Downhill Lameness

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ThomasTank

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Hi I am a newbie here although I have been putting my two penneth in here and there !! I am wondering if anyone can diagnose my friends lame horse ( I am looking after him but I will save that for a rant !!) The vet has done nerve blocks and the problem seems to be in the foot. Farrier cant find anything. I rode him today and he is sound and forward going except when we came down a little hill and turned right onto the road he went hopping lame on his off side front for 3 or 4 paces then ok again. this keeps happening and is a mystery to me. He is 27 years old and in good health and never really been lame. at the moment he doesnt like down hill or turning right. Can anyone shed any light on this ?? thankyou.
 
Hello
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Couldnt you ask the vet to nerve block the individual bones in the foot, so you know where the problem is in the foot?
 
Yes I could but he isnt my horse so I will suggest it to her. She has been out of action 2 months after I joined her at the yard with a pinned right arm so she cant even drive. I am just trying to take the pressure off her. Hopefully with the downhill and turning right bit someone will have had the same problem. Thankyou
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that is what I thought. It is a long time since I have had anything to do with stuff like this. My own horse loves fresh air and a good view and never a days lameness in his life. perhaps its arthiritis ( or however you spell it !)
 
Was just going to say that my TB was lame going downhill back in the summer....That turned out to be his back. His pelvis was out and his shoulder was sore. May be worth a back check too.
 
going downhill puts more weight on the front legs, turning right would put more weight on the outside (left) legs depending on how fast you were going but let's suppose you were going slow ie <working trot. So the problem here is that you appear to have seen an effect when the outside foreleg was loaded more than the other legs. Even if lameness was bilateral you would expect to see more hopping on the left leg if you loaded it more. So go down a hill and turn left and then see what happens. if there is a big difference between going down the same hill in the same way and turning either right or left then you've shown the lameness is unilateral. Hopefully this would also show up on the lunge.

The next thing would be to work out out where the lameness was. Unfortunately as far as anyone knows, the conditions in which you observed a hopping horse would get pretty much the same result wherever the lameness was in the leg so the particular set of circumstances ie down a hill and round a corner don't help you much there.
 
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