Horse stiff but only on one side?

[WackyWelsh]

My horse had the physio out not long ago and she said that he was very stiff on his left side and that his pelvis had rotated (?) Afterwards he seemed better for a bit but we found the saddle didn’t fit and it sat too close to his spine on the left side because of dodgy flocking. He’s been off work for about 2 months now and I tried riding him in a saddle the other day and he was ok on the left rein, but on the right rein he was doing the odd ‘head bob’ and didn’t really want to stretch.
When I lunge him, on the left rein he’s okay but on the right rein he doesn’t track up on his outside (left side) but does on the inside.
He also finds it more difficult to bend his neck to the right than to the left when doing carrot stretches.
When I was riding him, he’d always fall in and out the circle through his left shoulder. He also seems to take slightly shorter steps with his front left than with his front right.
We had the vet out a few days ago and they couldn’t find any obvious problems as he’s not really lame, I’m going to get a chiro and a massage therapist out next but any ideas on what the cause could be? Maybe just an ill fitting saddle and general stiffness? We’re going to get a tailor made AH saddle now just to be safe 🙂

 

[OldieButGoodie]

My young horse had similar signs to your horse. He had repeated episodes of curling to on one side when being ridden - saddle would be pushed to the right and his tail held to the left. He would be slightly short and not going forward. He would fall out on circles and was generally wrong! Saddle checked - fine. No signs of lameness either but he was reactive on the lumbar region on the right hand side. Vet did an xray of his back ruled out kissing spines but found very slight signs of inflammation suggesting a previous injury. So he injected the horse's lumbar region with steroids and anti inflammatories and once the horse has had rest he will be seen by the physio and work will start again. This horse had fallen in the field just over a year ago - he seemed OK at the time but vet now thinks this was the cause of his back problems.

So maybe consider getting the vet back out before getting a new saddle?

 

[SEL]

Mine is rock solid on her right hand side and we're about to start investigations with a new vet (I won't bore you with my frustrations on vet #1). She has an appointment with Rob Jackson this weekend to see whether he can spot anything from an osteo perspective, but I have a suspicion there is something niggling in her right hind and she's compensating for it. She does have arthritic hocks so we're starting there with a new set of x-rays in case its a degeneration issue.

 

[WackyWelsh]

My young horse had similar signs to your horse. He had repeated episodes of curling to on one side when being ridden - saddle would be pushed to the right and his tail held to the left. He would be slightly short and not going forward. He would fall out on circles and was generally wrong! Saddle checked - fine. No signs of lameness either but he was reactive on the lumbar region on the right hand side. Vet did an xray of his back ruled out kissing spines but found very slight signs of inflammation suggesting a previous injury. So he injected the horse's lumbar region with steroids and anti inflammatories and once the horse has had rest he will be seen by the physio and work will start again. This horse had fallen in the field just over a year ago - he seemed OK at the time but vet now thinks this was the cause of his back problems.

So maybe consider getting the vet back out before getting a new saddle?

The thing is that i’m 99% that the saddle is either the root cause of one of the main causes..he was ridden in the saddle that didn’t fit for 2 years before I got him. It’s not an awful fit but it’s not the right shape for his back and slips, but I’ll look into possibly getting the vet out again to look at his back.

 

[ester]

I'd be doing some straightness training with him, and making sure any new saddle could be adjusted once he evens up into it. I would keep in mind that a lot of saddle side slippage (assume you mean to the side) is lameness linked, even if not terribly obvious right now. My saddle fitter was the first person to query my own welshie because of what the saddle was doing- he was slowly developing a spavin on that side.

 

[SEL]

I'd be doing some straightness training with him, and making sure any new saddle could be adjusted once he evens up into it. I would keep in mind that a lot of saddle side slippage (assume you mean to the side) is lameness linked, even if not terribly obvious right now. My saddle fitter was the first person to query my own welshie because of what the saddle was doing- he was slowly developing a spavin on that side.

My saddle was shimmed up on right quite significantly. For ages I thought this was due to previous poorly fitting saddle but it's looking more like under developed shoulder due to issue elsewhere.

 

[ester]

we shimmed the left at that point, he did seem to even out again though would sometimes get some rubbing at the back of the saddle. Another saddler gave me an excellent demo of why that was happening all linked to the same thing.

He did get wonky shoulders when he was front hoof lame but wasn't really ridden until we had evened that up, have a pic of that somewhere.

Despite all that I still hadn't put 2+2 together when mum said his saddle was slipping slightly/it was setting her sciatica off again recently until I visited.

 

[Tiddlypom]

Erm, how can you afford a M2M saddle but not the vet? You posted this on another thread a few days ago.

=WackyWelsh;13821914]Yes I know, sorry. It’s just all so frustrating and now I’m left wondering I will ever be able to have him being comfortably ridden again and at the moment (I know, bad horse owner) I don’t actually have the money for the vet to do a full check after having physio, saddle fitter and a massage therapist. Will get them out ASAP.

You do know that you do not have the same consumer rights of rejecting a M2M saddle cf an off the shelf saddle if you don't like it, don't you? One of the AH saddle fitters often posts on HHO, and she always tries to steer folk away from M2M...

I have an epically wonky horse with bilateral hock arthritis and other issues. Her saddle used to slip to the right, as that is her more affected hock. She goes well in her usual Ideal event saddle which has been flocked to suit her, plus an assymetrically shimmed Mattes correction numnah. No more saddle slippage.

 

[WackyWelsh]

Erm, how can you afford a M2M saddle but not the vet? You posted this on another thread a few days ago.



You do know that you do not have the same consumer rights of rejecting a M2M saddle cf an off the shelf saddle if you don't like it, don't you? One of the AH saddle fitters often posts on HHO, and she always tries to steer folk away from M2M...

I have an epically wonky horse with bilateral hock arthritis and other issues. Her saddle used to slip to the right, as that is her more affected hock. She goes well in her usual Ideal event saddle which has been flocked to suit her, plus an assymetrically shimmed Mattes correction numnah. No more saddle slippage.

M2M saddle would be a gift from my parents, it was actually more their idea than mine

 

[ester]

I would be really cautious getting a M2M saddle for a horse that has not been in work for a couple of months and experiencing issues that means it is likely to change.