clicky joints

[Boxers]

Recently bought a nearly 3 yr old gelding. He is Irish x TB and about 16.1 at the moment.

When he walks I can hear clicking from his back legs. At first I thought it was one fetlock, but now I'm not sure if he does it on both legs and also it's possibly higher up.

He is not working at all at the moment and lives out full time. The only work he does right now is to walk in hand up the road wearing his bridle, roller and side reins.

We have trotted him with his leadrope loose on a flat road and he does not appear to be lame at all.

Should I be worried at all?

I know that I have a clicky wrist sometimes and that doesn't hurt, so am assuming this is something similar?

 

[Max123]

I have a IDxTB Mare who is now 18. I have her since she was 5 and she had the same clicky noise you describe in her hind legs from the beginning. She got a clean vet cert and I was told not to worry and she was sound for many years. For different reasons I didn't ride her between the age of 10 and 14 and when I started to ride her again at 14 she was frequently unsound so I stopped riding her. I don't know if the clicky noise was an early indicator of arthritis which she does have but to be expected for her age and because of not been ridden for 4 years I don't know at what point she started to be unsound. Possibly the clicking and her unsoundness are unrelated but I can't say. He will probably be okay but maybe a low dose of a joint supplement or Cod Liver oil for prevention.

 

[miss_molly]

In humans the doctors reckon the clicking joints is normal and just the fluid moving in the joint. Not sure ifs they fobbed me off or if that truth but im presuming its the same in horses. My ID x TB mare has just started clicking in her hindquarters, never noticed until this weekend, may text vet and get an offical answer

 

[Chloe-V]

This sounds as if it's most likely to be from his stifles. He's a young horse, growing rapidly but still weak behind. The sound is just the fluid in the joint that you can hear.
This is very, very common in big youngsters and usually they either grow out of it or it improves once they are in work and build up muscle around the area.
Don't worry at this stage and don't be tempted to do any lunging or circle work of any type of circling until he's stronger.