The Art of Natural Dressage

Edit by Romy: this is copied from Ingela´s diary. The diary passages that have nothing to do with lyme disease are edited out of the posts.

Life wasn't easy that time, I was so sad and it wasn't only the NH-training that didn't work. The horse was impossible to ride! He refused to move! The days I could make him canter was the happiest, most of the days I only could make him walk! Of course I tried a lot af riding techers (most mucho men) and of course we used the whip often! I also took him to vets and horse-hospitals, but they told me he was healthy and I believed in what they said!
I searched and searched, my "friend" wich he was boarded at told me to sell him or send him away for "education". I refused, he is my best friend and I could not send him away!!!
Then I found a vet that talked to me about Lyme! And YES! He had to stay at her clinic for 10 days and was treated with antibiothic every day. And home came a healthy and happy horse! I started to ride again, now he was a bit scary to ride, he has energy for the first time ever!

(...)

The lyme is still there! I am sure he has a cronical lyme! After this first winter after the antibiotics he became "himself" again, the lazy, phlegmatic one who doesn't want to to nothing most of the days, and I can feel that he had good and bad days. Now I have found a horse homeopath then has started to treat him and I do hope she can help him. He is much better already but it can be the autumn, he is always worst at summer!
One good thing is that Belgarion now is living at a place where he can be outside with a shelter 7/24! I have been searching for a place like this for years and now I have found it!

_________________
Ingela Karlsson

Hi Ingela
how did you find out that it was lyme disease??
What were or are the signs your horse give?
how does he move? when and how etc..etc..
did you have done a blod test?
a lot of questions i know
i am very interested

Hi Inge,
I will try to answer your questions! And I will warn you that this i going to be a long post again! I think it is very very important to spread this information. Not least to people who can have this disease!
When I started to ride Belgarion, he didn't like it! Other young horses jumps and kicks and are happy and can be a bit scary to ride. Belgarion never did that! Most of the time he refused to walk at all, or he only walked, trott and canter - no! Some days he was better and we could do a little dressage-lessons but some days he did nothing! We travelled around the country to lots of riding instructors and NH-mucho-man. I also took him to a kiropractor and he found lots of things that was wrong, to keep him healthy I had to take him to the kiropractor every month, and he always found something. I started to think that the kiro was fake and stopped going to him! Then he got lame!
B was always worse in summer and better in winter, the first day in spring when there was no ice or snow on the ground, he refused to move! I took him to a lot of vets and also to a horse-clinic. They found nothing! Now he refused to move even when I wasn't riding him, I tried to lunge him, but NO he only looked sad! People, so called friends, told me to send him away or sell him or put him down, because they thought he was only stubborn - but I didn't give up I was sure he wasn't alright. We continued like this for about two years before I found a vet that wanted to give him a anthibiotic treatment against Lyme. The bloodtest didn't show any antibodys but it doesn't do that when the disease had become chronic, it is only during the acute phase you can see it by a simple bloodtest.
The vet still wanted to try and treat him, just on the sympthoms. After 10 days with intravenous antibiotics he was a complete new horse! When he came home he was like a very young horse - a bit scary to ride and could jump in the air and kick, full of energy! BUT some days he was his old one again, wanted to do nothing but the vet told me it could be like that for years! And this was at autumn, his best season! New years eve he throwed me out of the saddle and there was no more riding for me and during my rehabilitation I found NHE and riding wasn't important anymore. The whole winter he was full of energy and we did a lot of wild games (me walking with crutches). When the spring arrives he lost his energy again! I didn't bother very much because with the NHE point of view, it was not important to make him do things, it was mor important just to join him! Still I was sure that nothing was wrong!
If he follows me out for a walk one day, he is very suspicious the next day, tells me that he doesn't want to leave the pasture for longer then a few meters! And if he follows me to the arena for a little lessons one day, he carefully avoid it the next!
Like the day after doing something he is in pain!
So now I never suggest a walk or a lesson, it is always by his own choise, he walks away down the road when he wants to go for a walk, and then I follow!
In spring this year I read an article about Lyme (about people and Lyme) and found out that the problem is that the bacterias, spirochetes, take another form and can hide when there is anibiothics in the body and because of that they avoid being killed. It takes years of intravenous treatment with antibiothics to get rid of them! And of course there will be no vet here in Sweden to do that. There is hardly a doctor that treats people for this! Most of the time they ask the people to search a psychologist ... I have read about people that have to go to Germany to have the treatment, and after that they become totally healthy again.
You can read more about that here:
http://www.lymeinfo.net/lymediseasetreatment.html
I found out what it all is about when I read the book Healing Lyme.
And two more sympthoms, red eyes (maybe because of the liver have been damaged) and he has no good balance. He doesn't want me to hold his front feet and you can see that he is very careful when walking on irregular ground.
For people there are different herb-treatments that helps very good, but the herb tastes very bitter and today there is no formula done so it could be given to horses. I now try the homeopathic way and I do hope that this will help Belgarion!

_________________
Ingela Karlsson

Just a quick update about Lyme and the sympthoms! I forgot one important thing, Belgarion is extremely skin-sensitive! That means that he hates being brusched and most of the time even touched! When he has a real good day, I am allowed to groom him for a short while with my hand (preferrably without gloves).
This is very important for me to think of because how do you always do to reward a horse - yes you pet or strike him! This is no good way for Belgarion - I have to use only my voice, and soon the click!

_________________
Ingela Karlsson

Well, I'll add my two cents here....just some scattered thoughts about LYme. LIke I said in the other post , they have found that about 75% of horses (and maybe dogs?) have positive Lyme titers but only about 10% of them become infected, rest of them fight it off with their own immune system. One problem with prolonged or strong antibiotics is high reoccurence rate or return of the symptom (maybe it is the illness resurfacing or actual reinfection?)

The antibiotics will rob the gut of the good bacteria that is so needed to fight future infections, but then on the other hand, like ingela has posted here there is no choice at some point when nothing else will help.

I have talked to two humans who had chronic Lyme and antibiotics did not work. One got himself a Rife machine (a frequency generator) and was restored back to health, the other started taking Samento extract (made from a herb Cat's Claw) and has been free of symptoms for several years now.

My horse Katsu had a high Lyme titer of 900 (I am sure the numbers in Europe are differnet, but below 300 is considered normal?

He also had so hoof ouchiness, and we treated him with Doxy, but he later developed full blown laminitis, then colic, insulin resistance and then hernia and we had to put himdown at age 7. I gave him probitotics during the Doxy treatment but not long enough afterwards!

Now Murray , Katsu's half brother had a titer of 500 in two separate blood test and I am not treating him with antibiotics with these things in mind
1. his immune response is down due to the injury when he got stuck in the mud
2. He already has slightly elevated insulin , antibiotics would plunge him into more compromised gut an immune health
3. I am not sure that he has clinical Lyme symptoms, his symptoms are due to injury and compromised health due to nutritional imbalance
4. Patsy Bullard from Healthy Bodies diagnosed him through a saliva sample to have Lyme also and is sending him herbs that will help fight the infection. She has succesfully treated horses with LYme with herbs
5. the Animal communicator, the Equine Touch practitioner and Patsy all said that Lyme spricotets (spelling?) are opportunistic and will invade the body where it is weak, in this case in Murray's left stifle and hock.
6. I am consulting a homeopathic vet but so far the homeopathy does not seem to help

If your horse's general health is weak , LYme will invade him systematically and he will become chronic Lyme infected. Therefore it is so important that we will keep our horses nutritionally balanced ,mentally stable and physically strong so he is able to fight off these organisms.
BY:
1. free access to turnout and shelter
2. diet mimicking natural diet in the wild
3. avoiding vaccinations and chemical wormers
4. using only natural medications

These are JUST my thoughts

hey thank you...you have good points...and make me thinking.
Special the chemical wormers.
I have to use them because i had found tapeworms so i have use a dewormer twice over within 14 days between. Now my horse is very weak, he had already some kind of rest period due to lots of working ours ealry dark. But it have a big effect on my horse, my little pony is happy as usual and have no problem with the chemical wormers (have had the same treatment).
Now i walk every sunday with him in the forsest to make him a bit stronger and happy again. So we can start sowly with groundwork in january.
i have bought herbs and give it alsmost every day now. So i hope it will help a little bit.

thanks again for sharing....i am happy with all kind of information