Horse: Amber, mare, 12 years
Hello Klaus and Gabi
Greetings from Southern California. About 3 weeks ago, on the recommendation of a fellow trainer, I was contacted by a very nice couple. Their 12 year old daughter, Meg, owns a 12 year old Danish mare, named Amber, and both are in training at another Jumper barn. For over a year, the mare has started headshaking, both on the flat and over jumps. Her headshaking over jumps is so violent, that she pulls the rider out of the saddle and causes her to have a frontal roll-over fall.The mare has received a complete oral and physical exam by their vet, Dr. Charles Leskey, who happens to be my own vet and is a crack diagnostician. She has also had complete x-rays of her mouth and entire head and has been declared sound by Dr. Leskey. After that came the chiropractor and different food and vitamin supplements. None could cure the problem. Finally, someone at their barn had suggested that Amber is suffering from "Brain Fungus"!!!!!I drove up and looked at amber. I worked with her on the lunge line and then had a ride on her. Her shoeing was wrong. Her toes were cutoff and the iron was placed about a quarter of an inch behind the toe. She had hard, thick underneck muscles; tight; ungiving and braced up back muscles and took very short and choppy steps with her hind legs. All the joints in her hind were locked up and she moved as though goose-stepping. I found her to be very much a right-handed horse.Amber was brought to my barn 2 weeks ago. First her shoes were corrected by my farrier, Robert, as you had discussed with him, when you were here. Then we went to work on straightening her. After 10 days of work in hand all headshaking disappeared. She softened her underneck and back muscles; her back has a positive upward swing and she bends all the joints in her hind end. I have been lunging her with the saddle for about 3 days and some of the headshaking has come back. I expect that to go away after a few days. Meanwhile, I have been giving Meg, who is an athletic and dedicated rider, lessons on my mare Darby to repair her seriously challenged confidence and to instill some good, basic jumping skills. She is progressing beautifully.Thanks to you and Schiefen-Therapie, we appear to be on our way to another great success for both horse and rider. If you click on the link below you will see a short video of how Amber used to jump. I am hoping to be able to send you another video of them jumping with much different results.
Best Wishes
Kashi