Festival News & Results

Clovis Horsemanship Award: Kissing Spine & Spondylosis

by Madeline Fasse

My horse Filia is challenged with Kissing spine and Spondylosis. It has affected her in many ways and how we have to care for her. Kissing spine, also known as Overriding Dorsal Spinous Processes (ORDSP).  This occurs when two or more bony projections at the top of the vertebrae (dorsal spinous processes) touch or overlap. Some horses with mild kissing spine show no signs of pain but others will show lameness, behavior changes, bucking. Vets will diagnose Kissing spine with x-rays or an MRI. Filias Kissing spine has progressed to Spondylosis because of the intensity of her kissing spine. Spondylosis is a condition that affects the vertebral bodies and discs in the horse's spine. It is mainly found in between the 11th and 13th thoracic vertebrae. The spine may lose its flexibility due to the bone changes.

The care for Filia is very complex. She has to get body work, supplements, shots and PEMF therapy. Going deeper into body work; she gets sports massage and graston fascia release every week. If we dont keep up on this there would be fascia buildup and stiffness. For the supplement she gets magnesium to relax the muscles by pushing calcium back out of the cell's contraction. Filia gets Osphos every 6 months and Adequan every 6 months. She also uses the Beamer. The Beamer is a form of PEMF therapy. All of this helps her be the happy spoiled horse that she deserves to be.

Clovis Horsemanship Award Essay 

By: Abigail Parent

My horse's name is Benny. He is a 6 year old Connemara and I have owned him since he was a yearling. What Benny lacks in conformation of his front legs, he makes up for with his big heart! There are several key management strategies that we do to keep him happy and comfortable in his job. We x-rayed his feet as a 3 year old before he was backed and learned he had cysts, arthritis and sidebone in both front feet. My farrier uses pour in pads on his front feet. This helps increase frog to ground contact, improves blood flow, and provides cushioning. We also make sure to keep his shoeing cycle to every 5 weeks to help maintain his hoof angles. This past spring our vet injected Benny's front feet with Arthomed because he was showing increased discomfort. Arthomed is a hydrogel that does not harm the joint like other injectables can. This is especially important because he is only 6. This drug used to be just used as a final option but now it is being used earlier as a method to prevent joint damage and great results have been seen. (Which I have seen as well) Some other things we do in everyday life to help him is use fly boots in the summer to help lessen concussion on his feet from stomping. I am also very particular with the types of footing I ride him on and never ride him on hard ground. He gets 24/7 turn out with an in and out to maximize movement. Since Benny has experienced pain at times in his life he is very prone to stomach issues. WIth Benny it's really important to be very observant of changes in behavior as he does not alway show how much pain he is in. Management of his nutritional needs is also very important to keeping him comfortable. I am so lucky to have such a great farrier and vet team and a supportive family who will give the world for him. I believe that learning good horsemanship skills is fundamental to owning horses and developing as a rider.

The Clovis Memorial Award

Bella Perkins & Wow Factor

The mare I am bringing to YDF this year, Wow Factor (AKA “Wonder”), has been through a lot in her short 9 years on earth. Although she has only been with her current owner and in training with us for a year, we work daily to keep her comfortable and thriving. When Wonder was just 5 years old, she had severe laminitis in her front feet and had a double tenotomy (cutting the deep digital flexor tendons to stop some of the force on the coffin bones). A few weeks later, while still healing, it was found that she was not able to breathe through her nose. When an endoscopy and X-Rays were done, there was a mass seen that was blocking her nasal passage. She had a tracheostomy to help her breathe and a CT was taken. The CT showed a “large soft tissue right nasal mass, with caudoventral extension into the nasopharynx and a secondary sinusitis.” In basic terms, she had what has been described to us as a “dumbbell” sized tumor in her nasal passage and extending into her throat, and an infection in her sinuses. Exploratory surgery was the only option to potentially save her life. The surgery was a success, and they were able to remove what was, thankfully, a noncancerous polyp. She then had a long recovery from both the laminitis and the extensive surgery.

Wonder entered our lives almost 3 years after all this. Even with all she has been through, she is the sweetest mare with a great work ethic. I would say that the biggest hurdle we have been through with her is the maintenance of her front feet. Due to the tenotomy, she tends to drop through her heels, making her toes appear long and her heels underrun. A few months ago, her farrier switched her to heart bar shoes to relieve her heels by spreading the weight more evenly. The shoes have significantly improved her hooves. Her feet are done every 4 weeks and I’m sure this is something we will have to stay on top of her entire life to keep her as comfortable as possible.

Because of her laminitis and metabolic issues, we are very careful with Wonder’s diet. Last year, we limited her grass consumption during the summer with a grazing muzzle. She seemed to find the muzzle quite frustrating! This year we have kept her off grass and she has hay 24/7. She is also on a low sugar and low starch grain. Her weight has been great and when we tested her insulin and glucose levels recently, they were perfect.

Wonder is understandably a little sensitive around her face due to the extensive surgery and months of healing afterwards. She is much better than we expected, as long as we are gentle when we touch her face and don’t tighten her noseband or flash too much. Under saddle, she tends to toss her head a lot, which we assume is a kind of defense mechanism. This is not something we can force her to stop doing, especially since she is a feisty chestnut mare at times! Over the last year, we’ve been trying get to the root of the problem without breaking her trust in us and ruining her work ethic. We’ve found that she’s much better when she’s ridden forward from the hind end and kept on the aids. Her early career was as a hunter/jumper, so she’s not very used to the rider influencing her as much as we do in dressage. It’s taken awhile, but she has gotten much steadier in the connection and seems more content in work than ever!