Have any of your horses suffered from a spavin? Help please

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charlie55

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If so, can i ask what you do with said horse now? Do you still compete, school, jump. Just a happy hacker now etc. Any help appreciated xx
 
Lucy has spavins in both hocks. (although i never had them investigated vet did say thats what it was) She hunted atleast once a week, Did showing, Dressage, Jumping and endurance rides of upto and inclu 80km. Untill last winter but this was due to a different illness not the spavins.
 
Oh thats good to know, its taken 6 months to find out thats whats wrong with my lad due to other things going on at the same time. We will be injecting the joint in two weeks.... I hope he will be as lucky as Lucy x
 
My mare was diagnosed with a spavin, only because she had been x rayed for another injury and they saw it then. she never developed any symptoms and that was 7 years ago. she then went a bit lame last summer and it was a spavin again. i gave her a week off and then was advised to get back on and keep her going, riding in straight lines, ie no schooling. She sometimes was a bit stiff behind when we first started out but then loosened off. I put her on the top spec senior balancer which has the full 10:10 joint supplement in it.
All has been well since then and can do whatever. we mainly hack and do a bit of jumping in the school. I have been doing a wee bit flatwork and all is well.
 
my boy has spavins, hes been off all winter and is still unsound in his hinds, if he does come back into work it will be hacking only
 
My mare had spavins in the front of both hocks about 6 years ago. She was treated with bute and remedial shoeing to open up the joints, she carried on jumping and hunting in her usual overly enthusiastic way for a couple of years until her tendon came off her hock. Looking back now and talking to a master farrier, we came to the conclusion that the remedial shoeing caused the tendon to come off as it was weakened by the shoeing (raised heels and lateral extensions). I wish now that we had worked her through the inital stages and then the outcome could have been different.
 
My 15yo has spavins in both hocks, diagnosed 12 months ago. I always thought he was just stiff but vet said bilaterally lame behind. He initially had both hocks treated with cortisone and 2 courses of Adequan. I had his hocks medicated again about 3 weeks ago, just before the insurance claim ran out, and I think he's going to need doing about every 10-12 months. I didn't expect to feel much difference after the second set of jabs as he'd been going well anyway, but he feels even better now. My SJ instructor last night said he looks 100% better than even a month ago, so the injections clearly do make a massive difference to him. He wasn't "off" at all before having them topped up but he's now stepping through better from behind and lateral work is lovely. He has also had a few injections of pure glucosamine, which the vet says helps.

Enough of my rambling... my horse does a bit of everything and is enjoying his work. I have a classical dressage instructor so he does school work but no more than twice a week, and TBH I tend to do one arena schooling session and another out in the field or school on hacks. Vet said he has to do as much hacking (ie, straight lines) as possible, so I hack him most days, even if just for 30 mins to cool down after jumping or schooling. He jumps - SJ and XC - was hunting until a different problem put paid to that, does fun rides. Basically he leads the same sort of life as any other RC type all rounder.

There is a mare on the yard who has just completed the Badminton Grassroots Champs (BE90) and was diagnosed with spavins a few years ago. It is definitely not a death sentence.
 
I mare I used to loan was diagnosed with spavin in both her hocks. She found schooling for more than 20 minutes hard, and could no long go a days hunting. Her owner has now sold her as happy hacker.

I think it just depends on the horse and how it is managed, and a bit of luck :)
 
I think it depends on the individual horse, mine was diagnosed with mild spavin whilst investigating back problems. Had injections into the hock, was even lamer after them. They didn't find anything wrong with his back, they said he had behavioural issues. He's a field ornament now, maybe a light hack in future but I wouldn't really like to say ( he is 9 ).

However, I have worked with horses that were much worse with him, without the back issues and they can hunt all day. So, again they are all different.

Good luck..!!
 
My 18yo pony was diagnosed a couple of years ago. He had a steroid injection which lasted about 8 months, I could still do everything with him. However, the second injection only lasted a few weeks and he was worse than before so decided with vet that he is just a light hack.

I think he is better when doing light work than being retired at the moment - i.e most hacks are walk only for up to an hour but he still enjoys it. He is kept out 24/7 - he is stiff if stabled. He has lateral extensions and 1 bute per day.

I've tried Synequin and Top Spec Senior which haven't made a difference, am considering what to try next.

Fingers crossed for your boy :)
 
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