Locking/Slipping Stifle

[Kadastorm]

Hey guys,

just wanting some advice really:

History - not really sure. Pony arrived last friday from Ireland and all seemed well. according to the sales catalogue he is backed and riding and thats all we know.

this week, no problems from him up until today. i went to help fetch this boy and noticed he was really not right on his back legs. i then watched him walk on and could see something was seriously wrong so called my colleague to come and have a look. She looked all round, went to pick up the leg and it was just locked dead straight until there was an almighty crack (at which point i nearly threw up!)

the pony continued to walk very strangely and obviously has very serious problem with his stifle.

Vet came out and confirmed that it is locking/slipping stifle and said the options are to operate or try and strengthen it through exercise although neither is certain to work.

so we have gone with fittening to strengthen and i was just wondering if anyone has any advice on how to start this? does anyone have any experience of this?
We arent riding him, im thinking of leading in hand walking and trotting and even free schooling in a round pen rather than having him on a lunge for now and just building up from there.

any ideas or advice would be much appreciated

 

[be positive]

If he locks again push him backwards it should then free itself.
He may be worse at the moment due to the stress of travelling or possibly injured it on the journey.
I would get on with working him and as soon as you can ride him, provided he is generally not too poor, lots of walking up hills will be the best way to strengthen him, transitions getting him using himself but not too much on circles or deep going.
A vitamin supplement can also help to support the process.

 

[Kadastorm]

thankyou for reassuring me.

yep we have pushed him backwards to try and free it again which it does and then it locks straight up again, vet also suggested turning him quickly in a tight circle.

At the moment we dont know if he is actually backed and riding, we havent seen him ridden as he is from a sale. He was sound of the box, maybe a little stiff but he was travelling for a while. he has been sound in his isolation paddock up until today.

He doesnt belong to me but i have offered my help to try and help the boy as he is actually a real sweetie so i guess we'll see how it goes. I have seen slipping stifles before and a stifle lock on one occasion but nothing like this.

im going to video him tomorrow and try and do so regularly to see if anything improves.

Thankyou again, nice to just have some reassurance

 

[SophieLouBee]

I have one that had upward fixation of the patella. The backing up is right to release it, if it works, but as you have said, it doesn't always.

She's a 5yo standiexTB, and the locking stifle condition is common in horses who's hind limbs are straight in conformation (more commonly in trotters/driving horses, due to that fact).

She came to us very fit (from the performance sales) obviously had been worked hard from a young age. Naturally I wanted to give her a break for a bit so she could cool off, she also had windgalls and I wanted to see if they would go down.

So I left her in the field for three weeks, and after 2 weeks started noticing this locking that you described, but only slight, when she had been resting her leg asleep. I was concerned, but as it was only slight, it was recommended that I try some exercise to see if it helped.

It was recommended to trot in straight lines, do hill work, walking on hard flat surfaces & hill work. So lots of hacking! Avoiding tight circles until the muscles have developed correctly around the stifle. If it didn't improve they said they would have to operate.

I followed the instructions, and although only in light work, she is fine now, you'd never know she had it, and her windgalls have gone too!

She's got long bandy back legs, and her farriery when she came was ruddy terrible. So this made her worse I think. My farrier removed the back ones, and trimmed so that her feet had a chance to grown normally now that her legs were going the right way, and she got better. Then her fronts were re-done and she got even better, and moves less like a giraffe.

She's got bandy legs anyway, being standie, so she's never going to have the tidiest legs when she's hooning about the field. But we are slowly getting there with schooling, and her legs are all going the right way now, and she's working underneath herself.

Hope this sheds a bit of positive light, I've also spoken to a few people who's horses have had the op (cutting of the ligament?), and it has been successful. The only things are, the horse can't sleep standing up & may be more prone to getting arthritis when older.

Apparently horses can grow out of it too, so perhaps with my mare, now she has been allowed to mature it has helped. Who knows!