Education of
A yearlong series that follows the training and development of a young stallion.
Toti The
By JP Giacomini
Regardless of the discipline one intends for the future of a young, athletic sport horse, most trainers will agree that the first year of work is focused on the basics. Although there are many roads that can “lead us to Rome,” this column will present the ongoing education of the three-year-old Warmblood stallion Totil Hit, or “Toti,” over a period of one year. From backing to his debut in competition, trainer JP Giacomini will present the tech- niques he uses for Toti, working in hand, on the lunge and long lines, free jumping and under saddle.
T
raining young horses demands that we pay a lot of attention to their
health, particularly to their state of growth, which is not a contin- uous process as it goes on and off. We have to make sure to slow down the work as soon as we notice any signs of discomfort in their bones and joints, well- known as “growing pains.”
Photo at top by Shelley Giacomini Training Journal #3
Growing Pains Usually the back and the stifles are the first areas to give signs of stiff- ness when the horse grows. At some point this spring, I noticed some difficulties in Toti’s canter. He had a hard time keeping a right canter lead and gave occasional little bucks on the right circle. This is a sure sign that a horse’s stifles are not comfortable. At that point, I stopped the ridden work schedule and I called Dr. Amy Rock, an equine chiro- practor in Lexington, Kentucky, to check him out and work on his body. “The gait analysis showed the colt’s hips were slightly uneven,” she
reported after examining him, “with the right hip appearing lower than the left [hence his need to hop/buck to release the downward pressure the position was placing on his right stifle]. Upon palpa- tion of the spine and range of motion exam, it was revealed that Toti had some tightness and restriction at the poll and at C1-2, as well as around C4-C6 [lower neck]. His lumbar spine showed some rigidity in paraspinal muscles and his bilateral sacroiliac joints were sore upon palpation, an indication that maybe joint lines were inflamed, consis- tent with a growth period. I used gait analysis and manual palpation of his spine, along with passive range of motion testing to determine my diagnostic.” Dr. Rock used some chiropractic techniques to treat Toti (manual adjusting and the Activator technique, a fast-release “hammer” that produces tiny movements of the vertebrae), some trigger point ther- apy in the cervical and lumbar spine regions and low-level cold laser techniques (her own neurological and inflammation protocols). I followed her visit with a set of x-rays taken by my regular vet, Dr. Kevin Smith, to make sure that Toti’s joints were indeed in good shape, which was confirmed. There was no OCD (osteochondritis dissecans) whatsoever. This also gave us a baseline set of pictures to use as a refer- ence in the future. These precautions are very important with young horses because
if they are forced to work too hard during a painful growth period, they lose courage and can become resistant—they start to associ- ate work and the rider’s aids with discomfort. Sometimes horses need to be pushed through a resistance period that is an effect of their muscular contractions, but never when inflammation is present or even suspected. A horse can release himself from a contraction by a
Warmbloods Today 49
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