Bringing a horse back into work

From: Nicole

Dear Jessica,

Thanks once again for a very informative service - I find that the information you provide is very practical, which is often a refreshing change!

I have some queries regarding bringing a horse back into work after a long lay-off. I'm hoping you will have some words of wisdom for me.

My horse suffered a stress fracture to one of her hind cannon bones in March this year. After three and a half months rest off, my vet felt that we could start working again. We started off walking for five minutes every second or third day and repeated this for a month, building the walking up slowly. After this we started introducing five minutes of trotting, planning to build this up too with time. However, fate intervened, and my horse colicked and had to go to surgery. She has recovered well from the colic, and is now in a small paddock:-). We have another month and a half or so to go until I can start riding her.

I would like your opinion as to how I should start working my mare to ensure that her return to work is structured to suit her lack of fitness. I'd also like to work more, this time around, on developing her muscles correctly. It's almost like we've been given a second chance - during the forced lay-off and after the colic op she lost a lot of weight (approximately 100 kg), which included all her good muscle and (hopefully :-)) all her bad muscle. I would like to ensure that we encourage only the good muscle to develop when we go back into work.

My mare typically has a relatively low set on neck and has always had very thick muscles on the under-side of her neck. Her topline was improving steadily as our flat-work and jumping progressed, but we never really quite got rid of the heavy muscles on the underside of her neck completely.

Consequently, she finds it quite difficult to flex her head through her throat/jaw and very seldom offers herself to the bit. During lunging, I have tried working her in a Chambon to strengthen and develop her back muscles to encourage more self-carriage, but she just ignores the apparatus, no matter how short or how long I adjust it. I've tried crossing the pulley lines over and across the bridge of her nose before connecting to the bit, and although this does have a small effect, it's really not benefiting her in any way, as she still mostly just ignores the fact that the Chambon is there.

In side reins, she does work in a better, even nice, outline, but I feel the side reins have a very limited benefit and I can see that she needs (and wants) to stretch forward and down. The downward pressure on the poll with the Chambon (or is it the upward pressure on her mouth?) is not encouraging her to do this however - it seems she prefers the backwards/downwards pressure of the side reins. Do you think that lunging her in the in De Gogue (independent setting) may be of use? We need to take the next step on the road, and I'm not sure what this is for my mare. Are there any other items of tack which would exert a more backward/downward pressure if she hollowed and lifted her head, that could be beneficial during lunging, or even flatwork riding?

Finally, I intend to combine lunging with light ridden work to bring her back to fitness slowly. As she is a jumper I would appreciate your thoughts on how long I should take with general flatwork and when I should re-introduce jumping as well as how long I should take to build back up to where we left off (jumps about 1.1 m high, 1.3 m wide). One important aspect that I haven't mentioned is that my mare will only be fed concentrates once we are working her again, and will be built up slowly with time. Consequently, her return to normal weight and musculature is probably going to take quite a while, as she is a thoroughbred and the adlib teff and bit of lucerne she is currently on is unlikely to restore her to her former sleek self.

Thanks once again for a great service!

Nicki

You have just such a chance with your mare. Your vet's advice was good; why not begin with that? If you begin with short walks and build to longer walks, you can hand-walk her, which will make you very fit whilst helping your mare get some needed exercise.

For the first six months or so, I would probably not put this mare on the longe line or work her in a round pen or ride her in a small arena. I think that you will get better results if you spend the first three or four months with your mare under saddle, going for short rides at a walk, along straight lines, making only the widest turns possible. A trail or a path around the edge of a large field would be ideal. Six months of walking would not be too much if you want to rebuild her body. If you want to create the strongest and most durable body possible, think in terms of "LSD" (for "long slow distance"), not in terms of ring figures or speed.

With a lower-leg bone injury, the best recovery will come from slow work along straight lines. The first few months under saddle are not the time to think about small circles, spirals, figure-eights, or even longeing. Bones and muscles rebuild through the systematic imposition of stress, but you need to control this, so that the program is one of stress, rest, stress, rest, etc. Walking may seem like a non-exercise, but don't be fooled. It's ideal. Walking in rhythm, in balance, under a rider, for steadily increasing periods of time, will help your mare rebuild and strengthen all of her leg bones - not only the injured one - before you add the extra torque and stress of circles and sharp turns.

Walking will help her develop the strength in her bones and support system (ligaments and tendons) as well as her muscles. Trying to do too much, too soon, will make her uncomfortable and cause her to try to carry herself wrongly, which will build - you guessed it - the wrong muscles.

Be realistic about what you'll be able to achieve. Once the muscles on the underside of the neck have been developed (and over-developed!) it's very unlikely that they will ever disappear entirely. What you CAN hope for, and work for, is a new topline for your mare, along the lines of the strong, muscular topline you were working on before she was injured. This will be accompanied by a shrinking and especially a softening of the heavy muscles on the underside of the neck. Muscles grow and harden with use; they shrink and soften with disuse. If you ride your mare in a way that asks, allows, and encourages her to use her hindquarters and belly muscles, lift her back, and lift and carry her neck from its base, the muscles you want will become larger and stronger.

You are right to be dubious about the value of side reins for your mare. It takes a good deal of expertise in the art of longeing to be able to use side reins or a Chambon to help a horse develop correctly. Anyone can attach auxiliary reins, on the longe or under saddle, to create the appearance (at least from the saddle forward!) of a "silhouette" or "frame", but the shape thus achieved is not real, and it doesn't help the horse.

The Chambon is of use primarily to show a horse that it CAN move whilst reaching forward and down with its head and neck. Because of the way it works - the bit pulls against the horse's lips when the horse raises its head, and falls away from the horse's lips when the horse lowers its head - it has a built-in disadvantage: It teaches the horse that the loss of contact is a reward, and that isn't something you want the horse to learn.

The Chambon is meant only for longeing, not for ridden work; the deGogue is meant for ridden work, but it shares the disadvantages of the Chambon, and again requires great expertise on the rider's part to adjust and use it correctly.

The function of any auxiliary rein should be to TEACH the horse something - not to force it into a particular position. If you decide that a particular horse "needs" a Chambon or sidereins of some kind on the longe, then you should use it for a very few minutes at a time, for no more than three days. At the end of the third day, either the horse will have learned what you wanted it to learn, in which case you should discard the auxiliary equipment, as it will no longer be needed, or the horse will NOT have learned what you wanted it to learn, in which case you should discard the auxiliary equipment, as it is not having the effect you wanted, no matter what sort of position the horse puts itself into whilst wearing it.

A horse with a naturally low-set neck will benefit most from thoughtful riding, and is unlikely to benefit at all from work with auxiliary reins. Such horses find it easy to reach down and forward on the longe, but NOT in a way that will help them to develop a strong topline, and this is equally true when you are using sidereins or a Chambon. Even if you adjust the equipment so tightly that the horse's chin is brought in toward its chest (not that YOU would do this, I'm sure, but some people do, in the sadly mistaken hope that this will somehow create a muscular, arched neck), that horse will not learn to go correctly, lifting and arching its neck from the base. On the other hand, a horse forced into that outline will develop a sore neck and back, followed by sore and damaged hind legs... just exactly what you do NOT want.

The next step for your mare is going to be working under saddle at a good walk. To rebuild her neck, you have to begin with the hind legs, the belly, and the back. When you are in the saddle, you can use your legs to encourage her to step well underneath herself, sit lightly so that your seat allows her back to lift and "fill up your seat", and allow her to reach forward into your hands, where she should find a steady, soft, live contact.

Don't look for items of tack that will help her bring her head down. Think about helping her with your riding, so that she can use her body effectively. If she uses her hind end well, involves her belly muscles, and lifts her back, she will be ABLE to learn to lift her neck from the base. She can't learn it if you try to begin at the wrong end - with the head and neck. It can't be said too often: You must work from back to front, and if you work the horse correctly from back to front, the head and neck will always, ALWAYS find the optimum position. This position, by the way, will vary according to the horse's fitness, development, and comfort, which is another reason that you have to allow the head and neck position to be the RESULT of your correct riding and her using herself well.

Since you want to rebuild her completely, and in the processs teach her a new way of going, I would strongly suggest that you give her the better part of a year before you start jumping again, and that you build up slowly, using ground poles, cavalletti and eventually short gymnastic lines of low jumps. I know it seems like a long time, but bones, ligaments, and tendons take a long time to strengthen. Muscles can be built (or rebuilt) in a much shorter time, and muscles can be deceptive - remember that although the muscles lift the horse over the jump, the bones and joints take ALL the strain of landing.

As for feeding her, talk to your vet about this. I would recommend that you not worry about adding concentrates until she is in hard work; during her convalescence and during your body-building program, why not simply increase the proportion and amount of lucerne in her diet? It's a highly nutritious feed, and much less likely to stress her digestive system (or provoke colic) than concentrates. Grain and other concentrates should be thought of as SUPPLEMENTS - horses are meant to derive their nutrition from forage, and most healthy horses, including Thoroughbreds, can do very well on good-quality forage alone. Feed supplements - including concentrates - should be provided as and when they are actually needed, and only when they are actually needed. Horses that are fed good-quality forage and have access to some sort of forage all the time, whether it is pasture or ad lib hay, are much less likely to colic.

It sounds to me as though your mare is in good hands, and that between you and your vet, she will eventually be restored to full health and performance. Don't be in a hurry. If you do nothing but walk your mare under saddle for the next six months to a year, you can help her to develop a new, strong body that will be much better able to hold up to the demands of training and jumping. And you'll also be able to improve your own balance, riding skills, and ability to communicate with your horse - she won't be the only one to benefit from a slow, thoughtful come-back!

Good luck, and please let me know how your program works out. I've always found that every such start-over provides the opportunity to do everything better. Approached with the right attitude, which you clearly have, every such "start over" program can be a blessing in disguise.

Jessica

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