short behind

I

inkydoodles

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i have a welsh d, 5 year old who i took to a show the judge relised he was short behind but he didnt look lame or in pain.
i dont know if it was that he young or he was lame but he always trots like that.

does anyone no any exercise i can do or anything ? any help?:mad:
 
If he is going short behind he is technically lame in some sense, it could be many things from a sore or pulled muscle somewhere, a badly fitting saddle, or something like his stifle being weak, with many other options. It may just be that he is lazy and not working properly, professional advice would be the best place to start.

A visit from the vet, an instructor may help if it is a schooling issue, or a physio to give him an assessment.

All or any of these options depending on how bad you feel he is but it is best to do something now in case he has a problem that can then be resolved before it gets worse.
 
Hi, Just to say there are a multitude of things that it could be and his way of compensating is a short gait or he could just be a little straight in the hock from a conformation point of view which would make a big swinging stride difficult but possible to improve with correct schooling.

I agree with the above post, probably best just to get him checked to be on the safe side, I speak from experience as my 4yr old youngster had this and I felt there was something not quite right and after 2yrs of trying to work out what it was as he didn't really look lame, it turned out to be KS, he was bi-laterally lame which is why he just looked short and stiff so it was hard to spot the lame bit.

I'm not for 1 second implying it is this and am not trying to scaremonger, but it took 2 yrs to get properly diagnosed as I was a little scared of it being a big problem and didn't persevere enough so he spend a long time struggling and learned to move differently to compensate which hid the problem even further, it was as though he was paddling from his hip not his hock and we had to retrain him to walk properly after surgery, if I had tackled it when he was 4, I could have saved me a lot of heart ache and him a lot of discomfort, a good physio will be able to see if it is coming from back or limbs or conformation or nothing at all, properly balanced shoeing also helps so a good farrier is a must as it will help him to move freely but if you get it checked then you will have peace of mind.

Am sure it is none of the above but better safe than sorry as this is an important stage in your horses learning curve so you need to be sure he is comfortable.
 
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