locking stifle and jumping?

hi, i owned a cleveland bay gelding many years ago whose stifle locked approx 3 times.he was a youngster when this happened and it was only due to our brilliant farrier that he was fine.my vet advised us he would need an op or be put down,and when i called my farrier he came round and put it straight back in showing my husband what to do if it happened again.i only hacked him but he was sold a couple of years later to a girl who very successfully jumped him with no further recurrence.she still owned him approx 5 years ago and he was 19.
 
Sometimes it happens with a young horse before he builds up enough muscle - when they are fitter, it may never happen again.
 
I once had a gelding with locking stifle years ago. I bought him as a poor 4 year old. He had a large frame and not a lot of muscle. In the beggining he struggled with the locking stifle , more so in kept in. However as he got fitter you hardly ever saw it. As time went on we showed him, jumped him and never had any problems what so ever. It certainyl got better as he got older and fitter.

I know it can effect some horses more than others. In the beggining my vet did suggest an operation if he got worse. It never got to that. I sold the gelding to a friend in 2002 and they still have him. They do all sorts with him and it still dosnt effect him.
 
My TB has locking stifles. With work, they're not so bad the vets thought operating was a good idea - and they never went away completely. She was scared of jumping to start with (she didn't like extending her back legs fully in case they locked, and threw all sorts of tantrums to evade taking off), but once we found an instructor who actually had a clue (not a BHS 'one way only' bod), we built enough muscle for her to feel more confident, and she now loves jumping more than anything! We currently jump 90cm/1m at home, but she's jumped up to 1m25 as a single jump, and jumps 80-90cm at shows.
 
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