Do horses in pain always show it?

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Jericho

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As some of you may know my boy has been having problems with feet. After lameness workup, vet diagnosed navicular syndrome but couldnt really pin point as xrays didnt really show anything. I suspect there is soft tissue damage etc and his pedal bones are very flat and we are trying to remedy this through remedial shoeing. Both vet and farrier have said he has made good progress and to start very lightly hacking and tiny bit of schooling in loose rein in trot and walk to see how he reacts. He is still slightly short in stride sometimes but sound in straight line, bit uncomfortable in small circles on hard ground. He really is only a happy hacker with me so his prognosis that he wont ever be able to 'go around Burghley' doesnt concern me too much.

Anyway..... we have started the hacking / schooling and he is being a right little twit. Throwing head around, wanting to canter and really rounding himself and flinging front feet out, jogging, spooky. Nothing nasty just being an idiot. Also when we leave the yard he shuffles along like he is on his last legs, constantly checking behind him, turning round towards home given half a chance, and just not going forward etc but the minute he does turn towards home, he is a different horse - striding out, ears picked, bold, responsive, jogging - you get the picture.

So my question is: do horses with mild pain mask it when they have other things to think about. It doesnt feel like he is being nasty because he is pain. When schooling or homewards bound hacking he just feels like he is exuberant and wanting to be stupid, like 'woohoo - lets go...!".

Would this behaviour be typical of a horse in pain?

So much for happy hacking - I am absolutely petrified of every trip / stumble / uneven stride / making it worse now that I dont even want to ride anymore....
 
I think horses are very stoical and don't always show when they are in mild pain. If they get excited the adrenaline takes over and they think they can do anything, but the next day they may pay for it!

When you took him out for a hack in the past did he shuffle on the way out. When my arthrititic oldster started to get worse I could tell he wasn't right when he slowed down and really took his time when going out on hacks, but if he saw another horse he would perk up and jog all the way home.

You know your horse best so you'll know if he isn't his normal self. If he was in real pain he would probably not want to go at all.
 
When my horse got laminitis last year, it was not something we anticipated he might get (having had him for 11 years with no problems) and so we didn't realise that he had it. He came in from the field quite quietly (for him) in the morning, and we thought he was just tired. We took him out for a short hack and he came back a different horse, alert, jogging, his usual self.
After a day in his stable, he came out to be turned out for the night in obvious pain. And of course, he'd had the laminitis since the morning. But, yes, he had hidden it very well out on his hack and we were mortified.

He also had a saddle with a broken tree which was causing him considerable pain, but even so managed to go to a show and come back with two placings (the Judge even rode him) and he was a star. Mortified again when we realised!
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So, yes, I would say that horses mask pain very well, especially the genuine ones. I wouldn't rule out the possibility that your horse is in pain, though of course I couldn't say for sure.
 
Yes, mild pain can easily be masked by adrenaline. The brain may be willing but the body cant always keep up. As long as the horse is fit enough for the work you ask and is not deteriorating because of work then gently exercise is not always a bad thing. You just have to take each day as it comes and remember to be careful
 
Mine was the other way round loads of positive steps on the way out as the adrenaline kicked in then went flat on the rest of the ride.I retired mine aged 8 its awful decision to make but hes pretty field ornament.Like you I would have settled for happy hacker but constantly keep bringing him in and out of work and the disappointments that went with it was awful.
I think they can mask mild pain then we get back on and make it worse again.
My boy had coffin joint soft tissue damage and its very difficult to diagnose and treat.I sympathise with how you are feeling but at the end of the day you know your horse and have to make the best judgement call.
 
In a word, No, i dont think they always show it, shame they cant talk, even just a few words would do.
I read somewhere that they will often avoid showing signs of weakness as they are prey animals
 
As prey animals, horses need to be seen to be able to run at a split second's notice. A lame horse will be seen as easy meat to a predator so I think that instinctively they are able to hide it well.
 
No, they don't always show pain and as prey animals they're very good at hiding it. My 20yr old Highland x started stumbling at exactly the same place on the yard, every time we came back from a hack. It was a patch of uneven tarmac that sloped every which way and back again so I didn't worry about it at first. Then he started getting funny about going downhill and the stumbling got more noticeable. YM suggested I should get it properly looked into so I took him to a specialist centre. To my utter horror, when they nerve blocked one foot he could hardly hobble for the lameness in the OTHER foot. He had bilateral lameness, meaning BOTH feet hurt the same amount, so you don't see the lameness. Sometimes, you have to be a detective to notice the subtle differences in your horse.
 
Absolutely not!

My lad who we had thought was doing a sterling job in recovering from a very nasty casting which caused muscle damage, tying up, and skin loss had a complete work over by the vet this week and he is one mass of ulcers in both the smaller and large intestine and basically his immune system is bottomed out.....vet said he was his own worse enemy because he is a a placid stoical chap who has internalised a lot of the pain, whereas another type of horse would have let us know and acted out.....he is now on treatment for the ulcers, a herbal stress relief, continuation of pain kilers and mega death anti biotics.....as soon as we stop the antibiotics he starts on the probiotics..

My non horsey OH is staggered at the vet bills.....I think I possibly didn;t go into great detail about those in the "can I have a a horse darling" negotiation phase!.....Wait till he sees the one for the 'all clear' x rays! and the Chrio to manipulate his pelvis back into alignment la la la
 
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