I learnt a new lesson this week. A few weeks ago I noticed a patch of hair on Morgans butt that was sticking up. As he lives out with his herd this is not unusual as he has the freedon to run and play and roll. What was strange was the fact that it would not lie down. On further inspection it looked like he had either rubbed the area (was his worm count high, as he was due was worming) or had he been the victim of mutual grooming?
Approx 10 days later a dip appeared in the surface of the skin. There was no swelling, bruising or pain on pressing, so what had caused this?
Most probably a muscle strain or small tear caused by him overstretching when kicking or twisting (not disimilar to us humans!).
What happens is immediately the muscle has trauma, the blood supply is compromised and the area shrinks. The horse compensates by using other muscles and the damaged muscle gets atrophied, hence the dip. The danger here is to ignore the dip and fail to bring back full fuction of the muscle. By releasing any stress (massage, gentle palpation and stretches) both the blood flow and brain awareness of the injury are stimulated and the muscle starts to heal.
So we have started working this area and already in just 48 hours I can see a visable improvement.
So the lesson I learnt was to pay much more attention to the coat of my horse and what it might be telling me. Had I known this earlier I could have possibly prevented the dip occuring in the first place.