Megan East

@mafaldavgccosta - Hi, sorry for the late reply, she seems to suffer more on her fore legs due to this being her main weight baring area. She's very front heavy. She's barefoot & on a natural supplement that is good for inflammation & any pain she may receive. The farrier I have out has over 40 years experience with different horses & cases that he has followed with vets etc, he told me not to retire her otherwise I'll kill her. (He has a way with words!) Being winter, she is struggling, I have resorted to taking her out bareback when we go as I can feel how she's moving more in depth. My other half is getting me a bareback pad to make it more comfortable (high withers). The biggest issue I'm having is due to the weather I'm having to keep her stabled & she has been in for 2 weeks now 😭 I'm thinking of doing some join up with her over the weekend & maybe some in-hand walks like we did last week to keep her ticking over. Luckily, her legs have suddenly stopped filling.. She's always had filled legs while stabled since I've known her, nearly 10 years.

Do you have any experience with padded support boots whilst stabled? I read up that keeping the legs warm can help? Or magnet therapy?

As my personal opinion, I don't like them. A horse working correctly comes from the entire horse, back to front. If the backend isn't engaging & the horse isn't going forward well, having draw reins won't fix that. The horse needs to work accross it's back to work correctly, forcing his neck won't encourage that. I personally think it's an unnecessary peice of equipment, the rider & horse will come to rely on them & when he's over muscled, tense in areas & sore is when people start to blame the animal.

Hi, this is a personal opinion but I would start ftom the ground. If he isn't confident, having a rider on his back second guessing his every move will only make him more nervous.

I would start with ground work, lunging & long reining. I would start with a pole on the floor, then two & then three. I would then raise the poles one at a time. Once he is comfortable & not questioning what you are asking him to do, them raise them to tiny cross poles that he's able to walk over. I would increase from walk to trot to canter as he gets more confident (adjust poles correctly when changing gait).

Once he is happy tackling a larger cross I would start all over with the poles with a rider on his back, lots of praise & don't question what he is going to do. Just travel as though he is going to go over it with no doubt. As soon as the rider doubts, the horse will pull out. How can he trust you, if you don't trust him?

I would advise not to do this all in one day.

I hope it helps. Xx

Keeping them warm helps with weight xx

Personally, no. I've had experience with all sorts of colours & would say its more breed than colour that affects them.

If you're in the UK have a look at Right as Rein, Natura MoveFree. It's a natural pain relief/anti inflammatory. My 22 year old has this in her feed & it's helped her massively. I'm also looking for other alternatives to aid the stiffness when stabled. I have no option but to stable her at the moment sadly. Xxx

@katherinemcgee thank you for your response. In all honesty, it's for my pony who is dire to get a saddle to fit and thought possibly, it may have been a solution to the saddle issue but from the answers on here and reviews online I'm not going to touch them xx