Friday, September 13, 2013

"I say straight before forward", "I say forward before straight"


Tästä aiheesta jaksan kirjoittaa ja se on yksi blogini kulmakivistä (jaksan jankuttaa siitä koko ajan myös omassa arjessa, sillä se tuuppaa niin helposti unohtumaan). Jos blogini olisi yritys ja sille pitäisi keksiä ydiniviesti/kiteytys olisi se tämä:

Anna hevoselle ja hevosen lihaksistolle aikaa kehittyä ja voimistua.

Nykypäivän hevostelussa kuten monessa muussakin asiassa haluamme tuloksia ja nopeasti. Estehevosten keski-ikä on kuulemani mukaan Euroopassa vain noin kahdeksan vuotta. Ei siis sellainen ikä, että hevoset ovat parhaimmillaan vaan keski-ikä sille, että hevoset lopetetaan. Oli kyseessä sitten laji kuin laji, niin näkee liian paljon kipeitä ja huonovointisia hevosia. Tanja Kortelainen jakaa ajatuksiaan Kouluratsastuksen tarkoituksesta verkkosivuillaan ja tässä mielestäni hieno lainaus:

"Kiire saada kuusivuotias hevonen pakettiin luo mahdottoman yhtälön. "Suuret" sanovat että piaffen opettamiseen oikein kestää n. 6 vuotta, tai että silloin hevonen on vasta tarpeeksi voimakas tekemään tätä liikettä ratsastajan kanssa vaadittavat 15 askelta. Koska liikkeitä tehdään liikkeiden takia, ei niiden mahdollisen voimistavan luonteensa takia, on matkalla unohdettu liikkeiden perimmäiset tekniikat."

Horses for life kirjoittaa myös, että pahinta mitä voidaan tehdä on pakottaa hevonen "muotoon". Hevonen kehittää "oikean muodon" vuosien kuluessa oikeanlaisen treenin tuloksena.

"In training for dressage, one of the most damaging things we can do to a horse - especially a young horse - is demand an “outline”. A beautiful outline is something that will, if the training is correct, develop naturally over a period of years. To insist on it before the horse is ready can and does lead to premature breakdown in body, mind and spirit."



Cornellin sivustolta poimittu kuva hevosen selkärangasta herätti ainakin minussa kovasti ajatuksia. Ja vallitseva ajatus siitä, että "I say straigh before forward", " I disagree, "I say forward before straight" ei vain selvästi ole pitkäkestoinen. Ei ainakaan jos mietitään hevosten hyvinvointia. 

Tässä vielä Equine Wellness (May-June 2010) -lehdestä tietoa hevosen kehityskaaresta (huomaa, että hevosen selkä on täysin kehittynyt vasta kun hevonen on viiden-seitsemän vuoden ikäinen) :

"All horses mature in a similar time frame, as follows: 

proximal long pastern...6-15 months 
distal long pastern...before birth-1 month 
proximal short pastern...3-12 months 
distal short pastern...before birth 
proximal cannon bone...before birth 
distal cannon bone...6-18 months 
proximal tibia...36-42 months 
distal tibia...8-24 months 
proximal radius 14-20 mths 
distal radius 24-35 mths 
proximal humerus...36-42 mths 
femur...36-48 mths 
hock...36-42 mths 
vertebrae...5-7 YEARS 



So, the part that carries us, the back, matures at five to seven years. 
An interesting sidenote...fillies produce progesterone, which encourages growth plate closure. Colts produce testosterone, which delays the closing of growth plates. 

The article states, "...you should wait until your horse is between the age of four and six before asking him to carry your weight, depending on the horse, circumstances and workload. For example, many people will begin light groundwork when their horses are two or three, back them lightly at four, work on the basics at five, then go off to work around age six." 

It does state that these days we breed horses to look mature at a younger age, which fools us into thinking they can be started sooner because they 'look and move' like physically balanced and mature horses
."


Olen pohtinut aihetta jo pidemmän aikaa ja sain Mia Kainulaiselta hyviä linkkejä, jotka kannattaa lukea. Kannattaa myös käydä tutustumassa Science of Motionin FB-sivustoon.



Kysyin myös Jaana Pohjolalta mikäli häneltä löytyisi tutkimuksia hevosen kehityskaaresta ja sain nämä mielenkiintoiset artikkelit: 

Timing and rate of skeletal maturation in horses
The effect of selected factors on length of racing career in Thoroughbred racehorses in Poland
Marlene Quiring: Maturity in horses and mules

Ja kuten Tim Barton sanoo Maturity in horses and mules -artikkelissa:


When an immature animal does not yet have a firm bone structure, a lot of the other  features in the body have to start taking up the slack. If these animals are stressed too hard while they're still very immature, they can suffer tremendous damage to muscles, ligaments and tendons resulting in conformational features such as lordosis [sway-backed] or scoliosis [deviation of the spine]. Putting too much weight on the bone  structure can tear ligaments that aren’t strong enough to hold the spinal column together. A ''cold-backed animal can be the result of having to carry weight when the animal was physically not ready. Other parts of the anatomy have had to take up the slack while the bones were still maturing and likely the animal has experienced discomfort or pain as a result. 

Lue myös:

4 comments:

  1. Jep samaa mielta! Alla olevan kirjoittan mukaan taysveri tai puoliveri ruuna voi olla luustoltaan "aikuinen" vasta kahdeksan vuotiaana.
    Olen myos kuullut eri taholta, etta tama voi tapahtua vasta niinkin myohaan kuin 9 vuotiaana joissain tapauksissa.


    Mukavaa kesan jatkoa,
    Linda

    ReplyDelete
  2. About Maturity and Growth Plates
    By Dr. Deb Bennett, Ph.D

    "Owners and trainers need to realize there's a definite, easy-to-remember schedule of bone fusion. Make a decision when to ride the horse based on that rather than on the external appearance of the horse.

    "For there are some breeds of horse--the Quarter Horse is the premier among these--which have been bred in such a manner as to LOOK mature LONG before they actually ARE. This puts these horses in jeopardy from people who are either ignorant of the closure schedule, or more interested in their own schedule (racing, jumping, futurities or other competitions) than they are in the welfare of the animal.

    "The process of fusion goes from the bottom up. In other words, the lower down toward the hooves, the earlier the growth plates will fuse--the higher up toward the animal's back you look, the later. The growth plate at the top of the coffin bone, in the hoof, is fused at birth. What this means is that the coffin bones get no TALLER after birth (they get much larger around, though, by another mechanism). That's the first one.

    "In order after that:
    2. Short pastern - top & bottom between birth and 6 mos.
    3. Long pastern - top & bottom between 6 mos. and 1 yr.
    4. Cannon bone - top & bottom between 8 mos. and 1.5 yrs.
    5. Small bones of knee - top & bottom on each, between 1.5 and 2.5 yrs.
    6. Bottom of radius-ulna - between 2 and 2.5 yrs.
    7. Weight-bearing portion of glenoid notch at top of radius - between 2.5 and 3 yrs.
    8. Humerus - top & bottom, between 3 and 3.5 yrs.
    9. Scapula - glenoid or bottom (weight-bearing) portion - between 3.5 and 4 yrs.
    10. Hindlimb - lower portions same as forelimb
    11. HOCK - this joint is "late" for as low down as it is; growth plates on the tibial & fibular tarsals don't fuse until the animal is 4 yrs old! So
    the hocks are a known a "weak point". Even the 18th-century literature warns against driving young horses in plow or other deep or sticky footing, or jumping them up into a heavy load, for danger of spraining their hocks.
    12. Tibia - top & bottom, between 2.5 and 3 yrs.
    13. Femur - bottom, between 3 and 3.5 yrs.; neck, between 3.5 and 4 yrs.; major and 3rd trochanters, between 3 and 3.5 yrs.
    14. Pelvis - growth plates on the points of hip, peak of croup (tubera sacrale), and points of buttock (tuber ischii), between 3 and 4 yrs.

    "And what do you think is last? The vertebral column (spine) of course. A normal horse has 32 vertebrae between the back of the skull and the root of the dock, and there are several growth plates on each one, the most important of which is the one capping the centrum.

    "The spine does not fuse until the horse is at least 5-1/2 years old. This figure applies to all horses, small scrubby, range raised horses to huge Warm Bloods. The taller your horse and the longer its neck, the later full fusion occurs. For a male (is this a surprise?) you add six months. So, for example, a 17-hand TB or Saddlebred or WB gelding may not be fully mature until his 8th year. Something that owners of such individuals have often told me that they "suspected."

    "The lateness of vertebral "closure" is most significant for two reasons. One: in no limb are there 32 growth plates! Two: The growth plates in the limbs are (more or less) oriented perpendicular (up and down) to the stress of the load passing through them, while those of the vertebral chain are oriented parallel (horizontal) to weight placed upon the horse's back.
    Bottom line: you can sprain a horse's back (i.e., displace the vertebral growth plates) a lot more easily than you can sprain those located in the limbs.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jatkoa....

    "And here's another little fact: within the chain of vertebrae, the last to fully "close" are those at the base of the animal's neck--that's why the long-necked individual may go past 6 yrs. to achieve full maturity. So you also have to be careful--very careful--not to yank the neck around on your young horse, or get him in any situation where he strains his neck."~ Dr. Deb Bennett, Ph.D. is a 1984 graduate of the University of Kansas, and until 1992 was with the Smithsonian Institution and is internationally known for her scientific conformation analysis.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Super iso kiitos näistä Linda:) Ihanaa kesää!

    ReplyDelete