CarlyD66
New User
I would really appreciate any advice about my Welsh cob please. I got my Section D mare in Feb ‘21 and she is now 11. She had a foal before being broken aged 6.5 and she has regular physio treatments every 3 months to manage the tightness in her pelvis, resulting from the pregnancy. She is fit and well, never sick or lame and we do lots of hacking, clinics, dressage and showing. I bought her primarily for showing and bought a new second-hand brown saddle back in May which was properly fitted by a registered saddler. Every so often while being ridden (4 times in 18 months) she trips, in walk - the second and worst time was on the road and she went down on both front knees. Each time she has had physio once the initial soreness has eased and some time off to recover. She has never been lame from any of the trips. My farrier has been working on her feet for the last 12 months to shorten her toes which he felt were too long and could be a cause of the tripping. This summer, she started making mean faces when presented with the brown saddle. Not when doing up the girth, just the presenting and placing on of the saddle. This increased to air biting and then some napping on hacks. I called the physio back in as well as the saddler and we decided to put her back in the old black saddle, which is straighter cut at the front, to see if this alleviated the problem. After a few days, the air biting stopped and all was well for a week or so, until last week, when the air biting started again. We also had a problem clipping the near side of her neck last weekend - the other side was no problem whatsoever but she seriously objected to even the baby clippers, from the withers upwards. I had a chiropractor give her a thorough check all over earlier this week and she could find nothing wrong. After objecting to the saddle she then actively seeks the bridle, so I don’t believe it’s an objection to being ridden - she loves to hack and going out and about. She is very well-behaved on the whole and has never been a biter. She has no skin conditions and looks the picture of health. Her weight has been consistent at 515k. If it’s not skeletal, muscular or skin-related I am stumped…Any thoughts or suggestions would be much appreciated as to what the problem could be! Thank you in advance.
