Horse lame at trot, one way

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ottbbabe

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My horse has a weird lameness. He is about 1-2/5 lame for the first two or three steps of trot going right. Then it almost completely goes away, down to about a 0.5-1/5. He seems hesitant to pick up the trot going right. To the left he is fine, completely sound. My horse is a TB and has sensitive feet. A year ago he broke his RF coffin bone, that healed completely and hasn't caused him any problems since. But he does a wear a straight bar shoe on that foot. Last time the farrier came out, about 1.5 weeks ago, he put a heart bar shoe on him. Yesterday, after I had asked him to multiple times, he removed the heart bar and put a straight bar shoe on. I don't know why he put the heart bar on my horse in the first place, since he had been completely sound with a straight bar shoe. I have talked to my vet and he thinks the heart bar shoe put pressure on my horses frog and made my horse sore. So does my trainer. What do you think this lameness is? It's really frustrating as he was doing so well in training and we were planing on showing this summer Hoping it's not serious. Really don't want to rehab him from an serious injury again!
 
A little sore. I have only trotted him in a straight line on hard ground and he does have very sensitive feet, but I would say a bit sore.
 
I'd get it properly worked up. Mine is lame on the odd step, left fore, left rein, on a sharp turn. He has just been diagnosed with pretty severe DJD in fetlocks and is basically written off, at 11. He's 100% lunged on concrete on both reins, and on a straight line.
 
Yikes... Praying it's not something like that. My horse is only 6 and showed a ton of talent in dressage and jumping. Don't know what I would do.
 
By saying 'hes a little sore' Do you mean hes lame in a straight line, or do you mean footsore in both feet? Also is it weightbearing (ie worse when foot is on ground bearing weight) or swinging leg (worse moving)? You need tolook very carefully at how the leg moves, and try and narrow down where the lameness is.
It sounds like the horse above (lame on turn) lameness is weightbearing, as on a left turn the inside fore takes all the weight. This would agree with the diagnosis. If its worse when moving its usually soft tissue injury.
 
What do you mean by worse when the foot is on the ground bearing weight and worse moving? I have no idea what you mean by those two things. His lameness is worse when he moves (obviously) and worse when the foot is bearing weight (also obviously). Can you try to explain those things so they make sense?
 
weightbearing lameness- when the horse doesnt like weight being on the foot- rests it in stable, points, generally uncomfortable when the leg is underneath him taking weight, doesnt like the good leg being picked up.
swinging leg lameness- may be ok standing still with all weight on leg, but takes a shorter stride, or doesnt move leg the way he should, like its a muscle hurting when its moved.
Imagine yourself 1) having a drawing pin stuck in the bottom of your foot - itd hurt when you were standing. 2) having a sore calf muscle-itd hurt more when you tried to use it to walk.
 
Could it just be the shoe made him sore? Could I wait a few days to see if he gets better now that he has a straight bar shoe back on?
 
ottbbabe said:
Could it just be the shoe made him sore? Could I wait a few days to see if he gets better now that he has a straight bar shoe back on?
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The heart bar may well have exacerbated the situation and made him sore by putting extra pressure on the pedal bone but it is unlikely that he is totally sound if he requires bar shoes to work in, they will be giving him the sense of having heel support but not sorting out the underlying reason why they are being used, as he is so young I would want to be finding out why he is not growing a decent foot/ heel and so requires the bar shoe to make up for his weakness.
They can be used short term, possibly to give help when he recovered from the injury but ideally will be out of them into normal shoes once the hoof has fully recovered, which after a year it should have, and it has become correctly balanced, keeping him in them long term may well be stopping the hoof growing properly and eventually something may well go wrong that requires serious treatment, I think I would like some xrays to see what is going on now where the fracture was to ensure appropriate shoeing/ treatment is carried out, the farrier/ vet do not have xray eyes so something may well have changed since the last xrays were done.
 
Most horses that have fractured their coffin bones where bar shoes for At Least a year after the injury, sometimes two years. It's to give the coffin bone extra support.
 
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Or he could just have an abscess, bruise or nail prick in a position that is sore going right. So that would be on the ouside edge of his off fore or the inside edge of his near fore, depending on which leg he is actually lame on.

A quick exam with a pair of hoof testers (do they still use those in the UK?), can be very useful.
 
My horse has gone from having pads on to having heart bars on, due to a bone spur in his coffin joint and at first he felt good and a week later he was short on the hard ground but fine in the school, then another week later was short in walk even in the school but fine in trot! its not been 4 weeks since they've been on and he seems to have gone back to normal! but I do find myself watching him so much that I'm looking for him to be lame, so I wonder if I am imagine things!
 
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