Horse Lame on right rein

Amy W

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Hi All,

Wondering if any of you have any ideas or advice about my horses lameness. Joey is a thoroughbred 16.1hh, roughly 5 weeks ago when i was schooling he was lame on the right rein only on a circle on his forelimb. Stopped riding immediately and after 1 week seeing no improvement I called the vet out. His leg from the knee down has been nerve blocked and X rays done, he went sound when nerve blocked the navicular region although x ray on this area came back clear. All other nerve blocks including joint block on the knee he remained lame. An ultrasound was done on lower limb although again nothing was found, all clear. There is no heat, no swelling and no improvement with bute either. He is clearly in no pain from this and presents as sound when in a straight line or on left rein. I have also had the physio out to check shoulder region and back but no issues here either.

Exercise wise I was doing low level prelim dressage with him, riding 6 days a week, although 3 weeks prior to the lameness we were doing a lot of the schooling work in the grass field at home where by the ground was hard due to such a dry summer and making use of the stubble fields with galloping around them. I am worrying as to whether all the work on hard ground has created this lameness.

So at this stage I have no diagnosis still, I have decided to put him on 3 months rest and if no improvement then I will get an MRI done. My vet is now suspecting its just soft tissue damage although again there's no heat, swelling or pain in the area. Farrier has been out numerous times and found no problems also. I am currently bringing him in on a night and during day putting him in a small flat 20x40 paddock. Tried him on box rest for 2 weeks although still found no improvement and he was beginning to get dangerous with being frustrated on box rest, he was rearing and biting which is not in his nature at all.

Has anyone had any similar problems to this or can shine any light on what you think the problem is?

Thank You in advance.
 
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Hi didn't want to read and run. Soft tissue damage will really only show on MRI so if everything else is clear and the lameness is fairly mild/intermittent this sounds fairly typical from my experience.

Have you had his foot balance checked? Considered taking his shoes off whilst out of work? There are lots of threads on here about collateral ligament damage and other soft tissue foot problems. The prognosis varies according to the extent of the damage and any other problems that might be going on.

Have a search on here and try sending a PM to some of the barefoot people on here - seems like it is often the best way forward.
Good luck
 
Hi,

Thank you for reply, yeah had foot balance checked as the month prior I had to use a diff farrier whilst mine was on his holiday it was clear to see he was unbalanced after seeing a video which the physio shown me, so had that all corrected when my farrier returned.

He is such a wimp that he just can't cope barefoot, he is very flat footed so think makes it worse for him, my farrier has recommended some different shoes though which I think I will go for.

I'm thinking and hoping it's just deep bruising due to all the work on hard ground.

Thank you
 
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