Horse Healing Takes Time ... Lots of It

My horse ain't jumping right now ... that would be Fezzywig I'm referring to, the giant roach-backed horse who recently sprouted wings and was jumping great. Alas, as the title of the post suggests, horse healing takes time and Fezzy is currently taking his sweet time in his horse healing process. Fezzywig's major complaint has been his roached back, and he has made pretty good progress toward a normal-looking back for a long time. With a lot of bodywork (some of it by holistic veterinarian and osteopath Madalyn Ward), excellent equine nutrition, and a job he enjoys (jumping), Fezzy's horse healing has been continuous.

But one day recently Fezzy simply refused to jump. Although he is fairly opinionated he wasn't refusing out of stubborness. He definitely felt 'off' ' and would not jump because his body was uncomfortable. I couldn't understand what had interrupted Fezzy's healing process. After doing some diagnostic bodywork and consulting with Dr. Ward, we decided that his stifles were bothering him. Apparently this isn't unusual as roach-backed horses develop straighter backs, since the angles on their joints keep changing. In addition, Fezzy has been in heavier training, and also jumping higher jumps.

To keep Fezzy on track with his horse healing process, we decided to stop his jumping program and instead build up his hindquarters. To that end I am doing the following with Fezzy -

1. Focusing on long trotting and loping to build up muscles and wind

2. Adding much more lateral work to increase flexibility and build strength

3. Doubling his dose of horse goo to provide more antioxidants plus joint and muscle support

To get the Horse Goo recipe, send a blank email to horsegoo@stephanieyeh.com.

The Good News and the Bad News

The bad news is that we don't get to jump and that makes both of us rather restless. Fezzy, being a Wood type temperament, expresses his displeasure by knocking over his jumps and chasing his pasture mate, Samantha. Oh well ... that's a Wood horse for you.

The good news is that Fezzy is doing extremely well with his current program, and his body continues to look better as we are allowing his stifles to become stable. He has only held up traffic once when we have been long trotting, and only laid down in the driveway once because he was itchy and wanted a roll. On the whole he has been an entertaining companion on this horse healing journey and he makes me giggle every day. No zen cowgirl could really ask for more!

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Horse Health Care: Roach-Backed Horse Scores First Win

Fezzywig, my roach-backed adopted warmblood, has scored a big first win in his journey toward horse health:

He jumped his first cross rail today!

Granted, the jump was about 12 inches tall, which isn't very high considering that Fezzywig is about 16.2 hands tall. He's a big boy.

However, having suffered from a roached back for the last several years of his life (he's now coming four), he has:

• had multiple adhesions all over his body
• not been very coordinated
• suffered from multiple sore spots on his body, including his spine and stifles
• had trouble getting into the canter
• not been aware of where his feet are
• had poorly developed muscles over his topline

So for him to successfully jump a small jump, about 10 times in a row, is a major first win for this big boy!

Fezzywig's Horse Health Care Program
Since he came home with me, Fezzywig has been on daily doses of my special home-made "horse goo," which includes an antioxidant juice, blue-green algae, probiotics (acidophilus and bifidus), and enzymes. He gets 1-3 ounces of goo per day and the benefits are definitely noticeable.

The antioxidant mangosteen juice has been key to his horse health care program. The antioxidants help deal with the toxins released by the bodywork he gets on a regular basis.

The probiotics and enzymes help Fezzywig assimilate all the nutrients that I pour down his throat. I believe they also help to release stomach adhesions and soothe any ulcers that he may have.

The blue-green algae gives Fezzywig a dense source of nutrients that he needs to not only re-mold his body, but also to build muscle mass, especially along his topline.

Finally, these last few weeks I have bumped up Fezzywig's Eleviv, an herbal supplement that keeps horses (and humans) in the healing parasympathetic nervous system. I feel that Fezzywig has been stuck in his survival "fight or flight" sympathetic nervous system, since the accident that caused his roached back.

Because I have been pushing Fezzywig's training program a lot harder these last few weeks, I felt he might need the Eleviv to help him over the hump. I've been long trotting him up and down hills, as well as putting him through his paces in the arena. That's a lot of work for a horse who has been stuck in a roach-backed posture for several years. With the Eleviv, Fezzywig has had a great attitude, not to mention making a huge jump in his postural changes.

In any case, I am thrilled that Fezzywig has come so far in such a short time ... and I hope that his story gives hope to those who are trying to rehabilitate other roach-backed horses.

If you are working with a roach-backed horse and have questions or feedback, please feel free to comment. I'll share any information I have, and I would love to learn more from others who are dealing with this same situation.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader. Also, check out my ebook for wacky horses and humans, or holler at me if you want to know how I fund my horse addiction ... and you can, too!

Horse Health Care for Roach Back Horses

Fezzywig, my gentle giant adopted warmblood gelding with the roached back, is definitely feeling much better. He has had a ton of bodywork and been given my special Horse Goo until it's coming out the other end (yes, during the cleansing process he is a bit "methane-powered").

He's also running around like a wild man with my other gelding, Walker, and doing flying lead changes with ease in the pasture. Oh yes, and he also managed to take down the gates twice and cruise our little town once. But being the gentleman that he his, he came right home on his own!

Horse Health Care: 3 Things to Do for the Roach Backed Horse
So Fezzywig is definitely feeling better, but he's nowhere near totally healed, and I have learned a lot about the horse health care needs of these kinds of horses. I have been in constant communication with my veterinarian, good friend, and font of holistic horse care wisdom, Dr. Madalyn Ward. Between my consults with her and my daily interaction with Fezzywig, I've learned the following:

1. Roach Back Horses Don't Use Their Backs Properly
This is no big surprise because their backs aren't formed properly. A horse with a roach back has some developmental difficulties. For instance, Fezzywig hates to have his stifles adjusted with Bowen-type moves, or any kind of serious physical maneuvers. He loves energy work on his stifles, which doesn't involve moving any parts of his stifle around. He has also started getting "stuck" in his stifles occasionally, where it takes him a minute to figure out how to move his back leg from straight to bent. Dr. Ward tells me this is because the bodywork is changing the way his spine and haunches are formed, so he has to "relearn" how to use various parts of his body.

Because Fezzywig has not been using his back muscles and hindquarter properly because of his roach back, he has probably been propelling himself around using his hind legs from the stifles down. In other words he was not using his back muscles or his rump. This explains why he is having so much trouble with his stifles. They are probably perpetually sore. In addition, when he move his back legs, his joints make a sound like similar to that of sticky tape being "unstuck" from something. It is most likely that all that improper use of his hind legs has affected those joints.

To help alleviate the pain in his stifles and hind leg joints, I've been doing the following:

- feeding him extra wheat sprouts, which are great for joint issues - beefing up his mangosteen juice and blue-green algae to speed healing - rubbing DMSO and castor oil on his leg joints - doing a little energy work on every hind leg joint at each feeding

He seems to like all of this extra care and his stifles are already less sore. In case you are wondering, castor oil is an old Edgar Cayce remedy that works well on joints. I have to mix it with DMSO because castor oil is very thick and does not penetrate through hair and skin very well. The DMSO helps it penetrate.

2. Roach Back Horses Might Have Bony Backs So They Need Backing
When I knew I was going to bring Fezzywig home, I immediately went online and did a bunch of research on roach back horses. Most of the horses I saw had the typical roach, a humped back, but that was it. I didn't see a single picture of a horse with a bony back, a back where the lumbar vertebrae literally stick up, like pointy spires (those are his "spires" above). Yikes, what does that mean?

I posted frantic requests for help to the Horse Health Forum. I wanted to know what all those spiny ridges meant. The answer? It means that Fezzywig does not have any muscle development over those vertebrae because (surprise, surprise) he hasn't been using his back or hindquarter properly. Whew!

To take care of this and help Fezzywig develop proper muscle over his hindquarters and spine, I have started backing him on the advice of Dr. Ward. Backing him, she said, would help him learn to use his hindquarter properly, and will also help him develop muscle in the right places. She suggests that I eventually back him in circles to develop some lateral muscles as well. We've already started the backing exercises. He has no trouble with them although he has no clue why we keep doing it! Luckily, he's a pretty willing fellow, and will do almost anything for food.

3. Horses Who Have Suffered Trauma Need Special Help to Heal
My last question to Dr. Ward was this: Fezzywig has been in his roach backed pose for so long ... what I more can I do to help him shift out of this paradigm and into a healthy stance?

Her answer? Eleviv. This new herbal product apparently helps horses who have suffered trauma (physical, mental, or emotional) to "break the mold" and shift into a new healthier paradigm. In scientific terms, it helps them shift out of the sympathetic nervous system. A horse like Fezzywig has basically been in a traumatized roach back state for so long he has been operating from his "fight or flight" sympathetic nervous system, which does not promote healing. The Eleviv will help him shift back into his parasympathetic nervous system, which is associated with healing, rest, relaxation, and rejuvenation.

So Fezzywig is now getting, in addition to the beefed up Horse Goo, two capsules of Eleviv a day. Fezzywig loves it. He tries to eat the syringe. I take that as a good sign.

So that is what I have learned so far about the best horse health care methods for roach back horses. Fezzywig's posture continues to improve, and he is running and playing more than ever (as evidenced by the cruise around the neighborhood).

If anyone else has a roach backed horse and has advice, I'd love to hear it. I understand that many roach back horses are sound and compete. Do you have that experience? If so, please holler!

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader. Also, holler at me if you want to know how I fund my horse addiction ... and you can, too!

Horse Health Care: Can a Roach Backed Horse Be Fixed?

Ah yes, it is truly the season to be merry, to give thanks, and to give gifts. This year I got to pick out my own Christmas gift: a baby Hughie of a horse named Moose.

To make a long story short, Moose (now named Fezzywig) is a 16.2 hand Holsteiner warmblood horse, a 3 year-old gelding, who developed a roach in his back. I had inquired about him early in the year, when he was for sale rather than for adoption, and passed him up.

Then he became available for adoption, his former owner not being able to help him with his roached back, and I just had to take him. I think I can help him, roached back and all.

Case Study: Moose (a.k.a. Fezzywig), the Roach-Backed Horse
So here is Fezzywig in all his giant glory. As you can see, the hump in his back is pretty significant, although it does not seem to interfere with his gaits, soundness, or movement. Other than that, he seems to have no other health issues or vices.

Based on my conversation with his former owner, I believe that he developed this roach as a result of jumping out of a six-foot tall round pen. He probably sustained some injury after that leap, and I believe his roach back developed as a result of that injury and subsequent internal adhesions.

Fezzywig's bump, or roached back, is not tender at all, even when you palpate the area with firm pressure. However, he is sensitive on his flanks and abdomen. His last rib is very close to his pelvis on both sides of his body, and I believe this is caused by the roach in his back. Also, his abdomen is very distended and tense, which leads me to believe that when he jumped from the corral, he perhaps tore some muscles and ligaments in his belly, causing his internal organs to "fall down." This in turn puts pressure on his abdomen, causing it to sink and pulling his pelvis close to his last rib. Hence, the roached back.

Fezzywig's Treatment Plan
In terms of horse health care, my goal with Fezzywigis release his internal adhesions, raise his belly, and shift his pelvis back, thus relieving the roach in his back. I also aim to free up his withers, which are lower than his hind end and a bit bound up. To that end, I am doing network chiropractic sessions on him once a week, and Bowen sessions (also called Equine Touch) on him two to three times a week. I'm lucky that I learned these techniques since I would not be able to pay a veterinarian to work on him that often!

Fezzywig responds very quickly and well to the bodywork, although he is sensitive and often moves away from my hands. When he moves away from me, he's telling me, "That's enough. I need to process this change." He licks and chews and yawns frequently during these sessions, which are all signs that his body is processing the changes.

In terms of diet, Fezzywig is getting my regulation "horse goo" made of antioxidant fruit juice, blue green algae, probiotics, and enzymes. He also gets extra enzymes to help him flush out the toxins generated by released adhesions. So far, he's not too keen on the goo, but is willing enough to eat it.

The Veterinarian's Report
I've checked in with Dr. Madalyn Ward, a fabulous holistic horse veterinarian and osteopath, and she feels that Fezzywig can be made healthy again, although he may never fully lose that "roached" look. That's fine by me. There are tons of roach-back horses who live useful working lives, and I feel that Fezzywig can definitely be helped in that direction. Also, you can read more about internal adhesions here.

I have not yet assessed Fezzywig's horse personality type on the Horse Harmony Test website, but I plan to as soon as I get to know him a bit better. This will help me better assess how to restore his health, what to feed him, and how best to manage his care. You may want to check out the Horse Harmony Test website, along with all of Dr. Ward's horse health care websites:

Horse Harmony Test
Holistic Horsekeeping
Horse Harmony
Dr. Ward's Blog

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