Can a fall affect a horse long term?

[Hormonal Filly]

I know you shouldn't go back and analyse the past.. but when I backed my mare as a 4yo she was super keen for the first 6 months. A really lovely, forward ride! I was so excited she could be a great low level eventer. All was going well until she had a fall on the road, a dog ran out barking aggressively, she freaked out, span and fell over. I came off, she took (what felt like forever) to get back up, skidding on the tarmac. She had a few grazes but nothing obvious, she didn't go lame but had a couple of weeks off.

She wasn't the same to ride after that, behind the leg, not keen to go forward. A few months after (2022) we found she had a chip in her hock (a huge chip!) but x-rays elsewhere were clear, the surgeon who removed the chip wasn't sure if it was OCD, possibly trauma related.

Everyone who has been following my threads will be aware that asides the hock, she has neck changes and PSD in all her legs. She's currently 5 months into being turned away on a whim as a final try.

My question is.. do you think the fall have contributed/been the start of all of this?

 

[ycbm]

I doubt it very much. I would expect accident damage to be asymmetric. She sounds to me like a friend's horse which we believed in the end had ESPA/DSLD. PSD in all 4 legs rather shouts of it to me.

I'm sorry you're having these issues with a young horse, it's even more heartbreaking when they're that age.
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[nutjob]

She sounds to me like a friend's horse which we believed in the end had ESPA/DSLD. PSD in all 4 legs rather shouts of it to me.

To me also, I would doubt that PSD has resulted from a fall, particularly in all legs in a young horse. I had one with ESPA/DSLD it's heartbreaking.

You're in a hard place with this young horse.

 

[Hormonal Filly]

She sounds to me like a friend's horse which we believed in the end had ESPA/DSLD. PSD in all 4 legs rather shouts of it to me.

I had one with ESPA/DSLD

Thanks for commenting both. I don't know a great deal about ESPA/DSLD, do they tend to have dropped fetlocks? She doesn't have that, which I always thought pointed to DSLD.

I doubt it very much. I would expect accident damage to be asymmetric.

I meant maybe the fall caused the large chip in her hock, not the suspensory/neck issues. The worst suspensory is her RH, which is the hock she had the chip removed for - assuming due to compensating but who knows.

 

[ycbm]

Thanks for commenting both. I don't know a great deal about ESPA/DSLD, do they tend to have dropped fetlocks? She doesn't have that, which I always thought pointed to DSLD.

It can go both ways. The suspensories can go very hard and very weak. My friend's horse only had noticeably dropping pasterns when moving and carrying a rider on uneven ground, but his hind legs went straight as the tendons tightened at four, when he also became very backward thinking, then later clearly unhappy with problems healing minor scrapes. He was PTS at 7 I'm afraid, after the vet said DSLD didn't exist in the UK, which was untrue as we found out later that Leahurst could have run a nuchal ligament biopsy.

He was premium graded at 2 years old and went downhill from then onwards
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[nutjob]

It can go both ways. The suspensories can go very hard and very weak. My friend's horse only had noticeably dropping pasterns when moving and carrying a rider on uneven ground, but his hind legs went straight as the tendons tightened at four, when he also became very backward thinking, then later clearly unhappy with problems healing minor scrapes. He was PTS at 7 I'm afraid, after the vet said DSLD didn't exist in the UK, which was untrue as we found out later that Leahurst could have run a nuchal ligament biopsy.

Exactly my experience, I had to send my vet a paper written by Prof Peter Clegg (who he knew personally) to get him to believe me that such a thing existed . I could have approached Leahurst myself about the nuchal ligament biopsy but my horse was not insured and the clinical symptoms were enough for me to know what to do. I don't believe this is done now as it is not as definitive as once thought.

OP, dropped and/or swollen fetlocks are a classic when the disease has progressed quite a way, but there will be more subtle signs earlier. Mine had behavioural changes and became very sharp and spooky, false colic (lying down due to pain), trying to sit/rest bum on stuff and a narrow gait behind. The hind legs looked normal when standing but the fetlocks dropped quite a way in walk and had a pronounced second drop when he weighted the leg to push off. There's more info about this now and I would say it's worth researching as it's not normal for a young horse, particularly since you have been careful with the work load to have problems with ligaments in 4 legs. It's a degenerative condition as the horse is not able to correctly repair the damaged tissues irrespective of any treatment.

 

[ihatework]

I would say it’s possible but by no means a given.

One of mine had an innocuous slip/fall as a 4yo, just before he was planned to go on holiday. We thought nothing of it. He was ridden the following day fine. Then turned out. Came back in 3 months down the line. Fine. Back under saddle. No concerns.

Vet came out for routine vaccination and as luck/timing would have it was watching his first steps coming out of the stable and noticed 2 lateral walk steps before he went 4 time. This vet had a neuro interest and asked if they could do some more basic tests, which they videoed and sent to specialist as it was all very subtle. He went into specialist and they confirmed low grade neuro and scans showed mild inflammation pressing on spinal cord. (We were a bit blindsided)!!

Anyway, one steroid jab and horse came right very quickly and has stayed right and competing exceptionally well.

BUT ‘what if’. What if that vet hadn’t picked it up early. Because we were completely unaware of the issue it was so subtle. What if we had kept training him and he kept making subtle adaptive changes in his way of going until it did cause lameness?

 

[tda]

You never know, one of mine got her foot tuck in a gate age 5, apart from big wound on front of fetlock everything else seemed fine, never lame but also just NQR

 

[ycbm]

Exactly my experience, I had to send my vet a paper written by Prof Peter Clegg (who he knew personally) to get him to believe me that such a thing existed . I could have approached Leahurst myself about the nuchal ligament biopsy but my horse was not insured and the clinical symptoms were enough for me to know what to do. I don't believe this is done now as it is not as definitive as once thought.

OP, dropped and/or swollen fetlocks are a classic when the disease has progressed quite a way, but there will be more subtle signs earlier. Mine had behavioural changes and became very sharp and spooky, false colic (lying down due to pain), trying to sit/rest bum on stuff and a narrow gait behind. The hind legs looked normal when standing but the fetlocks dropped quite a way in walk and had a pronounced second drop when he weighted the leg to push off. There's more info about this now and I would say it's worth researching as it's not normal for a young horse, particularly since you have been careful with the work load to have problems with ligaments in 4 legs. It's a degenerative condition as the horse is not able to correctly repair the damaged tissues irrespective of any treatment.

Oh I'd forgotten about the false colic and resting his bum on the wall. It sounds like they had the same thing. The one I knew got rock hard hind suspensories.

 

[JFTDWS]

You never know, one of mine got her foot tuck in a gate age 5, apart from big wound on front of fetlock everything else seemed fine, never lame but also just NQR

One of mine got stuck on a gate as a youngster. He never stood up to proper work for any length of time, he looks great hooleying around the field but just NQR.

 

[maya2008]

I would think she fell because of the other issues - so they were already developing. Plenty of young horses spook, and plenty of older ones (my cob spooks endlessly some days) but unless the road surface is really unusually bad they don’t normally fall over.

 

[ycbm]

I would think she fell because of the other issues - so they were already developing. Plenty of young horses spook, and plenty of older ones (my cob spooks endlessly some days) but unless the road surface is really unusually bad they don’t normally fall over.

That's a good point.
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[Hormonal Filly]

I would think she fell because of the other issues - so they were already developing. Plenty of young horses spook, and plenty of older ones (my cob spooks endlessly some days) but unless the road surface is really unusually bad they don’t normally fall over.

That’s an interesting point.

 

[Hormonal Filly]

It can go both ways. The suspensories can go very hard and very weak. My friend's horse only had noticeably dropping pasterns when moving and carrying a rider on uneven ground, but his hind legs went straight as the tendons tightened at four, when he also became very backward thinking, then later clearly unhappy with problems healing minor scrapes. He was PTS at 7 I'm afraid, after the vet said DSLD didn't exist in the UK, which was untrue as we found out later that Leahurst could have run a nuchal ligament biopsy.

He was premium graded at 2 years old and went downhill from then onwards
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Blimey :-(

I’ve looked through some videos of me riding last year, one for the lameness exam. In walk her fetlocks don’t drop at all but in trot/canter they drop ALOT. Almost to the floor at some points when I paused the video. Not sure how much they’re suppose to move?

 

[ycbm]

Blimey :-(

I’ve looked through some videos of me riding last year, one for the lameness exam. In walk her fetlocks don’t drop at all but in trot/canter they drop ALOT. Almost to the floor at some points when I paused the video. Not sure how much they’re suppose to move?

The trouble is you can get perfectly sound horses, often those that move well, with a level of tendon and ligament laxity that will do this. Young horses can need time to strengthen up too. But if you can add in some of the other signs, and the really big one in your case is ligament trouble in all four legs at the time (multiple legs, one at a time, in a short period like a year is a red flag, but all four at the same time is simply ginormous), leaning backwards onto walls, colic that isn't colic, back legs going straight when they didn't used to be (mistaken in the horse I knew for going bum high as he grew), very hard feeling hind suspensories, then that tends to lead to the diagnosis.
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ETA the horse I knew was PTS without a diagnosis from a vet, because though he was seen by at least 3 vets, the disease wasn't at all well known in this country at the time. The last vet did say there was something seriously wrong with the horse but that further investigations would cost a lot of money and were unlikely to produce a conclusive answer. I'd recently read about DSLD on the forum, looked it up and the owner thought the horse was a total fit for the symptoms and PTS. They'd struggled for 4 years at that point to understand why their beautiful young horse was so unhappy and he had been effectively retired for a year and was getting worse.

 

[SEL]

One of mine had an awful fall in the field onto rock hard ground. Fortunately I saw it so I knew what had happened because he wasn't great for weeks. His whole jaw stayed out of alignment for the rest of his life - so yes, potentially.

There is a lot of difference between horses on how much fetlocks flex. The degenerative ones I've seen have been obvious at walk.

 

[AShetlandBitMeOnce]

Blimey :-(

I’ve looked through some videos of me riding last year, one for the lameness exam. In walk her fetlocks don’t drop at all but in trot/canter they drop ALOT. Almost to the floor at some points when I paused the video. Not sure how much they’re suppose to move?

Perhaps have a look at some sales videos on horsequest and it should give you some comparatives?

 

[LEC]

I had one who must have fallen over in the field as was an idiot. Became very unhappy in ridden work. X rays clean but bone scan showed a hot spot which looked like bone bruising. Gave her time off in the field and she came back to eventing but was then lame 2 years later. Looked like suspensorys. When I bought her she wasn’t cow hocked but became gradually more as a compensation pattern with the knock on effect of suspensorys. She is 100% sound now but lives a very low level life from having done 2*.
Had a lovely 4yo who I backed at 3 with zero issues but got kicked in the field and it was a mess with different issues and though signed off by vet after time off became neuro and was PTS.

 

[sbloom]

Current thinking is that a lot of later issues can come from trauma, and that trauma may be from birth, or earlier than any ridden accident as a young horse, potentially causing the fall as mentioned before. Pretty much any event causing asymmetrical damage will change the way the horse moves. I think it's SO complex, we can only do our best but I think we all are realising how important remedial work - bodywork, postural work - is after any blip, accident, time off etc.