ridden life with spavins.... opinions

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freshy

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horse is 9 yr old. was diagnosed with hock spavins last year after lots of random lameness although we ended up going to a top vet clinic for diagnosis as other vets were stumped.

oddly enough nothing showed on bone scan but mild spavins were detected on x rays.

horse was injected with steriods with no improvement, bute made no difference. so he was turned away for 13 months with Dr Green!

he is now field sound (totally- pelts round the field!!!) and trots up sound etc. he's just started very basic hacking and felt okay. but, if the ground is uneven or he is going downhill he doesnt quite feel right. not lame, but just not quite 'straight'. but, generally he's forward going and ears forward etc. he seems much much happier going uphill??

i find if i dont ride much he is worse. i'm struggiling as to whether he should be ridden or not! i cant even imagine he would be okay to ride in school due to the uneven surface. will this get better???
 
Were his suspensories scanned as well. Reason I ask is that his symptoms sound very similar to my horse, who has spavins, but also has PSD, plus fresh damage to the left hind suspensory. When the left hind suspensory is nerve blocked, he's sound, despite the spavins.
 
I ride mine! I didn't turn mine away though and found the more hacking I do the better. She struggles with schooling but copes with one or two sessions. She find slipppy surfaces downhill difficult and small circles but still jumps happily but tight turns are hard! I would build up fitness hacking and do loads of long hacks.
 
I agree with lots of hacking to build up fitness. My horse has leg problems (not spavins but vet said to treat it similar to them) and my horse is 100% better when in work. Out of work she was stiff but now on full work she is totally sound and happy!
Has your vet mentioned Tildren? My horse had this done last week and the results so far are amazing in this short amount of time! Vet said this is a very good treatment for spavins
 
suspensory ligs were scanned clear. he was never actually limb specific lame, just developed an odd gait and started hiking a hip up in trot.
i turned him away as i think he basically broke down.
he's much better now in that the weird gate has stopped but recently i couldn't ride him for 2 weeks as on hols and when i got on him again he was all crabbing and head tossing and stiff and all over the place going downhill.

any kind of muddy/gravel type/stoney/school surface and he just feels not right. dead flat, even concrete he feels fine. going uphill he feels even better.... but this is only in walk.
 
I used to ride an old mare who had damged a ligament in one hind, and had spavins in both hocks - she was far better being ridden than not. When asked to work properly she would bunny hop behind in trot every few strides, this was worse if she wasn't ridden much and eventually caused her retirement to happy hacker.
 
I ride mine too... Some people would probably crucify me as some days he is lame and hoppy to begin with. Once he's warmed up (which I do gently) he's sound and enjoys his work. He'd definitely be a lot worse as a field ornament. He's not going to set the dressage world on fire, but is happy enough hacking with a bit of light schooling. :)
 
More than happy for him just to hack, what we've been thru any kind of riding is a bonus. Just wondered if we'll ever get to stage of hacking out and not worrying about ground or if there are any down hill bits! Did/do the most of you literally stick to walk on flat ground until things improved?
 
Spavin horses need to be worked daily with as much straight line hacking on decent ground.

If you horse has been back in work a suitable amount of time and is still struggling then I'd be speaking to your vet again.
 
My cob is much better when worked everyday even if it's just a quick walk down the lane or like last winter every evening in the dark, gets made to walk a few laps of the yard. Not exciting but 10 mins can usually get rid of most stiffness. He is fine with small gradient changes of downhill but like a sponsored ride the other weekend, steeper hills down and he finds it quite uncomfortable and 'shuffles' down. Uphill he is fine but I've noticed he hasn't quite got the strength he used to have, but an arthritic 20 year old probably wouldn't!
 
Mines fine with walking down steep road hills but struggles on muddy surfaces or uneven stony ones. Also like others have said the first 5 mins in school is horrible and usually feels a little wonky behind but once warmed she levels out and can't feel anything. She always feels 100% out hacking on roads.
 
My sister's cob has two bone spavins in the same hock (formed at seperate times) and while it took a long time to fuse initially (over a year) he came back and now works fine and jumps up to 80/90 (not much less than previously). He's 16 now and can be a little stiff so is on a joint supplement but otherwise works as normal, no problems.
 
Just to agree with others here - as i have mentioned before my boy had a bone spavin at 12, it was fused and he hasnt really looked back. Now that he is over 20, he can be a little stiff at the start of a hack, especially if the ground is dry and uneven ( rutted fields). As others have said, he is fine on roads, and just tonight towed me uphill behind his friend as we tried to escape the rain!
 
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