Lame only a circle - any ideas?

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lozza_cook

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Hi,

I have felt my 8 year old being a bit stiff on the right rein at the start of schooling sessions for a few months but I have always just ridden him through it. I had the vet look at him yesterday and whilst he's not lame on the straight, when you trot him very slowly on a circle on right rein he is slightly lame :-( Flexion test still did not show any lameness on a straightline.

Absolutely no sign of any heat or swelling. I've resounded to it being arthritis :-(

He is booked in for a lameness workup but does anyone have any ideas what it could be?

Thanks Laura
 
The problem might be somewhere else entirely, if it appears to affect the front it might in fact originate from the opposite diagonal hind, muscle imbalance around the pelvis being remarkably common. So maybe a broader check of the horse is required.
 
hi i had this on my warmblood. only lame on a circle, couldn't see anything straight, could only just feel it riding. ended up with the vet diagnosing muscle knots in front of the right shoulder so there was nothing wrong but it took a lot of massage at home to find the knots and rub them out. need to rub across the muscle fibres but once i found them (just a patch that is hard or is not on the other shoulder when u run your hands down the front of the shoulders) then my horse really enjoyed me rubbing them out. was worried as an instructor insisted he had arthirits in the back right leg but he wasn't transfering because the shoulders were slightly stiff.
 
Where is he lame? In front or behind? My boy wasn't right behind on a circle once, and it was his back (or actually over his rump to be precise).

It's quite common for a horse to be more lame on a circle than straight, so don't worry! Hope it all turns out ok.
 
Feet are a pair. I have had problems with him being a bit collapsed on his hind feet as he grows no heel but no problems on the front.
 
I would get the vet out to investigate and nerve block your horses
The only time i have heard that a horse is only lame in a circle is horses with some kind of Navicular/Feet problem
 
Hey there!

I've got someone to come out sunday afternoon to do a full body thermal imaging scan to try and locate the area of the problem before we start nerve blocking as we have no idea where to start and i'd rather put the poor boy through as few injections as possible.

Fingers crossed it gives us a clue. Will keep you updated.

x
 
Hope he's OK. If as someone suggested it is muscle knots i'll give you Gaby's number (the physio) if you want. Still not got round to getting Foxy's back checked but she seemed better after a few days off.
 
Hate to be depressing but he is the right age for the navicular/pedal osteitis, arthriticy type things to start, and classically it appears a problem first of all on a circle. In the early stages it occurs at the start of a schooling session (or a hack) and diminishes once the horse is worked in (or warmed up).
I have had two horses with this in the past and both went on to develop major foot problems.
One navicular and the other pedal ostitis.
In the case of the PO it was poor hoof and lower limb conformation that were the contributing factors and was very quickly rectified with natural balance shoeing. The mare was never lame again.
With the NS it was two years of trying everything imaginable to fix him, but ultimately the condition ended the horse life early.

In our horses' case he had lovely limb conformation, but had very thin soles on an ID framework, (big horse, TB feet) and this allowed the concussion to start the inflammatory process in the navicular bone and surrounding ligaments.

Still there there is a lot more that can be done these days to alleviate symptoms and slow the outcome or even reverse it, and such conditions are more often described as syndromes.

Most vets and farriers will agree, that a very significant percentage of lameness originates in the foot. I think that to go focusing on back and muscle issues, in the contemporary approach, can mask the problem and lead to additional, unnecessary and often astronomical expenditure before you get the right diagnosis.
In desperation, to find another cause rather than the dreaded navicular syndrome, I fell for a bogus back specialist who attached "slendertone" type pads on my horses back ( £40 per session) for 15 mins and told me that he had knots in the muscle of his neck. This was total nonsense and I wasted quite a lot of money before I allowed myself to follow my initial misgivings.

A good vet will go straight to nerve blocks to isolate areas of pain in the foot.
It may not be what you want to hear, but early diagnosis can only be to both your advantage.

Or it could be a corn, or perhaps sidebones developing (heavy horses mostly) - start with the foot first and work up!!

Good luck I

PS My horse did not find the injections remotely painful as the vet gave him local anaesthetic to the skin before injecting.
Its not a painful procedure at all.
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