Pony stumbles alot...

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aradiagreen

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Hi,

My pony is just turning 5 and I've had him since he was rising 3. He's a 13.2hh chunky cob. We mainly hack with a little extremely basic schooling. I do not have access to a ménage which limits us. Ever since I've owned him he stumbled quite often though I didn't really notice until I started riding him more this spring. This happens riding bareback or saddled and also when leading him. He will trip 3 or 4 times on a hack for instance. At first I thought it was laziness or just his age and he wasn't balanced but now I'm not so sure. He is not lame and has only ever been once when he had a hoof abscess. He may be a little straight at the shoulder but I think his conformation is fine. I will call the vet Monday but just wondered if anyone else had any thoughts? Are some horses just clumsy?!
 
He's unshod and this happens even when the farriers just been. His feet grew so slowly over winter I have to admit I could go 2 months before getting a trim but his toes are never long. The farrier says he has great little feet but I am going to bring this issue up when I see him next to see what he thinks...
 
My boy (5yr old too but tad bigger at 16.2)does this if his feet aren't done every 5 weeks. You can practically guarentee if we go over 5 weeks he starts to trip that week so we now know when he starts tripping its farrier time

Plus he has heartbars on as does have what I call 'flat feet' -his pedal bone splays more than it should do apparently so needs support.He did show up unsound tho with that.


Would go down the shoe route first and talk to your farrier.
 
I have been helping a lady with her horse, exactly this problem
It may be that in his growth he is very downhill at the moment, or just that as a youngster he is carrying his weight very on his forehand.

Slow work, keeping him in balance, if he has been striding out, it will almost feel like he is not moving!
Slowly ask for more hind end activity, add in a lot of transitions, getting him to use his hind end more. Hill work....whatever pace keep it slow, so that he has to use his muscles, which as he builds will help him.
Poles to trot over.

I find that most cobs have an active mind, and if they get bored cant be bothered. If you stick mainly to the same routes, it could be he is bored. Could you explore furthur? find places that you havent been?

Also is it possible that he has taken a tumble, and has put something out of alignment?
 
I am a novice and have been trying to get a instructor out to help. I keep him on our public common so have to school there on the uneven ground with him napping to go back to his friends. I have simply been concentrating on transitions and a decent walk and trot! He does struggle to work slowly without just being lazy. In trot he will try to rush. I haven't managed to teach him canter as he just rushes and its a pain without a ménage. As I said I'm waiting for a response from a local classical riding instructor though me and my little cob are not her usual calibre of client!

He does trip even when I'm leading him. Would you call the vet? Or a back person? The farrier honestly thinks he's got perfect feet and I'd hate to shoe him and he's never been shod.
 
elijahasgal

I will work on the slow work thanks so much for the advice. I'm trying to take a different route each time I hack though I'm very limited and he naps a lot if we go beyond his comfort zone. I don't let him get away with it but it doesn't make you look forward to the route! I'm trying to find someone to ride out with on a more experienced horse.
 
I think it would be a good idea to get his back checked, it might not necessarily be anything to do with that but especially as hes now working it would be good to have it looked at.
 
I would probably get a vet to look and rule out any foot / leg issues first. We had a pony who stumbled occasionally and his problem was slight bilateral lameness.

It might be nothing, but worth checking out and then you can do back etc. A proper physio, chiro etc shouldn't see a horse without vet permission and they are often more expensive than a vet visit.
 
aradiagreen said:
He does trip even when I'm leading him. Would you call the vet? Or a back person? The farrier honestly thinks he's got perfect feet and I'd hate to shoe him and he's never been shod.
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I would be very worried that he has laminitis.

Get a vet and get him assessed as the first port of call.
 
My fell mare is horrendously clumsy. I had all the back, eyes, lameness work up done on her when she was six as she trips a lot and has fallen over in the field on more thn one occasion while farting about! Vet and chiro could find nothing wrong, she is just clumsy. She was born in Cumbria too, can't think how she managed there as she finds the fens tricky! :-) she has got better as she has got older and fitter though under saddle, but I still haven't plucked up the courage to start her jumping!
 
My almost 6yo haffy trips quite a lot. She is shod in front and was better when unshod as I suppose she could feel her feet more. I think it is often just losing concentration and not picking their feet up, she doesn't do it when she is really stepping out and carrying herself, but she is quite hard to get going sometimes!

Good advice about the transitions!
 
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melbiswas said:
My cob tripped when he had laminitis. At that stage it was not obvious to us unfortunately.
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Tripping, flaring, reluctance to move forward, stretched white line, footiness, stiff in the shoulder and neck - all classic low grade lami warning signs.

Over the last month I've seen the usual, "My horse is footy" threads starting up and I've had a bunch of people pm me asking about grit getting in the WL (due to stretching).....

SPRING IS HERE PEOPLE. BEWARE THE GRASS. :p
 
Is the saddle restricting the shoulder movement? I have cobs and the one made does it when she puts on a little weight...
 
A heavily built pony and a novice rider are likely to be contributing to the pony being on the forehand which will make him likely to stumble. You can work with your instructor to do exercises to help balance him. Lots of transitions are a good way to do this. Keep working at them and he should improve in time. Cobs can take quite a bit of work to get them light in front.
 
My 4 year old cob trips a bit, It is usually when we are just plodding along, once you pick him up and get him listening to the leg he is fine.
I would suggest you get him some knee boots and as Oberon suggests ask vet to check for laminitis.
 
Fristly thankyou everyone for your contributions. I feel that he is just clumsy but obviously want to be sure - I'd hate to find out he had been in pain in some way all along. He has always tripped and is actually pretty fit and trim at the moment so I don't think its lami. I am going to get him checked by the vet and take it from there. I cantered him today and he nearly came down on his knees. Maybe I will have to invest in knee boots if it turns out to be clumsiness! Touch wood he's not gone down yet though come very close! I'm not sure what constitutes a novice - I've been riding for over 20yrs so I'm experienced but I have spent the vast proportion of that time hacking rather than schooling!
 
Could be lazy, but if you find its getting worse with any other symptoms then get it checked out by a vet.

I don't want to scare you, but I loaned a pony years ago, he was very old and did have other symptoms, having a very long winter coat was one of them ( we started to clip him in the summer as it took so long for him to loss his coat )
but tripping and going lame for no reason, then he would be fine, was on and off.
Any way as I said he was very old, so completely different, but it turned out to be a brain tumor.

He had had lovely owners who cared and loved him very much so he did have a sweet loving home with the days of sun shine on his back before he was PTS.
Such a sweet little Pally.
 
I have a rising 5 14.1 cob, he too trips when he is not paying attention or getting tired. I had an equine bodywork coach out today and her opinion is he is hyper mobile and still doesn't know where his feet are yet. We have to do lots of slow walk to encourage him to use his abdominal muscles correctly (equally important as topline), straight line hacking, and 'stop start' exercise walking up to a pole, halting at it, then walking over it, then another one. a few strides away. I have to do this on hard ground and am not allowed to use my arena until he becomes more stable!

Having a vet check is still a good idea, but if that comes back all clear it will probably just be his age.
 
My vet only saw him 2 weeks ago for a general health check & said he looked great. But I hadn't mentioned the stumbling. I honestly believe its his age. Can you describe the 'stop start' exercise in more detail? I've been trying to keep his weight off with lots of trotting (& transition work) but by the sounds of it I really need to slow him down. I tried the slow walk last night & he just went really lazy & half to sleep-not quite what I intended!
 
I would get a work-up done by a vet. Horses are prey animals designed to be able to run away over all terrains, it would be unusual that they would fall on their head just because they are "lazy" :)

My mare is a lot older than your horse, but she has problems with her coffin joints and she trips when these flare up.
 
Yes I'll be calling the vet Monday so hopefully see him Wednesday. We'll see what he says.... It's probably his age and the fact that he's unbalanced and not carrying himself correctly but at least I'll have peace-of-mind from the vet's assessment.
 
Apart from checking you keep his feet well trimmed stumbling is a sign of trapped nerves through the 7th Cervical vertebrae. A few visits by the chiropractor will probably help a great deal.

I had a horse many years ago that would do this and one day actually fell over as the nerve was trapped to both front legs at the same time, his front end collapsed and the back end kept walking. When he got up he had mud rammed up his noseband and browband where his face had been pressed underneath him. The chiro sorted him out - but it took a couple of years in all - finally with manipulation under general anaesthetic. I eventually had this horse for 14 years and he went on to do dressage, eventing and endurance as safe as houses, never stumbled again.
 
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