Discomfort or just being a baby?

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AshTay

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My gelding is 6 years old and I've had him since March - bit of a stressy chap of the sort who can go from being an absolute donkey to complete meltdown at the sight of a crisp packet (but walk past combine harvesters without a glance).

I had the backlady out 2 months ago for various reasons and she found some discomfort so he had some time off with lunging and walking in hand and is now back in work.

We also suspected ulcers so I gave him a course of coligone and it made no difference to his behaviour or appearance. I haven't had him scoped.

But he stll has issue with being stood still for very long in the school/paddock. He'll happily stand when I first get on (once he's let me get on that is...). But if I stop midway through a schooling session to adjust girth he freaks out and spooks. Even if I simply halt for very long he gets more and more tense and goes sideways. I am doing lots of halts and messing with saddle to try and bore him out of it but I wondered if anyone else had any experience of this?

Saddle has been professionally fitted and back lady was happy with it. Teeth will be checked again soon but were fine 3 months ago.
 
Has he been seen by a vet since his time off to check that treatment and work has done its job and all is well? That would be my first port of call tbh to check all is ok. Has the reason for the discomfort developing been found? Would be worth looking into aswell to ensure that it isn't anything that develops again.
 
No. I suspected he had some discomfort when i bought him as the owner himself said that the saddle he had on him wasn't a great fit and the owner was 14 stone. I'm 9.5stone and had a saddle fitted for him straight away. really I should have given him time off straightaway.

when the McTimoney girl came she checked for signs of kissing spine and he was fine. She identified soft tissue damage and tension and treated those and 4 weeks later had another look and said he was fine to ride but to give him a few more weeks lunging to be sure. Which I did. Before she treated him I had noticed some twitchiness in his back and that did go away and he was totally different in his back the second time.

Vet will be my next port of call if the problem persists (he's only been back in work for two weeks) or gets worse.
 
I am sure your horse is not likely to have kissing spine,but a McTimony therapist cannot say that he hasnt,it is only possible to diagnose by xray.
I would also get the vet to check as suggested, something is causing the problems .
 
I will be getting the vet out.

So do you think it's definitely physical and not behavioural? I'm erring on the side of caution by suspecting it's physical but he's a funny horse as his reactions to things can be very odd and he's very sensitive.

Case in point: dressage cones are fine on the floor and he doesn't look at them and will kick them without spooking and if they fall over or are moved somewhere else he doesn't care. But if someone picks one up and holds it, even if a few feet away from him - panic!!

He doesn't do it when I first get on and has stood in a pub car park like a donkey with me onboard for 10 mins halfway through a ride. If I didn't stop and try to do his girth up midway through a session I probably wouldn't even know there was a problem as he'll stand for a normal halt length of time.

He's actually the same when I start long-lining him and he has to stand in halt while reins are organised - I'm not very experienced at it so get someone to help me and he gets very tense having two people near him and "handling" him on the ground at the same time. Once I've got both reins he's fine and relaxes and works really nicely.
 
It sounds as if he has maybe had some rough handling in the past,if there is no physical reason,it may be that he needs some desensitising work.
I would work to build up his confidence and exposing him to more,maybe pole work,small jumps, things being moved around each day.
Get someone to help so that he gets used to a second person in his space.
 
be positive said:
I am sure your horse is not likely to have kissing spine,but a McTimony therapist cannot say that he hasnt,it is only possible to diagnose by xray..
Click to expand...

Exactly.

If you concerned, vet first - every other fool second.

But it does sound behavioural, I agree.
 
amymay said:
Exactly.

If you concerned, vet first - every other fool second.

But it does sound behavioural, I agree.
Click to expand...

He was 2-stage vetted before I bought him. Would a 2-stage have picked anything up? Or would something like KS only have shown up in only in a 5 stage?
 
amymay said:
Not really, it's pretty basic.
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Would a 5-stage?
For the 2-stage he was examined all over and trotted up and lunged and flexed and pulled about. With a 5 stage I know they examine the horse after exercise but would a KS horse pass that if he'd done all the walk, trot, cantering, etc, required? Just wondering.

One thing the vet said after the 2-stage (after my horse had been a bit of a kn*b about it all really) was that he was a horse he felt was likely to try and test me and to be prepared for that. And he was right because he does and I don't know if this is one of his little tests?
Other "tests" have included suddenly deciding he doesn't want to come in and just planting himself halfway back from the field refusing to move - but not every time and most of the time he happily comes in no questions asked.

He's a tb x sec d.
 
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