Hello Dr. Valentine,

You have helped me many times before with my 7 year old Percheron Monster and he is locked up again. Here in Florida we just came out of a drought with 4 days of straight rain and now Monster can not walk very well his muscles are locking up. Last week we were playing and cantering around having a blast but the grass has just exploded after this rain. We go through this every spring and after spring he is fine all year out 24/7 on 60 acres. I have him in the large barn where he can move a lot but he just stands and does not move much he is off of the growing grass and on a low sugar hay with the 4 cups of oil a day. He is not interested in walking at all around the proerty but if I take him out on a walk where we usually ride he wants to go because he loves to go riding. Should I walk him or just let him stand and wait for the sugar to get out of his system? I took him out the gate today and he just wants to go and we walked for a bit and he got smoother but when we came home he was still sore. Will walking him while the sugar is in the body damage the muscle?

His urine looks normal and when I take him out he rubs very hard on the oak tree trying to relieve the muscle pain.

Thanks so much,
Donna & Major AKA Monster

Donna, I think you are doing all the right things here. I would only add that getting your veterinarian to ensure that he is not foot-sore from laminitis will be important. If there are no laminitis worries then walking him will be good for his muscles, so I would keep doing it. I don't see anything in your diet to change and hopefully this will pass quickly. Some people have been experimenting with adding 1000-2000 mg of acetyl l carnitine to their EPSM horses' diets. Results are very, very preliminary but this might be of some help. Certainly it does not hurt. I hope this helps, and please let us know how things go with Monster (and the Florida weather!).