Ehat exercises do people use to help a horse regain motor function/coordination? In this case it was caused by swelling around the spinal cord that has resolved, but I’d love to hear what works for EPM or other neurological issues as well. Thanks!
Poles and cavalletti. These work wonders for propreception in neurologic horses. If you aren’t familiar, Ingrid and Reiner Klimke have a great book as does Jimmy Wofford. I’ve had great success rehabbing horses who have had neck (basket) surgery using these. Good luck!
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Get some “Elevate, Natural Vitamin E”. Especially effective for neuro EPM type symptoms. Give at high dose, 10,000usp
for couple weeks and see if you don’t see an improvement.
Bought it on Amazon from manufacturer.
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When my mare was recovering from EHV-1, I did a lot of in hand hill work and pole work. Also gave high doses of Elevate vitamin e, the liquid form. When we started riding again, we did a lot of the same type of work, taking it slow and building strength back. She still has a mild deficit but it doesn’t slow her down, we trot poles and canter like before the illness.
Find a TTouch practitioner in your area. I am in northern Virginia.
This booklet would be very helpful: https://ttouch.com/Detailed/Shop/Horses/Books/Rehabilitation_of_Ho…_124.html
This one too: https://ttouch.com/Detailed/Shop/Horses/Books/All_Wrapped_Up_Impro…_92.html
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Another way to use a pole: get the horse to walk down it, with the pole between the legs. You may find that the horse can barely get one front hoof on each side of the pole before it tries to “straighten” and ends up sort of tangled in the pole. Go slow! I am still doing this with my mare occasionally even though her neuro episode was years ago. She came out of it NQR but safe to ride.
Also second the recommendation for Vitamin E supplementation, especially if the horse gets little or no fresh grass to eat. I use Santa Cruz natural Vitamin E, 8000 IU per day.
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I used every suggestion that was made on the thread and agree with all of them. Yes, vitamin E, natural only, TTouch and the wrapping techniques used, and then poles. Both the TTouch books and videos were really helpful. Learn horse massage, Beating Muscle Injuries in horses by Jack Mager looks old fashioned but works. Most importantly, go way way more slowly then you think you need to. Developing neural pathways is very different from building muscle. Overwork even a little bit and I found my horse sliding backwards instead of making progress. Lots and lots of daily diligent and slowly progressive work while really listening to your horse can produce amazing results.
