Bunny hopping canter

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barney1

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My horse is causing a lot of head scratching at the moment. He has not, as far as we know, done anything obvious to himself, but he very suddenly started to carry his head extremely low, virtually touching the ground, he did this about 3 times so arranged to the physio to come and see him, convinced at the time that he had hurt his neck. While waiting for the physio I tried to lunge him but he could not canter, when pushed into canter he could only hold it for a few strides and he had the most peculiar action behind, just like a rabbit hopping, both back legs coming up together at the same time. He is o.k in walk and trot but for some reason he can't canter. The physio could find nothing wrong, he has since been to the vets for a sacroiliac block, no change, nerve blocked his stifle, no change, so now he is being referred to Newmarket. He is only 7 and I have had him only 4 months, his previous owner novice evented him before she became pregnant and decided to sell him, has anybody ever heard of this type of problem before or know of anyone who might be able to shed some light on this very strange leg action.
 
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my horse was doing that. he's just been diagnosed with a cruciate ligament problem in his stifle. they couldn't nerve block it coz he's crazy so he had a bone scan and then arthroscopy.
 
sorry to hear about your young horse, especially as you have not had him long. Unfortunately It could be a number of things. What is he fed??

I am wondering about EPSM as my last horse had this and it started about this time of year ...just as the grass came through and his was reluctance to canter and inability to sustain it. I also remember many times describing it as bunny hopping. He wasn't even fed anything high starch. Bloods all came back as normal. Over a period of months it got worse to the point where as soon as you took your leg off he would come to a halt and lower his head, as though he was tired. General professional opinion was he was lazy and naughty.
Then he started to lose muscle.
Even though bloods were normal I still tried him on the diet as a friend in the states said bloods can be normal. I started to see an improvement within a couple of weeks. I then had a muscle biopsy done which proved it was EPSM

a great site is http://www.ruralheritage.com/vet_clinic/ my horse did not show many of the symptoms but was still proven
 
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The bunny hop canter thing was what made me get the vet out to my boy - he was also not bringing his hind right properly under him when cantering on the lunge and kind of hopped into canter - was really bad under saddle though cause he just found it impossible to canter and did try bless him, but he was clearly not right.

X-rays and Scans showed nothing untoward, nerve blocking the top of his hock did show an immense improvement - vet had originally though bone chips but nothing showed up. So he had cortasone injections into his hocks a few weeks ago and we are currently on turn out only and starting to bring back into work this weekend with some gentle lunging.

Its nothing specific or career ending but vet has mentioned Degenarative Joint Syndrome and we have him on supplements now.

Hope your boy is ok :)
 
I hate to say this but it sounds like my ten year old gelding who we had put down through Wobblers Syndrome. He had an accident in his field where he reared over backwards and hurt his neck and was unable to lift it from the floor very high. He was put on bute for a few days. The vet commented at the time that he thought he had wobblers syndrome as his action when walking and in particular circling indicated this. As it turned out he went on to develop a very strange gait where his canter was only what I could describe as 'bunny hopping' and when I rode him he felt like he was concertined into himself. He canter would throw you out of the saddle like a very unseating disunited canter.

If I were you I would try a simple test. Get someone on a soft surface with a hat on, to walk your horse forwards whislt you at the same time stand at a right angle to his tail. Pull his tail towards you in a gentle tug whilst he is walking forwards. If he has a problem with foot placement as a result of cervical myelopathy then it will be evident as he will sway towards you and you would be able to pull him towards you easily. Try it on a friends horse to see the difference. Also if you circle him he will throw his legs out. Please read this link for further information and tests: http://www.uky.edu/Ag/AnimalSciences/extension/pubpdfs/asc133.pdf


It sounds like he could possibly have some kind of cervical compression as a result of an injury to his neck.The vets call it cervical vertebral malformation (CVM) or Wobblers Syndrome/Wobbles.

My suggestion if these tests are positive is to contact your vet with a view to getting him referred to somewhere such as Liverpool (where my horse was diagnosed) to have comprehensive xrays on his neck to confirm or rule out Wobblers. Do not rely on a portable xray machine that your local vet uses as this will give a false reading. My vets used such a machine on my horse and I was told he was fine. However the small xray machine had trouble penetrating the neck muscle and showed an incorrect image. Some three weeks later at Liverpool with a huge standing xray machine the results were conclusive for Wobblers and sadly Rommy had to be put down. It is worth stressing that Rommy's condition was very bad, he would have had a very bad quality of life had we kept him as a pet (there was no way he could be ridden) he was dangerous to lead as he was so unsteady on his legs and we had no choice but to let him go. In a lesser affected animal the results would/could have been different. Please dont hesitate to contact me if you need any more advice. x
 
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