There seems to be such a huge blind spot in the industry around pain and discomfort in horses. It is all very simplified in that you get “all the checks” done and the horse is either in pain or he isn’t. “All the checks” often being saddle/teeth/back, or if we have gone to the vet a basic lameness workup, maybe a gastroscope and a back x-ray. Then we deem the horse all clear from pain regardless of any behaviour they’re displaying to the contrary, we are told we are in the clear to put the horse through training to “fix” the behavioural issues.
Unfortunately issues with horses cannot be simply packed into 2 neat little boxes of either pain or behaviour, I cannot stress this enough. Its a really convenient narrative but it is so much more complex than this. It can promote pretty nasty treatment of horses who are really struggling. People feel the horse owes them something, “I gave him the benefit of the doubt and did all the checks so now he needs to just get on with it”.
I’m going to talk about back issues as they’re such a common one. I often hear that, despite the behavioural issues, the owner has been advised not to x-ray as the horse doesn’t seem to show any soreness when you palpate his back. You cannot tell what is going on inside without good imaging, this is terrible advice when someone is trying to get to the bottom of behavioural issues.
Another common scenario I come across is a horse who has had a diagnosis via imaging, it has been treated and supposedly rehabbed, the owner has been cleared to ride the horse, yet the horse I see in front of me has a significant lack of muscle development over their back and is, in my opinion, in no place to carry the weight of a rider without causing them harm.
I find it really hard to watch trainers explain away stress/pain indicators and continue to train distressed horses because the horse is “fine now, he had the treatment and he’s been given the all clear”. I think the horse disagrees.
There is a really frustrating pattern of find the problem, treat the problem and crack on as before without really looking at the whole horse, why this occurred in the first place and what we can do to support the horse going forward. This is absolutely not a vet-bashing post, but we do need to start looking at things differently and working together with a range of professionals who have expertise in equine behaviour, postural rehab etc if we really want to help our horses.
I’m going to share a personal story about my horse Lenny. I was looking through old photos last night and it was really jarring to see him through the postural lens I have now. He is now 20 years old, has not been ridden for over 10 years and has better muscling now than he did as an 8 year old when I was trying to ride him.
I was having behavioural issues with him, in that I fell off him every time I tried to ride him as he would just explode, over the period of a year I took him for a work-up at 2 different vet practises. He was diagnosed with navicular changes, side bone, grade 2 gastric ulcers, SI pain, hock arthritis and inflammation in his facet joints, all of which were treated and I was cleared to bring him back into work and “crack on”.
The photo I am sharing with you is what he looked like when I was cleared to ride him. I appreciate he is lean in this photo, but the total lack of muscling in his neck and over his back shocked me, if I saw a horse like this today there is no way I would be telling someone it was appropriate to ride them. This complete lack of appropriate muscle would be enough to cause him pain and discomfort when ridden and could easily have been rectified with the right approach.
During this time he was seen by several vets, body workers, a saddler and a behavioural trainer, nobody ever mentioned his posture or muscle development to me. This just isn’t good enough. The industry needs to change.
I got back on Lenny once more after this, he was awful at the mounting block and once I did get on we walked 6 steps and I felt like he was going to explode, so I just gave up and “retired” him at 8 years old. Happy ending for him in that he is still with me and living a very nice horse life, but I so wish I knew then what I know now, because I could’ve really helped him.
If we can develop our own eye and our own knowledge we can make informed choices for our horses, be really good advocates for our horses and choose a team of professionals who will work together to support us. 🐴
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