Valentine08
New User
This is my first time posting on here, however I regularly read these forums,especially when I am looking for advice on medical conditions, and often find the posts really useful. So I thought I would ask my own question this time...
My four year old mare has always swung her right hind leg to the outside slightly in walk, my farrier first picked up on the problem as she had developed a noticeable flair on her hoof. Before backing her this Feb, I got the Physio out who said she had tight 'hip flexors' on that side and gave her ultra sound therapy, which did seem to improve her gait for a time. Over the past few moths she has progressed well and has recently been working in a nice outline on both reins. However, she has always been very heavy in my right hand and found bending to the right very difficult at first, so much so that her method of evasion was to spin round very quickly and try and take off in the other direction! Both my instructor and I put this down to her being young and unbalanced as well as a little bit temperamental, and after a couple of lessons we managed to resolve the issue successfully. She also use'd to fall out horrendously through her left shoulder, but again became a lot straighter over time. I felt that she was just needing to build up the correct muscles and as this was happening, her work was greatly improving.
However, last week, after a few days off due to bad weather, I hacked her out and and she was extremely resistant to the contact, throwing her head in the air whenever I tried to push her in to it. I then had a lesson on Tuesday night and we decided that she was definitely 'short' on her right hind and it was particularly noticeable when it was on the outside of the circle. She was doing her usual 'swinging' motion in walk on a hard surface but looked sound in trot. The next day I tried lunging her and whilst she was fine on the right rein, she kept falling in on the left which she has never done before. I then noticed that she had developed some ulcers on her lips (a whole different story) so gave her the rest of the week off in case they were contributing factors in any way. As they are now healing nicely, I lunged her yesterday with no tack on and things seem to have got a lot worse, whilst she does still not appear lame to me, on the left rein after a few circles of trot, she suddenly stopped dead, swung her quarters out and put her ears flat back! I tried to work her through it briefly but kept getting the same reaction. The swing of her right hind definitely becomes more noticeable when it is on the outside of a circle as well. I put her on the right rein and she was fine, but then back on the left the same thing happened again so I immediately called it a day!
I am worried that there is more going on than her simply just having tight hip flexors, and would greatly appreciate hearing peoples thoughts as to what it could be. My frantic googling has suggested upwards fixation of the platella, although she doesn't seem to display all the symptoms and I have never seen her drag her leg. I have the vet coming on Wednesday to do her teeth and jabs so will of course discuss this with her then as well.
Thank you to anyone who has taken the time to read this rather lengthy post.
My four year old mare has always swung her right hind leg to the outside slightly in walk, my farrier first picked up on the problem as she had developed a noticeable flair on her hoof. Before backing her this Feb, I got the Physio out who said she had tight 'hip flexors' on that side and gave her ultra sound therapy, which did seem to improve her gait for a time. Over the past few moths she has progressed well and has recently been working in a nice outline on both reins. However, she has always been very heavy in my right hand and found bending to the right very difficult at first, so much so that her method of evasion was to spin round very quickly and try and take off in the other direction! Both my instructor and I put this down to her being young and unbalanced as well as a little bit temperamental, and after a couple of lessons we managed to resolve the issue successfully. She also use'd to fall out horrendously through her left shoulder, but again became a lot straighter over time. I felt that she was just needing to build up the correct muscles and as this was happening, her work was greatly improving.
However, last week, after a few days off due to bad weather, I hacked her out and and she was extremely resistant to the contact, throwing her head in the air whenever I tried to push her in to it. I then had a lesson on Tuesday night and we decided that she was definitely 'short' on her right hind and it was particularly noticeable when it was on the outside of the circle. She was doing her usual 'swinging' motion in walk on a hard surface but looked sound in trot. The next day I tried lunging her and whilst she was fine on the right rein, she kept falling in on the left which she has never done before. I then noticed that she had developed some ulcers on her lips (a whole different story) so gave her the rest of the week off in case they were contributing factors in any way. As they are now healing nicely, I lunged her yesterday with no tack on and things seem to have got a lot worse, whilst she does still not appear lame to me, on the left rein after a few circles of trot, she suddenly stopped dead, swung her quarters out and put her ears flat back! I tried to work her through it briefly but kept getting the same reaction. The swing of her right hind definitely becomes more noticeable when it is on the outside of a circle as well. I put her on the right rein and she was fine, but then back on the left the same thing happened again so I immediately called it a day!
I am worried that there is more going on than her simply just having tight hip flexors, and would greatly appreciate hearing peoples thoughts as to what it could be. My frantic googling has suggested upwards fixation of the platella, although she doesn't seem to display all the symptoms and I have never seen her drag her leg. I have the vet coming on Wednesday to do her teeth and jabs so will of course discuss this with her then as well.
Thank you to anyone who has taken the time to read this rather lengthy post.
