Exercises for the hyper mobile horse

[fizzyfuzzybuzzy]

I had my horse’s SI injected recently and the vet mentioned that he has a tendency toward hyper mobility and he needs to build strength. She gave us some guidelines to start following the injecting, but I’d love to get some other perspectives!

The main takeaway from the vet visit is that he needs to build core strength to support the pelvis in a healthier and more comfortable way. I have an Equi-Core that I will be utilizing and have access to ground poles and cavaletti that I plan to use regularly. I also plan to follow the plan laid out by the vet and run any additional exercises by her to ensure we are all on the same page.

I’d love to hear what has worked for the COTH hive mind!

[Horsecrazy3]

Sure foot pads target the stabilizing muscles. Get in contact with Wendy Murdock of Sure foot pads. She works with many rehab specialists from US and Europe who are using the pads. https://www.facebook.com/groups/338470610073519

Felicitas von Nuemann-Cosel may be someone to contact to get her insights into strengthening the pelvis. She is a dressage trainer and uses sure foot pads. https://www.facebook.com/felicitasvonneumanncoseldressage

[anon68314200]

Interesting !! I have a hypermobile KWPN-NA who is just made of jelly. The most important tool, thus far…… has been teaching him to have a TRUE MENTAL searching toward the hand.

So NOT a trick of balance, where you reorganize the horse’s body so they ‘fall’ somewhat into the ‘seeking reflexes.’ But a slowly developed MENTAL state where the horse seeks to connect with the human.

My horse is quite spooky, so that is a big issue that conflicts with his ability to seek, and maintain, a mental connection with the rider. CAT-H, R+, calm default stationing, and installing a true ‘search toward the target/cavesson/hand’ are the plan currently.

About the sure foot pads…. I am becoming less a fan of them over time. I’m sure they are a tremendous help to some horses, and I know that some have found them a great benefit.
But people are very very very very prone towards seeking a physical or mechanical fix for training issues. And sure foot pads fall into that very easily.

Meanwhile, people find it difficult to commit to (developing) the mental $ emotional connection with their horse. So they impose training upon the horse, without consideration of how the horse receives it. Much like you might put a car into the shop to repair it.

Now that’s fair enough to do to a car. But horses are animals and they’re alive and they have emotions and fear and histories, etc.

We could all ask ourselves what would happen if the horse was loose in a arena with no tack. Could you mount ? trot? Do all laterals at the walk? Etc.

That may sound extreme, but consider it. If you had no tools to physically impose, do you have a mental/training connection that would carry you through, without equipment ?

The difference between

1. what can I do with a saddle, bridle and whip
   And
2. what can I do with just the TRAINING and good will between us?

This may show a big difference between 1) what a horse genuinely understands and is genuinely willing to do. 2) what a horse does as a response to pressure and aids that they don’t really understand, and wouldn’t comply with if they had a choice.

A lot of dysfunction is found in the gulf between. But also, a lot of loss of ability, power, etc that are NOT harnessed because the horse doesn’t have much real understanding of what is being asked. They are just yielding to a varying string of commands and pressures.

[fizzyfuzzybuzzy]

Thank you! I do follow Felicitas and actually attended a clinic with her and her sister almost a decade ago. But love her methods for sure. Big goal is to trailer my guy down for a weekend of lessons with her. Or find enough people to bring her north for a clinic. A girl can dream.

I do have the balance pads and I meant to ask my vet about using them and totally spaced on it. I’ll add them to the list of things I ask her about!

[fizzyfuzzybuzzy]

Thank you for this! I definitely agree and this horse was a repurpose - I started him under saddle at 8 years old after washing out of being a buggy horse. I suspect he wrecked at some point, my vet said that he had old fractures in his tail. Yikes. I’ve spent the last three+ years working on exactly what you described. In the last year, he finally is truly seeking my hand and allowing me to rebalance him. Poor guy still seems to have ptsd moments and will giraffe or curl behind defensively, but it’s getting less and less.

My hope is that with a more comfortable pelvis, he’ll be able to build that correct strength now that he understands what I am asking him to do. He’s a truly good soul who wants to do the right thing, so my fingers are crossed that if he doesn’t have to fight his stuck SI and likely psoas pain (per the vet), we can move forward with true self carriage and core strength.

[JB]

My OTTB mare is also hypermobile in her SI. Methodical backing, progressing to backing up slopes (ie not HILLS), and backing in gentle curved patterns, workd quite fast to strength things there and give her the stability she needed. It’s a long-term thing though, not a one and done.

[Feathered_Feet]

@anon68314200

About the sure foot pads…. I am becoming less a fan of them over time. I’m sure they are a tremendous help to some horses, and I know that some have found them a great benefit.
But people are very very very very prone towards seeking a physical or mechanical fix for training issues. And sure foot pads fall into that very easily

I am so curious - what don’t you like about them? I’ve started putting my horse on them after a ride while I do some mastersons/massage and she LOVES them. Curious what issues you see?

[anon68314200]

Mostly because I see them adding to the never ending pile of ‘must do daily therapies’ for horses. At the same time…… riders rarely focus as heavily on improving themselves, their skills or techniques. A lot of effort is put into helping the horses cope with or recover from work. Or trying to get a ‘not quite right’ horse to continue to perform. But a much smaller percentage of effort is aimed at riders improving. Kind of similar to the endless increase of feed supplements, neutraceuticals, etc. Many are aghast when I suggest they Pivo and review EVERY day. But they will subject the animals body to a daily regime of therapies, therapeutic modalities, supps, meds, wave machines, etc.

[Feathered_Feet]

Ah yes I hear that, though I don’t know that they need to be use daily. Honestly, I never would have bothered if my horse hadn’t been laid up and super bored, so it provided some extra, low impact stuff to do outside the stall. It turns out she really seems to love it, so I just use them while I groom/tack up, put her tack away, clean her stall, prep her hay for night time, etc… I certainly don’t know that they are impactful enough to warrant extra time beyond while I’m doing other stuff.

My osteopath really loves them, though, and she’s excellent at what she does so I suspect they must be doing something useful But point well taken - there’s probably a million other things folks could be doing to help them and their horses.

[fizzyfuzzybuzzy]

I did ask my vet about backing and she said the same thing - start with 4-6 steps backward (form is MOST important) and work your way up to more and maybe slopes. She told me he is DEFINITELY not ready for slopes currently. Thank you!

[eightpondfarm]

i’ve zero experience/exposure to a hypermobile horse. Though i’ve seen it in dogs, specifically german shepherds. So, i think it’s nature, rather than nurture…but just in case…

Just throwing this out there… would a large pasture, with hills and vales…creeks to cross and other horses to run with help? Could you find a place to large pasture him for a while to gain his balance all on his own, naturally?

[fizzyfuzzybuzzy]

Oh how I wish this was an option for us! I would love it and I’m sure it would only help him. I continue to try and find a better living situation for him but it’s been a challenge to find in my area. I’ve honestly been considering selling my house and moving to be closer to better boarding options!

He does get 24/7 turnout (he’s never locked in a stall) but it’s not a large area or varied terrain. I do also try to compensate for that by hand walking and riding out of the sandbox to help with this. But certainly not ideal.

[anon68314200]

I had my horse at a place like this for a few months. But he is also very social and sticks to other horses. There was not much difference, or weight gain. He only made a huge change physically as he came mature, just this year. I am also doing good in hand dressage work, and working with good instructors.

[SusanO]

Can somebody please show an example of “hypermobile”. I keep hearing this phrase but I still can’t figure out what people are talking about. I do see videos of stallions in stallion shows that look like chickens - that bobbing head in the trot. I am assuming this is a training issue though and probably is not what is referred to as hypermobile.

[anon68314200]

Not that easy to show in a picture. The modern breeding is tending toward horses that are ‘flashy’ because they are ‘floppy.’ Their bodies are like over cooked spaghetti. It has been suggested that this lack of natural tone is actually a result of some stabilizing structures being bred AWAY. So think a suspension bridge that is missing cables, or cables that are too slack. I usually refer to Galloping Gertie. https://youtu.be/CsKKDLKYsVU. https://youtu.be/XggxeuFDaDU

[SusanO]

That doesn’t really tell me anything. Surely if these are being bred there should be some examples. There are lots of videos of popular breeding stallions that would be OK to discuss. Without a video I am skeptical that modern breeding is going all to hell. Now I could be wrong, but I am a no BS type of person that doesn’t jump into fads and theories just because somebody posts a picture of a horse with lines drawn every which way. I want to SEE what people are discussing.

[anon55755751]

I am not sure what is meant by hyper mobile in this case, other than possibly the supporting muscles are atrophied from the possible wreck and maybe chronic pain? If that is the case, various walk exercises over poles are great for building up the stabilizing muscles over the back and joints of the hind end

For the psoas pain, i can vouch for the stretches demoed at the bottom of this page https://vetphysiophyle.co.uk/2018/11/12/the-equine-iliopsoas-muscle/

[anon68314200]

I think what you are looking for is a dissection based anatomy course. There you can see structures that appear to be changing/reducing in horses. I attended a short lecture this week with photos and video from a live horse dissection. Part of what was demonstrated was the tendency for horses to have fewer lamellar connections between the nuchal ligament and the cervical vertebra.

I can recommend this program https://www.equinestudies.nl/en/the-horse-inside-out/. If you want to learn more.

All training videos/pics are going to be influenced by the actions of the humans input on the animal. Looking at the raw anatomy is a good way to remove the complication of human involvement, and address unbiased information.

[Rosewatt]

Really enjoying reading all the different methods to help with hypermobility strengthening. Mine is honestly pretty simplistic. I did the backing, but also threw in 2 trails up hills and such, all at the walk, with shorter sessions. Lots of in-hand work as well. Seemed to really help with building strength.

[fizzyfuzzybuzzy]

My understanding from my vet is that his connective tissue and muscles are a little TOO supple, pliable, whatever. As an example, my horse can essentially turn himself into a pretzel to get an itch. Carrot stretches are a cake walk for him except between the front legs.
He can hold his nose to his point of hip while chewing the carrot. When I first started him under saddle at 8 (he is a repurpose buggy horse) it was like riding 5 different horses at once. Each leg went in a different direction and his neck a 5th. It’s much better with strength but the vet would like to see more stability in his body overall and especially the core to support his pelvis.