LESSON SEVEN QUIZ – Part B

This part of the quiz consists of 13 case histories or situations that I have actually encountered. Choose 10 to discuss and speculate on. Try to see these situations in your mind. Visualize, see a picture, as you read the question. Each answer is worth a maximum of 10 points. Remember that your thought processes are as important as the answer you give.

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1. You arrive at a barn to massage a horse for a first time. The barn has stalls down both sides of a wide barn aisle (wide enough to allow horses to pass each other easily). Cross-ties are located at a number of places down the aisle and are attached high enough on the walls to allow horses to walk under them when they’re in use. The horse is a nervous type and has pawed the stall so that the floor is uneven, especially in the corners. There are no other stalls available to use. There is a wash rack at the far end of the barn. It has a concrete floor with a drain and cross-ties for two horses. What would be your choice of a place to massage the horse? Describe your thought process that made you arrive at your choice.

2. You’ve been asked to look at a 3year old Quarter Horse that is being trained for western pleasure. The owner is very excited about the horse’s prospects in its first show season and has even splurged on a new saddle and bridle with lots of silver on both. But recently the horse has started to buck and bolt when being ridden. Speculate on what could be the problem.

3. You have been asked to look at a horse that fox hunts one or two times a week. The owner recently purchased a new, custom-made saddle from a well-know English saddle maker and the horse has started to show soreness across the withers after a day’s hunt. The owner called the saddle maker and was assured that the saddle had been made to the horse’s measurements and should fit perfectly. The owner has always been careful about protecting her horse’s back with generous padding, so, just to be on the safe side, she added some extra, but the horse’s withers were still getting sore. You first examine the saddle for a twist in the tree or other defects. The saddle looks fine. Then, as you normally do, you look first at the saddle on the horse without padding before looking at it with the padding the owner is using. Your examination of horse and saddle without padding looks fine. In fact, it fits the horse “like a glove”, just as the saddle maker said it should. Speculate on what the problem could be.

4. You are asked to evaluate and massage a Thoroughbred ex-race horse. The owner has not ridden the horse in the past six months because of injuries she (the owner) sustained in a car accident. When the owner started riding again, the horse would not pick up its left canter lead. You cannot see anything about the way the horse stands or its muscle development that would indicate a problem. You watch the horse longe and it has no difficulty getting both canter leads. You ask to see the horse ridden and it cannot pick up the left lead. Speculate on what the problem could be and what you could do that would help the situation.

5. You are watching the first day of a two-day riding clinic. One of the horses in the clinic looks “off” to you. It is trailing its right hind leg and the right hip is dropping. No one else seems to notice and the horse completes its lesson. The next day the horse looks “off” in both hind legs. The right hip is still dropping and the right hind is still not coming forward, but now, in addition to this, the left hind is stiff and short-strided in its movement. There is very little flexions in the joints of the left hind. Your thoughts?

6. At this same two-day clinic there is an older Arabian horse. The horse is very short-strided in its trot, its back is down and the head carriage is high. There are two “lumps” of hard muscle just above the tail. The owner says the horse bucks every time it is asked to canter, going around the ring in a series of bucks. It does this when asked to canter in both directions. The owner’s friends have urged her to sell the horse because they feel it has a bad attitude and might hurt her. The horse is not showing a bad attitude at the clinic and actually seems to be trying to work with its rider. When, during the clinic, the horse is asked to canter everyone can see that the horse is not actually bucking, but rather, it is changing leads behind at every stride as it goes around the ring. Your thoughts on what the problem might be and your suggestions for correcting it.

7. A very upset horse owner calls you. Her horse has just kicked at a board fence and got its leg caught between two boards. In its panic the horse wrenched the leg struggling to get it out of the fence. The owner can see that the horse is sore and wants you to come out and massage it. What do you do?

8. You have been called to evaluate and massage a horse that is trailing its right hind and looks “off” in that leg. The owner tells you that the horse hurt itself four weeks before, but she’s not sure how. At first there was heat in the upper portion of the leg, especially on the inside of the stifle, but the vet could not find anything that he felt was serious. The owner tells you that she keeps this horse and its close “buddy” in a ten acre field near her home. This field has trees at one end for shade, but is otherwise open pasture with lots of dips and uneven ground. The horses are close friends and don’t like to be separated. She took the other horse off for a day-long trail ride. Neighbors told her that the one left behind (the one you’re looking at) spent the entire day frantically running in the ten acres until its friend got home. It was the next morning that the owner noticed that the horse looked lame and there was heat in the muscle on the inside of the hind leg—around the stifle, in the groin and down toward the hock. What thoughts come to your mind about why this horse came up lame and why it’s still having problems four weeks later.

9. You have been asked to evaluate and massage a horse that is extremely sore and defensive on the right side of its rib cage, just behind the girth. This mare is sore enough that she tries to kick and bite if you attempt to touch her in that area. She is not defensive about being touched on her left side. The owner tells you that the horse is being trained western and she eventually wants to do “cutting” with her. She sent the horse to a western trainer, but was not happy with how the training was progressing. She felt that the horse’s attitude and performance had deteriorated. The trainer had said the horse was very difficult and willful and had even thrown herself down, flat out on her right side, in one training session when asked to do something she didn’t want to do. At that point the owner brought the horse home and had another trainer coming to the house to work with her. It was at that point that the owner became aware of how very sore this horse was on her right side. Speculate on what could have happened to cause this problem.

10. You watch a horse walking and trotting on both a straight line and a circle. You see that the right hind leg is not coming forward under the horse’s body to the same degree as the left. You also notice that the right hind, from the stifle downward, rotates outward and the right hip is slightly lower than the left. What could be going on and how would you correct the problem?

11. This question has 2 parts. You must answer both to get credit.

11a. You are evaluating a horse trotting (either on a longe line or free in a round pen). The horse looks “off” in the right fore. It lands heavy and “nods” downward as the right fore lands. All the joints in the leg appear to be working correctly and the horse’s weight passes over the foot without the horse showing discomfort as the foot hits the ground. Speculate on what the problem could be and how you would deal with it.

11b. Another horse also looks “off” in the right fore when trotting (on longe line or free in round pen). This horse raises its neck and head as the right fore lands. The fetlock joint does not sink toward the ground and the horse does not leave the foot on the ground long enough for the weight to pass over it. Speculate on what the problem could be, compare it with 11a and discuss how you would deal with it.

12. You are evaluating a horse. The owner tells you that the horse cannot pick up a right lead canter when longeing on a line or free in a round pen. It will counter-canter and, occasionally, cross-canter. In the longeing, when circling to the right, you notice that the horse leans on its right shoulder and pulls its haunches to the right. When longeing to the left, it counter-bends to the right. When being ridden, the horse can’t turn to the right; it will bring its head around to the rider’s right knee, but go diagonally off on its left shoulder. This horse tilts it nose to the left and takes heavy contact on the right rein. It is very difficult to get the body, neck and head lined up in a straight line. Discuss what the problem could be and how you would approach correcting it.

13. You have been asked to evaluate and massage a horse. The owner tells you that the horse is difficult to bridle, putting its head up high. The horse is very nervous when being ridden and tosses its head constantly. The horse does not want to go forward. If will often back up, rather than going forward, when the rider tries to take contact with the bit. Discuss some possible problems that would cause these reactions.

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