New horse Lame in school but sound on hard surface - advice please

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Sarahkinks

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Long time lurker but first time poster :)

After a little advice please...

New horse arrived 2 weeks ago - 10yo ID Gelding, imported from Ireland quite recently. Vetted prior to purchase and completely sound when we tried him.

He has settled pretty well and has been on a couple of hacks but is coming up lame in the school, nodding in trot pretty noticeable and worse on corners. He appears sound trotting on hard surface though.

Has been hoofing around field a bit with new pals so we wondered if he’d tweaked something but a week on and no change. Farrier has checked and can’t find anything foot related, says he has clean legs and good conformation.

Insurance hasn’t kicked in yet as he’s only just arrived. So was hoping to wait until then before getting vet out if I can help it.

So in the meantime what should we do?
- Box rest him completely
- Keep turning out but not ride
- Continue gentle hacking but no schooling
- other?!

Any advice would be much appreciated, he’s not our first horse but lameness isn’t something we’ve had much experience with in the past .

Thanks in advance :)
 
What you do depends on what the lameness is causes by, waiting until insurance starts before getting a vet and then expecting insurance to pay is fraud.
Did you have bloods taken at tell vetting? If so get them run sooner rather than later.
Was he vetted in Ireland?
 
Did you have bloods taken at the vetting? If so, I'm afraid that the two week timing suggests you should be testing them immediately for anti-inflammatory drugs/painkillers.

I do hope this is just nothing, and it may well be, and I'm really sorry that this will probably scare you, but sound on the hard on a straight line and lame on corners in the school is very often symptomatic of foot balance issues and possible collateral ligament strain.

If you bought the horse from a dealer, I would seriously consider whether you want to act quickly to return it as not fit for purpose.

I doubt if it will make much difference whether you hack until you call the vet, but it may be unwise to post about it, as delaying calling a vet until the insurance starts is insurance fraud and might also break animal welfare laws.

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Thanks for the replies. I should’ve said, he’s my sisters horse, I just share so the decision making lies with her.

He was vetted in Ireland at the end of July, she bought him on 9th Aug.

Will the fact he was vetted in Ireland affect us getting his bloods checked? I would have had him re-vetted if he was mine (and I advised she did) after we tried him out but she didn’t want to, and we are we are.

He’s a lovely boy so I really hope that it’s nothing too serious! He was bought from a dealer, so could explore that but don’t want to overreact.

The situation is making me anxious :(
 
Oh no, so many alarm bells 😳 He was vetted before you bought him by the dealer your sister bought him from, and that vetting was done in Ireland?

You can't test the bloods on a vetting which wasn't paid for by you unless the seller agrees, and why would they?

The advice I would give you is to return him if you can. And if that is not possible, to remove his shoes, assuming he has some on, and do an immediate barefoot rehab. That will give your your best chance of ending up with the horse you thought you'd bought.

I'm sorry not to be more positive, but the situation doesn't sound at all promising I'm afraid.

.
 
Yes he was vetted in Ireland by the dealer. It niggled me right from the word go but my sister was adamant that she didn’t want to have him re-vetted.

I was never comfortable with that but he’s her horse. She asks me for my thoughts and as a rule does the opposite :rolleyes:

I’ll see if I can get her to call the dealer and see what happens.

He’s just such a gem of a horse (lameness aside!), such a good temperament and loads of potential. He wasn’t super-cheap but worth every penny if he comes sound. Would be such a shame if he had to go back :(
 
If there is any way you can persuade your sister to send him back to the dealer do so asap. The vetting in Ireland counts for nothing. If you can't get your sister to return him now, get your vet to diagnose and work from there. :(
 
Is he lame on the lunge too on a soft surface or only when ridden? Lunge him on a smallish circle (about 15m) and have a good look; let him move as freely and naturally as possible, no lunging aids. If he's sound on a soft surface without a rider but lame with, what sort of outline is he being asked to work in when ridden? How is he if he's allowed to trot round on a very loose rein without any contact? It is just possible that when working in a school with a rider he's not ready for the outline he's being asked to work in and that can sometimes manifest in what is often referred to as 'bridle lameness', i.e. the horse is sort of nodding into the contact because he's not balanced between the rider's leg and hand, or because he's over-bitted or the contact has been forced, or he's lacking the strength and condition for what he's being asked to do. If he's only been on a couple of hacks he's presumably not madly fit, and is it possible that the rider is heavier handed with him in the school in order to kind of hold him up and together? Don't panic just yet. Pop him on the lunge and ask someone with an experienced eye to look at him with you if you're at all unsure.

I always used to think that 'bridle lameness' was a myth, but for some horses it's definitely a thing and is usually more obvious in a school. It's not the soft surface per se, but the working in circles in a contact.

Fingers crossed for you. Good luck
 
Soft tissue (muscle/tendons/ligaments) issies show up on more on soft surfaces

Hard tissue (bone) show up more on hard surfaces.

Hence the differing rehab work depending on the cause of the lameness.

Echo, get the vet. It might be nothing more than a tweak from turnout or it might be something more.

No one can diagnose apart from a vet and to wait 14 days and then lie to vet and insurance isnt fair on the horse and is illegal.

To not give the vet the correct info means they dont have the full picture to diagnose and they wont lie when completing their part of the claim for voiding the claim anyway.

Can you try and make it so your sister thinks it's her idea to get the vet ?

I wouldn't be riding or exercising him until the vet had seen him
 
Dynamo said:
Is he lame on the lunge too on a soft surface or only when ridden?
Click to expand...

Yes he’s lame on lunge too 😕

We’re going to rest him and get the vet out as soon as we can. I think I’ve convinced her to call the dealer too, but she loves him (he’s a super type and he’ll be worth his weight in gold if we can keep him sound) so she’s pretty much decided he’s not going back. Diagnosis from vet might change things but we shall see...

Thanks so much to everyone who replied, it’s really helped! X
 
Might just be an abcess forming I always start with farrier your on soft ground so pushes into frog is she the same on grass anyway get farrier out he or she will advise you x
 
Barton Bounty said:
Could be a multitude of things, just a matter of elimination :/ thats poop this has happened now, so what about trotting on a hack? Is he still nodding then?
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No he doesn’t nod at all trotting on a hack.

Vet said bute and rest for a few days, it’s been 4 days of Bute and still lame in the school.

Farrier has looked and says he has thrush in the foot he’s lame on, he isn’t sure it’s bad enough to cause lameness though. I’m
really hoping it’s the thrush as that’s fixable. We soaked foot in iodine solution and I’ve taken a pic, struggling to attach it but will keep trying...
 
Here’s the pic of his hoof (the leg he is lame on) excuse the shavings!

As I said we’ve iodine soaked and dried it off. Will doing this for a few days be enough to clear it?

Is it bad enough to make him lame...? Thoughts please.

He had the thrush when he first came to us, he was kept in clean conditions at dealers but was only there a short time and we don’t know what conditions he was kept in before coming from Ireland.
 

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Sarahkinks said:
No he doesn’t nod at all trotting on a hack.

Vet said bute and rest for a few days, it’s been 4 days of Bute and still lame in the school.

Farrier has looked and says he has thrush in the foot he’s lame on, he isn’t sure it’s bad enough to cause lameness though. I’m
really hoping it’s the thrush as that’s fixable. We soaked foot in iodine solution and I’ve taken a pic, struggling to attach it but will keep trying...
Click to expand...
Youd expect him to be nodding all the time ... is there any other surfaces you can ride on ?
 
Sarahkinks said:
No he doesn’t nod at all trotting on a hack.

Vet said bute and rest for a few days, it’s been 4 days of Bute and still lame in the school.

Farrier has looked and says he has thrush in the foot he’s lame on, he isn’t sure it’s bad enough to cause lameness though. I’m
really hoping it’s the thrush as that’s fixable. We soaked foot in iodine solution and I’ve taken a pic, struggling to attach it but will keep trying...
Click to expand...

My horse hates the school and always looks lame, but hes not. We used to ride fine in the sand school and then the liveries chipped in and got a crappy carpet surface which is boggy when wet and my boy just doesn't like it under hoof, not even lunging. So it could be that?
 
Barton Bounty said:
Youd expect him to be nodding all the time ... is there any other surfaces you can ride on ?
Click to expand...

Unfortunately we don’t have any other surfaces we can ride on. We rode him in arena when we tried him out but it was much more rubber based than the sandy one we have here which is quite deep. He definitely hasn’t been schooled much in his life so is a bit unbalanced in the school and doesn’t enjoy it particularly.

The thrush looks pretty gross but not sure it’s enough to cause lameness. He does flinch when we touch or wash the area though so seems to be bothering him to some degree.
 
Barton Bounty said:
Thrush shouldn’t normally cause it . I expect hes not enjoying the school, if its uneven and unbalancing! But maybe im wrong 🤷🏼‍♀️
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Thank you, I really hope you’re right and that it’s nothing sinister wrong with him. If so I’m Not sure how we would go about pricing that it’s not lameness though...? What did you do when this happened with yours?

We keep wondering whether or not we should ride or rest, just hack, or what to do for the best.

Bute didn’t seem to help which I guess points to soft tissue or foot issues, or as you say the fact that he hates the school and finds it difficult.

If only they could tell us what was wrong!
 
I just hack around my area, he would probably go beautiful in another arena. We have a grass dressage arena in the field, he goes well in that. Although its an open field lol and an open arena so keeping his attention is hard lol. Have you had someone else ride him and you observe?
 
Barton Bounty said:
I just hack around my area, he would probably go beautiful in another arena. We have a grass dressage arena in the field, he goes well in that. Although its an open field lol and an open arena so keeping his attention is hard lol. Have you had someone else ride him and you observe?
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My sister had been riding in school the couple of times he seemed lame with me observing, I have only hacked him on hard surface myself and he feels totally fine.

Might see if we can find a way to try him in a field and see how he goes, although he’s not worked much at all given the lameness so is very fresh and might be a bit of a loon and he struggles with focus at the best of times!! But he may prove me wrong 😂
 
Sarahkinks said:
My sister had been riding in school the couple of times he seemed lame with me observing, I have only hacked him on hard surface myself and he feels totally fine.

Might see if we can find a way to try him in a field and see how he goes, although he’s not worked much at all given the lameness so is very fresh and might be a bit of a loon and he struggles with focus at the best of times!! But he may prove me wrong 😂
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Just sit tight lol
 
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