If you think it’s stifles, try having her stand on foam balance pads under the back feet and do lateral tail pulls to activate the muscles around the stifles. Hold for 5 seconds, rest for 3, do 2 sets of 10 on each side. Also two sets of 10 on each side of leg lifts with the weighted hoof still on the balance pad (hold for 5s, rest for 10s). If that’s easy for her, gently push into her side while holding her foot up to cause a weight shift and increased activation of the opposite hind. Doing this 4-5 times a week is ideal if you are still out that often. This on top of riding/lunging should speed things up.
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I’ve always wanted to try the balance pads but the price is pretty high for what doesn’t appear to be much. Is there a more affordable source that you know of?
Stifles certainly come to mind, especially since it primarily happens on downward transitions.
My barn (all three of us work with the same equine PT have an encountered issues from weak stifles after downtime) all use human balance pads off of Amazon. Some are squishier than others. Some get more compacted or ripped as they get worn (you can encase them in duct tape to help preserve them), but you can get a pair for ~$40. There are lots of options and we haven’t landed on a favorite, but definitely something thick with closed cell foam.
You can also start by trying without balance pads. If you can see her muscles activate at a light pull (pull her tail so it’s nearly 90 degrees from her dock) without pads, you can do all these exercises without pads and see benefit. When you get to the point of really leaning you weight into the pull and you barely see her activate, you’ll need the pads to progress from there. But I’d be interested in where he is now and whether one side is weaker than the other.
When the one leg balance with weight shift becomes easy, you can pull the lifted leg forward toward her front leg instead of just raising it up for added challenge.
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I don’t know of a more affordable balance pad source, but the same sort of muscle building can be had for absolute free.
Start teaching hind leg lifts and you’ll get a remarkable difference in hind end strength and stability. If you do a Google search for starting piaffe in hand, you should find a few good, free resources to get you going. Bonus, if you both find it fun, you can continue working towards an actual piaffe which will put even more hind end muscle on.
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The surefoot pads are more durable for horse use and I think they are worth it, although I only have a couple of them not a full set.
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I just use a dense kneeling pad I got from amazon. Actually two. They’re kinda like this one.
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I did them last night and let’s just say - yeah that’s the source of weakness haha. She was not thrilled so we started with two sets of five and will work up from there.
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Literally, I am looking at Sure Foot pads and have them in my cart. Haven’t pulled the plug yet due to $$. But I will eventually. Great suggestion.
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Weak stifles are a pain but at least it’s relatively easy to improve! And static exercises reduce the risk of injury while working these weak muscle groups.
It will take a few weeks to see a difference but the tail pulls/leg lifts should help! You can increase the tail pulls up to 10 seconds (rest 5s) over time as it becomes easier for her (with or without pads). PT said I could stop with the exercises when I didn’t see any muscles activating during the tail pulls, as he was also back up to full third level work at that point (took about 8 weeks but started off ok with full sets of 10). Another horse in my barn will do them indefinitely as part of his maintenance plan.
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How hard are you pulling? And you’re talking the string-looking muscles by the stifle correct? They primarily run vertically it seems.
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Yeah the general stifle area more or less flexes/tightens. If you are seeing something tighten and the relax when you let go, you’re probably doing it correctly.
Pulling hard enough to activate that response, but not so hard that the horse is pulled sideways or steps out to regain balance. If that happens, have her reset her feet. Widening her stance is cheating. How hard you’ll have to pull to activate the muscles will change as she gets stronger.
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FYI Surefot pads have free shipping through July 7th.
You can shop at shop.surefootequine.com (PayPal only) or murdochmethod.com/shop (Credit Cards and PayPal).
Continental US Only.
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I cannot get over how outrageously expensive these are for a high density foam in a vinyl cover. Some of the local physios around here use extra thick gardening knee mats and other materials.
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I ordered a pair for 20 a piece on amazon, and they’re holding up against my shod 1400# horse for the 2 times I’ve used them. Indentation after she steps off, but no tears.
I don’t have sewing skills but I’m thinking about getting some heavy duty outdoor vinyl and seeing if I can coerce DH into making covers for something like this. I took have a shod big gal so I think a cover would extend the longevity but even without a cover you’d have to replace them 7 times before coming close to a sure foot pad.
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I bet for the cost of a couple rolls of wide Gorilla tape you could have reasonable tough covers that you could just cut off when done. Make a rectangle 2x + a bit larger than the top surface and a bit wider than the width the other direction. Put sticky sides together so you don’t have to stick directly to the foam and then fold over and tape together.
Alternatively, just cover the foam pad with Gorilla tape directly and add layers as it starts to wear.
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I think the Firm + Soft combo are super versatile. This is what I have. The soft ones in particular you can use like the angled pads by adjusting placement of the foot on the pad. If you truly need an angled firm pad (like for providing controlled stretch using it heel low), then the soft pads aren’t as good, but you can definitely do heel high placement easily with soft pads. Firm pads are pretty darn firm, so I don’t think the Hard pads are necessary.
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