Page 23 - July 2005 The Game

Your Thoroughbred Racing Community Newspaper The Game, July 2005 23
"Love to cut you down to size, we love dirty laundry" - Don Henley
Get Tied On
with Chaplain Shawn
"Hey, didja hear what I heard? Apparently....."
This month I want to address one of my pet peeves: gossip and rumours. Now this may shock you but the racetrack is actually a ripe breeding ground for gossip and rumours. I realize that you are now staring, mouth agape at what you've read, but it's true. How can you tell what is gossip and/or rumour and what isn't? Please use the following as a guide:
Person X: "I hear Chaplain Shawn has no heart when he gallops".
Chaplain Shawn: "I have no heart when I gallop".
Can you see the difference? Person X has based their statement on hearsay, something that is inadmissible in a court of law. The other statement is straight from the horse's, (or Chaplain's), mouth. When people give me the "I hear that." line, I now ask where and whom they heard it from. Usually the response is that they just, well, heard it- everybody seems to know. Do we really need unsubstantiated rumour and gossip to tickle our fancies? Isn't reality enough? (Think Michael Jackson).
Rumour and gossip aren't limited to rank or position. I was sitting with an individual who is in an executive position and was relishing a particular nasty piece of gossip. When I pointed out that the story was currently taking several different forms and all displayed the classic "urban legend" standard, he continued on, nonplussed. In spite of evidence to the contrary, this person preferred to dwell on something unsubstantiated.
What does the bible have to say? Plenty. Take Ephesians 4:29: Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. The church in Ephesus was quite the group when it came to gossip and innuendo. The writer, Paul, finally addressed the issue by imploring his people to only say things that would build up others, not tear them down. Rumours and gossip were tearing their church apart. Any unity that the Ephesians enjoyed was being destroyed. Fortunately, they finally focused on the truth only and positively building one another up.
So what is it that draws us to something that is so pointless and hurtful in the long run? Why is it that rumours spring up only after a person begins enjoying the fruits of success? Maybe we can use the following criteria to discern what is rumour and what isn't:
1.. Is what we are saying something that could be said in the presence of that person?
2.. Is what is being said something that can't be substantiated by fact?
3.. As uncomfortable as it may feel, do we dare challenge what is being said?
4.. How would you feel if this was being said about you?
As a group of racetrackers, we are in one place for a long time and indeed, we can grate on each other. But gossip and rumours help no one. If we feel better about ourselves by only knocking others, then we are in a sad state of affairs, indeed.
Something that isn't rumour is the date of our next Bar-B-Q: July 12. Get tied on for Cinqo de Mayo in July! Tacos, enchiladas and more! A big thank you to all who attended June's bar-b-q and especially those who volunteered their help.
HEADSHAKING SYNDROME
Equine Health
by Karen Briggs
The first Tuesday Night Bar-B-Q on June 14 was a hit as everyone enjoyed music, food and good people.
There are still no definitive answers for this puzzling condition · but there are lots of theories and just as many treatments.
What do you do with a horse who
suddenly starts flipping his head up and down as if a wasp had flown up his nose · and can’t seem to stop?
If it were just one incident, you could chalk it up to a bad day or a high bug count, but for a horse with headshaking syndrome, the behaviour is persistent, recurrent, and incredibly distracting. In some cases it can even be a career-ender. Headshaking is more than just the usual bug-avoidance or impatience/annoyance headtoss exhibited by any normal horse; it’s a repetitive, stereotypic behaviour which can show itself in a number of ways. Most commonly, it’s a vertical headshake, as mild as a nod or as violent as a strong snatch at the reins, often repeated as a series. But it can also go side-to-side, or prompt the horse to frequently stop dead to rub his muzzle on a foreleg (or the top of a stall door, a fencepost, or a handy human). It can even manifest as a furiously itchy upper lip with clamped nostrils, a twisting or rotary headshake (like that exhibited by stallions herding mares), frequent snorting and blowing with nasal discharge, or trying to “hide” the head by pressing it against a wall or even burying it in a bush or under another horse’s tail.
Any of these behaviours, in moderation, could be tolerable · but when the horse is performing them constantly, violently, and uncontrollably, it’s almost impossible to continue with training, let alone racing.
There are some common denominators. Most headshaking is seasonal, starting in the spring and subsiding in the fall. It’s generally a syndrome of mature horses, five years and up, and is more common in Thoroughbreds than in any other breed. Some studies have indicated that geldings are almost twice as likely to be headshakers as mares, though other population surveys haven’t turned up any gender bias. Finally, headshakers are most likely to exhibit the behaviour not when they’re relaxed in their stalls or paddocks, but when they’re faced with multiple stimuli or stresses. In other words, headshaking tends to start when the horse is being worked, especially if there’s also strong sunlight or a stiff breeze blowing. And the syndrome can exist for years, get worse over time, or (in rare cases), spontaneously resolve.
For decades, researchers thought headshaking was simply a vice, like cribbing, or an allergic reaction to seasonal pollens. But it’s now believed that the majority of headshakers are reacting to pain experienced in the trigeminal nerve (aka the fifth cranial nerve), a large, three-branched nerve which originates deep in the brain and relays sensations from the horse’s face. One branch (the ophthalmic nerve) controls sensation in the horse’s eyelids and forehead, another (the maxillary nerve) the cheek, upper lip and gums, and the nostrils, and the third (the mandibular nerve) the jaw, lower lip and gums, and some of the muscles used in chewing. What’s odd is that there doesn’t seem to be any cause for this pain. It’s a “phantom” sensation triggered by the nerve firing inappropriately to stimuli, and may be exaggerated when blood vessels expand during exercise.
In humans, there’s a similar syndrome called trigeminal neuralgia which can cause facial pain and muscle paralysis. It primarily affects women over 50, and is still being investigated as to its cause. There’s also a phenomenon called “photic sneezing” in which humans react with a sneeze reflex when exposed to strong sunlight. Some cases of headshaking in horses also seem to be set off by exposure to strong sunlight, and disappear when the horse is worked only in evening light or in an indoor arena. This is sometimes called “photic headshaking”.
What can you do for a headshaker? There are several approaches, none of which, sad to say, has an overwhelming success rate. It’s a trial-and-error game. Start by eliminating all the low-tech reasons why the horse might be experiencing facial pain. If
he’s wearing a noseband, try him without. Experiment with different bits - some horses have unusually narrow or wide upper palates, which can make single- jointed snaffles uncomfortable (a double-jointed variety such as French link might be better accepted). Have your veterinarian give him a thorough dental exam, and try to eliminate other causes such as guttural pouch infections, ear mites, head trauma, or allergies. Even ill-fitting tack can be reason enough for some horses to become agitated, so go over both saddle and bridle with a fine-toothed comb. (Remember that horses have many sensitive nerves in their faces, and any buckle or rough edge that presses in the wrong spot has the potential to drive them crazy.)
If none of these provides a solution, try fitting a cut- off pair of queen-sized pantyhose over your horse’s muzzle when training. For some reason, the mild pressure of the nylons seems to eliminate the pain in some horses, or at the very least distract them from it! The thin material will also keep tiny midges and gnats (which might be the problem in some horses) from landing on the muzzle. If it seems to help, you might wish to go the next step and purchase a “muzzle net” specifically designed to shade and protect a head- shaker’s sensitive nose. Some of these attach easily to the halter or bridle noseband and are quite unobtrusive visually. One British brand called Net Relief (available from www.equilibriumproducts.com claims improvement in 79% of horses who tried it · and it’s somewhat more elegant than pantyhose on the nose.
If your horse is a photic headshaker, you’ll probably have to train in the wee hours of the morning or at twilight, and shield him from the sun during the day. Racing in the afternoon might be problematic. Some horses get relief from heavy mesh flymasks which act as sunglasses, and tinted contact lenses have also been tried, with mixed results.
In the past, veterinarians often recommended severing the infraorbital nerve as a final solution for headshaking, but the success rate proved dismal. Experimental nerve blocks of the same region in 2000, in a study at the University of Liverpool, produced no better results. However, blocking the ethmoid nerve in the face did resolve headshaking in 11 of 17 experimental cases.
There are also several different drugs which you can try, again, with no guarantee of success. One is cyproheptadine, which is also used to treat Cushing’s syndrome. In one study about two-thirds of the horses improved on the drug. Another which has produced encouraging results in studies is the anti-seizure drug carbemazepine (aka Dilantin or Tegretol). In the U of Liverpool study, it worked best in combination with cyproheptadine, resulting in an 80-100% improvement in seven of the nine study horses. But because its effects are short-lived, carbemazepine must be administered within two hours of exercise, in fairly large doses - making it a costly and temporary solution.
Finally, there are the “alternative” treatments, including acupuncture, which helps in some cases, and chiropractic adjustment (which will only really be effective if the root cause of the headshaking is discomfort somewhere else in the body). Beware some of the homeopathic and herbal remedies marketed for the treatment of headshaking, however; they generally contain nothing that would specifically address the syndrome. Also worth avoiding is an expensive dermal patch called Equiwinner, which purports to cure headshaking according to some cockamamie theory that the syndrome is tied to blocked sweat glands! The “magic ingredient” in these patches is ordinary sodium chloride (salt), and will perform no miracles for sweating nor head- shaking.
Dave Landry Photo