horse is 1/10th lame, advice please and possible problems?

[aregona]

I have a 17.2hh dutch warmblood. he is 11yr old now and is a super horse. He is very willing, kind, gentle blah blah blah.....

He has his back and teeth done, saaddles checked etc...

But each year he seems to go ever so slightly lame. It appears to be from his off side shoulder. He is working towards medium level dressage and BE90. He never says no jumping.
I have no problems with grumpyness tacking up, getting on etc.. The only way i know there is a problem is when he places his off side front on the floor when trotting on the road you can hear a slightly different sound. Also when jumping he is reluctant to land on the right canter lead.

He is not insured so money is limited but im keen to get this sorted so will be contacting the vets first thing monday.

there is no swelling in his legs when he is kept in, he does go slightly still behind when he has been stabled but i just put that down to his size. Has anyone had experience of this, any advice please?
greatly appreciated, here's a picture of him just because he's a babe!

 

[be positive]

The first thing I would look at is foot balance, if you need to x ray this should not be too expensive to just do the basic views required and may save you in the long run if a simple change to shoeing is all that is required. A horse in my yard has just had x rays done as he was not quite right and they showed an unexpected inbalance, he is now having remedial shoeing and already moving more freely.
You should be able to get a few tests done without having a complete, and expensive, full work up.

 

[aregona]

ok, thanks for that. My farrier is great and very open minded.As i dont know much about hoof imbalance and im eager to learn can you explain it at all? im just curious can it be caused by bad showing or just not all horses following the 'usual' pattern?

 

[be positive]

I dont know much really but it is the first place to look if nothing else is obviously wrong, the horse in my yard has been well shod but grows more toe than heel so that however frequently he is shod it has been difficult to keep the toe short enough. The x rays showed that the pastern and pedal bone are not quite in line, I have not yet seen the x rays but the vet was surprised by how they were as his feet look to be well balanced but for some reason they are not right inside and the pedal bone is going slightly upwards. The only clue was the occasional stop jumping and very slight loss of muscle on his right side under the saddle, this is very recent and was picked up on a routine physio check.
The horse is now in bar shoes with the toes well back, they only went on on Thursday and he was ridden today moving better than ever, so hopefully he will soon be back to jumping happily.

 

[Andalucian]

Hmmmm, the age and your description makes me think heel pain (been through it many times).

Questions, does he ever trip? Does he go slower down hill than up? Is he lazier off the leg in dressage than he used to be? If yes to these - think feet.

Photos of the feet from the side would help in this discussion, but it sounds like his heels are too short and therefore too much concussion being delivered up the limb.....hence you thinking shoulder....

He's beautiful by the way.