountered before.
Affected horses share similar levels of irritation to the facial nerves which results in the nodding, we noticed the ‘aeroplane ears’ which also tend to present in head-shakers. Additionally, this horse had a degree of light sensitivity, which is another classic symptom in head-shakers.
For this horse we were able to quickly identify the mineral imbalances and micro-nutrient deficiencies that needed addressing.
He was already living in a grass free zone and fed plain grass hay, so we were able to make some simple feed adjustments and offer some appropriate supplementation to bring him relief.
As a result, the ‘nodding’ lessened within a few days and had completely gone within 10 days.
In this case the response to the dietary changes were relatively rapid. In our experience this can happen with many horses and ponies, but equally highly sensitive and chronic cases can take much longer to achieve this level of recovery.
It all depends upon the individual horse, already being on a grass free / hay-based diet probably helped in the speed of recovery in this case.
It is important to note that we were only able to offer our help because we have developed our own range of supplements that are purpose-built to support horses with dietary related metabolic conditions. Our formulations have evolved over 20 years in
Hyper-sensitivity – unwillingness to be touched/brushed/flies drive them mad!
It can be puzzling when your horse uncharacteristically ‘doesn’t want to be touched or brushed’, girthed up or gives you the evil look and even threatens you when you are putting his cover on. In more extreme cases this can get to the point where they can be ‘twitchy’ as in the video clip we took to illustrate the point.
Well handled domestic horses would normally only twitch like this when a fly lands on them.
The question comes to mind – is this ‘behavioural’ (ie has the horse has become ‘naughty’) or is he genuinely trying to communicate with you that the act of being touched or groomed is not a pleasant experience for him.
He will give you plenty of warning signs to ‘cease and desist’. First he will try to avoid being touched by moving away – these will escalate to pinning the ears, giving you a ‘dirty look’, tensing his muscles, swishing his tail and if you still don’t take heed he will reach around and nip, stomp his feet, even swing his hind-quarters towards you.
The horse is just doing his best to communicate his discomfort. Respect the fact he is trying to tell you something and take heed. Communicate to him that you are listening by backing off – this will immediately de-escalate the ‘behaviour’.
When horses exhibit these signs they are ‘not at Square One ie they are not in a fit state to proceed with handling/training. In our experience it is a waste of time, unpleasant for the horse and potentially very risky, to be trying to 'work through' any of these issues by persisting because this is not a training issue.
Rather, aspects of the horse’s diet are disturbing the bio-chemistry of nerve function. In this case it is affecting the horse's peripheral (outer-most) nervous endings.
The horse’s skin is densely populated with nerve endings all over his body (unlike we humans) and in these cases, those tiny nerves are inappro
Kara did not think this day would ever come!
Thanks so much to Kara for sharing King’s journey back from head-shaking.
Feb 24th - Kara from VIC, Australia, contacted us because her16.2hh, 9 yr old TB ‘King’ was head-shaking so badly she had given up riding him. The videos show how uncomfortable he was and how the urge to rub his nose was strong!
A Veterinary consultation resulted in King having Allergy Tests and he was put on a course of preddy granules, plus a cortisone shot (to reduce symptoms of allergic-type reactions).
Neither made any change for King.
Back then King was on agistment and his forage consisted of short, green grass plus half a bale of Teff hay over 24 hours.
However, Kara managed to find a way to section him off in a suitably sized area with some trees, to get him off the green grass as best she could and increase his hay consumption.
We over-hauled his hardfeeds to be more appropriate and incorporated some of our supplements which we know work well for head-shaking horses and which included addressing the oxalates in the Teff hay.
Kara kept touch with us over the next few months so we could adjust his supplements according to how he was doing.
As is the norm for HS horses, it wasn’t an over-night fix but by early April King was showing signs of improvements. When being lunged there were signs of HS but nowhere near as bad as he was around a month or two ago.
We explained how to not have any particular expectations of a day and adjust what she was doing to stay in his comfort zone and not stress him at all
April 25th – On lunging there was definitely an improvement - First 10 minutes or so he was great, wind also picked up as well as a bit of rain which I found aggravated it a little more. I’ve found that he doesn’t get the violent “zaps” as much anymore, just shaking and nose blowing.
We assured Kara she was on the right path and to keep up the good work.
May 15th “Some good news, King has been doing amazing a
Misconceptions about the 'Grass Affected' condition.
A few of the comments in the previous post highlighted some misunderstandings.
Some people seem to think that if you buy a horse that isn’t Grass Affected, or is claimed to not be Grass Affected by the seller, that this horse will be safe to buy – that it is more or less a guarantee that it won’t be Grass Affected at your place – not true.
What the thinking here is, that some horses don’t get Grass Affected. Also not true.
In fact, just because they are not symptomatic does not mean they are not brewing for it sub-clinically and won’t become symptomatic on the grass at your place.
The point is, that the horse’s metabolism can cope for so long, it copes until it doesn’t – ie reaches ‘tipping point’. That could be the moment he reaches your place (or soon after) or it could be when spring or other conditions make a change in the grass that tips him over, or it could even be several years down the track before things start going haywire.
Horses that are kept out on the range or on vast acreages of native unimproved land are least likely to get Grass-Affected.
Horses kept on dairy pasture or equivalent, are very likely to get Grass-Affected.
“Can you do any sort of testing blood work to try and not buy a grass affected horse?”
Short answer – no. Whether or not he becomes Grass Affected depends on the pasture both past and present – not the horse.
If you have the right set up, you can take on any Grass Affected horse, no matter how bad he is (provided it is safe for him to travel) keep him as we advise and end up with a brilliant horse.
The opposite to this is when people who don’t understand the grass, buy perfectly good calm healthy horses and turn them into 'Fire-Breathing Dragons' by keeping them on the wrong forage.
Similar things can happen when grazing brand new grass – look out for a post on this soon.
Like so many wee ponies, dear little Coco ran into trouble with laminitis and Cushing’s.
Despite being taken off grass a month before contacting us, and being fed plenty of 3 year old plain grass hay, along with being put on Previcox for pain and Prascend for the Cushings, managing these issues was proving difficult.
Belinda reached out for help and we went over Coco’s diet.
Coco was previously getting the following as a hard feed…
A Cup of soaked beet
Half a cup of zero 2x a day along with some supplementation (not from our range)
These feeds are advertised as ‘laminitis safe’, However we maintain that these claims shouldn’t be made at all - whether any particular feed will cause or exacerbate laminitis or not, will be down to the metabolic state of the horse they are being fed to.
As Coco was clearly still in a lot of pain (see start of video) priority was to get her pain-free.
We advised all hard feed be removed at this stage and instead a slurry of AlleviateGold and SOS, with her pills crushed and in there too, syringed in morning and night.
Belinda also made sure the pony had a soft pile of sawdust to stand in – this is very important to help support the bone column as well as giving her somewhere comfy to lie down.
Two weeks later Belinda reported that the pony had ‘improved loads’ and she sent another video – what a great improvement!
Now she could halve the Gold and SOS and introduce a small feed of the following…
Timothy chaff and a handful of sunflower seeds with PremiumMVA
The final video we received today – just a month later, shows her much welcomed recovery. Back to her ‘sassy’ self!
Well done Belinda, bringing a horse or pony through laminitis is hard work but worth the effort.
The way forward to ensure no relapses is to create a 100% grass free track with options of shade and shelter and friends. Ideas around this are here plus there are great facebook groups now that this way of keeping horses has become mo
This story is for those people who have Head-Shaking horses or as in Logan’s case ‘Head-Bobbing/Nodding'.
Logan’s dedicated owners stuck with it, gave us feedback all the way and this account is a great illustration of the process. While it took 4-5 months to resolve, this is not a long time in the lifespan of a horse like Logan who now has many happy years ahead of him. It was interesting that in this case, the issue was not caused by green grass – but by the hay he was consuming plus his metabolism had been compromised by Lyme disease. Logan’s owners Anne & Dave live in Oregon, USA.
Thankyou Anne for your detailed account!
“Here’s an uplifting story to provide hope.
Our Logan is a 19 yr TWH Gelding. His primary job is as an excellent, trusted trail horse. He has a very calm, quiet, thoughtful disposition. He lives in a drylot paddock at our home with us and his brother from another mother, Lucas.
He had sudden onset headshaking (HS) starting November of 2023. It presented as “nodding” (which we equated to humming to himself), then a little more amplitude we called “bobbing”, with “snapping” in varying degrees.
Some days he was very, very hard to watch, and he certainly would not have been rideable on these days. At some point, I could not hold a feed pan for him without ensuring I gave him plenty of room to snap and not clock me. And his 90% uv mask made little difference....he still ‘bobbed’
He is fed Low Sugar tested hay and a premium brand of supplements. It is of note that although he lives in a dry lot, and is fed tested hay, his supplements were alfalfa- and flax- based… with a small amount of molasses in one of them.
At the time this started, he wasn’t working much as the weather was icy…. His health history includes presenting as “positive” for Lyme disease when we bought him 12 years ago.
He has an extensive list of allergies, as confirmed by allergy testing, and was treated with a serum protocol. Whe
Wrapping your head around the ‘Grass’ message!!
The previous post pointed out that ‘all grass is not equal’ and that it is necessary to understand the various aspects of the grass your horse is eating. Because of course horses are supposed to eat grass, understandably it can be a stretch for people to come to the realisation that it isn’t ALWAYS good for their horses.
We do see/hear our message being misinterpreted - ‘taking the horse off grass’ actually means taking them off UNSUITABLE grass. This usually means off short or lush green grass.
We recognise there are many horse owners out there who genuinely don’t experience their horses becoming ‘grass-affected’ on their grass in their neck of the woods. We are happy for them but it pays to note that there are also vast numbers of horses who cannot cope with the grass that they are living on.
Our messages are principally directed at the thousands of horse owners with horses who DO get ‘grass-affected’.
We’re not just talking about horses getting a bit over-weight or a bit spooky here and there, we are helping horses globally who get footy, EMS, Laminitis, HS, PSSM, SIJ, Digestive Disorders, ‘Neurological & Neuro-muscular Disorders’, become hyper-sensitive or over-reactive, Behavioural, Allergies, Reproductive Issues and so on. These sadly, add up to an astronomical number of horses!
The conditions listed can cost the owner not only financially but in WASTED YEARS, not to mention the stress of it all. Failure to understand the grass aspect may even be the end of the horse especially if seen, evaluated, diagnosed by people who do not understand this.
There are horse owners who ‘get by’ because their horse doesn’t get ‘bad’ enough or do anything ‘scary’ enough that they are motivated to do something about their grass and they are inclined to put things down to the horses ‘temperament’ or breeding.
This is so not true - all horses should be nothing other tha
What does ‘Neurological’ mean? It pays to understand this if you are a horse owner!
The term means there is a problem with the nervous system.
Alarmingly, this seems to be only interpreted to mean there is a ‘physical injury’ hence the x-rays and scans. That the most likely cause, given the horse has been out on green grass, is a ‘bio-chemistry injury’ isn’t even on the radar! This is yet another scenario where a lot of money can be spent looking for the least likely cause (which in Jimmy’s case could have resulted in him being pts) when the real cause is hiding in plain sight!
"This is Jimmy our 12year old Welsh pony. I woke up one morning back in May 23 to find Jimmy shaking & wobbly (kinda like he was drunk). He was struggling to walk, high stepping in back end & had a wide stance when standing (like he was bracing himself).
I contacted the vets, they checked for all sorts, eg: laminitis, took bloods, x-rayed his neck & back, but apart from a couple of things on his bloods that were slightly low everything else was fine.
After several of these episodes & several more vet visits it was thought to be ‘Neurological’ & the next step was Massey for a Neuro test & CT scan. Big decisions were ahead of us. Do we continue to Massey (which would be very costly, and potentially still not get an answer) or do we make the hard decision to put Jimmy to sleep!
After speaking with our farrier Lee Jenkins, she recommended I talk to Jenny at Calm Healthy Horses. Jenny put us on a very intensive nutritional plan to address the ‘neurological’ issues (Premium MVA/SOS/AlleviateGold plus increased salt intake) and increased the protein with crushed linseed and sun-flower-meal. We continued to keep in touch & altered things when needed & after about 8 weeks Jimmy was back to normal!!
It’s now 5mths since his last episode & he’s still doing great!! Thanks to Lee Jenkins for pointing us in the right direction, Jenny & Cathy for your advice & support!
