Growing pains?

Nightmare before Christmas

Nightmare before Christmas

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My horse was lame in front (swapping which legs half way through) for around 6 weeks. We had scans and blocks done at newmarket and concluded nothing was wrong so was likely growing pains. He has grown almost two inches in 12 weeks but seems to be slowing down now. He has been sound about 5 weeks now and has hacked and is now being built up on the lunge slowly.

I am worried when he starts jumping in september that he will go lame again. I think I am being paranoid as he has been lunged on grass, and bombing round his field with no issues!

Any experience welcomed!
 
How old and what breeding? how big is he/she now and how large are they supposed to get? could well be growing pains :rolleyes:

I have a 5yo IDxWB and he goes 'tottery' when he is growing (he also gets extremely naughty and grumpy :eek:)

Mine always goes really unbalanced when he is growing and doesn't know what to do with his legs...it's really quite amusing bless him, so when he is growing we just hack out quietly and then go back in the school once he has finished again and knows what his legs are supposed to be doing lol
 
Silver-Moon said:
How old and what breeding? how big is he/she now and how large are they supposed to get? could well be growing pains :rolleyes:

I have a 5yo IDxWB and he goes 'tottery' when he is growing (he also gets extremely naughty and grumpy :eek:)

Mine always goes really unbalanced when he is growing and doesn't know what to do with his legs...it's really quite amusing bless him, so when he is growing we just hack out quietly and then go back in the school once he has finished again and knows what his legs are supposed to be doing lol
Click to expand...

He has just gone 4. They think he grew and started work at the same time, so was sore or tweaked something but nothing showed up on scans. He is a Belgium warmblood and just came over to me at easter. Ive had many young horses to produce and compete from all over and not come across this till now!

He is never grumpy, he is a lovely person and was only lame on one rein (hence I had the full works vet wise). He was less than 1/10th lame and two vets told me he was sound!

Physio thinks growing along with vet at newmarket and I have been advised to bring him back into work hacking (which I did before he became dangerous) and then doing a fitness program with the pessoa to build the muscles he needs ready to be ridden, he was weak before making growing more sore with work. He has been coming back into work for 3-4 weeks with no issues and has been out everyday and galloping round with no issues.

I have noticed he gets a pulse when out all day so he now has limited hours out but seems better each day (he didnt go out till I moved here a few weeks ago due to the lack of college turn out). He is on hay also until he is competing and I will keep an eye on the pulse when hes on that, vet doesnt think lami because of his type, she thinks it was from galloping round! I would rather be safe than sorry though!

Interesting other peoples horses have had growing pains too. He is 16.2 now and I was hoping he would only make this, now I am thinking more along the lines of 16.3. He was 16hh when I got him at Easter time!
 
I have a 17.1hh CB who is very sensitive to the grass and WOULD have laminitis if I didn't manage his intake... I still can't understand why in this day in age, vets are STILL so ignorant of larger horses suffering with this condition.

That asside, I would just build him up very slowly - plenty of hacking but only do what he can manage - don't over-push him... I've gone back to just 20 minute schooling sessions with my boy as he was finding longer just too hard :)
 
I do know lots of big horses who have had lami for the first time this year (talking to my vet a few weeks back and they had diagnosed 20 cases in one week due to odd weather and masses of grass) so it could well be a mixture and if he isn't used to turn out then it may have been too much for him, and this coupled with what sound like growing pains may have just tipped him over the edge!

I would just take it slowly with him as these big babies often don't need too much work and no 2 horses are alike!! I know lots of people doing things with their 3yo that I am only now doing with a 5yo but he just wasn't ready before :)

Go with your gut, but it sounds like you know what is wrong, good luck with hiim xxx
 
Thank you, He doesnt hack because he is dangerous when it comes to cars and its not worth the risk as he doesnt improve!

I did some history digging, and where he came from they dont turn out, they live in very large barns, so may explain alot.

He is improving on the grass each day and has no pulse at the moment! Still keeping a close eye.

He is still going well on the lunge for ten mins. Pleased with him right now :)
 
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