Horse has become narrow behind

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Farcical1

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Ive had my mare for 3 years; she is 11 years old, Irish bred. We do low level dressage and jumping.

She has had a couple of episodes of lameness since I've had her; one due to a slip in the field, one due to a mass escape from the field and possibly a slip on a gravelled driveway. She has regular treatments from a Mctimoney chiro and a vet chiro.

Just recently I have noted that when she is standing she is very narrow behind. If standing level, her back feet are right next to one another and she almost stands on herself at times, when adjusting her position. If she has one hoof tipped, then that hoof is slightly in front of the other. In addition, in the last two months, she has pulled off both back shoes, having never pulled one before. Last week she caught the inside of her left hind, just above the hoof, taking some skin off; she has now repeated this, but worse this time, leaving quite a large wound. This is under vet care.

I do feel that this narrowness behind is a recent development, and her run of shoe pulling and injuries seem to reflect this. My gut feeling is that this change of stance is related to changes in the limb, possibly hocks.
Does anyone have any experience or thoughts on this? I will be talking to my vets and she is insured! I just want to see if I'm being paranoid or do have a genuine cause for concern?
 
I bought a horse that injured herself she was so close behind/under muscled, she also had issues due to a fall before I bought her. I was working her for a couple of months with no improvement before a new physio prescribed 6 weeks of walking. She no longer brushes at all where as when I got her she wrecked boots every few weeks.

Obviously you need a vet to diagnose your horse as to why she has this issue, but all is not lost in terms of building her back up in my experience. They do however need the right work, which is lots of walking, once you get the go ahead.

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Wagtail said:
Yes, I would be concerned. If she were mine I would have a full lameness work up
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Me too. I have seen this kind of stance develop in relation to hock/suspensory problems. Better to rule anything serious out before you start changing work or changing shoeing IMO. It's always nice to be able to prove a 'gut feeling' wrong ;) Whereas you'd kick yourself if you ignored it and it turned out to be something you had niggling at the back of your mind.
 
She's shod with lateral extensions already; I will have a chat with my farrier though as he's out on Monday to trim the other two.

We've just recently done 4 weeks of walk and trot work after she pulled the second shoe. She is well muscled behind, having been very weak and uneven when I got her.

My gut is saying that there is something underlying going on. It seems we get to a certain point with work, then something goes wrong.

Wagtail, why her neck?
 
Farcical1 said:
She's shod with lateral extensions already; I will have a chat with my farrier though as he's out on Monday to trim the other two.

We've just recently done 4 weeks of walk and trot work after she pulled the second shoe. She is well muscled behind, having been very weak and uneven when I got her.

My gut is saying that there is something underlying going on. It seems we get to a certain point with work, then something goes wrong.

Wagtail, why her neck?
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Sometimes when a horse suddenly becomes more close behind and starts standing on itself, has a lack of coordination behind etc., especially when they have also suffered a fall, it can be due to some compression of the spinal cord in the neck. I would want to rule this out for my own piece of mind.
 
Thank you all for reassuring me that I'm not going mad! I just have a gut feeling that something isn't right.
The vet is coming on Wednesday to assess; I'm happy to be proved wrong.
I'm thinking that X-rays are probably the initial starting point to assess things. Will the insurance pay for investigations if they are done at my instigation rather than on vet recommendation?
 
Farcical1 said:
Thank you all for reassuring me that I'm not going mad! I just have a gut feeling that something isn't right.
The vet is coming on Wednesday to assess; I'm happy to be proved wrong.
I'm thinking that X-rays are probably the initial starting point to assess things. Will the insurance pay for investigations if they are done at my instigation rather than on vet recommendation?
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Yes, mine did, although when my vet completed the claim form I don't think he said that I had requested them, just that my horse had ridden and tacking up problems and X-rays were done to look for spinal problems.
 
Farcical1 said:
She's shod with lateral extensions already; I will have a chat with my farrier though as he's out on Monday to trim the other two
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This throws up a red flag to me. Every time I've seen a horse put in lateral extensions, I can clearly see the imbalance in the farrier's work which causes both narrow movement, and long toes = shoe pulling. Do the simple stuff first, get someone else to advise on the foot balance before spending loads on further investigation.
 
i have no concerns re her feet/ shoeing. I have an extremely good farrier who has just completed his remedial farriery training. She has been shod by the same farrier for the last three years and this is a new development.
I appreciate what you're saying about doing the simple stuff first. He is coming on Monday to trim my other two, so I will chat with him re: my concerns.
 
im going to correct myself here. Having looked on good old Google, she doesn't have true lateral extension shoes on; they do look quite extreme!She is shod with some shoe showing slightly wider and to the hind of the foot to give more support.
When she came to me her feet were totally the wrong shape and they now look good.
I do trust my farrier and he is one who the vets refer to for their remedial work.
 
You say she has had a couple of slips - I think that she has hurt her back and you are now seeing the damage come out. Keep up with regular chiro work and work that will help build up her back muscles again.
 
Tnavas said:
You say she has had a couple of slips - I think that she has hurt her back and you are now seeing the damage come out. Keep up with regular chiro work and work that will help build up her back muscles again.
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I've been telling myself this for the last twelve months, and I am hoping that this is all that is going on. However, I can't quite get rid of the little niggly voice in the back of my head telling me something else is going on.
I think I have reached the point, slightly encouraged by you lot, where I need to exclude underlying issues before I push on.
 
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