Cow kicking in canter

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itsmyparty

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Not quite sure what to make of this. The big ginger boy has just come back into work after 3 weeks off lame (bruised sole on front right, all sorted now). We went out on a slow hack last night and not surprisingly he was v fresh. Wanted to canter but OH only allowed him to trot. To try to let off some steam when we got back to the yard OH took him into the school and cantered him around a few times. About 4 or 5 times when asked to canter he sort of cow-kicked with his outside hind. Do you think this could have been just freshness or some kind of discomfort ?
 
Could have been fresh, or stiff behind (they tend to do a humphy buck rather than flex their hock joints).
Or it could have been a horse fly...who knows?
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I reckon you may be on to something Shils- "humphy buck" was what it looked like and he was on box rest for about 10 days of his 3 weeks off. He's 17'2" so probably did get quite stiff in his stable...
 
Agree with the fact that it could be down to discomfort so your best getting it checked out.

Reason I'm saying that is my boy has done this on a couple of ocassions in the menage, had a few strange transitions into trot, hollowed his back with discomfort and then cow kicked a few times when asked to canter when he's normally well behaved.

Went to pick his feet out to check them, he's got a thick peice of wood chipping wedged between his frog and his shoe, and another occassion one had dug into his frog a wee bit. My horse must have delicate feet or something
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, no other horse has ever had problems with the chippings.
 
A girl on my yard had the same problem, turns out the horses pelvis was out, not saying it is the same thing but sounds like hes in discomfort.
 
My mare cow kicks if i get my legs on really hard, or if she is in season and feeling particually grumpy only ever does it in canter transitions and have had everything checked and all ok so she is obviously just a grumpy cow!
Can be so many different things i would see how he goes the more he is ridden and go from there might just be a one off.
 
My old horse used to do this when he was having bad front feet problems. He also had arthritic hocks though, so I couldn't be certain which caused the kicking out and reluctance to canter. It did get alot worse when the horse had drastic surgical shoeing, even though he seemed more comfy in walk and trot.
 
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