Healthy Leads at SWB Equestrian Weeks

After landing for a few weeks, we look back at the beautiful Flyinge Kungsgård where SWB Equestrian Weeks was held at the end of the month. For the third year in a row, we sponsored the 5 year old classes in dressage and show jumping and the jumpers were tested by Jeroen Dubbeldam in the finals.

Finally with audience & visitors

We were on site every day of the two weeks the competitions were held. We had our nice stand set up and we had the opportunity to talk to many lovely horse lovers on site. We were so pleased with all the questions, discussions and concerns you shared with us. We will be addressing some of the questions asked here on our website and on our social media channels so more people can take note of them.

An important question asked during Dressage Week was:

Can I start giving your products to my 4-year-old? I want to prevent arthritis, but is it too early?

The question delighted us because this is one of the reasons why we choose to be at Flyinge during SWB Equestrian Weeks. We would like to encourage everyone to work preventively with the horse's joint health from a young age in order to avoid overstraining and future joint inflammation as much as possible. As arthritis often becomes a vicious circle that gradually leads to osteoarthritis, it is of utmost importance to prevent the disease before it occurs.

Joint supplements also for the young horse

But what is an appropriate age to start giving joint supplements? It's not really specifically the age that determines, but it depends on when we start working and training our horses. From the day we start riding or driving our horses, we are putting unnatural strain on them. Saddles, riders and riding sessions slowly wear on the horses' joints. The young horse also initially has difficulty walking in balance and this is also a contributing factor. For this reason, we recommend giving preventive joint supplements from the time the horse starts working. For a young horse that has not had any early injuries or other joint problems, we usually recommend Conquer 200Pro. You can read more about the product here. On days when the young horse is not being worked or when it has its rest periods, you can pause the joint supplements or halve the dose.

It was extremely inspiring to be at Flyinge and see all the fine young horses with a promising future. We all want our future star to be injury-free and able to compete at the highest level for many years to come. We want our beautiful friend to have a long and happy life without pain.

With a well thought-out approach, many joint diseases can be prevented with little effort.

Some of our tips are:

- Riding on varied surfaces
- A varied training programme
- Riding in balance
- Time for recovery
- Supplements with high molecular hyaluronic acid
- Very step

The last point is the simplest and perhaps the most important. At the walk, the joints can recover naturally with minimal strain. We recommend at least 15 minutes of forward and backward riding at each session. If you have a horse that does not move enough in the pasture, we encourage walks or if you have access to a walking machine to make sure the horse has been ridden long enough during the day. At Flyinge we had of course our nice Step clock on hand to encourage everyone to #skrittamer.

We wish you all the best with your young horse!