Go West Performance

07/30/2024

I love seeing them rest during rehab! This mare had hock surgery a little over two weeks ago and hasn’t been comfortable enough to lay down much since then. Seeing this tells me two things. 1.) She’s going to heal more efficiently, and 2.) the treatments are working because we’ve alleviated pain and inflammation so that she can trust her body to get up and down from a laying position. We are well on our way to beating that 9 months to a year predicted healing time!

07/27/2024

Great trainers with great programs and great owners are worth their weight in gold ❤️‍🩹 Having a maintenance schedule in place will prevent so much physical set back in training and competition. And your horse is already set up to speed recovery by half if it does sustain an injury.

07/26/2024

Working on this mare post hock surgery. On stall rest alone, she could take 9 months to a year to be cleared for riding again, but we will have her rechecked much sooner to see just how much of that time will be shaved off using rehab Acuscope protocols. The Acuscope is an FDA medical instrument, and will facilitate healing the body 𝒂𝒕 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒕 50% faster than vet medicine alone. In many cases, we see healing accelerated more than 50% faster, too.

07/02/2024

Getting horses prepped and feeling good to make these wicked summer runs over the 4th of July!

07/01/2024

Seriously, how about this Texas heat y’all! Dang is it hot out there with several days reaching over 100*F this week alone. So real talk- how can we help our horses not only survive, but thrive in the dead of summer in the South?

#1 Hydration: On average, horses need at least 5 gallons of water per day for body maintenance. This can easily double or triple when they're working hard in hot weather. Bring water from home when traveling, as some horses are picky about unfamiliar-tasting water, or acclimate your horse to water with a scoop of Equine Senior or Omelene 200 in it. This is usually enough to mask different tasting water while on the road. Electrolytes are also a must! I like the powder you can pick up at the feed store to top dress my horses grain. I have also found that the “Horse Lic” buckets make my horses consume much more water each day. (I have no ties with this company- just a product I use here at the place.)

#2 Heat exhaustion: Body temperatures can quickly rise above 104 degrees Fahrenheit when exercising in heat and humidity, particularly if sweat isn't evaporating. Other risk factors for overheating include obesity or poor fitness, heavy muscling or a dark coat. For an overheated horse, find shade, if possible, and repeatedly douse him with TEPID water, using a scraper to remove it immediately. Continue until his temperature drops to 101 degrees Fahrenheit or lower. Again, to emphasize…. DO NOT USE ICE WATER!

#3 Sun protection: Horses with pink around their muzzles or eyes suffer from sunburn (JUST LIKE ME… the ginga ninja!) Human sunscreen that does not contain para-aminobenzoic acid is generally safe for use on horses on small areas of the body. Long-term ultraviolet (UV) ray exposure can predispose horses with pink skin around their eyes to cancer, so get UV-blocking flymasks for these animals. These legit work!

#4 Trailering safety: During travel, horses shift their weight with trailer motion. The energy they expend is almost equal to walking, so an eight-hour trailer ride is as much work as an eight-hour trail ride. Don't expect your horse to arrive at your destination fresh and ready to go; arrive the night before or allow a few hours for recuperation. It is critical to open all vents and windows (with appropriate bars in place), and never park your trailer in the sun for an extended period with horses inside. Another pro tip is to put shavings under your mats to help insulate the horse from heat coming from the road. Occasionally we’ll even put some ice on top of the shavings or in the mangers. It kind of acts like a swamp cooler. We also like to drive at night in the summer as well to make it less stress on our rodeo horses.

#5 A Veterinary Hospital in Turkey actually did a scientific experiment to see if horses prefer certain colored buckets. The study aimed to investigate the preference of horses in terms of different colored buckets. They used red, light green, yellow, green, light blue and turquoise buckets and measured how much water was consumed from each bucket. Their study concluded that significantly more water was consumed from the turquoise bucket and it was also observed that the light toned colors (turquoise and light blue) were preferred to dark ones (green, red and yellow). In light of these results, the researchers suggested the use of turquoise or light blue buckets might encourage horses to drink.

With that- I hope everyone has a fun and successful summer with your horses. Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions you have about heat stress.

Alyssa Doering
Equine Surgeon at Cutting Edge Equine

05/27/2024

Getting a spa day after he smoked off a run this morning! I’d say he is finally feeling good and ready to go again!

05/14/2024

My morning coffee date. ❤️‍🩹

05/02/2024

It’s that time of year! Abscesses a problem in your barn? I can help!

04/19/2024

How you get broke horses 😂😂

04/19/2024

I do farm calls! Serving Erath county and surrounding areas! (406)220-1648

04/15/2024

Equine Sports Therapy

I have multiple certifications with 15 years experience, treating horses since 2009 nationwide! I offer multiple modality treatments and sales (Acuscope, PEMF, professional grade cold laser).

Books are open! Currently accepting limited new clientele! Text (406)220-1648 to schedule. I offer farm calls!

Servicing Weatherford, Stephenville, Comanche, Hico and surrounding areas.

01/21/2024

Horseman friends….

Tell me about mecate reins for c**t starting. I really like yacht braid ropes and I think I’ve seen similar in mecates, but my gosh they are either 🌶️ 💰 or actually pretty j***y.

What do I get? I don’t want to go the horse hair route, I’m not seeking ranahan status😂.

I am making my own loping hack because I’m stupid picky about how I want it. I need a decent weighted and flexible mecate that is good quality but will also hold up to hard use without getting nasty brittle or collecting every piece of w**d and burr within 20 feet of it. Doesn’t need to be fancy or have any floofy tassels or anything like that.

Suggestions?

01/06/2024

For anyone that’s wondering about starting a BULLYMAKE subscription, I highly recommend you DON’T. The toys are absolute trash and they have a pretty predatory subscription service. I’m not very impressed with their treats, either. But the toys have proven dangerous for our heavy chewer.

12/30/2023

Stephenville/Weatherford friends! I have a friend in the area trying barrel horses with a good budget mid $xx,### ready to buy, and she’s only here TODAY 12/30 to try!! Tag anyone you know that might have something. Please post or message a video, price, pedigree and location/contact info and I will pass them on to her!

07/03/2023

A recent study, conducted in Japan, compared various methods for cooling horses after exercise in hot and humid conditions. Thoroughbreds were exercised until their pulmonary artery temperature reached 108°F. The time until the pulmonary artery temperature returned to

03/01/2023

📣 Kissing Spine in Horses 📣

What is “kissing spine”?

The name refers to arched flexion of the dorsal spinous processes (that look like “fins” on top of the vertebrae). When the spine is “arched”, like in the hollow back example, the processes can hit each other. Or come close to touching. The scientific names are “impingement of dorsal spinous processes” or ”overriding dorsal spinous processes”. Those moments of bone-on-bone contact cause inflammation which is very painful.

It can be the cause of a well broke horse starting to buck or crow hop or develop a “cold back”. Some horses will start refusing jumps, or have difficulty standing for the farrier, or may blow off a barrel, or maybe they just start getting cinchy and you drop some coin on omeprazole but no real change…

How does it happen?

At the root cause, it’s a posture problem. The horse is letting his belly hang out there.
Now *why* he has a posture problem is another topic. Something has caused the horse to stop engaging his core (abdomen) to lift his spine. Then, his epaxial muscles along his top line become weaker at the same time they are forced to carry more of the workload.

What can be done about it?

There are medical and surgical options;

1. There are two surgical methods being done right now; one is chunking out pieces of bone from each of the affected processes or cutting off an entire “fin”, and the other technique is cutting the big ligament (aka interspinous ligament) that runs between each vertebrae and helps hold the spine together.

Both surgeries usually give at least a short term pain reduction, probably from the collateral action of cutting the pain fibers in the region—a neurectomy.

It should go without saying, that when you remove large pieces of things that the horse’s body hangs from in suspension, disastrous consequences can occur down the road. As in, the spine can collapse completely, beyond the hollowed out back at bottom of picture. There’s nothing to be done to salvage that.

📣Spoiler alert: I have yet to recommend surgery as the first line therapy.

2. Medical options—

📣Rehab and physical therapy! You must correct your horse’s posture.

(But you must correct his posture even after surgery too! So how do we know that surgery is actually improving the situation, or is it the physical therapy program the surgeon should be sending home?)

To get the horse through the intial 2-3 weeks of rehab work, we often give injections of strong anti-inflammatories (like cortisone). We’ll place these medicines in between the processes to relieve the pain while physical therapy has time to take effect at home.

Mesotherapy is *extremely* beneficial for breaking the negative feedback pain cycle during the rehab phase. Most horses benefit from treatment once per week.

Shockwave also will help the body heal by sending high dose ultrasound signals to the cells, like shaking them awake.

Class IV infrared laser is helpful for reducing inflammation and stimulating the body to heal via increased blood flow and release of molecular ATP.

PEMF is another great modality to reduce pain, helping the horse get through the rehab program.

🚩 This diagnosis would *not* benefit from swimming. Full body swimming could make it worse. You want to avoid any excercise or movement with the head elevated. 🚩

Keep in mind, all of those are *adjuncts* to physical therapy, not a replacement! If you want to avoid an extremely costly (and frankly, largely unnecessary surgery) you have to be willing to commit to the work at home. It’s not hard. But it takes consistency.

You also need to have a good exam done fo find any other sources of pain or problems in your horse; including but not limited to joints, soft tissue, neurologic pain, and imbalanced feet.

My takeaway;

Surgery is an expensive but quick fix with potential long term career-ending consequences; medical management is easier on the pocketbook and the horse, but requires the human to be committed.
Rarely, some horses do in fact need surgery. But I would estimate it to be less than 2-3% in my hands.

Recommending rehab does not make as much money as surgery, but in my experience is better for the horse long term. There’s no magic bullet. Pick your poison.

If you would like discuss your horse, please call or text Dr. Nicoletta at 719-660-7498

11/19/2022

Great information!

11/05/2022

This is such an excellent visual on haltering!

10/17/2022

Researchers discovered a connection between Chromosome 25 and the presence of kissing spines in horses.

09/28/2022

This is a great short read!!

One of the most important things we can do to prevent sports-related injuries in our horses is to keep them properly conditioned. For barrel racing, that’s conditioned for four sprints and three turns in varying ground conditions. While long trotting or even loping around the pasture is great for ...

07/13/2022

06/22/2022

🍀🖤🍀

06/19/2022

PEAK EQUINE PERFORMANCE depends on having a solid, proven maintenance plan in place. It is just as important as nutrition and training. Your horse’s performance depends on his healing and recovery, and it is what makes the difference in shaving off time in competition, as well as preventing injury or lessening it when it happens. We help you do what’s best for your irreplaceable equine partners.
Not all therapies are created equally. Ask questions and educate yourself to be sure you are actually doing what’s best for your horse! There are so many options on the market today, and not all of them are created or administered properly. Let us help you put your horse first!

06/18/2022

🍀🖤Back in business🖤🍀
Taking very limited public clientele again!

06/17/2022

It’s never a loss, it’s a lesson.

06/16/2022

🍀🛢🍀

06/15/2022

Find your tribe, but keep it exclusive!

11/01/2021