Maybe that’s it, they’re just not giving her enough squish? And she’s just really a good girl about the weird things we people do?
Does stacking a couple give you more squish and make it more interesting for her?
Wendy Murdoch says her personal horse doesn’t respond to the pads. She thinks he is just a solid, centered guy and doesn’t need it. I don’t find that my mare responds to them as much as she used to. She is now much stronger and more balanced than when she was a green bean.
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Well, I think I’ve officially given up on having my younger horse get on these. He is so against standing on them he’d rather break the crossties lol. I’ve tried working on it with him but he gets super stressed out about it.
My older gelding is LOVING this. I have the trifold one and the smaller thick pad both linked above. He was diagnosed with headshakers a few years ago and has been quite spooky ever since, so funny enough he is terrified of them on the ground next to him. But, if I lift up his foot and slide it under he’ll stand on it no problem. I actually took a video of him standing with both hind feet on the thicker pad and you could see him shifting his weight back and forth, and he pretty much fell asleep. I’ve been playing around with the different pad combinations but just the plain thick one on the back he seems to react the most to. He licks and chews like crazy if I do side tail pulls and then the pads after. It’s really cool!
I had better luck leading my horse onto the bigger mat than placing smaller ones beneath his feet on the cross ties. It took about a week of short sessions for him to get comfortable planing all 4 feet on.
I tried that too with my younger guy-I even put it in his stall and threw some shavings on top so he could just be near it and learn it’s not scary, but nope he won’t stand on it!
That is interesting. I wonder if you could start out with something like a piece of cardboard or yoga mat?
My mare always accepted the pads, but when she was younger she HATED Masterson work. Like I could brush/rub around her poll, but if I tried to do the bladder meridians she would rear and try to take off. And the bodyworker noted that it took a couple years before she would accept Reiki/energy work. It was kind of her defense mechanism to block it out, and it took time and starting on the body parts she was less protective of (e.g. withers vs. poll).
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I’ve actually been thinking about the yoga mat-I have one at home that’s nice and thin. I can get him to walk over the larger mat, but he won’t stand on it at all. He runs across it.
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I would keep trying. Keep letting him walk across and “offering” him the chance to linger. Maybe using a cookie as a distraction. It’s kind of like when you first teach them to straddle a pole. It seems impossible and then one day you see a tiny bit of improvement and then eventually (but sometimes feels like suddenly) they can do the thing.
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I sprung for the Sure Foot physio pad when my Chiro vet suggested they would be good for my younger guy (6). It’s a bit easier because it’s a larger surface area but I wasn’t going to get two at $125 a pop. I like that one side is hard and the other medium so you can try out different firmnesses. So far, he’s liked right front and hind on them and did not like left side at all on them. Not sure what that means 
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Interesting! My older gelding has no problem with his front feet both on either of my pads, but I have more of an issue getting him to put both hinds on sometimes (it seems to just depend on the day). He has a tendency to step one foot off it-although tonight he put both feet on it and was swaying back and forth. He was pretty sleepy so I get a little worried he was going to just fall over-he looked drunk!
Just came across this and thought I’d add to the thread:
https://paulickreport.com/horse-care-category/study-can-standing-on-foam-pads-really-help-improve-equine-balance?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0BMABhZGlkAAAGAY_ZrpQBHdE7vwxEsl30WGwpyx0V3aFB6L4U-RCQmD_BkbuPWl19pfvfvQ_y1mKfxQ_aem_B2NvhD2i1UHY-3RTvhEGFw
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@stb Do you have a link to the video you mentioned from Springhill Equine about the use of balance pads? Thank you in advance!
Not sure if this is the video stb is talking about since it’s from 2021, but I’ve watched this video from Springhill before: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P05IpXaM9qM
I have 3 pairs which I used to help my horse w proprioception when he was rehabbing from a neck fusion. I did not see a large difference but hard to know if his rehab would have been less successful without them. Where are you- I don’t need them, you can have them.
I really wanted to get excited about this study, but:
Doesn’t that basically mean “if you make horses stand on pads for a month, they get better at standing on pads”? It would be interesting to see if there were any functional, more generalized changes. Especially since the multifidus muscles apparently did not change.
I also have to say I love that they used an iPod, which I thought had gone extinct. I would have saved mine for science!
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I’m interested in trying the knockoff pads on my pony for his clicky stifles. Not sure if the video link was here or somewhere else, but it seemed a simple thing to do for strengthening the joint.
I’m in maryland. if you pay for shipping, I’ll send you 2 pairs.
