Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Margaret,

  Did they ultrasound him (the only good way we have found to pick up on tendon and ligament injuries)? It's possible that he is just compensating for an old injury that has healed. (Humans do that too. You get used to moving a certain way so that it won't hurt and then continue to move the same way when the pain is no longer there.) If your vets cannot find anything actually wrong - no tendon or ligament injuries or even problem with his right side (fractured rib from a fall sometime in the pasture?), then he is just traveling bent to the right, by not stepping under as far with his right hind leg. You could take dressage lessons and explain his problem and they will give you some exercises to work on to make him more even or you can try some of these:

 

    1) Have him leg yield to the left, keeping the body straight so his right hind has to cross over the left hind to move forward and sideways - teach it at the walk and later the trot

    2) Have him do turn on the forehand - again with his right hind crossing over the left

    3) Do circles to the left, keeping your right leg back to keep his hindquarters from swinging out to the right and then spiral in from a larger circle to a smaller one - make sure he looks to the left as well as keeping the hindquarters to the left

 

  You should also do the exercises to the right, although not as much. Going to the right should be easy for him, so that will be the easiest way to teach the exercises if he doesn't know them already.

 

Selena Copeland
Spirit of Texas Arabians
spirittxarabians@xxxxxxx
www.spirittxarabians.com

 

 
-----Original Message-----
From: Margaret <mslemmer@chapman.edu>
To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Sun, 5 Jun 2005 23:28:51 -0700
Subject: [RC] horse's gate is slightly shorter on right side

I have never been on an endurance ride w/my Arab, but he is well conditioned for at least a 25/30 ride to start.

 

My problem is that at a trot my horse's gate is about 2 inches shorter on the right side than on the left.  This can only be seen on a circle.  It is not detected when observing him from the front or back at a trot (per the vet at Davis).  I don't believe he has always been like this.  I think it happened 6 months ago during a trail ride where he started to lose his right back shoe about 4 miles out.  It took a while to come off, and after that he was clearly off (as if it had caused him to step wrong, because his feet are tough and he has never had a problem going barefoot even after having shoes on).  Immediately after, I gave him two weeks of stall rest and he no longer was off except for his stride was shorter on the right side.  Since, I have tried more time off, and riding while on 2 g of bute per day for 1 week&n bsp;- per the local vet with no change in his condition.  I took him to Davis and they said he is a 2 minus on their lameness scale so they couldn't block him.  So, we tried injecting his hocks (just to try since they couldn't think of anything else to do w/in reason).  The injections did not help.  I am at a loss of what else to try.  Like I said, the only indication that he is off is on the circle by looking at his stride at a slower trot where his right back foot lands about 2 inches short of where his left back foot lands.  This is the same either way he is circling (left or right).

 

He does not appear to be in any pain (as the bute experiment showed) and he does not get any better/worse the more I exercise/ride him.  Does anyone have any suggestions?  As well, since I have never taken him on a ride and have only been on one limited distance ride myself, would he be pulled from a ride for this mild "lameness"?  This has been terribly frustrating since he is such a great athlete, so I appreciate any/all help/comments!

 

Thank you!

 

Margaret