A: The quick answer to the question is to use the herd (other horses) as a draw and put yourself between the herd and the horse that doesn’t want to be caught. Soon she will give up and allow you to catch her. Don’t allow her back with the herd; work yourself calmly and casually until she finds herself outside the herd. Horses being herd animals get comfortable within the herd and uncomfortable away from it. The further away and the longer they are separated, the more willing they will be to come to you or to stand and allow you to walk up and catch them. Once you’ve caught the horse, brush it, feed it some oat, and let it go. Horses will become very easy to catch after a week or two of this. If you would like a more broad relationship than that, I would make sure the time I spend with my horse was as much fun for them as it was for me so I could change the relationship to where my horse wanted to be caught. This would be because it couldn’t wait to find out what it was going to learn today, presenting everything in a manner that earns the horses respect, builds their confidence and communicating in a language that the horse understands. If we can think of things from the horse’s perspective, we can create a willing exuberant horse that wants to join us. It is a position or relationship that takes time, effort and knowledge to get but it is well worth the journey.

A:I would recommend that you take a Bounce™ dryer sheet and rub the horse with this before and during your grooming session. It helps with static control and also keeps flies and mosquitoes away during the summer. You may also consider rubbing the brushes with the sheets and keeping some in your grooming box. I would also recommend that you put a piece of rubber matting down when grooming. Blankets with a lot of nylon in them will increase this problem and you may want to consider a blanket made out of non-static material. Also, consider switching to grooming products that are not artificial – if your brush is nylon bristles rather than natural horsehair, it may be a cause of the static shocks.

Q: My daughter’s horse, Maddy, contracted the neurological form of equine herpes virus. It resulted in inflammation that affected the blood supply to the spinal cord at first, Maddy was unable to get up on her own due to paralysis of her hindquarters. She also lost control of her bladder. Nine months later, she has recovered to the point where she has full bladder control. She can function at all gaits but is still stiff and favours her left hind. She has been left to pasture with the herd. My question is: should we be feeding Maddy any supplements and are there any special exercises or treatments that might help her regain normal function of her hind quarters? Have there been any cases of full recovery from this form of equine herpes that you’re aware of? - Dennis Rosaasen, Saskatchewan Maureen Wichtel, DVM, PhD, Dipl ACVIM is an assistant professor of large animal internal medicine in the Department of Health Management at the Atlantic Veterinary College, University of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, PEI.

A: As you correctly mentioned, the neurological form of equine herpes virus (EHV) infection results from damage to the lining of the blood vessels in the spinal cord. In response to this damage, there is inflammation as well as thrombosis, which leads to a loss of blood supply to affected areas. Recovery is proportional to the degree of damage suffered by the spinal cord, and is generally prolonged, as you have seen, and may be irreversible. In one study that looked at the long-term outcome of recovered horses following an outbreak of EHV at a riding school in the Netherlands, at one year follow-up, three had returned to their former level of performance, while the other five had become pasture-sound. At follow-up four years later, all pasture-sound horses had been euthanized because of persistent mild ataxia and incontinence. In the case of Maddy, I would hold some degree of optimism, given that her bladder function has slowly (and completely!) returned. Unfortunately, it is difficult to predict whether the gait abnormalities (assuming they are neurological in origin) will also resolve, for the reasons mentioned above. If there has been slow but steady improvement over the course of the last several months, then I would be cautiously optimistic; however, full recovery would seem unlikely if there has been steady improvement up to a point with a plateauing of clinical signs thereafter.
In terms of supplements, my recommendation would be that Maddy be fed a well-balanced diet. While some would advocate supplementation with vitamin E because of its role in the normal health and maintenance of neural tissues, supplementation would not be expected to reverse any permanent (irreversible) spinal cord damage.
Lastly, physiotherapy has been shown to play an important role in the recovery and rehabilitation of spinal cord injuries in humans, and is likely to have similar benefits in horses. Controlled exercise such as longing should be aimed at maintaining/improving muscle tone and overall level of fitness.
As a final word, remember, caution should always be exercised when working around a horse with any degree of ataxia because of the potential for injury to caregivers.
Readers are invited to visit the following website for additional information on the role of physiotherapy in equine rehabilitation: www.physiotherapy.ca