BritishLion
Member
After some advice please 
This morning, my 7 year old Welsh was absolutely fine moving around his stable, I tacked him and lead him out but his stifle had locked. So, I managed to get him moving until we had a good run backwards and after a few attempts I released the leg only for it to lock up straight away again. I managed to release it again and this happened a few more times so I lead him up the lane. He was fine when moving so I managed to get on without stopping and carried on our hack as I was conscious of not stopping. When we got back, I untacked and turned out.
He has had this happen once before about this time of year when he was 4. At the time I had turned him away as he was immature and as a 4 year old stallion, he had a big front and a poor back end. Since the first occurrence, I have always been conscious of building his back end correctly and minimising any weakness that allows his stifle to lock. We do a lot of pole and lateral exercises with this in mind and to be honest, I had put the first time out of my mind thinking he had grown out of it and strengthened up. Today has worried me as he is in full work and going very well. He long reined on Friday, hacked for over an hour yesterday. Does anyone have any tips to prevent this happening again especially as now the clocks have changed I will only be able to work him Fri, Sat and Sun as we have no arena. He will live out as long as the weather allows and was only in this morning after the torrential rain yesterday.
This morning, my 7 year old Welsh was absolutely fine moving around his stable, I tacked him and lead him out but his stifle had locked. So, I managed to get him moving until we had a good run backwards and after a few attempts I released the leg only for it to lock up straight away again. I managed to release it again and this happened a few more times so I lead him up the lane. He was fine when moving so I managed to get on without stopping and carried on our hack as I was conscious of not stopping. When we got back, I untacked and turned out.
He has had this happen once before about this time of year when he was 4. At the time I had turned him away as he was immature and as a 4 year old stallion, he had a big front and a poor back end. Since the first occurrence, I have always been conscious of building his back end correctly and minimising any weakness that allows his stifle to lock. We do a lot of pole and lateral exercises with this in mind and to be honest, I had put the first time out of my mind thinking he had grown out of it and strengthened up. Today has worried me as he is in full work and going very well. He long reined on Friday, hacked for over an hour yesterday. Does anyone have any tips to prevent this happening again especially as now the clocks have changed I will only be able to work him Fri, Sat and Sun as we have no arena. He will live out as long as the weather allows and was only in this morning after the torrential rain yesterday.
