Communicating in Silence Hi folks ~ When your horse speaks to you, please listen! My beautiful show mare, Emma, started to do something in her stall that I thought was a bit odd. Now most horse owners would have shrugged it off as a stall vice. I found her behavior a bit perplexing and odd. About mid-November, Emma started to rub her belly on her water bucket and I thought she was itchy. So I scratched her belly. After several weeks, her routine became more frequent and would often pass up her grain meal to rub her belly instead. She would spend about 5-7 minutes pressing her abdomen onto her water bucket giving herself a euphoric feeling of pleasure. So, I spoke to many people about this behavior only to come up clueless and they agreed, it was odd. I ended up researching ulcers in horses and decided that is what she must have. So I chose to go the expensive route of Gastromax. One tube, once a day for 28 days since most ulcers are treated and cured with Omeprazole, I thought this was going to help. I also ordered Smart Digest Ultra and Smart Gut through Smart Pak. I had very little success. So I called the vet. She gave Emma a complete physical and witnessed her leaning on her bucket and also thought it was odd. She palpated her abdomen and after 10 minutes asked me How long have you owned this mare and I replied I bought her when she was 4 months old and she said well she has had previous surgery. What? She proceeded to tell me that she could still feel sutures deep into Emmas abdomen muscles. Crazy, I know. We are now consulting Cornell University as to what to do next. So please horse owners, If your horse starts to change its behavior, silly or not, please question yourself why? Emma simply rubbed her belly on her water bucket. Her performance in the show ring never changed and she gave me her best every day. Its just something bothered me about her behavior and I wondered why? She was telling me something was wrong. And now I know why. It would have been nice to know when I bought her that she has had previous surgery. But I guess in the horse world, anything goes. We call them used car salesmen, right?
Posted on: Tue, 21 Jan 2014 19:22:53 +0000