Trisha wren ~ Connect With Your Horse

October 06 – update conformation pics

Here are some update pics showing Hunter in October 06. He has filled out, becoming much less angular. In each pair of photos, Dec 05 pics are first, then Oct 06.

In the spring I started to feel that something wasn’t quite right with Hunter. In the groundwork exercises he was responding, but not improving; my gut feeling being that he couldn’t quite ‘let go’ – either physically or mentally. I felt that his neck was a bit stuck, and he also seemed twitchy in his back. He also started to get very spooky, so my first route was to identify what was missing from his diet. I started giving him Magnesium Oxide daily, and saw a slight improvement; then added Mycosorb (toxin binder) daily; then Selenium once a week. (Deficiencies can cause spookiness, worry / nerviness, body tension, inability to pay attention, unpredictable behaviour etc. I’ve since realised that the majority of horses in NZ need these supplements as a matter of course, but it took me a year to figure it out and I still meet plenty of horse owners here who give their horses none of these with no apparent ill effects. The grasses here affect different horses’ in different ways.)
Having ironed out Hunter’s diet the spookiness lessoned, but I still felt that his back was a bit ouchy. In December I called Annette Kopp, equine osteopath from near Te Kuiti, and really liked the way she worked. Sure enough, Hunter had problem areas in his withers, back, and hind quarters. He really enjoyed his session!