Rocky tacked up with his Freeform Saddle & Red Renegades!
I’m going to start riding Rocky again more regularly now that his feet have grown out and he’s sound again. How wonderful is that? He had a slight episode of laminitis last year. His feet fully recovered. He’s considered to be insulin resistant so I had to make a few changes with how I manage his feeding program. No big changes because luckily my hay tested safe for him to eat. I did let him graze for an hour or two at a time a bit over the summer, but once fall came he wasn’t allowed to graze anymore. I no longer feed him carrots or apples and he gets no grain either, and no glucosamine. I think that I could cut back a little bit on his hay, though part of what makes him look so plump in the photos is his thick coat. He is a furball!
You can see from the photo that the management changes have been paying off. He no longer has the fat pockets that he had on his rump and withers. His neck is not cresty. He had good weight over his hips and croup area, which I like to see in the winter.
Rocky's wearing Chief's Red Renegades!
Actually, my vet said that Rocky tested in the normal range for IR but that there are many horses they are finding with the symptoms of IR that test normal and that it was quite obvious (from the symptoms) what was going on and what I was going to need to do in order to make him well and keep him healthy. The vet also thinks we caught it very early before anything really serious happened. I’ll post some links with more info on IR at the bottom of this post.
Rocky's left ear is pointing home! The tallest peak is Job's Peak
Check out the bottom photo that I took at the start of one of our trails today. It’s looking back towards home and the Sierras.
I can’t believe how white Rocky has gotten. He started out a beautiful dark grey dapple when I got him as a yearling. He is so white now that I was nearly blinded by the light reflecting off of him today. His left ear, btw – is pointing pretty much right at our home so you can see I just have to come down the street to get to BLM where I have virtually endless riding.
Rocky has been sound at a trot again for several weeks now and has been getting a lot of free longing with the other horses. So he’s not entirely out of shape but compared to Chief and Bo he is so we’ll be doing a lot of walking for now and slowly build him back up. The hill work I did on him today was a pretty good workout and had him pretty wet. I’ve been riding the other horses barefoot on the trail but didn’t want to chance having Rocky come up sore so I used Chief’s red Renegades on him today. They fit nicely and stayed in place. I’ll see how he does and maybe take him for a hand walk out on the trail barefoot to get an idea of how he moves over the rocky sections. The other two have the hardest rock crunching bare hooves that I think I’ve ever had on a horse – the conditions are perfect this year and getting them out and riding them regularly barefoot has really helped with that a lot. Rocky runs around without flinching over rocks when he runs with the other horses so he isn’t showing any signs of sensitivity at all, but he is also not carrying a rider. I want to take things slow and careful and make sure he is always comfortable and happy. He has sure come a long way this year. Once we could not trim one front foot because he was too sore to bear weight on the opposite one long enough – he was abscessing then. Fortunately that didn’t last for very long. It was my first and only time I’ve ever had a horse abscess – it was weird how one day he was holding a foot up and super sore and then a few days later, poof – back to normal again. I hope my horses never have to have anything like that happen to them ever again. When he had the laminitis episode he never showed any signs of being sore, it only showed up in his growing out hoof.
Rocky still is just like he always was – Type A personality who loves to go! I am really happy that I will be able to get him out more as he really enjoys getting to go out and sulks when left behind by the others. He has mellowed some, and walked home with only trying to jig a little. The problem with these old endurance horses is that they KNOW when they didn’t go for a real long ride (even if they aren’t fit). Next time maybe we can go for more than an hour and a half.
Here are some links with more info on insulin resistance in horses:
Insulin Resistance in Performance Horses
What insulin resistance looks like
Diagnosing and managing the insulin resistant horse
Insulin Resistance in Horses
Equi-Analytical – lab for having your feed tested
Karen,
If you can’t feed glucosamine products what other products would be good for joint health besides shots?
Rocky is beautiful, so glad he’s doing well after his laminitis episode. I love his boots too, very splashy. You take wonderful pictures on your rides. I’d be interested to know what sort of supplements he can have if he can’t have glucosamine too.
Rocky is HANDSOME!
My big draft mare, Callie, had hoof abscesses for the first 6 months or so when I first bought her and had pulled her shoes. Having such giant feet constricted in shoes had provided lots of opportunities for festering problems, and once the blood flow was restored, she blew out an abscess once every 2-3 weeks for a while. I almost had a coronary every time I’d go out to the barn and find her 3-legged lame!
We’re over the abscess hurdle now–if only Renegades came in sizes big enough for her!
Elly
I haven’t been giving Rocky any glucosamine – he had previously been getting it in shots. For supplements now he gets the MegaDose vitamins from Horse Guard and that is it. He gets a scoop of those daily which he readily eats by itself as it comes in pellet form. One of the articles that I posted a link to covered why you shouldn’t give glucosamine to an IR horse. I’d have to check and see what I might be able to give him that would be safe – probably Adequan would be okay, or Legend since they are both different from glucosamine (and most costly).
WOW, BLM right out your back door.. and what a view.. You are quite fortunate. Rocky looks like is ready to hit the trail for sure with those renegades.
I have an older gelding , Rebel, that I am taking out of semi -retirement this spring to condition for endurance. He is older but still has a lot of go. He is also tough as nails! He had a slight laminitis experience 3 years ago that didn’t really amount to much, but ever since, he is limited on pasture. He is one of those horses that would stay fat on dirt!
Great photos. I love the view over his ears….
Hi Karen:
Glad to see you have the IR undercontrol.
I have a compensated IR registered Connemara 15.1 hh 1030 lbs coming 8 YO. His name is Milo.
By “compensated” I mean that his Glucose/Insulin ratio is between 5 and 10, and basically this ratio is borrowed from human medicine. When blood tested, both glucose and insulin are within range – but usually in “compensaded” IR, insulin numbers are on the high side of the range, so the ratio is low.
Milo has never foundered, or gotten fat and cresty, because I’ve had him since he was 3 and managed his feed and exercise.
You may want to do some research on GTF (Glucose Tolerance Factor) chromium (Cr) coupled with magnesium oxide (MagOx) as a supplement.
Both GFT Chromium and Magnesium Oxide have been found to help the action/metabolism of Glucose and insulin in humans (also studies in rats and pigs!). WHen a cell is “insulin resistant” it means the insulin can’t get into the cell so insulin is high in the blood and goes to places it shouldn’t (and makes fat) .
These supplements actually make the cell wall, more receptive to allowing insulin to pass thru the cell wall so it gets into the cells (where it should be)
I buy both from Uckele Animal Nutrition. Milo gets 5 mg Cr and 10 g MagOx daily. It’s pretty cheap to buy these 2 supplements – rather than buying a premixed expensive supplement.
I have a few friends also using this combo, and their IR horses have lost the crest and fat – BUT the crest will come back within a month of stopping the supplements.
You’ll still have to feed low sugar hay. I also feed Triple Crown Lite (2 lbs per day) to make sure he gets all the right Vits and mins. TC Lite has the higest copper of all the low sugar low carb pelleted feed.
I have low sugar hay (ESC under 10%) – and it’s been so cold here (30 below zero) that both my horses are eating over 30 lbs of hay a day.. and neither are fat (My non IR QH – gets the same diet as Milo – although I do have some higher sugar hay for him)
This is what has worked for my horse – and several friends horses.
Good luck!
Barb