KT88
Well-Known Member
Sorry this is quite a long story!
I bought my first horse (9yo ISH) about 3 weeks ago following a 5 stage vetting which he passed with flying colours. In his old home he had a history of humping (not really proper bucking) into canter, particularly on the left rein. Other than that he was a lovely ride and behaved perfectly on a trial hack as well. The bucking was put down to a lack of balance/schooling as he seemed to rush and panic through the transition.
Since I have had him, I've not done a huge amount of ridden work as I was letting him settle etc. When I did ride he started turning his quarters away from the mounting block repeatedly, after persistently putting him back he would just give up and stand still and was then fine, stood while I sorted myself out etc. The bucking into canter was much the same, after the initial few strides he would settle and have a nice canter, however he developed a new trick... He would combine a spook at something in the bushes into a 180 degree spin followed by humping virtually on the spot. It happened twice and so suddenly that i completely lost balance and managed to strategically dismount the first time and the second time I managed to stay on as he stopped before I completely lost balance.
I got an Intelligent Horsemanship RA out to work on his confidence in the school and she took one look at him and said he's not muscled evenly on his bum. It was very hard to get him to stand square behind to look at it properly, which was actually the case at the vetting as well but we didn't think anything of it at the time. It also became clear as we did some leading and backing up exercises that he found it very hard to back up on the near hind and had to swing it out to the side every time rather than stepping back straight. This combined with all the other behaviour he has been showing led us to guess he must have something strange going on through his back.
I have a registered physio coming this evening to take a look at him but if she finds anything major he will need to be seen by the vets again. Needless to say I'm a bit miffed at all of this after paying a lot of money for the vetting!!
I'm dreading what the physio finds tonight, just hoping its nothing too serious and that a bit of manipulation and some exercises will do the trick!
He's so lovely and eager to please in every other way that it just seemed really strange for him to be behaving the way he was.
Sorry for the long post, just needed to vent really and hope my horse is ok!!
I bought my first horse (9yo ISH) about 3 weeks ago following a 5 stage vetting which he passed with flying colours. In his old home he had a history of humping (not really proper bucking) into canter, particularly on the left rein. Other than that he was a lovely ride and behaved perfectly on a trial hack as well. The bucking was put down to a lack of balance/schooling as he seemed to rush and panic through the transition.
Since I have had him, I've not done a huge amount of ridden work as I was letting him settle etc. When I did ride he started turning his quarters away from the mounting block repeatedly, after persistently putting him back he would just give up and stand still and was then fine, stood while I sorted myself out etc. The bucking into canter was much the same, after the initial few strides he would settle and have a nice canter, however he developed a new trick... He would combine a spook at something in the bushes into a 180 degree spin followed by humping virtually on the spot. It happened twice and so suddenly that i completely lost balance and managed to strategically dismount the first time and the second time I managed to stay on as he stopped before I completely lost balance.
I got an Intelligent Horsemanship RA out to work on his confidence in the school and she took one look at him and said he's not muscled evenly on his bum. It was very hard to get him to stand square behind to look at it properly, which was actually the case at the vetting as well but we didn't think anything of it at the time. It also became clear as we did some leading and backing up exercises that he found it very hard to back up on the near hind and had to swing it out to the side every time rather than stepping back straight. This combined with all the other behaviour he has been showing led us to guess he must have something strange going on through his back.
I have a registered physio coming this evening to take a look at him but if she finds anything major he will need to be seen by the vets again. Needless to say I'm a bit miffed at all of this after paying a lot of money for the vetting!!
I'm dreading what the physio finds tonight, just hoping its nothing too serious and that a bit of manipulation and some exercises will do the trick!
He's so lovely and eager to please in every other way that it just seemed really strange for him to be behaving the way he was.
Sorry for the long post, just needed to vent really and hope my horse is ok!!
