From: Tara
Hello Jessica,
I've been reading your writings for about a year now and appreciate your advice greatly. I want to ask if there's more we can do to get our mares from being "girthy". We have 2 half-sister Arab mares we've owned for 1.2 years now (Jasilla and Bshara). They always were a little antsy during girthing, but got worse for awhile. I've been working on getting them to do better and have had some good results. One mare is higher strung and usually stands still (mostly) until you put on the saddle. I assume her anxiety about tightening the cinch must kick in and she starts moving all over (she's better when cross tied). Not to long ago we (my husband and I) had an equine massage therapist do a session for each of them. The Therapist said the more nervous one was very tense especially in the pericardial area and the right hip. She showed us how to relax those muscle in the area under the girth among others. I realize as well that when they get tense it contributes to the girthing process being more uncomfortable/painful or is an anticipation that it will be. I understand this is most likely is why they react the way they do. What I am doing since then has seemed to help the more nervous of the two more. What I do is I massage her after placing my hand on the muscles until they soften and relax. I talk calmly to her and stroke her neck a few times. I also stretch out her legs like we were taught. I then cinch her loosely but snug. I walk her and keep tightening over a few minutes being patient but getting it done because she likes to bloat big time. This seems to have worked with this horse for the most part except when my husband gets impatient and hurries the process and she tries to nip at him. The other horse which we sent to training a few months back and is now much safer and easier to work in a general sense. She still puts her ears back and tries to bite when tightening the cinch. My response is an immediate pinch on the neck and also saying loudly "NO!" She sometimes (before training she was worse) responds to aggression with more agitation and aggression (she's not the alpha mare- her sister picks on her and I think she liked to have someone to pick on herself=). Using the same technique and patience I have with the other has helped sometimes but she's not consistently better. What is a good response to a horse nipping or other dangerous/harmful behavior that will make them understand that's not acceptable? I only use a pinch as an attention getter kind, like a little nip from the herd leader to act right and speak loudly in a deep voice saying "NO" immediately when they do it. Then when they stop and relax I reward them with a neck stroke and talk softly trying to reinforce what they are doing then.
Tara
First, a note about herds, "alpha" horse behaviour, and discipline. I think you may find that just the "NO!" or a buzzer sound (try to imitate the sound of a "wrong answer" game-show buzzer) works better than combining the sound with a pinch. In a good herd, the alpha does not need to kick or bite to remind another horse of its place, it simply changes its posture very slightly, moves one or both ears and/or snakes its neck, and the other horse moves away promptly.
The problem with using this method is that, as you have no doubt noticed, most humans have difficulty moving their ears, and even humans who CAN move their ears are unlikely to be able to move them in any way that would convey a clear message to a horse. Similarly, neck-snaking, although possible, is less effective when performed by humans. That being so...
You'll get the best results from making yourself appear larger (inhale, stand up straight, square your shoulders, take your arms a little away from your body) whilst making the buzzer-noise. Since horse language is primarily visual/physical, making yourself larger will have the desired "Attention - NOW!" effect, and you won't need to involve yourself in a nipping/pinching contest with the horse.
Many horses will respond to aggression with agitation (read: FEAR or nervous apprehension) and aggression (if a horse is not able to use FLIGHT, it will, if cornered, eventually FIGHT). That's normal. Fortunately it's easy to avoid provoking either reaction, and thus easy to avoid having to deal with the consequences. Be assertive (make yourself large and use slow, deliberate, controlled movements). If you have to reprimand the horse, do it by making yourself large and loud for a moment - NOT by attacking the horse physically.
If she actually NIPS you (which she shouldn't be able to do, because you'll always be prepared to put your elbow where her jaw would run into it on its way to your body or arm), you can make yourself larger, lean TOWARD her, make the noise and - all at the same time - whack her once on the neck. This situation really shouldn't arise. If you get into a routine with her where she regularly threatens to nip you, and you just as regularly pinch her, you aren't telling her "I'm the alpha and you can't nip me," you're saying "Neener, neener, got you first, I really like this game", which not only does nothing to discourage the nipping, it can cause the "game" to escalate, as it puts you into the equal/playmate category, not into the leader category.
Second, I want you to think about the fact that your horses are not ACTING, but REACTING. I know you're already on this track, and I want to reinforce you, because it's the right track. It was a good idea to involve the massage therapist, and she is right about your horses reacting to pain. Many horses are very sensitive in these areas - there are a lot of nerves involved - and many horses have learned, from bitter experience, that having a girth tightened is a painful process. More about this later.
Third, I want you to consider both the short- and long-term effects of what you and your husband do when you're tacking up. You may want to make one or two changes to the routine.
You can't blame a horse for wanting to avoid pain - all you can do is (a) figure out a NON-painful way to complete the process (this is what you've been doing by using slow movement, massage, and stretching as part of your girthing-up routine), and (b) teach the horse that it can trust you to be consistent and make the process gradual, gentle, and as painless as possible EVERY TIME. This, oddly enough, is the most difficult aspect of the process for most riders - they want the horse to "get over it, stop making a fuss", and as soon as the horse learns to trust them more and stand a little more quietly, they think "Oh, good, now I can just slap the saddle on and jerk the girth tight, no more of this slow, gentle stuff". Wrong, It would be wrong even if the only issue here were behavioural, which I suggest is NOT the case, and it's utterly counter-productive if, as I suspect, you're dealing with actual pain.
I suggest that you make a deal with your husband. He should participate in this process ONLY if he is willing to do it calmly, gently, and patiently. If he is impatient, he should tell you, and then go and do something else (clean a stall? fill the haynets? scrub the water tank? there's never any shortage of useful tasks around a barn) whilst YOU look after his horse's girth. If he's willing to do it properly, fine, but otherwise he shouldn't be doing it at all. If he - or you, or anyone else - is allowed to be quick and impatient, then it won't be any good trying to convince the horse that everything is fine and nothing will hurt, because that simply won't be true. Tightening a girth on a painful horse is like changing a dressing on a burn patient - yes, it's THAT painful if it's done roughly, and there is never any excuse for doing it roughly.
While you're working on the emotional, mental, and management aspects of the problem, be sure that you continue to investigate the physical side of it, and that means your vet must be involved. Just because you don't want to allow your horse to NIP (very sensible of you) doesn't mean that you shouldn't take that behaviour seriously as a reaction to girthing and as a symptom of pain. In every case of "girthiness" I've ever seen, the horse was saying "Ouch, that hurts!" and the owner was misinterpreting the situation as the horse saying "I can nip you because you're not the boss of me" or "I'm going to bite you because I'm lazy and I don't want to work." When a horse reacts badly to being girthed, and when the rider makes every effort to make the process gradual and gentle, but the horse STILL reacts, the most sensible interpretation is that there is still pain involved somewhere.
I find that it's a very good idea to have a good equine vet go over any horse that is showing a strong reaction to being girthed. Horses have reasons for their reactions, and as their riders and owners, it's our obligation to find out what is causing those reactions, so that we can solve the underlying problems and not just try to eliminate the symptoms. This is where good medical information is absolutely necessary - there's a world of difference between saying to the horse "Don't you dare nip me" and "Don't you dare react when I hurt you."
Horses learn to bloat in self-defense - they aren't playing a game. If they are experiencing relatively mild pain, and their riders are careful to do what you've been doing, then they tend to bloat less and less over time, as the pain diminishes and their muscles relax. As they become more relaxed and trusting AND COMFORTABLE, they feel less of a need to tense their muscles against real or anticipated pain, and they don't need to guard against having their girths over-tightened.
The bloating isn't done to create a loose girth or make the rider feel insecure in the saddle, it's a muscle-tensing reaction of a horse that is trying to protect itself. If the pain is severe, as it often is, the horse may be tight and tense from the chest to the withers, behind the elbows, and in the ribs and intercostal muscles (ask your massage therapist to check the horses' reactions to being touched behind each rib, as this is where the intercostal nerves run). Other muscles are often involved, too - everything from the pectorals to the trapezius, ventrus serratus etc.
Sometimes you can feel the tremors or muscle spasms, sometimes you can locate trigger points - and sometimes you can't. Sometimes there are so many chronically tense, contracted muscles, that everything feels the same, there's no obvious lump or single trigger point for you to locate - but the truth of the situation is that the entire area is, in effect, one big trigger point. Everything feels the same because EVERYTHING is wrong.
With some good help from your vet and your massage therapist, you should be able to help your horses learn to relax their chronically-tense muscles. This will have all sorts of good effects, not just on your horses' behaviour toward you when you are tacking up, but on their overall comfort and soundness. You may even notice that when your horses become more comfortable in themselves, they will move better under saddle, taking longer strides and rounding their backs more. If they are helped to learn to relax the tight muscles, they'll be able to use their bodies more evenly and correctly, and they'll be more supple, less stiff, and more comfortable overall.
Over time, if you're patient and consistent, the bloating should become less of a problem. If the problem continues, your massage therapist may need to enlist the help of a good equine chirpractor (ask your vet and therapist for recommendations). Massage and physical support - including, if necessary, small chiropractic adjustments - can help horses learn to relax muscles they'd been keeping contracted most of the time or all the time, because of pain.
Girth pain is very real, whether it's behind the elbow, behind or between the ribs, in the withers, or in the shoulder. Horses that react strongly to being girthed should be listened to - they're trying to tell us something that we need to hear. Some horses experience mild pain, and react by pulling faces or threatening to nip - some experience pain that is so severe that they rear. Some go over backward. Some actually pass out when girthed.
I'm so glad that you are taking a sensible, responsible approach to the problem. Keep working with your vet and massage therapist, and I hope that a year from now, your mares will both be happy to stand calmly and quietly whilst they are being tacked up. Please let me know.
Jessica
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