Ok, i'll spare you the long history, but i
have had this horse for a year, and when i got him, he had sever behavioral
issues on the ground and under saddle, which my friend and i have attributed to
poor training and abuse. due to lack of time, i sent him out of state with a
good friend of mine (where i knew he'd be in good hands) because he needed so
much work to be normal again.
recently, he's had some soundness problems, but
very inconsistent: in the past 3 months, he's been grade 1 to 2 lame in every
leg at least once, but stall rest for a week fixes it, then a week of riding,
and he's lame on a different foot, and we repeat the cycle. she said he trips
more than he used to, and it seems to be related to the lameness.
she called me today and said she was watching him
move out in the pasture, and noticed that he pronates: the weightbearing surface
of his foot is functionally only the lateral portion, then he rolls it inward
after the initial contact, bearing weight on the entire digit. neither of us
have ever seen this before, and i can't find anything in any of my large animal
text books about this.
anyone have a horse that moves this way? my current
theory is that perhaps something is awry in his withers, and this is his way of
compensating. unforunately, there's no chiropractor over where she's at, but
he'll be seen asap when i get him back in two weeks.
