A query on stringhalt from a reader

Continued from the blog dated 23rd April 2009

Here’s my answer to her questions.

A mineral block is only as useful as the minerals that are in it.  Taking your horse off the pasture and locking him up with hard feed is likely to increase his stress levels (have I understood what you’ve done properly?) and DECREASING stress is what you want to do in a stringhalt case for fast and complete and recovery.  I would be more likely to treat the paddock with lime and dolomite so that it doesn’t happen again, then do all the things that I wrote about in the article that I’m presuming you saw on the website (if not, look under the “horse health” category here on this website).
 
A round bale of grass in his paddock is excellent. Just remember he won’t be able to eat all of it as some will eventually get spoiled and inedible…
 
Magnesium orotate is the best and most easily absorbed of the magnesiums according to Pat Coleby and she has made a lifetime’s research in to the subject.
 
Then the transition work in the chapter about “:just kidding” in Bobby’s Diaries will help you extend his comfort zone through the transition so that he doesn’t go into stress and thus into the stringhalt action.  It’s a whole book of great understanding and I can’t give you the whole lot here, it’s too big, but here’s the chapter about the transition work to give you an idea of how valuable that will be for you and your horse. 
I know that your horse is having trouble with his down transition, but I think that making sure he is in his comfort zone with the upward transition first and then in his comfort zone in the canter and then the downward transition should come pretty easily.  Does that make sense?
 

Here’s that chapter with notes from me to you on it.

HOW TO GET HIM SOFT AND DANCING UP INTO THE NEXT GAIT

A horse can gather himself into self carriage AFTER the transition, but it’s the hardest way to do it.  Starting off in self carriage is the easiest.  “Just kidding” as described by the great Tasmanian horseman Philip Nye is the best way I know of starting off in self carriage.  You can do this from trot to canter too and even canter to gallop.

 

The big picture is that he is walking in self carriage on a loose rein (to start off with), with a lovely soft, rhythmic stride and as you go up into the trot together, the cadence, the soft, rhythmic steps do not change.  He lifts up and dances with you into the trot.   Oo  hoo…it’s a nice feeling!

 

Imagine it.  (Picture it in your mind)

 

Give all the signals to move from the walk to the trot on a loose rein.  For me that is for me to start trotting and to expect my horse to come with me and if that doesn’t work to turn my toes out. (If I had to do any more than this, I would be working on the “go” button before I started on the transition and I would suspect that my horse was not in his comfort zone in the walk).  Then just when your horse STARTS to trot, when he gathers his body up for that first step, you go through your procedures for stopping.  Drop your energy and seat back into the walk and say “just kidding”.  If he doesn’t come back into a walk with you, then go through all the steps for your stop. 

 

He maybe can’t stop yet because he is out of balance and can’t stop easily. Lift the reins at the buckle, slide your hand down and pick up one rein, then lift it with a little forward push (this is not yet my signal to stop) then drop your seat into the stop/back up position (that is my signal to stop).  Bounce the rein to get in his road a little if he hasn’t stopped from the lifting (that’s my rhythmic way of saying “you haven’t done what I asked yet”).  If he doesn’t drop back into a walk then, you may need to shorten your rein a little more to bring his head around for a “bend to a stop”.  If he doesn’t stop then, turn your toe out on the same side as the rein (and all the “eyes” as well) helping him to bend to a stop.  There’s that fall back emergency bend to a stop again!

 

And if he still doesn’t stop, then rip his head off by pulling his head around for the bend….just kidding! 

 

But seriously, a horse who doesn’t stop easily is out of my comfort zone, so I am happy to pull him around for the stop, lose leadership and get it back again later – after I’ve stopped safely.  And don’t rip his head off or pull him over, doing it too hard or too fast.  And if you have to pull him around, then there is probably something else going on.  Was he really in his comfort zone at the walk?  Sit there for a while, still on his back, and do that meditation technique to really connect with his mind and see what he’s got to tell you. 

 

Waiting for him to chew, however long that takes, it will have him getting the idea faster.

 

So you keep saying “just kidding” like this until, as he starts to trot, you feel these lovely soft feet underneath you, he balances himself beautifully, he elevates his back for the change from walk to trot and steps straight out into a lovely soft, rhythmic stride.  HE IS IN HIS COMFORT ZONE in the transition itself.

 

One of the reasons that some of you feel anxious when you are asking your horse to go faster, (and that is why he goes into the stringhalt action at that time – it’s because he is feeling nervous)  is because he’s scared too and you are actually feeling his fear.  It’s a chicken and egg thing (not knowing which came first), but often when a horse is off balance and leaning on his front end  there is a tendency for his legs to move faster and faster to catch up.  Kind of like lurching down hill, with the legs gathering more and more speed as they go and with horse and rider getting more and more anxious as they go.  There are some horses that people have a lot of trouble working on a loose rein at anything faster than a walk and this is why – he is off balance.

 

If you’ve been frightened or anxious in this situation, then know that it was danger fear.  Whether you actually had an accident or not doesn’t matter, you were actually in danger.  This is another excellent example of using your fear to make you safer – which was after all, what fear was designed for!

 

It’s self carriage that will bring you the lovely soft dancing steps underneath you.  I’m telling you that if you’ve done your comfort zone stuff for your horse, as I’ve described it, you will start to get self carriage in the very first day that you do these “just kiddings”.  Crikey, it took me years of hard work and lessons and I still didn’t have true self carriage before this!

 

I’m sorry, there are bound to be things in this chapter that don’t make as much sense as they should because this chapter has a lot of book to explain things like the comfort zone model, that have come before this chapter.

I can only encourage you to buy the books or put them on to your birthday wish list.

I always recommend Zen Connection first because of the depth of understanding and connection that it helps you to create and the audio lessons are worth your weight in gold.  But it’s Bobby;’s Dairies that has the specific framework and specific instructions for your particular problem.

 

If you are broke and cannot afford the books, then email me back and we’ll figure out a no money way that you can get the information you need!  Cheers Jenny