Ro Jelbart Coaching and Agistment | Equestrian centre

Ro Jelbart Coaching and Agistment

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25.01.2022 Wonderful when we rode without Rollkur

22.01.2022 SCRAPING HOT HORSES DOESN'T COOL THEM DOWN - PROOF! Several years ago I came to the realisation that scraping water off hot horses was not helping to cool them ...down. This was based on published papers, practical experience and application of the laws of physics. I've put out several posts on my Facebook page about this over the past year. This Summer at the Ready Steady Tokyo equestrian test event thermographer Helen Reynolds of Equionics https://www.equionics.com/ was working with me on another project but we took the opportunity to look at the effects of scraping hot horses whilst they were being cooled. As you can see from the example videos: (1) Scraping does not speed up cooling. In fact it has no effect on the horses surface temperature (2) Cold water left on the horse does not heat up and insulate the horse or make it hotter! For horses that are warm and in cool to warm climates, if you want to scrape then it doesn’t matter. It will just take longer for your horse to cool down. When is it important NOT TO SCRAPE? When you have a VERY HOT HORSE that needs rapid cooling e.g. after cross-country, polo, racing, driving, etc ESPECIALLY in HOT WEATHER! The speed of cooling is related to three things: 1) The temperature of the water 2) The amount of surface of your horse that you cover with water 3) The amount of water you put on The fastest rate of cooling will be with lots of cold water all over the body. So a horse cooled all over for 10 minutes with 100 litres of water at 5C will cool much faster than one cooled just over the chest and neck with 50 litres of water at 15C! Scraping just wastes time that would be better used applying more water! Once again, DO NOT SCRAPE if you have to COOL a VERY HOT HORSE, especially in WARM/HOT WEATHER! *** Postscript *** To those still fighting the urge to scrape, look around 49s in the video. When the cold water is SCRAPED OFF the horses surface actually HEATS UP!

22.01.2022 Just for those who still don’t get it. This is a good outline for a young horse starting under saddle. No fancy moves, no influencing this and that body part, n...o training for a show or competition, just simple and large lines, boring trots, and time. Time to build balance, time to build trust, time to build muscle. Good starting is not how many ‘buttons ‘ you can install in little time, good starting is getting out of the horses way, letting them move freely and assisting them to find that new balance See more

22.01.2022 Well worth watching

21.01.2022 Lovely come and learn

19.01.2022 The effect of Glyphosate Pesticides on the Equine Microbiome Glyphosate reduces the numbers of good gut bacteria that act as a control system against the bad ba...cteria which cause severe gastrointestinal diseases in horses. Clostridium are a group of bacteria that are both good and bad. The 'good' members are part of the gut ‘police force’ that - defend the gut wall against invading bacteria, interact with the immune system, release ‘friendly’ chemicals that help to maintain peace in the microbial community. The 'bad' members of clostridium are pathogenic, they- are linked to diseases such as grass sickness and severe gastrointestinal infections. Over-growth of the 'bad' members of clostridium is controlled by the production of a bacteriocine from good gut bacteria, lactobacillus, lactococcus, streptococcus, pediococcus and enterococcus. Glyphosate reduces all the bacteria within this group. See more

19.01.2022 Dysfunctional is still functional It is time to repost this ... It has occurred to me that while the tools and information that I share are useful, they may cau...se a potential horse owner to be over discriminating and be gun shy about getting a certain horse. Functional - capable of operating in a normal manner. Dysfunctional - not operating normally or properly. Most people have a pre purchase vet exam and if the horse passes this exam they go out and try the horse and do further investigation before taking the horse home. What if the horse has facial asymmetry? What if you notice uneven movement of hips or different angle shoulders? Would theses things stop you from getting the horse? While you ponder that, let me ask you, are you perfectly symmetrical? Do you have physical impediment like a sore back or bum knee? Many athletes have incredible physical dysfunction, runners with bad knees, swimmers with bad shoulders, tennis players with soar elbows. The point is they still go out there and do what they love. How many riders do you know with hip and back issues? I personally don’t have enough fingers and toes to count them all. Horses like people adapt, in fact, they do it better then most people! In my time treating horses I have seen a lot. Horses that have bad confirmation and weak top line, doing hundreds of miles competing and staying sound. Horses that are pleasure trail horses, that look healthy and symmetrical and fall apart despite their owners attempt to keep them together. I have seen miraculous comeback stories and inexplicable demise, horses like people are more then the sum of their parts. Obviously, there are things that can’t be changed and would deter you from getting certain horses; bad X-ray of feet, kissing spine and pre-existing medical conditions. But you may also find a diamond in the rough a horse that could be spectacular if it was given the correct physical support. Many of these potential horses have unbalanced nutrition, bad feet ,no dental care and limited vet care. Change all that and in 6 month you will have a very different horse. What I’m saying is they don’t have to be perfect to be superstars. Perfection is a little like a rainbow, it looks close but always out of reach. So go out and just enjoy your horses, do what you can to keep their body’s sound because they do what they can to keep your mind sound and your heart happy.

17.01.2022 Wonderful French classical dressage

17.01.2022 Here's a little (read: long and angry) post about what I like to call the spring time shuffle. Around this time of year, every year, two things happen. 1. We ...get complaints from a handful of (generally predictable) people whose horses have been trimmed just fine for the last several months suddenly saying their horse was "trimmed too short" this last visit. And 2. We get a massive influx of enquiries from new clients who are looking for a new farrier because their last farrier "trimmed them too short". Now, I can understand this logic if you're either new to horses, or this happens on the first visit with a new farrier without warning. However, all the rest of you, need your annual reality check. (I honestly think y'all also need a reality check on realistic "soundness" expectations but I'll save that for another grumpy day). It is the annual shuffling of clients between all the local farriers' books, because the clients don't want to face the real reason why their horse is shuffling around the paddock. No farrier wakes up EVERY NOVEMBER and just randomly starts trimming horses shorter than they did the WHOLE REST OF THE YEAR. Generally we have spent the entire preceding year telling you the one same message while you shout "LALALA" back at us with your fingers in your ears. YOUR HORSE IS TOO FAT! Post-trimming sensitivity is one of the most obvious warning signs that you will get for subclinical laminitis. When this warning is left unchecked, guess what follows? ACTUAL Laminitis. We have become so disconnected as a society as to what healthy and appropriate body weight REALLY is. My masters degree research found that most horse owners could accurately identify their horses body condition score on a on a scare of 0-5 where 5 is obese. Some would even jokingly ask me if they could write 6. However when asked about the appropriateness of their horses body weight most of these high scorers felt their horses body weight was just fine. I see the same thing day in day out as a hoof care practitioner. And the reactions from owners range from flat out denial ("Cobs are meant to look like this, they have big bones" ... Bones don't jiggle Karen!) to just outright offence as though I've personally insulted them or "their horse" or that I am an unkind person for "fat shaming". Your horses feelings aren't hurt. You just don't want to face the truth because it makes you uncomfortable. It is very sad for our horses that being able to see their ribs from a certain angle has now become more offensive to people than seeing the myriad of health and wellbeing issues humans are creating by letting their horses suffer through chronic obesity and a constant state of low grade laminitis. We need to look back to what nature intended for animals (and ourselves). We have an abundance of carb-rich food in spring following the clear lack of food during winter. Wild / Feral horses would typically lose a lot of body condition during winters. They have minimal grass access and often rely on on fibrous and low-carb mosses, roots, leaves, bark, and their body fat reserves. When animals are consuming less carbohydrates they become more insulin sensitive. When you're insulin sensitive you don't need as much insulin in your system to regulate blood sugar. Then spring comes along and body weight is rapidly packed back on with rich grasses. And with constant and excessive consumption of carbs comes insulin resistance. Which means more and more and more insulin has to get produced to keep blood sugar under control. In our domestic horses we're so afraid to let our horses slim down in the winter, and keep them in a chronic state of obesity and insulin resistance year round. Because we hard feed them all winter to maintain their "condition" spring hits and they never became insulin sensitive enough to deal with it. We can also see this insulin resistance in some athletic horses who are fed high carbohydrate diets also - its the horse equivalent of the "skinny-fat" human. The human peak marathon runner who carb loads and gets diabetes and heart disease. Sadly, many of the horses we see with these problems are on "feeding plans" owners have developed themselves using a generic website (often funded by specific feed companies), from vets, or equine nutritionists (who often work for feed companies). You can see the owners well-meaning intent and that's why this breaks my heart. The nutritionists who I respect and recommend are the ones who are the first to tell you that you do not add to your horses diet unless they aren't meeting their metabolic requirements from grass and plain hay first. If I have one more client with a fat, laminitic horse tell me their horse isn't fat and that they paid someone for their feeding plan of processed feeds, I will lose my shit. I am SO passionate about your horses health, that this makes me angry! (And don't get me started on the inflammatory responses from most of these refined oils that get added cause for some reason people think shiny = healthy). And most people (including many professionals) are either ignorant of, or overlook, the roll of insulin on hoof sensitivity. Yet the fact that high levels of insulin lead to inflammation is widely know and accepted. And what IS laminitis? INFLAMMATION OF THE LAMINAE. Your farrier has nothing to financially gain by telling you stop feeding your dadgum horse! Yet we get ignored to the point we often stop commenting to people. And then people say "Why didn't you warn me!?" Then we hit the tail end of spring, and bingo, another year, another bunch of shuffling underworked and over fed horses, and another year of farriers suddenly shuffling a bunch of desperate "my-last-farrier-trimmed-my-horse-too-short-I-need-your-help" new clients in and a bunch of grumpy "you-caused-this-problem" ones out. It is no coincidence that all the species of animals that man controls the diet of are the ones that regularly suffer from metabolic malfunctions. We are so smart that we are incredibly fucking dumb sometimes. I also have a LOT of clients who will ask at each trim if I see any signs of laminitis in the feet. The thing is I can tell you there are low grade warning signs all year but nothing *new* today, and your horse could still go lame tomorrow. The biggest warning signs I constantly see are your horses weight, your feed bucket, and how dry your saddle blanket always is if you bother to exercise your horse at all. But you don't listen to this. You only seem to listen (for a week or three) if I can physically point out blood in the white line. So, here's my rant for the day. We are getting generally shitty with overwork by the end of the year and in need of a christmas holiday, and we are disillusioned with all these "unexpected" lamenesses in valley full of improved dairy pasture in the middle of unprecedented spring growth. It needed to come out. Someone has to say it. I don't give a shit if I've hurt your feelings, because I want to save your horses life.

16.01.2022 Looking After The Backs We Ride A few weeks ago I asked Jess Blackwell if she would present a workshop on ‘The Equine Back We Ride’ at SEC. She did a great job... & explained things using 2 horses’ spines that she brought along. We all learnt a lot about what we should & shouldn’t do to help our horses to keep their backs healthy & supple. We think of a horse ‘rounding his back’ as he bascules over a fence, but in fact his back remains almost straight see jumping pics. When we watch horses performing dressage tests or jumping, horses’ spines appear to move quite a lot, but actually, most of this comes from the neck & pelvis. It is mobility in these joints and the poll that give us the impression of swing and ‘bascule’ (round arc) in the back. When the front and back feet hit the ground, the muscles & ligaments help to give an impression that the horse’s back swings up. What is good & bad for horses’ backs? When you do ride your horse, bear in mind that the frame of the horse is all important. Working a horse in a round outline is best for his spine. This allows the nuchal & supraspinous ligaments that run along the top of horses’ spines from their ears to their hips to help all the interconnecting muscles with the lifting & carrying of the weight of their riders. The frame of most benefit to the horse is the forward downward stretch, whether in walk, trot or canter. In this frame, the horse’s mouth is level with his point of shoulder, no lower. This puts positive tension on the nuchal & supraspinous ligaments. It really opens the spinous processes (see pic) & develops the horse’s locomotor muscles. A ‘long & low’ outline is less beneficial for the horse. This is because, in this frame, the ligaments and spine are not effectively able to carry the weight of the head, putting too much pressure on the ligaments in each joint in the horse’s spine. The frame that is least beneficial for a horse’s back is a hollow (‘upside down’) outline. The upward pointing spinous processes, particularly those under the weight of the rider, get closer & closer together. These upward pointing spinous processes can rub against each other see pic. This rubbing causes ‘kissing spine’. The pace that can make a horse most supple through the back is the canter, principally because of the bio-mechanics of the lumbo-sacral joint. The canter will loosen the trot ‘for free’. Horses’ backs have evolved to carry a lot of weight underneath their spine Early in the workshop, Jess surprised many of us, telling us that horses’ backs have evolved to carry weight. She explained, not the weight of a rider ABOVE his spine, but of all the horse’s organs, SLUNG UNDERNEATH his spine. A horse’s digestive tract alone, would reach from C to X in a dressage arena it is about 30 metres long, & weighs around 190kgs! All the weight bearing mechanisms for horses’ backs are designed to carry weight from below. The horse’s back has to be a highly inflexible structure, to carry this significant underslung weight. This explains why the spine is capable of only minor movements both up and down & laterally (left/right). Jess explained that there are many ways to strengthen horses’ backs, almost all of these ways involve working horses from the ground, rather than riding them! A variety of different exercises from the ground all help to strengthen the structures that support horses’ backs Doing carrot stretches Leading him over poles (walking over poles is the best way to improve rotation in a horse’s back) Free jumping him Asking for rein back (about 10 steps) from the ground Long reining There was discussion at the workshop about the value of lungeing horses. There are of course situations where lungeing is a useful tool, but we need to remember that many of the joints in horses’ legs are ‘hinge joints’ suited to moving in just one plane forwards & backwards - on straight lines. Unless the person lungeing the horse has the skills to often send the horse on in straight lines during a lungeing session, the constant turning on a circle can create significant wear & tear on a horse’s joints, so lungeing would not normally be recommended to benefit most horses’ backs. A huge thank you to Vanessa Fahie for putting the pics & my article into such a gorgeous format - wish I had half of her computing skills!

16.01.2022 Learning everyday. I had no idea of the depth of the horses tongue and the affect on the horses shoulder movement. Credit to Susan Harris and Peggy Brown Anatomy in Motion 1 The Visible Horse

15.01.2022 The wonderful Linda riding with ease

15.01.2022 Nadine can be contacted for clinics at lara

14.01.2022 FACTS ABOUT TAPEWORM Tapeworms have an indirect life cycle that requires an intermediate host, the oribatid mite. Segments of the adult tapeworm (called proglo...ttids) break off and are passed in the horse’s faeces. These proglottids are full of eggs, that disintegrate and release the eggs. The eggs are ingested by the mite where they develop into cysticercoid (larval stage). The lifecycle is complete when the mites are consumed by the horse during grazing. Anoplocephala perfoliata are the most common & disease-causing tapeworm of horses Tapeworms infect horses of all ages Horses do not appear to develop immunity to tapeworm Tapeworm eggs are often missed or underestimated by faecal egg counts Horses may be infested with tapeworms and show no clinical symptoms Heavy infections may cause blockage of the ileocecal junction causing ileocecal colic Can cause inflammation and ulceration of mucosa which may develop into secondary bacterial infections, may abscess or perforate bowel CONTROL: Use MECWORMA & TAPE twice a year in Spring and Autumn A complete syringe treats a 600 kg body weight horse More information - http://www.iahp.com.au//ho/aaa-mecworma-and-tape-allwormer

13.01.2022 VICTORIA - Thunderstorm asthma a real possibly tomorrow! Better to be safe than sorry!

11.01.2022 There are few things that strike fear in the hearts of horse guardians like colic does. In our latest blog post we discuss the steps you can take to help your... horse be more comfortable, while you await veterinarian care. Belly Lifts and Ear TTouches are two TTouch techniques that can help relieve some of the discomfort associated with symptoms of colic or any digestive upset in virtually any species. Check out the link in the bio, under 'Getting to Know TTouch' on ttouch.ca to find a listing of the latest posts. #ttouch #lindatellingtonjones #tellingtonttouch #ttouchworld #horsesofinstagram #tellingtonmethod #ttouchcanada #horsemanship #animalsofinstagram #animalbehavior #heartcohearance #lindstellingtonjones #tteam #tellingtonttouchcanada #getinttouchwithyourhorse

08.01.2022 Interesting read

08.01.2022 ROUND BALES & HORSES As you're making plans for the colder weather ahead and your winter hay needs, you may be considering purchasing round bales due to their l...ower cost and greater convenience for feeding pastured horses. While well-managed/stored round bales can still be a safe option for your horses, there are a few things you should be aware of in particular, the increased risk of botulism, a deadly disease caused by the toxins produced by the bacterium "Clostridium botulinum." This toxin is produced when "Clostridium botulinum" is exposed to the right environmental conditions such as when forage materials are baled and stored while still damp, or when they include the carcasses of dead animals, like birds and mice. Because of the high death rate and the difficulty in diagnosing botulism, prevention through vaccination is critical, especially in areas where this disease is prevalent (such as Kentucky, Ohio, Maryland, Pennsylvania, California, and Tennessee). If you own horses and cattle and feed the same hay to all your animals, it is important to mention that cattle are not as sensitive to botulism as horses, but they do die from this disease. And regardless of the type of bales you feed, always remember that not all hay is created equal. Have your hay tested for nutrient content to ensure it meets your animals' nutritional needs; check for mold, dust, and poisonous weeds before feeding. As in all horse health issues, your local veterinarian is your best source of information. Consult your horse doctor on best practices when feeding hay this winter, and on botulism prevention and treatment. ----------------- Learn more about botulism on our website, at https://aaep.org//Outside%20Linked%20Do/BOTULISM_Final.pdf

07.01.2022 Just a gem for this morning

02.01.2022 Classic Austro-Hungarian Training. Josef Neckermann riding Antoinette at Aachen 1964. Neckermann represents the classical system that was taught in the cavalry ...school in Hannover I'm showing the picture so you can see how far riding today has moved away from classic training that focuses on maintaining the horse's health, natural gaits and balance . The big difference is the basic training which can't be faked. The picture clearly reveals Antoinette's classical basic training Antoinette lengthens her neck upwards - straightening the s-curve - and with her head in front of the vertical; a beautiful, supple horse. I enjoy to see a neck that isn't compressed and tense. Note the concave under neck. Antoinette is "losgelassen"; the second step in the trainingscale. Antoinette clearly lifts her forehand/withers with "the relative elevation"/ lowering of the hindquarters. Neckermann is educated with the same finesse as Antoinette to have that balanced independent seat. Neckermann doesn't need a saddle with knee rolls. Photo from Gerd Heuschmann's excellent book about collection "Collection or Contortion"