Locking patella/stifle

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Moggy

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Sorry if this gets a bit long!
I've got a 10yo warmblood that mainly does dressage at a reasonable level plus some Sj and Xc. I've had him 5 years. He's always had locking stifles but unless he's been to a ODE working 6 days a week means they are locked for a stride or 2 first thing in the morning once or twice aweek. Other than that they are no problem at all. Last night I went to bring him in from the field and his near hind was locking which has only happened once before after turnout all day and then he'd been to a ODE. I walked him for 10 mins and it was still locking every 6 strides or so. Trotted him up and this seemed to free him up and was ok after that.
I turned him out this morning and off hind was locking on way to field for longer than I would expect.

So my waffling question is has anyone else had experience of changes in the pattern of when their horse locks up? His work/feed/turnout have all stayed the same.
 
My mare used to have what sounds like the same thing (upward fixation of the patella), where one of her hind legs would lock, it looked really awful, and we had the vet out a couple of times. This happened when she was aged 4-5, once every few months but there didn't seem to be a pattern to when it actually happened.
We were told that she would grow out of it as she got older which she did thank god. It was so horrible to see, don't know if it's as severe in your horse, Amy's used to last a couple of days, and was so bad that we didn't bring her into the stable in case she panicked and went crazy in there, it seemed better to give her the space in the field to walk it off.
It hasn't happened for years (she's 15 now!) but she has been living out 24/7 for the last 8 or 9 years, maybe something that helped (no standing still for long periods??).
 
I found with mine it got worse in winter and if I kept her warm with rugs I had less of an issue if it was really bad we had an indor sand school and the owners let me stable her in ther at night
 
There is a site www.horsesupplementsdirect that I used for a pony I had on loan who suffered from locking stifles.As soon as he was on the product for joints he never had a problem again.They are very competitively priced I always use the hoof product for my tb and we could never keep shoes on him for more than 4 wks.All their products seem good and there is no postage.
 
A horse at our yard used to have that but she had an operation to cure the problem. She cant sleep standing up anymore but is much happier.
 
My horse suffers from locking stifles. It used to disappear when he was in regular work, but as he has got older (hes now 16) it has got worse and does not disappear with work. I asked my vet about it and he said he has probably got a bit of arthritis there due to wear and tear. I noticed the change about 3 years ago, so my horse would have been about 13. He is now on D & H devils claw and this seems to really help him.
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Thanks for replies. He's got no signs of arthritis at the mo. Im hoping it was just a one off but if not I'll have to have a chat with vet again and cosider op. Hopefully the problems with arthritis that effect younger horses wont be such a problem as he's already 10
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