Hello Everyone, I have been reading this forum for I think for over 15 years, but never post, but am having an issue and was interested in others view points/experiences.
I have a mare that is about 14 years old. When I got her she was girthy, but nothing to extreme. She was western, and I changed her tack to English and have ridden that way ever since. At the new place after I got her, she was going well, I have always been using a girth with elastics on both sides, it is fuzzy. She is more go than whoa so I added Quiessence as a supplement which is very high in magnesium. She improved a lot, and it was good for awhile, so I took her off of Quiessence and she was still ok. He girth was getting old, so I bought a new one the same size, so I guess over time the old one had streched out and she had gained more weight. When I went to use the new one and had to pull a bit more than usual to get to the first hole she got upset. And since then I have gone through a new saddle, multiple different girths, saddle fitter, massage, tones of stuff, this is over 2 years. After a particularly bad episode I tried AFX and called the vet. We decided to try a round of Omeprazole and see how it goes. At first there was a marked improvement, but I would say half way through the treatment, she regressed a bit, with more air biting, but overall it was better. After the treatment I added a supplement for gut health, and did the AFX for a few more days then let it be. She was consistent with the air biting but not that bad until today which is about 3 weeks after the treatment. She hadn’t been ridden for a few days and it was cold, so there is that, but I’m not sure what to do. There was an improvement with the Omeprazole at the beginning, but the improvement didn’t’ last even when she was on it. After the first hole, she’s generally ok with tightening. She is great to ride, it’s not the saddle, her back has been checked, the saddle fitted and checked, and she’s not sore after a ride. It’s doing up the girth. She looses her mind if you try a western saddle as the tightening requires more of a pulling up. Could her cycle be playing into this? No sure what to do anymore. I’m going to talk with my vet about it again tonight. I don’t think its just learned behaviour, as she does improve, so I’m thinking something is bothering her.