Help... locking patella/gastric ulcer !!!

[donket]

Hi, I'm just wondering whether anyone else has experienced something similar or if you know of anyone. I bought my mare as a 3 yr old and backed her. From about 4 onwards she was diagnosed with a locking patella but only happened rarely and they said it should get better as she gets older. Had no further problems. I stopped riding Sept 08 as I was pregnant and started riding again May/June 09 schooling, hacking and the odd bit of jumping. Then my friend started doing some work advanced schooling with her. Sorry if I'm going on !! In Oct 08 my friend was riding as normal, but horse not so happy to move forward, she then reared right up and refused to move any further. She is a very genuine horse so I could only imagine something wasn't right. So far she has has a cortisone injection into the stifle and now medial splitting. She is fine in hand and is completely sound, however when I get on I can only go about 5 steps before she stops and refuses to move forward or threatens to go up. Checked all of the obvious so I know it's not that. Someone mentioned that weight of carrying a rider if a horse has gastric ulcers could make it very painful..... Has anyone heard of this or experienced it ?

 

[amandap]

I haven't heard of the weight of the rider causing more pain if a horse has ulcers but I have heard of horses being reluctant to go forward etc. etc being a symptom of ulcers.
I believe ulcers are far more common than we realize and may be a factor in many horses saying... 'no thanks'.
Do a search on the net there's tons of info out there about ulcers in horses...

 

[maggiesmum]

The easiest thing is to get them scoped, it sounds like a huge trauma but its actually not as bad as you might think, it stops all the worrying and if's and buts, if it is ulcers you can treat it and if it isn't you can discount it and get back to finding out whats causing the problem.

 

[donket]

Thanks very much for your replies. Think I will get her scoped as you mention just to rule it out. Having had a couple of procedures done on the stifle and not making any difference I'm not sure what else to do. She looks so good on the floor and does the most amazing gymnastics in the field you would never know that there was anything wrong with her. She is a pretty genuine mare too so I know that whatever the issue is that it is hurting rather than her just being naughty !

Thanks again....