Any experts on shivers/stringhalt?

The Virgin Dubble

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Apologies if this is in the wrong place, but this is a general question, and veterinary/care advice isn't needed, so I guessed it would be best in here.

I was speaking to somebody the other day about a horse, and this person said that the horse had got stringhalt.
However, the horse has no exaggerated limb movement, but it is very unsteady on one of it's back legs when the opposite leg is lifted off the ground.
I wondered if it was shivers rather than stringhalt?

Soooo, my question is, are there any similarities between the two conditions, and also, are there any differences?

It's Friday, and I'm bored.
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ithink shivers is usually obv on the leg you are lifting, and as you say stringhalt is pretty obv due to action. not sure about a connection, quite poss as the nervous system is the key to both. sounds a bit like the horse may have a muscular weakness rather than shivers/stringhalt, perhaps it warrants further investigation.hard to say without a video.
 
Expert on neither but have had horses with both

My shiverer first...

He wasnt ours at the time but failed a pre-purchase vetting with Peter Schofield as being a shiverer - pretty big name in the vet world so that was the first alarm bell. The person who was interested (and had him vetted) dropped out due to the failure and we decided we were interested.

With Joe, when you picked up a hind leg, he would snatch it away and it would, literally, shiver for a few seconds before he released it again. This would continue every 30 seconds or so until you put the leg down.

Any other symptoms of shivering were not present. He could walk backwards perfectly fine either in hand or when ridden. There was no shivering through his hind legs or hind quarters at any other time. He did have a slightly uneven hind leg movement. I must emphasise the slight here. This horse ultimately won a number of medium level dressage tests with marks in the 70s... but if you looked really really closely, particularly on tight circles; it was there. His near hind had a slightly snappier action than the offhind.

I had a seperate vetting done which he also failed due to the shivering. However the vet also made a note that aside from that, he was fit, healthy and fully capable of the job we wanted. She couldnt pass him as essentially its degenerative but in the here and now; he was fine.

I dont have him anymore but hes 13 now and retired with a hock issue. Peter Schofield was again involved in said issue (and it was operated on), although i dont know the full details as by this time he wasnt mine. He thought the shivering was related but again, i really dont know exactly what the issue with the hock was!

At the same time as we bought him, another horse came onto the yard as a recently purchased BSJA prospect for a girl. This too had been found as a shiverer. (I remember us all saying that none of us had seen one for ages then two came at once). He was much like joe and you never got much hint of the problem. Sadly, he was PTS 3 years back as his condition degenerated very fast and he was a danger to those around him.

My stringhalt horsey was also very mild. She was another that went to elementary dressage with no mention of her slightly off hind leg action. On the surface and given her breeding (she was a morgan x appaloosa), it would be easy to have said it was just her action that was quite high and exaggerated. She actually had beautiful paces but her hind action was ever so slightly snappy. She was 100% to shoe / pick feet out etc and aside from the slight snappyness, you'd never know there was anything wrong.
 
Well im no expert but i have a horse with stringhalt and there was a horse on my yard with shivers. Snoop has stringhalt and he sometimes tenses one of his back legs and holds it up and then kicks it out (when standing) he doesnt do it very much but quite often when he is feeding.
The horse with shivers kind of looked as if he had tripped up, he would suddenly move his back leg awkwardly....if that makes sense (a bit hard to desribe) I never actually really saw him shiver as such. ope that helps!
Lucy x
 
We had a horse with stringhalt in one leg, no visible action difference at all but you could not pick his hind leg up, we used to have a rope contraption help him hold his leg up to shoe him.

jumped to foxhunter and 1.30's totally unrelated problem ended his days

Also knew another with stringhalt with a very obvious action difference
 
Shivers and stringhalt are two completely seperate conditions.

I currently have a horse with shivers and have trawled the net for information which on the whole tends to be anecdotal. In america there is a thought that it is diet related and there is research to this end but opinion is very divided. There is currently a study going on (in America) to try to detremine if it it genetic as there is a growing number of warmbloods with shivers.

My horse was seen by a couple of 'experts' as he had been 5* vetted and the condition had been 'missed' so was the subject of a claim through the VDS ... but they did not have much to offer in terms of more 'expert' information ..

There is no fixed pattern or timescales for how it progresses, each horse appears to be different in the way the condition develops.

My horse is apparantly 'unusual' in terms of age - its quite young to show signs..

It is quite obvious when you see a horse 'shivering' as it does literally appear to 'shiver'. The main day to day problem for most horses that shiver is shoeing .. you need a sympathetic and patient black smith..

There are horses out there who are successfully competing in a variety of disciplines - I am currently eventing mine.

I would be pleased to hear from anyone else out there with a 'shiverer' ...
 
Thanks everybody - some really interesting examples, information, and opinions.
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This horse doesn't physically shiver at all, but then there is no jerky action either.
He competes (eventing), and performs really well, although I would say that he LOOKS a little unlevel at times, but nothing major.
Lifting his hind leg though, is a real problem, and he has to have support or he pratically falls over, so it definitely seems more like shivers than stringhalt.
 
My big TB has stringhalt, he is fine to shoe etc, but will very occasionally snatch his leg back, my farrier is very patient and is aware of the problem. I manage the stringhalt by making sure he is always warm over his backend, I spend a long time warming up, and will usually hack him out on the morning before I have a dressage lesson (jumping lessons are in the afternoon, so less snatchy action). It is much more pronounced in the winter. It doesnt seem to affect his ability, he is currently schooling at Medium, and jumping 1.20m, and will be pointing in April followed by workers and eventing through the summer.
 
Pidge has mild stringhalt in his off hind and his symptons are that when you pick that leg up to pick his foot out he jerks it up and waggles it in the air, looks like he's gonna fall over but never does. Have found a huge improvement since putting him on NAF D-Tox and TBH now its rare that I have a problem picking his foot out. He can also do this when reversing or turning tightly and it seems to get worse when the grass comes through in Spring and Summer, don't know why. Certainly does not affect his perfomance in any way whatsoever though
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Don't know much about shivers though sorry.
 
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