stiff but not lame

[shamrock2021]

Hi everyone my horse is stuff in right front leg . She is not lame at all just stiff when I start riding her . She is completely fine when she warms up. Could it be early arthritis.

 

[SOS]

It could be early arthritis or it could be any number of things. Get the vet out and get it xrayed, then you will know for sure.

 

[My equine life]

Arthritis or laminitis I would say. Defo get vet to check it out but there’s some great supplements to help woth arthritis such as tumeric. Helped mine massively as I didn’t want to do the steroids too early. They are often best in consistent work or no work at all if they have arthritis. Be mindful after they’ve been in and if it’s been a cold night and try not to do too much road trotting in the mean time but get a vets opinion to be safe. Can you talk to them on the phone?

 

[Birker2020]

Hi everyone my horse is stuff in right front leg . She is not lame at all just stiff when I start riding her . She is completely fine when she warms up. Could it be early arthritis.

Sounds like me. I'm badly affected with arthritis although most of the time you wouldn't know as I'm on around 20 painkillers and anti inflammatories a day. But when I've sat down or stood still for a while I stiffen up. When I get out of my car after a journey I can hardly walk, but then within about ten steps I'm fine again. Mine is due to trauma, having been thrown a number of times from the same horse over the years whilst competing, he never liked certain fillers and would put some horrendous stops in.

Sounds just your horse has arthritis to me.

Best thing to do is get it assessed, then have regular shoeing, put it on a decent joint supplement, give it an anti inflammatory, turnout as much as possible, keep the weight down - (something I must do for myself), warm up gradually and always choose your surfaces well.