He drags his feet!

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bethcandc

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I have noticed that my horse drags his feets ! He only does it on the road in trot. When i had him out down the bridle track (with is stoney) he doesn't do it. Only on the road, It sounds like he has a loose shoe but it him draging his back feet and knocking his toe on the ground. He does it worse with one foot i think his right. I think its laziness but don't know, also i dont want him to make his shoes loose in doing this!! How can i help him pick his feet up ? Thanks
 
Are you sure his toes aren't too long, my mare did this when hers were longish, at first I thought she was being lazy until I realised my farrier didn't trim her last time as they were ok then.
 
sounds like his shoes are set too far forward, this means he has a late breakover, he has not got time to finish his step. he needs a shorter toe,
 
Mine does this. Not lazyness, even though I find myself driven to shout, 'Pick your damn feet up!' every now and then.

My lads problem is his back - and at the moment the fact that his toes are too long.
 
bay horse, he does,nt do it on rough ground, so there is little or nothing wrong with him, if he had a back problem he would be worse on rough ground.. all horses lift their feet higher on uneven ground, he is doing this on the road because he can. also i expect you walk him in the uneven ground, so you are not comparing like with like
 
Hmm, actually, FB has no problem with rough ground either but slides his left hind on the road (and very occasionally in a sand school) and he most definitely does have a back (sacroiliac) issue. He also has a tendency to be stiff in his hocks if not on his joint supplement.
 
Know i mean i only notice it on the road as i can hear it and on the bridle track i would hear it too (as some of the bridle track it little stones and pebbles or a hard surface like the road) but obviously i dont notice it in the field as i wouldnt hear it. The only time it becomes apparent is out on the road in trot.
 
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bay horse, he does,nt do it on rough ground, so there is little or nothing wrong with him, if he had a back problem he would be worse on rough ground.. all horses lift their feet higher on uneven ground, he is doing this on the road because he can. also i expect you walk him in the uneven ground, so you are not comparing like with like

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Sorry but I have to disagree with this.
My mare had a pelvic injury, one of her 'symptoms' was dragging her hind feet whilst in the roads. In the school/rough terrain she didn't drag her feet - I know this as I had lunged on different types of surfaces to watch her way of going and had people watch her backend. She was diagnosed with the injury a week later.
 
a couple of people have quoted what happened to others horses, well this is a different horse, so why dont we shorten the toes which is very easy, and if that dont work, then we could look at other problems.
 
Does your horse do this all the time or close to shoeing? Its less likely to be his feet since you say its predominantly one sided unless you can see that one foot is longer than the other. Have a chat to your farrier about what you are noticing and he will be able to investigate the feet side and will probably suggest you get the horses back checked.
 
My horse dragged her toes because she has bone spavins. My farrier happened to mention to me that he throught she had them, a few months later her hock was x-rayed for another injury, and the x-ray showed up the beginning of bone spavins, so my farrier was spot on.

Speak to your farrier as they usually have a good idea of what could be causing the problem, and sometimes all that is needed is a slight change of shoeing.
 
looks like you,r horse could be lazy, have sarcroiliac probs, stiff hocks, spavins. so why dont you sort his feet out first, and that will be one thing out of the way. it could one of many things, that is obvious, but it could be his feet, so before you spend a complete fortune on x rays, scans etc, spend a fiew quid on his feet.
you would,nt want to replace the engine in you,r car if it was out of fuel
 
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