Sound but will not pick up off hind?

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indiepie

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My Thorough bred will not pick up his off hind. He has only done this since he was last shod where he was trimmed but would not let the farrier shoe him. He has been vetted and he is sound on soft and hard surfaces at walk, trot and canter. He also passed flexion tests on the 3 limbs he will pick up with flying colours. The only other perculiar sign is he will pick up his near fore but is a bit wobbly with it.

Any ideas?
Are we looking at hock issues?
 
indiepie said:
My Thorough bred will not pick up his off hind. He has only done this since he was last shod where he was trimmed but would not let the farrier shoe him.
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Here may well be the answer. Hopefully over time any soreness that may be the cause will improve as his hoof regrows. It isn't surprizing he is also wobbly on the diagonal front hoof when asked to lift it, it sounds like he is avoiding putting excess weight on his hind so having balance problems with the front. Generally to lift a front hoof, both hinds need to be planted for stability.
 
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He was checked 20 days ago and is due back at the vets in 10 days.

I just don't get how a horse who cannot bear weight on his near hind can trot up sound?
 
I once had a horse who developed an abscess in one hind foot. She started out looking just a little uneven, and over the course of a few days progressed to being dog lame. Then the abscess burst out and all was fine.

However, shortly after that she started to become very reluctant to pick up the foot, whereas normally you just had to stand by her with the intent of lifting the front foot and she'd lift it for you.

I asked the vet to come and check her out. He used brute force to make her lift it, and kind of said "there, she will lift it"...... but I wasn't convinced, even though he couldn't find anything else wrong.

A little while later (might have been a week or two, I can't remember now), an abscess burst out of her coronet band on the other hind foot.

She didn't have any overt lameness with that abscess. It was just her total reluctance to lift the foot that showed.

Maybe it's something similar?

Sarah
 
FFF makes a good point but in my experience abcesses usually show in the movement. As she says her horse was a bit off and then lame. You say yours shows no signs. Have you trotted her in tight circles on hard ground and walk and trot in straight lines too? If he won't pick up the hind leg that suggests to me that it is the foreleg that is the problem not the hind leg. He clearly is loading the leg perfectly well in order to keep it so tightly on the ground. I would be looking around the front foreleg. You say that it only happened after the farrier came but you said that the farrier could only clip him and not shoe him which suggests the problem pre-existed? It sounds to me like he has severely pulled a muscle in the shoulder region to explain this type of severe reaction to lifting his feet. What I find inexplicable though is that that level of muscle strain would show in the horse's movement.
 
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