Baffled by wrong canter lead - mare has Bone Spavin but something else wrong???

Escada2004

Escada2004

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Hi guys, i have a mare that was diagnsed with bone spavin 3 years ago. I stopped jumping her and she has had Tildren and been medicated a few times. I loaned her out to a dressage only home which went a little wrong as they jumped her :eek: only small though. Anyway she come back about a year ago and i then found the most wonderful dressage home for her. The mare gets everything she needs a good joint supplement and correct work and lots of turnout. Now for the past three months she has been taking the wrong canter lead :confused: we put it down to her possibly needing her hock medicated again which has beeen done and she was only 1/2 10th lame so wasnt anything bad anyway. She had that done 3 weeks ago and was brought back in to work slowly. There was some improvement but now she is back to 50% ok and 50% not on the right canter lead. Its very very odd as when i was riding her previuosly even when her hock was bad this was never an indication of her feeling it. She has had back and teeth done and is fit and healthy. I would be really grateful for anyones advice on similar situations they have had and what the route cause was as its driving me crazy and also the poor lonee :(
 
I really sympathise! Not sure I can offer much in the way of advice as we are very novicey, but I can tell you our experience in case there is anything there that helps.

We are loaning a mare that had ops as a youngster for locking stifles (both) and at the start of winter she developed a problem with canter lead on the right rein.

We went through every check imaginable, and almost everything picked up slight issues! Back specialist found and treated some problems, and suggested a supplement for what she suspected mild arthritis. (Pony was already on Superflex, and is now also on Devils Relief). Saddler found that saddle no longer fitted, so we have a now have a new saddle. Instructor thinks there is an element of this becoming a learned habit (mare is a tad opinionated and thinks she knows better than rider at time!).

So a combination of a couple of weeks rest at the start of the year, physio, training programme, new saddle and lots of help from instructor, and pony is now getting it right 90% of the time. It's been a very slow, frustrating process, and once we had resolved back and saddle issues we thought we would have a very quick improvement. However, it has taken a fair bit of reschooling before it's become her "normal". And a balance between setting the pony up so that she gets it right, but not giving her enough warning for her to make her own decisions on what to do.
 
I have no idea but rather than struggling to think of an answer I'd book her in for a lameness evalation workup at the vets. This way they can try and find what's wrong.

Good luck
 
applecart14 said:
I have no idea but rather than struggling to think of an answer I'd book her in for a lameness evalation workup at the vets. This way they can try and find what's wrong.

Good luck
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I meant to say, there is nothing wrong with your horse being jumped when its had tildren. My horse had three lots, and it worked for a time but then I had his hocks fused with alcohol and its worked really well. Even after the tildren we were jumping 3ft tracks without a problem.

Just because they have spavin doesn't mean they cant continue to jump.
 
thanks both for your imput :)

Caramac71 - i agree i think its more of a learnt habit for her now and its just a case of getting her out of it could take some time. Back, saddle, teeth etc all done and fine :)

applecart - sorry i didnt mean she cant jump, i just decided not to jump her as the level i was jumping her at in BS would be too much and i would rather her have fun in a lower key home with no undue pressure if that makes sense :) She has just had a lameness work up by a very good vet and her hocks re-medicated, so i do think it is in her head a bit and both vet and loanees trainer said it wont be an over night fix so it could just be a case of being patient. Just thought it was worth posting in case anyone else had any tips of things they did that helped :)
 
Have you had a good equine physio out to look at her? My old horse had bone spavins and even with medication he would still get sore muscles because of it, because they do carry themselves differently to compensate. I would get a proper equine physio out to check her over.
 
i would say that's a classic spavin symptom... did she have them im both hocks?? maybe they are changing and they are affecting her differently now.
they were the first sign i noticed in my gelding that turned out to have spavins....he would change leads and pick up canter on wrong leg
 
Escada2004 said:
Hi guys, i have a mare that was diagnsed with bone spavin 3 years ago. I stopped jumping her and she has had Tildren and been medicated a few times. I loaned her out to a dressage only home which went a little wrong as they jumped her :eek: only small though. Anyway she come back about a year ago and i then found the most wonderful dressage home for her. :(
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Well dressage with all it's tight circles and corners is absolutely the last thing you should be doing with a horse with spavin.
 
Thanks Freshy, that was my thought to, im sure its just the spavin and my very good vet is happy with things. Its hard as she is on loan now but when she was originally diagnosed with the spavin she was with me so i saw all of the changes. The loanee is bringing her to me tomorrow so we can do a little work with her and see if i can see anything else going on.

brucea - the mare is more than capeable of doing what she is doing and she has a strict routine which my vet put together for her, even though she has recently had her hocks medicated again, she was only half a tenth lame which is actually less than a lot of horses that are competing requently. Her last lot of hock injections lasted 2 years which is a lot longer than most. I am extremely experienced with competition horses and have competed at a very high level and would no way let her do anything she wasnt capeable of doing
 
An extract from Dr Kerry Ridgeway regarding symptoms seen in horses with ulcers.......

"Due to the consistent muscle pain patterns found in ulcer cases, they also may refuse to pick up the correct lead in canter. Often they do not engage the hindquarters correctly – commonly in the right hind as most horses are ‘right handed’ and place more strain in that limb."
 
Escada2004 said:
brucea - the mare is more than capeable of doing what she is doing and she has a strict routine which my vet put together for her, even though she has recently had her hocks medicated again, she was only half a tenth lame which is actually less than a lot of horses that are competing requently. Her last lot of hock injections lasted 2 years which is a lot longer than most. I am extremely experienced with competition horses and have competed at a very high level and would no way let her do anything she wasnt capeable of doing
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Well, you had to re-medicate....speaks for itself really.
 
Escada2004 said:
Hi guys, i have a mare that was diagnsed with bone spavin 3 years ago. I stopped jumping her and she has had Tildren and been medicated a few times. I loaned her out to a dressage only home which went a little wrong as they jumped her :eek: only small though. Anyway she come back about a year ago and i then found the most wonderful dressage home for her. The mare gets everything she needs a good joint supplement and correct work and lots of turnout. Now for the past three months she has been taking the wrong canter lead :confused: we put it down to her possibly needing her hock medicated again which has beeen done and she was only 1/2 10th lame so wasnt anything bad anyway. She had that done 3 weeks ago and was brought back in to work slowly. There was some improvement but now she is back to 50% ok and 50% not on the right canter lead. Its very very odd as when i was riding her previuosly even when her hock was bad this was never an indication of her feeling it. She has had back and teeth done and is fit and healthy. I would be really grateful for anyones advice on similar situations they have had and what the route cause was as its driving me crazy and also the poor lonee :(
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Not great with advice on such things but it may be that since its been going on for a while its just developed into a habit?
 
I have a mare with spavin so understand your frustrations, however I am going to throw something in which may seem strange. Is the rider suffering any issues with back, pelvic problems? I ask because I have 3 disks out of alignment in my lower back following a bad fall when I was 17. If I tweek this in any way and it quite often does get bothered then my pelvis twists and my riding suffers. I have found that I block my horses and left leg canter becomes difficult for them and me. It also causes me to sit off centre and as my spavin mare already has issues with her back due to her hocks it affects her too. Just looking at the bigger picture.
 
Oberon - thanks for the info, we are 99% sure it isnt ulcers, she hasnt been scoped but no other indications of them at all.

Brucea - no need for sarcastic comments thanks, a horse that has bone spavin will always need medicating/looking after carefully for the rest of its life unless you chuck it in a field to rot and arnt bothered if it is in discomfort or not!!

nicnag - thats very intresting as i to throw my penvis out and it causes me to twist in the saddle so i regularly have it checked. Loanee thought also it could be her so she did go and get checked by a physio and all was fine :)

Queenbee - we also thought this :)

Thanks for the comments guys they are very useful - i will be seeing her in an hour so can hopefully shed some more light on things :)
 
Thanks all - update, mare was taking the correct lead every time on the lunge so loanee got on and we had some correct canter leads and some incorrect. I got on and gave a stronger aid and was a little harder on her and after a few good one sand then trying to take the wrong one a couple of times, she was then correct every time. Basically she has got in to a habit and has started taking advantage a little as she is obviusly going to find that reign harder. Loanee then got back on, gave the same aids and apart from a couple of wrong ones to start, she took the right lead every time :) so hopefully we have cracked the issue and i will help by giving loanee some lessons on her as ive had the mare for 5 years so know her pretty well and her little ways - thanks again everyone for your comments and nicnag, loanee is going to get her own back checked as she didnt make it to physio last time and she does have a problem with her back :)
 
Escada2004 said:
Thanks all - update, mare was taking the correct lead every time on the lunge so loanee got on and we had some correct canter leads and some incorrect. I got on and gave a stronger aid and was a little harder on her and after a few good one sand then trying to take the wrong one a couple of times, she was then correct every time. Basically she has got in to a habit and has started taking advantage a little as she is obviusly going to find that reign harder. Loanee then got back on, gave the same aids and apart from a couple of wrong ones to start, she took the right lead every time :) so hopefully we have cracked the issue and i will help by giving loanee some lessons on her as ive had the mare for 5 years so know her pretty well and her little ways - thanks again everyone for your comments and nicnag, loanee is going to get her own back checked as she didnt make it to physio last time and she does have a problem with her back :)
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Glad to hear you've made some progress and narrowed the cause down :) my mare formed this habit years ago and some of it was down to my bad back too, anyhow, I reverted to the good old poles in the corner of the school to help with the correct leading leg, a few sessions of this and a massage for me and she was back to normal again.
 
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