Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement.
No harm meant in stating that. A well regarded therapeutic riding group near me chewed up and spat out a really, really nice gelding of mine. Now I know better than to ever recommend anyone send a good horse there.
For a short time, I had a cracked shoulder and had a western style trainer (reining guy) working my green horse. He used a western saddle that gave my horse saddle sores and he didn’t notice. When I noticed I quit the training sessions. Appalling for him not to notice that. He wouldn’t ride in my saddle that fit well, so I said, “that’s enough then.”
As we get more experience, we are perhaps more able to see when trainers do things that could potentially overstrain or damage a horse. Not all horses will come up lame ridden front to back, or inverted, or overjumped, or ridden into the wall to teach a western rollback, etc. But some will. I certainly know more than one horse that was permanently retired or pts because of chronic stress injuries incurred while just still doing Training Level dressage. Others soldier on, with clear musclulature or NQR problems but not actually to the point of being euthanized.
I think that a good training plan should be conservative and not put any physical risk on the horse. However if you send a horse out for 30 or 60 days with the requirement the horse should have mastered some particular skill, the trainer may well need to push more than is ideal.
I am still curious what exercise to straighten a horse is this potentially dangerous, and what the injury actually was. I tend to think of straightening exercises as lateral work at the walk, which is pretty safe.
I do tend to think that a lot of apparently acute injuries, are really chronic stress injuries that build slowly until they are noticed, at which point the people start looking for an acute cause (he must have cast himself in his stall, or twisted something in turnout, etc) that isn’t really there at all.
I don’t know enough right now but it still possible to learn a lot more. Both encouraging and the absolute truth.
Why there’s so much stuff out on the market now for people offering horse straightening programs. My Facebook feed is jammed with people offering online courses to relax unlock Straighten and balance and harmonize your horse.
Yes, but I was wondering what would be so dangerous that the horse would suffer a career-ending injury in the middle of the exercise. Nothing done slow and progressive would do that. I agree, straightness is a current buzzword, and difficult to achieve if the rider isn’t straight and balanced.
I also don’t really understand exactly what the trainer did?
It’s possible an ammy could be having issues with the horse being crooked to say the right.
Horse gets put in training, trainer uses their skill to ride the horse straight, realizes the resistance is off in some way, has vet out, horse turns out to have a serious injury.
It happened when the trainer went to straighten the horse at the canter, and the horse bucked so hard that -then and there - the trainer knew there was a pain issue and the vet was needed. I brought my horse home and to the vet clinic. After the straightening-pain-buck, the horse couldn’t trot without hopping. The vet found neck/back/SI pain. SI injection and back shockwave haven’t helped so far. We are waiting for an appointment to get the neck/back xrayed. The vet guesses that there are just too many subclinical conditions that would have to be fixed, and could be prohibitively costly to maintain, for this horse to do dressage.
Not to veer off the topic of this thread but OP, some SI issues (ligament damage for instance) might not be helped by injections or shock wave. Soft tissue types of injuries would need rest and rehab. It’s not uncommon to have SI damage from slips and falls in the pasture. If you can get a better diagnosis — it might not be as career ending as you think. I have a mare that had an old SI injury that healed up completely and she is making nice progress in dressage and in her jumping. She was quite crooked in her initial training because she used to resist any movements that would stretch the left SI ligament. When I started jumping her higher and demanding more—she got worse about being asked to straighten, (including bucking) so we had to pursue more diagnostics until we figured it out. It did take a chunk of time to heal properly and I was really diligent about following the rehab program, but she has never had any issues with it again.
Take your time. Don’t lose heart yet. Sometimes a horse can be acutely sore if ridden in draw reins or similar training aids, or from bad saddle fit (narrow gullet, etc.) especially if they are long backed and need a slow buildup of strength with stretching, poles, lateral work, counter canter, etc. This is not an issue for a trainer to necessarily solve, they cull and move on as it is a pain and resistance issue, not a training issue, though some are fabulous at helping. This is a long term owner issue. Good for your trainer for alerting you. Good luck.
Oh then, you’re still figuring out what’s wrong. There’s a horse who is local to me who was ‘rogue’ per a number of excellent trainers. Finally, with a different approach to vetting and assessing the situation, blocking injections, etc- a significant issue deep in his neck was discovered and addressed. Now 2 and 3 tempis are no big deal, he’ll do them all day long instead of launching you over the moon. He’s happy and his AA owner is, too.
No one was trying to ‘cowboy’ him, they just couldn’t find what was wrong or bothering him.
The trainer asked once and stopped immediately and told you something was wrong. This was wrong before the trainer asked. The horse bucked hard so hopping afterwards I would not blame in the trainer.
If the horse had bucked hard and the trainer asked again and again and again and again, using whip and spur, then you could blame the trainer.
The OP never blamed the trainer.
Ugh, so sorry. Yes, this can happen not even in training. I had a boarder’s horse out in the field, no obvious signs of problems, one day come in sidewalking and incredibly neuro. Fine AM, something twinged after a roll, he was never OK again despite a ALOT of effort from numerous vets. He did turn out to have a lot of back arthritis and something that day was just the proverbial straw that broke the camel.
My filly went went away last year and ended up having colic surgery. I don’t really know what happened to cause it. She should be fine, I will try again this year with a different trainer…just not worth the risk when I wasn’t there. I am always terrified sending a horse out of my care!
your horse was probably crooked because of the physical issue but it wasn’t obvious until he was asked to go straight. I don’t know if the trainer could have known since most horses are crooked to start. He might just need more vet care, time and patience and fitting up to be less crooked, which you can do now you know it is needed. It certainly will take a lot more time and if it ip to you if you want to invest that extra time or reroute to something the horse finds easier. Many sport horses have physical issues we must accommodate in the training program.
Is there a diagnosis yet?
Sometimes owners send horses to a trainer with unrealistic expectations and time frames. Some trainers try to meet these expectations by pressuring the horses too much. I have worked with a couple of mares in the past two years that both spent time with one local trainer who pressured them until they started rearing. Both owners brought them home but now had a horse with a problem. The one owner opted to send the horse back to the OTTB rescue that she came from after I told her that it would take considerable amount of time to get the horse right if it was possible. The other owner had me work with the horse quite a bit and another trainer who was sympathetic but good. She finally sold the horse to a professional who was willing to give her time. So I hope that one works out.
The problem is, if I tell an owner that their expectations are unreasonable, they just send the horse to someone else. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Many times the “problems” the horse is having are body issues that most trainers don’t know how to address. Pressuring a horse who is sore is a recipe for disaster!
IMHO if you think tying up a leg and laying a horse down is an acceptable training method, you are not a good trainer.
Going back to the clinic for back and neck xrays today. thanks for asking hut-ho. Thanks everyone for the positive support and feedback. (the negative stuff didn’t apply to my situation and was ignored).
The back & neck xrays revealed:
Moderate Dorsal articular arthritis (would need 5 injections on each side = 10 total injections, which is unaffordable, so tried more shockwave and mesotherapy)
Moderate Lower Neck arthritis (t6 & t7, injections were given)
Moderate Poll arthritis (shockwave)
I’m guessing when insurance is renewed in July the horse will be dropped, or at best case will just have everything excluded.
Ugh I’m sorry, that really sucks. Prognosis on the horse’s future?
That’s a lot of pain.
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