tobiano1984
Well-Known Member
Wonder if anyone can shed some light on this. My lovely cob has had a bit of an issue for the last couple of weeks. He is fine/sound in all movements apart from his canter, which feels a bit short in front and just not as good as usual. Quick history:
Owned from youngster, broke him myself. Couldn't canter for ages, 4 beat and flailing! Lots of schooling and hard work and now canter is probably his best pace. Competing Ele, schooling Med at home. 15hh cob gelding, 8 years old, thinks he's a PRE stallion. Very flamboyant, uphill, bouncy, also hyperflexible hence the difficulty with canter initially.
Earlier this year, I think he pulled a muscle in his right fore - think tricep, doing one of his silly OTT shapes - 4/5 weeks of lighter work and stretching and all back to normal, went out and won an Elementary test with 74%. In this instance, the canter was a bit dodgy but it was more noticeable in the fact that he wouldn't extend as much on the right side in med. trot.
This time, the trot work is excellent - he's doing fab half passes, his medium trot is bigger and better than ever. 2 weeks ago we first noticed it in my lesson, trainer said his huge overtrack in walk wasn't there. 2 weeks later, the overtrack is back, but the canter isn't. It's not awful, I think most people watching wouldn't notice - just as a rider I can feel it, and my trainer can see it who knows his movement very well. Most noticeable on left rein, feels like he isn't protracting his left fore enough, and almost pigeons it in a bit (according to trainer). He'll lengthen strides if you ask, struggles a bit coming back to collection but then always has as he loses control a bit. Canter half passes are OK, but a little less smooth than usual, and struggling to collect him as much so they get a bit onward bound.
I should admit at this stage that I am a newly qualified vet physio, so I'd like to think I know what I'm looking at in terms of assessment - although lack the experience of previous cases. So after riding, I've thoroughly checked him over, no heat in any legs, no swelling, joint ROM all OK, little bit reluctant to hold the stretch in the forelegs protracted. I've lunged him and no lameness even on small circles. Hard to judge canter on the lunge as if he's not held together by a rider it reverts to being a bit wobbly anyway.
He's barefoot with excellent feet, trots out on all terrain (no canter as ground too hard) so I think I can rule out foot issues.
Another component is that his work has been dropped a bit in the last couple of months since our last competition, as I had final exams. So it may be that this has led to the wonky canter returning...but it doesn't feel quite like the old wonky canter he had when he was 5. He usually does a lot of walk/canter transitions to keep him together, but I've backed off these as didn't want to exacerbate the issue.
So...props if you've made it this far, can anyone lend any advice?! It's really hard to be objective with my own horse :-( especially as he is my most precious boy! I don't want to get a vet out at this stage, as there is no lameness and after the experience with another dressage cob at my yard being referred all over the place for a movement abnormality it was apparent that the vets couldn't really work out anything so just stuffed steroids into him which had no effect.
I'm just in a bit of a quandary as to whether to rest him or push on and see if working him improves the canter. The last issue was more obvious with the pulled muscle, this one is so hard to pinpoint.
Owned from youngster, broke him myself. Couldn't canter for ages, 4 beat and flailing! Lots of schooling and hard work and now canter is probably his best pace. Competing Ele, schooling Med at home. 15hh cob gelding, 8 years old, thinks he's a PRE stallion. Very flamboyant, uphill, bouncy, also hyperflexible hence the difficulty with canter initially.
Earlier this year, I think he pulled a muscle in his right fore - think tricep, doing one of his silly OTT shapes - 4/5 weeks of lighter work and stretching and all back to normal, went out and won an Elementary test with 74%. In this instance, the canter was a bit dodgy but it was more noticeable in the fact that he wouldn't extend as much on the right side in med. trot.
This time, the trot work is excellent - he's doing fab half passes, his medium trot is bigger and better than ever. 2 weeks ago we first noticed it in my lesson, trainer said his huge overtrack in walk wasn't there. 2 weeks later, the overtrack is back, but the canter isn't. It's not awful, I think most people watching wouldn't notice - just as a rider I can feel it, and my trainer can see it who knows his movement very well. Most noticeable on left rein, feels like he isn't protracting his left fore enough, and almost pigeons it in a bit (according to trainer). He'll lengthen strides if you ask, struggles a bit coming back to collection but then always has as he loses control a bit. Canter half passes are OK, but a little less smooth than usual, and struggling to collect him as much so they get a bit onward bound.
I should admit at this stage that I am a newly qualified vet physio, so I'd like to think I know what I'm looking at in terms of assessment - although lack the experience of previous cases. So after riding, I've thoroughly checked him over, no heat in any legs, no swelling, joint ROM all OK, little bit reluctant to hold the stretch in the forelegs protracted. I've lunged him and no lameness even on small circles. Hard to judge canter on the lunge as if he's not held together by a rider it reverts to being a bit wobbly anyway.
He's barefoot with excellent feet, trots out on all terrain (no canter as ground too hard) so I think I can rule out foot issues.
Another component is that his work has been dropped a bit in the last couple of months since our last competition, as I had final exams. So it may be that this has led to the wonky canter returning...but it doesn't feel quite like the old wonky canter he had when he was 5. He usually does a lot of walk/canter transitions to keep him together, but I've backed off these as didn't want to exacerbate the issue.
So...props if you've made it this far, can anyone lend any advice?! It's really hard to be objective with my own horse :-( especially as he is my most precious boy! I don't want to get a vet out at this stage, as there is no lameness and after the experience with another dressage cob at my yard being referred all over the place for a movement abnormality it was apparent that the vets couldn't really work out anything so just stuffed steroids into him which had no effect.
I'm just in a bit of a quandary as to whether to rest him or push on and see if working him improves the canter. The last issue was more obvious with the pulled muscle, this one is so hard to pinpoint.
