Stifling stifles

It appears that Toler is once again loosing muscle-tone on his top-line, especially towards his croup. It could partially the heat and insane humidity we've been having. The other day it was so hot they were all just drenched in sweat standing out in the paddock. Toler looked particularly miserable when he ambled up to me and offered his head for the halter--"Mooommmmmm. So many fliessssszzzzz." So it is understandable. Even if we are working consistently (despite our days off the other week). And despite the little belly he has going on.

I did get him a new wedge pad the other week. (The black one.)

I've mentioned it before especially with his weight involved, but Toler has a problem keeping muscle by his withers. Between his prominent, thin Thoroughbred withers and his Hanoverian shoulders, he gets these black holes that totally interfere with saddle fit. I've been using a corrective Mattes pad, which is wonderful and works perfectly, though since he'd gotten a little bit of muscle-tone back, I had wanted a wedge pad to use as well. The Roma pad I got seems to work quite well, too, though it is a but more finicky to put on.

I'm going to do more massage and chiropractic adjustment on him (myself), as per the advice of our trainer, and hopefully that'll help his muscles recuperate and get back on track.

I've also noticed that his stifles could really use some targeted muscle-building. Matter of fact, every once in a while (rarely, occurring maybe once every twenty or thirty rides), Toler suffers what feels like a misstep with his hind legs, like his hindleg gets stuck behind him and he has to "gimp" for a stride. Then he's fine. It happens most often when we're doing a downward transition between the canter and the trot or walk. It's likely that he has a mild stifle-locking problem due to weak stifles.

See, horses often/usually sleep standing up. As a result, their bodies have bio-mechanic "locks" to ensure they don't fall down while sleeping, the primary enforcer being with the stifles. Sometimes with weak stifles, and especially during downward transitions, the stifle can "slip" into that locked position. Some horses have problems with locking stifles simply due to bad conformation of the hind legs--specifically having too straight of a hind leg. Generally there's nothing you can do about that (at least not that I know of). But generally weak stifles are pretty easy to cure.

The best thing you can do to strengthen stifles is walking over slightly raised cavelletti. It's best to set them up like you would for trotting over, but raise only one alternating pole end. (The result looks like very small, broken cross-rails.)

The slower you walk, the more the horse has to hold his hind legs up over the rail as he goes over it. The key is walking--at the walk, most horses don't pick their legs up very high, while at the trot they have a more natural lift and impulsion. Obviously, take it slowly at first, and don't expect any immediate results. Building muscle takes time, especially with stifles. Expect to spend at least a month consistently walking over cavelletti.