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Well, this is my opinion only ...

First - I would suggest having a vet look at him.  Have him checked  
for the rear end, and also to get treatment for the fungus.  At least  
you *know* the fungus is irritating him, so get rid of that to  
eliminate possible complicating factors.

However, yes, I think he might have some rear-end inflammation going  
on due to the hill work.  It might be stifles, or it might be  
hamstrings.  He might also be sore from kicking out at the irritation  
on the lower legs, and it has nothing to do with the hill work.  (yeah  
- "it depends").

Again, I'm not a vet, so any vets on the list please jump in if this  
is bad advice.

I would be inclined to assume it is the hill work making him sore, and  
give him one gram of bute once a day for maybe 3 days, and just hand- 
walk or easy, flat walk under saddle for 30 - 60 minutes for a week,  
then do short (1 - 2 hour) flat walk/trot rides for the next week or  
two.  Then go back to some easy conditioning rides.  All of this  
progression assumes that he is OK to pick up legs, has quit kicking,  
etc.  If he can't do that, then I wouldn't up the exercise.  Once he  
is good to go again on the flat, re-introduce the hills, but take it  
slower.

For the scabbies, you might try a Furazone sweat wrap, or use Mycodex  
shampoo & spray.  The Mycodex is probably easier - follow their  
directions.  For the Furazone wrap, wash the area with an anti- 
fungal / anti-bacterial shampoo and rinse thoroughly.  Then put on  
Furazone, and cover with plastic wrap.  Cover that with a standing  
wrap, and wrap the other leg as well.  Repeat daily until the scabbies  
are gone.

On Sep 14, 2009, at 6:52 PM, Valerie Nicoson wrote:

> Hoping someone can help me with my Polish gelding.  We have been  
> doing a number of moderate to steep hill training/conditioning rides  
> fairly recently, done every weekend, and my horse does great up and  
> down the hills.  He has a very nice rear end and does well.  For the  
> past 3-4 rides however, I've noticed he is bringing up each rear leg  
> and then kicking up and out.  He does have a lower leg fungus, a  
> bunch of scabbies, that we're starting to treat him for -- with  
> these he is biting at them quite a bit as well as the kicking out  
> thing.  I just thought it was the scabbies causing this, but when  
> the farrier came out we couldn't hardly pick up one rear leg at all  
> and she thought he might be having stifle problems.  He seemed to  
> relax when I massaged his rear legs in the stifle region and then we  
> were able to pick his rear foot.
>
> Any suggestions on what might be causing this?  Could he have been  
> worked too much on hills and I need to go back to flat work for a  
> little while?  If so, for how long (approximately)?  I do realize  
> alot is based on "it depends" but I'm trying to learn here as to  
> what to do for him and how to bring him back around to where we can  
> do some more LDs without risking injury as a result.
>
> Thanks again...this is a great forum!
> Val


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