Mare suddenly not moving forwards and resisting the leg

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Jazzie

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I just wondered if I could ask you lovely lot if you have any experiences of this and what it could mean. I will say now that I have arranged for my osteopath to come out but he can't come for another week, so in the mean time I am thinking the worst and worrying myself into a frenzy! I have also had teeth and saddle checked.

So I have a 15.3hh 8 year old mare on loan with a view to buy. I am lucky enough to have 6 months of loan period to try her out, as she was in very little work when she came to me and is still very green for her age.

She was very one sided when I got her 4 months ago, and I have taken her training very slowly to build up the correct muscles and her fitness. I have varied her work as much as possible and have kept it light (20-40 mins four to five times a week including hacking schooling and lungeing). She has been fairly consistent and improving week by week, canter has stared to strengthen and balance and in the last 4 weeks we have started introducing some small jumping that she has really enjoyed. She is forward going and has a sharp spooky spin which keeps me on my guard but seems to like working and tries hard to please. I have had some lessons with my instructor which have gone very well.

However, over the last two weeks I have noticed her getting increasingly 'stiff' again on the left rein, preferring to curl her quarters in than bend round my leg, and has also gone very behind the leg and not travelling forwards like I know she can. She has a big movement, but her trot is now not tracking up or 'going anywhere'. She has started tail swishing and her ears are going back when my leg is applied, and she is also bucking in trot and canter (not fly bucking but sort of cow kicking and bunny hopping behind) even on the lunge. Yesterday was the worst day after 2 weeks of getting worse and worse. I had two nice ish cicuits in the shool of trot before she had a big strop swishing her tail, curling her quarters in and bucking.

I can't believe that previously her schooling was coming on so well in walk trot and canter and jumping was developing well, and I now can't get a decent trot. So while I wait for osteopath to come out I'm googling the symptoms and not liking the results, and now wondering if I should go straight to a vet? I do intend to get her vetted before I commit to buying her. What would people suggest from their experiences? It's a split debate at my yard, some people say the horse is just trying it on to get out of work, and others say it's so out of character that it's more likely discomfort somewhere.

Sorry for long post and thank you if you've made it this far!!
 
I would get her vetted, sooner rather than leaving it to the last minute, that way you should know whether to go forward with the osteo treatment or if there is something that requires further investigation, if you just get the osteo and she improves only to go backwards again in another month or two you will be in the dark and have no idea of the root cause and either have to extend the trial period to find out/ treat or send back a broken horse.
You should also speak to the owner before getting any treatment done, explain what is going on, I hope she is insured so if there is anything amiss it can be diagnosed/ treated appropriately, if she was mine I would want to be informed if you were having issues so I could be involved in decision making, don't forget she is not yours yet.
 
My mare began acting very similar 6 months ago - apart from the sharp and spooky as that's not her - and I got out our usual McTimmony and physio ladies... to cut a long story short they didn't help, got the vet out and she has arthritis starting in her hocks and a mixture of kissing spines and fused processes at 9yrs old. She has had interspinous ligament desmotomy 4 weeks ago and is one week into rehab work... in hindsight I should have trusted my gut that something wasn't right and got the vet out earlier. Thank goodness I ignored the 'it's a mare/it's napping/it's taking the micky/beat it and make it' brigade and didn't make it into an unnecessary behavioral problem on top!

Listen to her, she is telling you something the only way she can and definitely get the owner involved. Good luck!
 
mine did similar and was kissing spine and hock arthritis too..

could it be her saddle either? if she has muscled up maybe it doesn't fit anymore
 
Same issue with my mare - kissing spines and suspected arthritis in her hocks. We are starting by treating the kissing spines with injections physio and rehab, and if no improvement next step will be hocks.
 
be positive said:
I would get her vetted, sooner rather than leaving it to the last minute, that way you should know whether to go forward with the osteo treatment or if there is something that requires further investigation, if you just get the osteo and she improves only to go backwards again in another month or two you will be in the dark and have no idea of the root cause and either have to extend the trial period to find out/ treat or send back a broken horse.
You should also speak to the owner before getting any treatment done, explain what is going on, I hope she is insured so if there is anything amiss it can be diagnosed/ treated appropriately, if she was mine I would want to be informed if you were having issues so I could be involved in decision making, don't forget she is not yours yet.
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Thanks for the advice, you are absolutely right I must discuss everyhing with the owner before I have anyone look at her. Yes she is insured thankfully so we can work with whatever we find
 
archiesmum said:
My mare began acting very similar 6 months ago - apart from the sharp and spooky as that's not her - and I got out our usual McTimmony and physio ladies... to cut a long story short they didn't help, got the vet out and she has arthritis starting in her hocks and a mixture of kissing spines and fused processes at 9yrs old. She has had interspinous ligament desmotomy 4 weeks ago and is one week into rehab work... in hindsight I should have trusted my gut that something wasn't right and got the vet out earlier. Thank goodness I ignored the 'it's a mare/it's napping/it's taking the micky/beat it and make it' brigade and didn't make it into an unnecessary behavioral problem on top!

Listen to her, she is telling you something the only way she can and definitely get the owner involved. Good luck!
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Oh gosh I'm so sorry to hear about your troubles, what a sad and stressful time for you. What was your mare doing to make you think something wrong? Thank you for sharing and for the support, hope you get the mare you know back soon through the correct treatment
 
paddi22 said:
mine did similar and was kissing spine and hock arthritis too..

could it be her saddle either? if she has muscled up maybe it doesn't fit anymore
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Thank you, how awful, looks like it's defo vet time. Yes that's a possibility about saddle, will discuss with the vet, going to have to write everything down so I remember to ask!
 
nato said:
Same issue with my mare - kissing spines and suspected arthritis in her hocks. We are starting by treating the kissing spines with injections physio and rehab, and if no improvement next step will be hocks.
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So sorry to hear this, got my fingers crossed for you that you see the improvement you need. I so hope this will not be the case for my mare but it's not looking good :-(
 
nato said:
Same issue with my mare - kissing spines and suspected arthritis in her hocks. We are starting by treating the kissing spines with injections physio and rehab, and if no improvement next step will be hocks.
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So sorry to hear this, fingers crossed that you start to see the improvement you need. I so hope this is not the case for my mare but it's not looking good :-(
 
Well it could be anything. My horse can get stiff under saddke, and there's nothing wrong apart from needing a physio visit, but then I know my horse doesn't have any physical issues.

If it was my horse, I'd get the obvious checked out first, back, saddle and teeth. If you look on YouTube there is a video that shows you where to press on your horse that will give you a good indication if they have ulcers or not,
 
You may have already done so but iiwy, I would have the saddle checked again. The horse has been gradually getting fitter and will have changed shape, so possibly the saddle is now impeding her action.
 
Any decent osteopath shouldn't be treating without a vets say so anyway- why go for an osteopath before a vet - its likely there is pain somewhere.
 
My KS horse was and remains very spooky and 8yrs on, after his operation, we have just treated a suspected hock spavin - the KS and spavins in this particular case were not related as 8yrs apart, but hock issues can very often be a secondary symptom of KS.

The swinging the haunches in is a sign of discomfort, she is compensating whilst trying do as she is asked whilst working. It could be saddle, fitness or something else. Schooling can help to sort it out, but I would want to know there was nothing else wrong before I worked through it. I think deffo either back or hocks too, so I agree with the other poster, get the vet as the mare sounds a sweetheart and bless her she is still trying to allow you to work her despite being in discomfort - please ignore the crowd telling you she is trying it on and carry on trusting your instinct.

I have always found that this type of advice shows how little knowledge those liveries really have about horses, it's utter rubbish, of course a horse will always evade discomfort.

A good equine vet should be able to see what's going on, if her back is out and it is as simple as a chiro visit that would help the hocks which will be under strain because of the incorrect movement, but it would be awful to buy the horse and then get a vet bill for many £000's + the heartache of trying to sort it out. Good luck.
 
Get the vet ,
Don't muddy the water by letting any type of therapist touch her at this stage .
I would be fearing a hock and or back issue.
I would get a specialist equine vet who does a lot of work ups to make a visit ASAP.
 
How is she out hacking? Up and downhill? Won't share my doom & gloom story, but per a few other folks, similar behaviour in mine has ended up with a diagnosis of whole catalogue of significant vet issues.
 
My 6yo was going well until a few months ago when she started getting worse. The consistent contact we were gettng the hang of started to go out of the window. Transitions were becoming worse, canter was getting speedy. Generally being a grumpy mare about being tacked up also. She is a little grumpy so I had physio out to her which seemed to improve but not for long. Finally decided her saddle needed checked and turned out she had muscled up so much that the saddle was really narrow on her a pinching. Had to widen is by one and half widths. She is now sooo much better, free in the shoulders and moving forwards again.

Definitely worth a second opinion on your saddle. I've got a semi flex which is easy to adjust and my saddle fitter reckons I would be on saddle number 4 in the last 9 months if I had normal saddles as she has grown and muscled up so much.
 
I glad you have decided to go down the vet rather than osteo route - it will save you time as if the osteo found nothing (ie ulcer related issues) then you would need a vet anyway.

The horse is lucky to have found you - do keep us updated
 
JoJo_ said:
Finally decided her saddle needed checked and turned out she had muscled up so much that the saddle was really narrow on her a pinching. Had to widen is by one and half widths. She is now sooo much better, free in the shoulders and moving forwards again.
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Sorry to hijac a little - JoJo you might want to consider changing physio as any physio worth their salt would have picked that up in their ridden assessment of you.
 
Glad you got an answer and it was straightforward. At the end of the day problems are just symptoms of an underlying issue and nothing else, and we usually only notice it when performance disimproves. The key is knowing your horse well and what constitutes out of the ordinary for her.

For me, my mare's reaction to girthing up and sitting trot was so extreme that I couldn't ignore it - I did all the usuals, teeth, back, saddle etc and they all found ways to improve her (teeth needed doing, back was tight, saddle didn't fit right). When she still didn't improve I went to the vet, and I'm glad I did as we caught it super early. I would keep an eye on your horse and see if she improves, just to make sure you've got the right thing :)

In my opinion everything is manageable with an early diagnosis and the right support network - I have an amazing vet, physio, saddle fitter, trainer and yard owner :) With them all together I've developed a rehab plan and we're already seeing improvements.
 
I would check saddle first.

Sis' horse was very similar, in v little work until we got him. Went sweetly until a few months in, when he refused to jump anything at all and would only canter sidewise, not forwards. New saddle sorted all that out.
 
My TB mare started to carry on in a similar fashion last summer, and after a month or two going down dead ends, we booked the vet for a work up and turned out she had a sarco iliac strain (we then remembered in hindsight she had slipped in the yard at home). Thankfully 2 months rest, a steroid injection and gentle work over the winter has sorted her out, and she is back to her normal jolly self...

Best of luck with your vet :)

Fiona
 
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