Horse stumbling / jolting in walk

H

happihorse

Well-Known Member
Joined
11 November 2006
Messages
1,563
Visit site
Very occasionally, when in walk, my horse stumbles or jolts for a stride. It is hard to describe but it is as though he has put his foot to the ground and then just drops a little further on that leg. He only does it in walk and it is normally when he is not completely through and just doing a relaxed walk. It happens on both the front and back legs, both sides.

Would you be worried about this?

Does anyone know what causes this?

Has anyone had any previous experience of this?
 
I will be interested to see what responses you will get, as I have a horse which does what you've described, except she does it in trot too. When we first got her, my instructor said it was almost because she was unbalanced (She was 12 then!), but after a while put it down to her own lazyness.

This year, Ballet's having remedial shoeing, due to some unknown cause of lameness, but when Martin Deacon saw Ballet's feet, he immediately said, does she trip, does she finf combinations difficult etc. Which is exactly what she does. He said he can try and get her feet supporting her conformation, which will hopefully decrease the tripping, and other problems, (aswell as make her sound - fingers crossed).

[Edit] Having just read back what you have written, Ballet's is more of a obvious trip, rather than a jolt. But will leave it, as it may be of some use?
 
Right, just wrote a long reply to this but then my computer crashed :( But I am glad I am not alone with this problem!

Anyway. About six weeks ago my mare suddenly started this, and she wasnt stumbling just being jolty on her front legs, especially downhill. Then we had a dressage lesson where she completley went over (in a field) and we couldnt find anything that she could have tripped on. We were obviously more worried at this point but we left it a week or so and we realised that she was being jolty on the harder surfaces rather than softer. But saying that we do a lot more road work so that could be it

Anyway, a few weeks ago the vet came out to her as we thought its time something was done. She took her in for investigations as she passed flexion tests etc, trotted up fine and nothing could be seen. (I take it this is what your horse is like? :\ )

The investiagtions and traetment cost around £560 btw but we claimed on insurance. She had numerous nerve blocks and it was discovered that she was 1-2 tenths lame, so very mild lameness. The x rays also showed unbalancing in the foot also.

She had a steriod injection into each foot, and she is being shod slightly differently as her toes were too long causing the unbalance. She had to have three days box rest (with 20mins out in hand daily), before two weeks of walking.

Monday was our first day back trotting and we got to canter yesterday and I am very pleased to say that she is fixed :D :D :D Well, hopefully! We havent had problems since, however I havent done any work going downhill as it puts the weight on her front end a lot more, and I want to give it time before that - maybe early next week.


I would strongly advise getting it checked out, as even though it was expensive and only her being unbalanced, our minds are now at rest and it could be a lot more serious. I think that the harder ground before, may have just made Abbey feel her feet more and that could be the trigger to show us what went on

I have pony club camp a week tomorrow, so we will see how she is during that. I may only ride once per day.

Feel free to ask any questions as I probably missed something off!
 
Ohh and we mainly felt the problem in walk (inc when she went over) and every now and again in trot, and once when she landed after a fence in canter (on a surface)
 
Glad you posted this as I am experiencing something similar. My mare had shoeing problems about 18 months ago, her toes were left too long and she had a bad hoof crack. I changed farriers, and vet x-rayed her foot, and found she needed to have 2.2cms removed from her toe :eek:. The new farrier managed to get the crack grown out, but unfortunately had a personality clash with her (she's a ginger :rolleyes:) so I went back to the old farrier, who had no problems shoeing her. I am trying to keep a real eye on how he shoes her (and he was told not to leave it too long); but I suspect that her jolting (and sometimes stumbling) is caused by foot imbalance.

Her foot doesn't look too long, but the vet who x-rayed her last year said she has naturally small feet, hence the tempation for farriers to leave the toe long to make her foot look more "normal". I am thinking about getting her x-rayed again just to check if it's the cause of the problem. I'm inclined to think that this is nearly always going to be caused by a shoeing/imbalance problem.
 
Thank you all for your replies - sounds like it could be something to do with a foot imbalance then.

I have used my current farrier for years and years and he is very good with the horses and extremely reliable but I do sometimes wonder if he just does the bear minimum.

I think I might get the vet to have a quick look (although I don't want them running me up lots of bills) and perhaps try to get the opinion of another farrier (preferably a remedial one) on my horses feet.

I'm so glad I posted this - I though I might just be being rather picky and you lot would all think I was being stupid!
 
An x-ray is a good place to start and really won't cost that much, especially if you take your horse there. I used the vets remedial farrier for the first two shoeings to get rid of the crack, it started growing out immediately.

FWIW I am considering an annual x-ray on my horses feet as a matter of course now. Not least as a record so that if something does start changing, we can track progress etc.
 
I had the same problem with my horse, as soon as I got a new farrier he asked straight away if he tripped and I said yes!!!

He shod him a hell of a lot shorter than before and once he was over the 'oh my god where have my feet gone' he hasn't done it once since :)
 
Hi,am having the same problems as the poster, I have sent a message but, wondered if there was an outcome, was it shoing that was causing the problems?
 
I don't know if there was an outcome to this thread, but my mare did this after nerve damage in her shoulder caused by a fall. She only did it in walk and a chiropractic treatment would sort it. Don't know if this helps wxracehorse.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top