Impeding our progress...

Once he got on the correct diet the biggest obstacle in our progress was...me.  I still had trust issues with Shamrock from how spooky and resistant he was before "fixing" his diet.  I also only rode 2-3 times a week.

I tried working on this, but it was hard for me, because there had been a *lot* of spooking.  And it was hard for me to just let go and trust him.  But fortunately, help was on the way...

The great protector...

One of the reasons that I kept Shamrock was because he did such a great job of protecting Jessie.  Shamrock is little...I do use pony as a term of endearment, but in Shamrock's case, it actually fits.  He's only 14.2 hands.  But he'll run an 18 hand thoroughbred around the pasture for an hour if he feels that it poses a threat to Jessie.

When Shamrock was moved to his own paddock I discovered how great of a job Shamrock actually did.  In the beginning, when they first moved to the barn Shamrock only allowed a donkey to be near them.  As soon as Shamrock was put in a no grass paddock Jessie started getting beat up.  So we moved him into the same paddock with Shamrock...they had less room, but Jessie was much happier, and safer, with Shamrock...and Shamrock was much *saner* off grass.

Grass...the devil's plant...

Shamrock got started on his new diet and was doing great...suddenly we really started progressing in training.  Then it rained a lot.  A lot.  So it was hard to ride because the footing in the arena wasn't all weather by any means.  Then the grass that the barn owners had been carefully cultivating for months began to grow.  And Shamrock went crazy.

It was a low key barn, where the horses spent most of their time outside, and only came in for meals.  They knew their stalls and calmly walked from the pasture gate to their respective stalls, where grain was already waiting.  Except for when there was grass.  Then Shamrock decided it would be more fun to gallop laps around the stable yard and arena instead of going to his stall.  He was also super spooky once again with completely rigid muscles.

So then it was time to figure out what to do.  First we tried only turning him out at night, when the sugars are supposed to be lowest.  Then we tried a grazing muzzle.  Finally, the only solution was to put him in a different paddock, that had no grass.  And suddenly he was sane again.

Diet experimentation...

I don't remember his first diet exactly...but I do remember that as I was waiting for the supplements to arrive in the mail he went lame.  I was supposed to be having a riding lesson with my instructor and his assistant trainer, who was going to come out and work Shamrock for me while I was completely swamped with weddings.

It was a weird lameness...he didn't palpate badly anywhere...the first couple of steps he took were the worse, and he didn't flex badly either.  For the most part, it looked like it was a stifle issue, but it didn't worsen on a small circle.  It also wasn't worse in one direction versus the other.

We couldn't figure out what was wrong, chalked it up to some weird PSSM thing and waited until his supplements came to try again.  The hitchiness was better the next day, and then his supplements came and once he was started on them it never happened again.

Shamrock's symptoms...

I know I started this blog kind of belatedly, and there aren't even any readers...but just in case someone, someday, wonders what symptoms I do attribute to PSSM, here they are.  This is Shamrock's list of PSSM symptoms.



Spooking
Muscle tightness
Pushing his butt against walls
Hitchiness in his hind legs
Sensitivity to being brushed or touched
Difficulty being caught
Fear of *everything*
Pain filled eyes
Bucking when picking up the canter
Difficulty cantering
Tripping a lot
Clamping tail down
Always resting a hind foot
Sweating a lot just in the pasture
Muscle wastage
Weight loss
Drinking excessively
Urinating excessively
Fear of new people
Difficulty working in general...everything was hard for him

Shamrock's diet...

It took a few months to figure out his diet...and then a few more to really figure out exactly how much exercise mattered to his well being.  I'll touch on some of the trails and tribulations it took to get there, but this is the finished diet.  I pre-mix a month or so of supplements at a time, and fill a 4 oz cup with powder for breakfast and one for dinner...splitting all of the powders evenly in half.  Sometimes Lego people play on my filled cups and knock them over, apparently...

DAILY FEED (split into breakfast and lunch)
Triple Crown Senior
4 tbsp of Magnesium Oxide (or MagRestore, I could get away with 1 tbsp less of MagRestore)
8,000 iui natural vitamin e (from SantaCruz)
2 tbsp of stock salt
2 tbsp Acetyl L-Carnitine (ALCAR)


4 Servings of Coastal Hay
1 Flake of Alfalfa Hay


LUNCH (I mix this up myself on days I ride or work him)
Triple Crown Senior
2 tbsp Magnesium Oxide
Splash of Oil
Whatever supplements are left in his feed pan
Enough water to make the supplements stick to his feed

Bloodlines...

The wonderful woman who brought PSSM to my attention manages a database, tracking PSSM bloodlines.  She ran Shamrock's bloodlines for me and said that they were the worst she's seen for PSSM chances.

So, there you have it.  A quick hair test later and voila...an answer for all of my questions!