Has anyone successfully used light therapy to alleviate winter crankiness? My gelding’s behavior worsens like clockwork from October-April every year. Many other avenues have been explored and it seems very much related to the season changes (not cold weather or vitamin E). Looking into trying either stall lights or Equilume mask. Would love to hear if anyone has had any success resolving winter behavior issues using lights.
sample size of one but in an unintentional experiment it did not help my cranky winter mare. She went from out 24/7 to stalled under lights until 9-10 pm. The coat was immaculate and the dapples…oh the dapples…but I still got crabby. Next winter was back outside without any improvement or decline.
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I have a cranky one that seems to be a touch happier when I throw a back on track sheet on her a bit before tacking up. I think she’s just a fair weather flower (and it doesn’t even get really cold here!).
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I have a gelding who also gets noticeably crankier when the temps dip I’m in CA like Demerara, so it’s not like we get crazy cold. It’s a damp, miserable cold though–not dry and snowy. But still only high 20s at the worst. His personality starts to change around when our lows start to drop into the low 40s.
I haven’t tried any sort of light therapy, although it’s an interesting thought! I have noticed some overall improvement when I put his BOT sheet on overnight. He’s still crankier than during the spring and summer, but it’s a noticeable, if not huge, improvement.
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There was a good thread last winter about horses being crankier in winter. There are some good ideas there, I’ll see if I can find it.
How have cold temp and Vitamin E been ruled out as issues? And what crankiness is your horse exhibiting?
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October weather is generally different enough from September weather, so I’m curious how you’ve ruled out a drop in temperature? What’s your average Sept low vs Oct low?
I wouldn’t expect a month to cause issues related to vitamin E, it’s a fat-soluble vitamin so if he’s on enough grass over the Summer, he should have enough in his body to at least get him through half the Winter. If you’re in an area that’s low in E, then that would be an issue year-round.
What kind of crankiness? Does it seem to be musculoskeletal related?
I have posted about this several times on COTH, but it was a long time ago, and doesn’t seem to come up on COTH search or Google.
Some time in the late 90s, my horse Music had a sudden change in how she moved one day in October. She had done a first level dressage test in a shcooling show the day before, and got the a score within her usual range. The next day I was cantering her in a round pen, and she was cantering on 3 legs. Not lame, but the inside hind reached forward and back the normal way, but never touched the ground. Her trot was OK. The vet could find nothing. Over the next few months she would trot, but only on a longish rein, somewhat strung out - not on-the bit, or in balance. She wasn’t “cranky”, but she clearly wasn’t particularly happy.
We tried all sorts of diagnostic tests and potential treatments, but nothing made a difference, until April, when she began improving. So we thought that whatever had been the most recent tratment had “fixed it”.
Until next October, when it started again. Not the 3-legged canter, but only trotting and cantering somewhat “strung out”. She was kept in work the whole time. Then she got better in April. We did a lot more tests, including allergy tests (the only thing she was allergic to was something inthe spring, so that wasn’t the cause). After the 3rd? year I pointed out to the vet that the one thing that was consistent was that it started in October, and got better in April.
I asked if it could be related to day length. He said there was nothing “in the literature” showing a correlation between day length and ANYTHING musculoskeletal (there are correlations with hormones, immune system, etc.). But putting her under lights was inexpensive, reasonably simple from a management perspective, and couldn’t hurt.
So we put her under lights from (IIRC) the beginning of September to the beginning of April, and never had a recurrence. She went on to compete in Training level Horse Trials and 2nd level dressage, asn was successfully schooling all the 3rd level movements.
She had had, and been treated for Lyme the year before all this started. The vet’s theory - in hindsight - that there was a “hidden” resevoir of Lyme organism, and that when the immune system was strong (longer days) it was kept in check. But when the immune system was weak (shorter days) the Lyne was able to be active. But that was just a working hypothesis.
Anyway, putting a horse under lights is not expensive, not too complicated, and can’t hurt, so, if I were you, I’d try it.
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Now that we have shorter daylight hours any chance his turnout is being reduced? Could you up his turnout time instead of putting him under lights?
Seasonal changes I’ve noticed as a barn worker -
- ground hardens, horses with minor or low grade foot pain tend to walk around less
- frequent freeze/thaw cycle is hard on feet, even healthy ones
- higher incidence of thrust with wetter weather
- grass availability declines, horses have less to eat and move around less
- less turnout time
- more time spent in an arena versus out hacking (less mixed workouts)
- intensity of training shifts to more-dressage like focus, hard for any horse
- horses with Cushings or IR tend to be impacted by the seasonal change
- higher incidence of fall related pathogens (Lyme, anaplasmosis, etc)
- less movement all around which with older horses really seems to impact them
It’s worth digging around. I’d chalk “seasonal crankiness” up to a physical issue.
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