You bet, on the cyst theory. As a friend who is a body worker says, "...is it attitude, or is it pain?" If she is chiropractically out in her sacrum, it would cause difficulty in raising a back leg and keeping it up. Muscle cramping from trigger points could cause the same thing. If you're in pain, aren't you a little bit crabbier? Maybe a lot crabbier?
It sounds like this behavior is fairly recent. As a 4 year old, her body is still developing and her reproductive system is now mature. It's possible she has some kind of cyst or other abnormality connected with her ovaries. It might be that it gets worse every so often, in parallel with her cycle, or it could have turned in to a habit and no longer follows her cycle. See if you can get her scoped or scanned to rule out a physical cause. You may still need to modify her behavior if it's become a habit, even if you fix the physical cause.
The farm where I started my riding career had a mare with similar symptoms - she needed one ovary removed and after that was done, she was steady as the day was long.
Rosalie Marley ============== I have the ability of single-minded determination and focu... Hey, look! A horse!
Hi Ridecamp - I think the subject of a kicking horse has been debated quite a bit, but most of the archives I found were on riding a kicking horse. So I'm going to pose a new question (I think...?)
I have a 4 yr old mare who has started to kick out at other horses while she's tied.
