stiffness

Question
QUESTION: Hi, my name is Carey and I have since around 2 years a mare that had some bad experiences in the past with nutrition and accidents. My question is what I should do handling an old injury that can still cause some trouble. Apparently around 5 years ago she hurt her hips while she was in her stable, and she is kinda crooked on her backhand. You can see that her left side is lower than the right side.If you press her on the spine at the lower end, she reacts to it. Usually when I start riding her, it takes awhile for her to warm up, but we have been jumping more since the last year, started with some competitions and she doesn't seem to have pain during riding or jumping, only maybe the next day she seems more stiff and she always is grumpy when saddling her (dont't know if that has anything to do with this) Now I have 2 opinions, one vet says we can help her by injecting steroids into her joint, deep into her muscles which will help her for a year or so, and I have another vet that mentioned acupuncture to relieve the pain of the nerves. Generally she is in a good state of nutrition, right now. She has good energy, always performs and does what I ask her to do. I would like to know are there any other options I can choose to do that will help relieve her stiffness and prevent pain after training? This especially with the fact in mind she is only 9 years old and I would like her to be the best she can be for many years and not get crippled eventually. Thanks so much for your help,

ANSWER: Hi Carey.
  Both vets have offered you good advice. Two other things you could try are rubbing her back end down with Smith Oil and alcohol, mixed half and half (unless she is very thin skinned), or sweating her ass end with salt. If you need the directions for the sweat, let me know.
Anne Stepien


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QUESTION: Please explain with you need to do for the sweating

Answer
Hi Carey.
  To sweat your mare's back, you'll need a large piece of burlap (a burlap feed sack is great), a large piece of heavy plastic (a rain sheet is perfect), some blue, pink or white lotion, hot water and table salt, and a cooler. (I'd suggest getting a 5 or 10 lb bag of salt from the tack shop or where ever you buy your feed.)
   Open the feed bag up on one side and along the bottom so you have a large rectangle. After riding your mare, give her a nice hot bath; in the meantime, soak the burlap in water as hot as you can get it. Scrape her off well, and put blue lotion over her ass end and whirlbone area. Wring the burlap out and put it over the area you covered with blue lotion. Cover the area with table salt, put the plastic over the top and cover everything with a cooler. Cool her out as you normally would; when she's cool, dry and watered out, take everything off her rear end. Put her away as you normally would.
   If the horse I had was very sore or stiff, I'd use this method every day. I'd try it at least two or three times a week at first and within the first week or ten days you should be able to tell if you need to go with accupuncture or injection.
   Good luck! Please let me know how you make out.
Anne Stepien