I think my horse in pain, everyone else disagrees? What should I do?

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Sunny08

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Here is a brief history, my girl is 4.5 yrs old. when she turned 3 she had a freak accident in the stable where someone was walking past with a broom over their shoulder and caught her round the head whilst she was sleeping over the door, she panicked, reared up smacked her head and caused fractured poll and muscle wastage on her neck. It took 3 weeks for her even be able to lift her head up more than 6 inches and 4 months (!!!) before she would let me gently put a headcollar on etc. I was going to break her at 3.5 but ended up leaving it till last summer when she was 4. Once broken she was an angel but really stiff on her left rein - she will hold her head at an odd angle, refuse to flex to the left, etc. I turned her away from September and brought her back into work in January. Throughout this time I have had vets, physios, experienced riders look at her who have all told me they think she is physically fine but has learnt to be worried about the pain.
Hacking out she is fine and overall is a very happy, but when I ride her I just feel like I am pushing her into pain when asking her to flex, bend, etc.
No one involved with her now, apart from myself, saw how much pain this accident caused her, I was told by my vet I would likely lose her and it took months and months to regain trust of the horse I have raised since foal.
I am being criticised (albeit very nicely) for not pushing her hard enough but feel as if I am in a lose, lose situation, physically all the experts tell me she is fine, just has weaker muscles on one side which need building up. Logically I know it will be harder for her to work on her left rein as she is weaker that side and therefore we need to do it, but psychologically I just feel like I am causing her so much pain...
Any ideas or experience in taking this forward??
 
As I see it you have two choices.

Give up on her as a riding horse, consider driving instead or even a future as a broodmare

or determine that she is going to be a riding horse and find a way to help her deal with the the pain, whether real or imagined it is clearly real enough to her. This could be pain relief (you know your horse better than anybody else), it could be exercises to encourage stretch and movement.
 
Oh hun. Have a hug.

Take it all at your own speed, and that which suits your horse. Do things gently and over time - you're not in a rush are you? There's no law that states what and when a horse has to be doing something by. See if you are make progress over time (maybe log it) and if you don't, then get the horse booked into one fo the big equine centres (my favourite is the AHT at Newmarket) and have them do a full work up.

I was told to push Tiggy, and to my dying regret and shame I did to some extent, only in the end to find out that she was in pain that wasn't ever going to go away. I did fend off a lot of comments though about what a four year old 'should' be doing - I smiled sweetly and said 'Oh that's interesting' and then we did our own thing our way because whilst I didn't know her well enough to know what was going on, I did know enough to know to take it easier than I was being told to by well meaning friends and instructors.
 
I would say that if you have had the horse her whole life then you would be the best person to judge whether she is in any discomfort or not. Pain is an impossible thing to measure so a very hards thing for other people to objectively judge.

It sounds to me as if she still has some psycological trauma but also some muscle restrictions. Have you looked into using Myofascial Release with her? It is not that widely used (I do it myself alongside body work) but it can help to address restrictions deep within the fascia and can assist in dealing with longstanding injury?

If you want info google John Barnes Equine MFR and there will be plenty!

Good Luck

I am sure she will get there in her own time.
 
Stick to your guns, you know your horse. I had a clean straight break in my arm two years ago and I can still feel it when I put it under pressure.

I would try a big dose of bute and if she is no different, then treat it as a mechanical problem, and if she is different, then she's probably in pain. But even if it is"just" mechanical, that's no reason to feel you have to push a very young horse who has been seriously injured to do too much too fast.

If you learnt how to work her in hand then you would be able to build up her muscles slowly and be able to assess how she is coping step by step. The idea bores me rigid but I'm told that it can be quite fun!
 
I echo the advice and thoughts of those who have already posted.

You know your horse better than anyone. Don't be bulldozed into anything you are unhappy with because others think they know best. Stick to your guns and enjoy your horse, if you can. If she isn't able to fulfil your dreams or expectations then I am sure there will be someone happy to loan her and give her lots of love and cuddles and give her a quieter and more relaxed pace of life she probably needs.

Well done you for being such a caring owner - you clearly have a very special bond x
 
im having the exact same problems as you at the moment, my horse is tilting his head on an angle, putting his left ear back and not being able to flex to the left, i tried to ride him through it with people saying hes taking the mick, but yesterday i took him to the beach which he is usually raring for and he did this with his head and was really aggitated then he was reluctan to walk forwards and felt like he was going to rear which he never does, im getting his saddle checked next week as its really unlike him, i had his back done about 2 months ago and the vet for a lameness workup 2 months ago. strange how they both have the same symptoms.
 
I would also suggest a painkiller test. Three weeks of Danilon should help you determine whether she is in pain.

If there is no pain I would say that she is a young horse, there is no hurry to push her or work her hard! Why not have a nice 4-5 months hacking her out (which will do her fitness and muscles the world of good) and re-asses then?
 
Was she x rayed at the time? if she fractured her poll has it calcified over causing some restriction which would conflict with any flexion?
 
I have an all too similar story.

Bought horse at rising 4, not 2 months later, he fractured his skull in 2 places after getting cast. Initially, injury appeared to be superficial, vet examined eye that had graze over it and it looked like he'd got away with serious injury.
2 weeks later, his head swelled massively, x-rays, scans etc revealed 2 fractures.

I had the horse 5 1/2 years in total and his way of going and attitude deteriorated over time.
Towards the end, his gait changed and he also crabbed, with his quarters in all the time. He again went through lameness workouts and although not massively lame, his demeanour was such that it was felt to be fairer to have him pts. He was a horse who was not happy in his own skin.

Investigations after death showed that he'd damaged a nerve near his poll area (I can't remember what it was called). So, his problems weren't physical, they were neurological.

All in all, it was a very sad outcome to what was a talented horse.

ETA:
The bute to asses if pain or mechanical issues , is usually carried out over 3 days, giving 4 a day. Not over weeks as somebody else suggested.
Unfortunately, I have had experience of this more than once :(.
 
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I echo what most folks have put here too. You know your horse best having known her all her life. I would be tempted to try the pain killer route, then see where you go from there. If it DOES improve matters, it points in the direction that she is in pain, its at that point where I would be thinking of whether to have all the investigations done and plan what to do with her future on the results of that.

Good luck and please keep us updated.
 
She is your horse and only you can determine what is best for her and how fast or slow you develop her. You (I hope) will have many happy years together, those around you might mean well but only you have the real vested interest in her being right.

Good luck
 
You know the horse the best and you feel that you are pushing her in to pain. You are probably correct.
The solution is simple - don't push her and just hack her and that way she will hopefully not be put in any pain.
If you really want to know what is going on with her then you can always get her reffered to one of the specialist equine practices in Newmarket.
 
she sounds like both of my (sound!) baby horses (4 and 5!!)
i deal with probably 6-12 youngsters a year from backing.
some are more one sided than others. some improve really quickly. some really slowly. some the penny drops all of a sudden. some you just get tiny improvements.
so maybe the old injury isnt helping, but maybe shes just more right handed or left handed than you think!
little and often, and dont overload her.
if your instructor / trainer isnt helping, change.
take some video now and some in 8 weeks.
dont look at the 1st till youve taken the second!
if you have absolutely no improvement (i doubt it!) then you will have to question her future.
i bet you see a pleasant suprise tho!
 
We have seen massive improvement in muscular pain with acupuncture, which our vet does
I agree that if you think the horse is in pain, then she probably is. If she seems to be ok hacking then why not use that to build up her muscles? And if you can combine this with acupuncture, she will build the correct muscles. I do like the videos idea. I might use that myself.
 
I've known, oh, more than half a dozen horses whose behavioural/training issues turned out to be due to neck damage. In a couple of cases the original incident causing the damage was witnessed, although the direct line wasn't necessarily drawn immediately later on, in a couple of cases the pieces of the puzzle came together later on, and in a couple the damage was found but no one ever knew the origin. Knowing what I know now, I can probably add a few more horses to the list which were never diagnosed.

In one case the horse looked fine-ish, which is to say he was ridable and moved very well but he should have been going much better and he could be very tricky to handle. I had the horse to retrain and really pushed for a more thorough examination, even after a couple of vets and trainers said the horse was fine and just need pushing. I found a vet who was very interested in experimentation and he basically did a lidocaine block of the horse neck . . .it was amazing, even sedated the difference in the horse, the relief on his face and in his posture, was incredible. The block allowed me to very carefully work on his posture without him freaking out about the pain all the time and he made great progress. The vet felt the horse would have to be done more than once, but in fact the couple of months it bought him was enough to change his way of going enough to bring him lasting relief.

In another case, I got a horse to start that had suffered a horrific pelvis/hip injury as a two year old. The vet pronounced her "cured" but when they came to ride her, she wasn't keen, to say the least. I got her backed and she was reasonable to ride but I really did feel "schooling" in the technical sense would be too much to ask. The owners hacked her about, just riding her how she was comfortable and it all went okay. Then they got a new instructor who insisted the horse needed to learn to work in a frame etc etc. Next thing was the horse bucking people off regularly, closely followed by her breaking down completely. :( Who knows, that might have happened anyway.

If there is something "damaged" about your horse, that doesn't mean she can't go on to have a happy and useful life for you. But it might very well mean you have to manage her more carefully/differently than you would a horse that didn't have the same history. It's a bit of a fine line - you can help her with the right work and support but you have to be careful not to push too hard, even if there's no reason why she can't eventually do what you're asking.
 
quirky said:
I have an all too similar story.

Bought horse at rising 4, not 2 months later, he fractured his skull in 2 places after getting cast. Initially, injury appeared to be superficial, vet examined eye that had graze over it and it looked like he'd got away with serious injury.
2 weeks later, his head swelled massively, x-rays, scans etc revealed 2 fractures.

I had the horse 5 1/2 years in total and his way of going and attitude deteriorated over time.
Towards the end, his gait changed and he also crabbed, with his quarters in all the time. He again went through lameness workouts and although not massively lame, his demeanour was such that it was felt to be fairer to have him pts. He was a horse who was not happy in his own skin.

Investigations after death showed that he'd damaged a nerve near his poll area (I can't remember what it was called). So, his problems weren't physical, they were neurological.

All in all, it was a very sad outcome to what was a talented horse.

ETA:
The bute to asses if pain or mechanical issues , is usually carried out over 3 days, giving 4 a day. Not over weeks as somebody else suggested.
Unfortunately, I have had experience of this more than once :(.
Click to expand...

Sorry to hear about your horse, sounds like a really sad story with an unhappy ending!

I suggested weeks of a Danilon trial only because this is what my vet has suggested. R was put on 3 weeks of Danilon (Danilon as apparently it is better on the stomach than bute, 3 weeks as my vet felt we needed to see the horse's behaviour in a variety of situations over time) and this was very helpful (basically it established that pain was the cause of the behaviour and gave us evidence to continue looking for the source of the pain).
 
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