Horse locking the neck

[FlyingCircus]

Anyone had this?

My mare locks her neck from the base, and tries to go crooked. This hinders her shoulder movement and makes her look like a 3 legged donkey! Then as soon as she relaxes, goes straight and forward she has a lovely ground covering trot.

If you've had the same, how have you managed it? I think we've cracked it, then we go back to square one again...is all very depressing!

 

[ycbm]

What breeding is your mare?

I have had something similar in TB who had neck arthritis in the bottom half of the neck. There are also a lot of horses around with TB breeding, apparently, which have a congenital abnormality of C6/7 at the bottom of the neck that causes instability and crookedness.
.

 

[FlyingCircus]

What breeding is your mare?

I have had something similar in TB who had neck arthritis in the bottom half of the neck. There are also a lot of horses around with TB breeding, apparently, which have a congenital abnormality of C6/7 at the bottom of the neck that causes instability and crookedness.
.

Welsh D, so hopefully not same kind of abnormality. What were the symptoms in your TB? She doesn't show anything on the ground in particular, but does tend to stand over her front legs, rather than taking the weight more behind naturally. Have always thought this is down to her breeding as she is quite heavy infront, but maybe something else going on.

 

[HobleytheTB]

It might be worth getting a vet or physio to check for any issues within the neck. I know of a Connie with the c6/c7 abnormality, not saying I think it's that - but that issue does exist in non-TBs too!

Do you do carrot stretches with her? Is her overall range of motion good?

 

[stangs]

Does she shove her muzzle out to one side as she does so? If so, I know a Welsh who does the exact same thing, so curious to see what the cause ends up being.

 

[ycbm]

Welsh D, so hopefully not same kind of abnormality. What were the symptoms in your TB? She doesn't show anything on the ground in particular, but does tend to stand over her front legs, rather than taking the weight more behind naturally. Have always thought this is down to her breeding as she is quite heavy infront, but maybe something else going on.

I would get part way through a schooling session and he would lock when I turned to the right. He couldn't get out of the lock by staying in a steady balanced trot, or just letting him stretch. I had to run him forward in a flat faster trot and it would unlock and we could work again. It wasn't an obvious feeling, more a loss of quality in the work, but if I tried to get a canter transition without unlocking him first, he would buck.

His carrot stretches were noticeably different from one side to the other as well. .

 

[sbloom]

There's a huge chance it's purely posture and straightness. Take a picture of her, stood up correctly, from both sides. What differences can you see? Why do you think she's so on her forehand? (not targeting you as such but it's SO good for people to think about these things)

 

[oldie48]

I'm not sure if this is the same as you are experiencing but I've had a couple of horses that would not go forward because they had set their neck and I think it's a fairly common evasion, one of them would go quite crooked but neither had anything wrong with their neck. I found that flexing them and encouraging them to "let go" in the warm up really helped. Initially the flexing movement needed to be quite strong but having watched others school with a similar issue, the actual movement is a lot less than it feels for the rider. Gradually they both improved until the movement was relatively subtle but the increase in power and straightness was very noticeable. I think partly it was about them finding their balance but also letting go of tension, hopefully it's not a mechanical problem.

 

[Cob Life]

Yes!
Blue does this, especially if he’s unfit, he’s a cob so when he’s weak he finds it harder to balance, it’s a schooling issue with him as he’s never been taught any different and was so rigid it was like riding an ironing board!

Its almost completely gone on the left rein, we still have more work to do on the right.

things that have helped:
carrot stretches
circles and serpentines (my favourite is a trot serpentine but with a trot walk trot tradition over the centre line)
making sure he’s forwards and not just rushing (my biggest fault I often go fast not forwards)
the best piece of advice I got from someone else was don’t let his head influence your hands ie. if he’s putting his head crocked don’t then put your hands crocked

This is about biggest issue at the moment as when he’s straight he’s going in a very nice outline

 

[FlyingCircus]

Thanks guys! Interesting experiences. I'm hoping it's nothing sinister and just a schooling issue.

She is having a full MOT, and has 2 wobbly and one worn wolf teeth. We think the wobblier of the two may have fractured just below the gum before extraction. So possibly could be related!

 

[FlyingCircus]

To answer some questions, she doesn't tend to head tilt whilst she's doing it. I don't religiously do carrot stretches at the moment. And she stands like she's about to topple over (bit of an exaggeration, but she is very much not sitting back as much as I'd like), spends her life looking like she is trotting into the ground. I can well believe it could be a posture thing, which we're trying to fix through schooling and groundwork...possibly I am just impatient!