1. Acupuncture
2. Progressive Nutrition
3. Saddle Fitting
4. Reduce Gastric Ulcers
5. WNV and EEE Vaccinating
6. Equine Chiropractics

Acupuncture

Acupuncture has both diagnostic and therapeutic applications for lameness. Patterns of sensitivity involving certain points can suggest certain anatomic areas for further diagnostic consideration. This is not an absolute clinical finding or correlate, but, much like more traditional approaches, certain patterns of reactive acupuncture points can be associated with certain patterns of regional anatomic involvement. Diagnostic capabilities are enhanced when acupuncture is combined with diagnostic manipulative or manual therapy approaches as well a traditional lameness workup. Musculoskeletal pain, followed by muscle spasm and contracture, can result in muscle shortening. This can result in local trigger points, and, with chronicity and compensation, more distal secondary trigger points can develop. This integrated approach to case workup and treatment can help resolve both the primary and secondary issues. The diagnostic acupuncture scan involves applying pressure on certain acupuncture points and determining the horse's response.  A positive response is seen as muscle quivering, flinching of the back, avoiding pressure, even an attempt to kick or bite the examiner.  A positive reaction at one or more acupuncture points indicates pain in the referred region. Acupuncture is best known for its application to various musculoskeletal pain-producing diseases including cervical thoracolumbar and lumbosacral hyperpathia, laminitis, navicular disease and degenerative joint disease.  In most cases improvement of the lameness and pain occurs within 3-5 acupuncture treatments.

A Progressive Feeding Program

As horseowners, we all want the best nutrition for our horses.  Supplying a nutritionally balanced diet helps achieve optimal growth, timely breeding, improved performance and saves money over time.  Accomplishing this dietary balance requires evaluating several factors including forage, horse type, and horseowner management.   A feed companies primary goal is to meet the needs of your horse so you can achieve the results you desire.

The foundation of a balanced diet is forage.  Horses are continuous grazing animals, consuming several small meals over 18 hours per day.   Therefore, offering as much hay or forage as possible, whether in a pasture, paddock or stall, will help maintain digestive tract function and overall well-being.

Benefits and Characteristics of Forage (Hay)

• Due to the volume of hay eaten in a day, forage plays a large factor on the diet’s nutritional balance.  Knowing the forage type (grass or legume),  nutrient content and overall quality (Relative Feed Value, RFV) will help to determine what additional nutrients are needed.
  
• The more a horse chews, especially forage, the more saliva it produces.  Saliva is a natural buffer and lubricant for the digestive tract of the horse.  This can help offset stomach upset and certain types of colic.
  
• Overly mature forages are very hard to digest.  Selecting forages harvested at the early-bloom maturity stage will deliver maximum nutrient availability.
  
• Because of the inherent nature of plants pulling minerals from the soil to grow,  the overall mineral density (especially trace elements such as copper and zinc) are getting lower and lower in forages over time, emphasizing the importance of added minerals from feeds. 
  
• While forage is very important to the diet,  no forage can supply a balanced diet for the horse by itself, especially from a vitamin and mineral standpoint.

The role of any feedline is to fill the gap between the nutrients supplied by your forage and what your horse needs.  Depending on the nutrient content and overall quality of your hay, an appropriate feed is selected to supply a balanced diet for your horse.  Depending on the status or type of horse, several different nutritional considerations need to be accounted for.

Broodmares: With breeding season here, stallions and mares are being paired in the hopes of getting the foal that will take you to the top.  An overlooked aspect of producing this foal is the feeding program that goes into the mare.  Nutrition has a dramatic impact on the developing foal’s structural correctness, size and overall health.  Proper diet will also make sure the mare stays in good condition throughout gestation, lactation and rebreeding.  

Common practice has been to ignore the mare’s nutrition until the last trimester.  Let’s think about that for a minute.  Does a medical doctor tell an expectant mother, “you can eat and drink whatever you want and don’t need to take prenatal vitamins right now; just come back and see me in your last trimester”.  NO.  From the earliest possible stage the doctor makes sure this mother takes care of herself and recommends a good prenatal vitamin. 

Why then is it common practice not to worry about the nutritional profile of our broodmare until her last trimester?    If the only worry for this mare is calorie intake and body condition this may be fine.  Since pregnant mares may be able to consume enough calories from good quality forage to maintain or even gain weight, during early pregnancy it is assumed that no additional nutrition is needed.  But calories and body condition don’t tell the entire story. No forage today can supply the essential vitamins and minerals needed to meet the mare’s minimum needs, let alone the needs of a developing fetus.  Inadequate prenatal intake of these key nutrients can be a major factor in foals born with leg problems or Developmental Orthopedic Diseases (D.O.D) such as epiphysitis or contracted tendons.      

Mother Nature has built in back-up mechanisms that will allow the mare to pull from her own reserves to supply the fetus, if her nutrient intake is not sufficient.  This reserve is adequate to supply the first few foals in times of need with out additional supplementation.  However, if these stores are not replenished in the mare, continued depletion can cause problems in later foals due to insufficient nutrients to build body structures. 

Knowing this the ideal broodmare diet is to feed the mare a higher nutritional diet the entire length of gestation, specifically from a vitamin and mineral standpoint.  The critical time to replenish these reserves is during early gestation.  At this time, the mare’s actual need for nutrients is below what it will be in the later trimester.  However if you supply an elevated level of nutrients (vitamins and minerals) above what she actually needs for herself, she can use the extra minerals and vitamins to build up her reserves so she is running on a full tank of gas, per se.   This additional nutritional supplementation must be done with in the context of a balanced ration.  Just adding a vitamin and mineral mix to your current diet with out proper guidance can result in an imbalanced diet and cause other problems. 

During the last trimester about 60% of the fetal development will occur.  This tremendous growth requires increased calories along with the increased vitamin and minerals already being supplied since conception.

During lactation the calorie, vitamin and mineral requirement will double to triple from that of an open mare.  The calories can be met by increasing the grain or adding a high fat supplement. 

Mares should be maintained in a body condition score range of 5-7.  This assures proper reserves to produce milk and meet the mares own calorie needs.  The better body condition a mare is in results in higher conception rates and maintenance of  body weight during lactation.  

Performance/Show Horses:  No matter if we are competing or selling we know that the better we have our horses looking the more successful we will be.  Several factors go into this process to achieve the pinnacle of performance.  Good climate control, exercise regimen and sound nutrition will all pay big dividends.  Nutrition works on the horse from the inside out.  Sound nutrition will deliver good muscle tone, proper body condition and a shiny hair coat, the goal of every show/sales horse.  

Muscle Tone:  In the past it has been assumed that exercise was the key to get that fit and toned appearance of the best horses.  While work does play a big role in this, sound nutrition has a major impact as well.  To build or tone muscles, the body has to have the building blocks of those muscles to build with.  These building blocks are proteins or more specifically the amino acids that make up protein.  You may see on your feed tag nutrients like Lysine or Methionine.  These key nutrients are specific amino acids that when feed at the right amounts and in the right proportions will build and tone muscle in conjunction with a good exercise program. 

Body Condition:  When you go to the next show or sale, the last thing you want is for your horse to be thin.  Sufficient calorie intake is needed to get the desired body condition that you want.  The choice of calories is up to you and the results that you want.  First of all good quality hays can deliver a good source of calories, and must be addressed first.  From there, the type of calories you choose can be narrowed down.  Using cereal grains, such as oats, barley, corn or combinations of them, will deliver calories in the form of starch and sugars that when feed in proper levels can work very well and remain cost effective.  If more calories are need than cereal grains can safely supply, then fat & oil sources come into play.  Fat contains over twice the calories of grains, and therefore can supply a great deal of calories in a small amount.  Furthermore, the form of fat can deliver even more beneficial results.  Blending fat sources, like that from soy oils and flaxseed, will deliver a balanced fatty acid profile and deliver maximum results.

Hair Coat:  I remember growing up, my folks always used to tell me to put some “elbow grease” into that horse to help their hair coat.  While I always disliked brushing horses, getting that great shiny hair coat was still a must.  As many of us have found out, proper nutrition can get a hair coat from the inside out.   Shedding is mostly hormonally controlled via daylight length.  Keeping lights on 16 hours per day with enough intensity so that you can read a newspaper will ensure early shedding.  From there the hair has to be healthy.  Hair itself is made up over 90%  protein.  Therefore making sure the protein, and as said above, the amino acid content of your diet is adequate will help ensure that hair is strong and healthy.  To get that show ring sheen, you can use all sorts of coat enhancers, or you can feed it.  Adding the right fatty acids will give your horse’s coat that sale ring shine, without Show Sheen.  Once again blended fat sources from soybean and flaxseed deliver this “optimal” blend. 

Whether producing babies or training them later, a proper diet is essential to getting the performance we all want.  As nutritional knowledge advances, we are finding that nutrition can have more and more impact.  So the next time you go to the feed store, keep a Progressive nutritional program in mind, you won’t be disappointed. 

Russell Mueller, M.S., PAS

Equine Nutrition Consultant

Progressive Nutrition

How to Reduce Gastric Ulcer Risk in Horses

Horse Council Encouraging EEE, WNV Vaccinations

The American Horse Council wants horse owners to remember that it is the time of year to vaccinate their horses to guard against serious diseases.

With warmer months come mosquitoes and other vectors that can spread viral diseases that seriously affect horses.  Encephalitis diseases, such as eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) and West Nile virus (WNV), are spread by mosquitoes and are often experienced during the summer months. Vaccinating now ensure that horses have strengthened immune system when the virus starts circulating in the mosquito population.

“Diseases like EEE and West Nile virus can significantly affect horses. Fortunately, they can be prevented with vaccinations,” says Jay Hickey, president of the American Horse Council.  “Horse owners need to remain vigilant in their vaccination programs.”

EEE is a viral disease of horses that is very often fatal.  Mortality rates are commonly reported above 90% in horses affected with EEE.  Despite its name, eastern equine encephalomyelitis also affects humans. 

West Nile virus is another encephalitic disease of importance to horse owners.  It also can be fatal in horses, but the mortality rate is significantly lower that what is seen with EEE, generally between 30% and 40%. Humans also can be infected with WNV.

Although humans can contract both diseases, horses play no role in the transmission of either virus to humans.  Mosquitoes and birds are primarily responsible for the spread of both viruses; mosquitoes feed on the blood of infected birds and spread the virus when they bite another host animal such as a horse or human. Although humans and horses can become ill from the infection, the level of virus in their blood is too low to infect mosquitoes so they are unable to spread the disease either directly human-to-human, horse-to-horse, horse-to-human, or vice versa.

In 2005, the U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed 1,075 equine cases of West Nile virus nationwide.  The largest number of cases was reported in California, with 456 confirmed cases; Idaho had the next largest number of cases at 114.

“An effective vaccine for horses is available, and horse owners are encouraged to vaccinate their horses regularly against these diseases,” says Dr. Michael Short, Equine Programs Manger for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Division of Animal Industry.

“We often hear from horse owners asking why it is necessary to vaccinate our horses, as ‘they don’t get these diseases anyway’,” observed Any Mann, AHC’s Health and Regulatory Affairs director.  “The truth is, little evidence of infection is seen when horses are vaccinated because their immune systems are protected and able to fight infection if expose to these viruses.

However, when horses are not vaccinated, their immune systems don’t have the necessary tools to fight the virus and subsequently the number of cases goes up.”  The increased incidence of disease includes an increase in virus related deaths in horses as well.

Reprinted from Equine Health Report published by the National Institute for Animal Agriculture in cooperation with USDA/APHIS, Spring/Summer 2006, http://www.animalagriculture.org/equine/equineintropage.asp

Equine Chiropractics

     Chiropractic Care is a holistic approach to many of the health and performance problems of the horse.  It is a Health Care System based on movement and symmetry, but does NOT replace traditional veterinary medicine and surgery.   Chiropractic offers a complimentary, not alternative, method of care that often is highly successful in supplementing traditional care.  Used concurrently, many of your horse's musculoskeletal conditions respond dramatically, and rehabilitation can take place quickly and efficiently.

     Chiropractic Care focuses on the health and proper movement of all joints in the body, but especially, the proper functioning of the spinal column.

    The SPINAL CORD passes through the center of each vertebra.  The NERVES that branch off of the spinal cord pass in between the vertebra and go to all parts of your horse's body.  The ligaments and muscles that surround them hold the vertebra together.  These also allow for movement between every bone.  These moveable areas that contain two bones and all of the other things mentioned above are called JOINTS.  There are over 175 joints in the horse's spinal column.  Moving properly, these joints allow for a flexible, happy, healthy animal.  Moving improperly, or not at all, these joints can make a horse become sick, stiff, and possibly, pinch a nerve.  Chiropractic examines and evaluates your horse's joints for good, healthy movement and flexibility.