How good are you at spotting lameness?

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moneypit1

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Tbh I can feel it better. I rode Fly today and to me he felt 'wrong'. I asked 3 separate experienced riders to take a look at him when i rode and they all said he looked fine. I dunno, he just felt different. He was shod yesterday and i wonder if that has something to do with it? (will have another look tomorrow but I can feel a vets visit coming on)! I am not the best at spotting lameness, I say its one leg and my friends usually disagree and say its another! A vet friend of mine once pointed out 10 horses in an afternoon at a local show that showed signs of lameness. I noticed 2! How good are you at spotting lameness?
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Not very, unless it's obvious or, like you, I am riding. I improved on picking WHICH leg was lame when a vet pointed out to me that a lame horse bobs it's head when it's GOOD foot is put down.

OH is really good at it though.
 
I'm not good at spotting when they are only just lame, but my mum has always had the ability to spot even very slight lameness that not many would spot. An ability that has had mixed reactions, seeing as she is a working hunter and burghley young event horse judge!!
She has even watched pupils' filmed dressage tests and picked up on a few bruised soles in her time, which hadn't been picked up by the dressage judge!!! But don't get me started on dressage judging.....that's a whole other thread!!
 
I am very good, I don't even have to be watching the horse, I have been leading ones next to me in walk before and just known they were lame because you can tell by the sound of the footfalls and way they move etc. I think it's because I spend so much time around horses so find it easy to spot when something's not normal.
 
I'm pretty good after years and years of helping out with an on and off lame horse and watching him being trotted up every other day! I worry that i'm imagining it sometimes as other people can't see/feel it but i can pick up even a bit of unlevel-ness. Like i was riding a horse with a wonkey pelvis and it really bothered me as even though she was not lame she wasn't as even in her stride as a normal horse would be. I'm a bit sad though, i have a habit of counting the beat in my head as i'm going along, no matter what i'm doing
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Funnily enough we were just talking about this very subject this afternoon and we both agreed that if it is a very subtle lameness (as my friend's horse has at the moment, even the vet didn't spot it) you can feel something is wrong as a rider.
 
Brilliant! When i walk up to the field in the morning to bring in, by the time I get to the gate I know that they are both sound. I put headcollars on and have a quick scan on the near side to see if they have any cuts, then sort of fan them out the gate - one after the other - I scan the otherside for cuts as Im doing it. So by the time they are in the stables, I know they are both sound and have no cuts. Mick did catch me out though the other day.,. he had been in the thorn bushes and had a spike in his side under his rug.. ouch.. poor lad.
 
I clock it a mile off!
My mates get embarassed as whenever we go to any shows Im one the look out for lameness/sore backs
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Last month my mate said her sec A was slightly lame, she thought it was one of her front legs, before I touched her I said it was her shoulder/wither area....
Low and behold it was
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I've noticed lameness in my boy when bringing him in from the field. I didn't even have to look at him, I just knew.

Jane
 
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