Strange short lived lameness

Lancelot

Lancelot

Well-Known Member
Joined
13 November 2008
Messages
200
Visit site
Looking to hear if anyone has ever experienced this before...

Start of May, farrier finds a bruise in outside heel of RF. Horse hadn't been lame and shown no signs of discomfort.

End of May, we do ODE at 80cm. Horse runs beautifully XC but, when bought back to trot at the end, goes 3 legged lame. I jump off, check feet and legs, walk him forward and within half a dozen steps of walk he's sound.
Horse remained sound in days following so assumed the bruise that was found at start of month hadn't completely healed and was aggravated by the extended period of gallop.

Horse remains sound for next couple of months.

End of July, we do ODE at 80cm. Again horse run beautifully, this time we had a more undulating course with a couple of fairly steep downhill stretches. However, again, when bought back to trot at the end, goes 3 legged lame. I jump off, check feet and legs, walk him forward and within half a dozen steps of walk he's sound.

I've spoken to both farrier and vet.
Farrier can't think of any reason for this pattern. The horse has seedy toe but farrier is confident this is not the cause of any pain and, in fact, it's under control almost to the point of being gone completely.
Vet said its most likely bruising or maybe something higher up.. He said we may see bruising at next shoeing. I'm confident it's not a muscular issue as horse had physio less than a month ago and was 100%
The problem is that there is nothing to see now. Horse is sound and it seems pointless to have the vet out as there's nothing to see!!

Any thoughts or similar experiences? Does bruising seem most likely and, if so, would leather pads help?

TIA
 
Animals can remember painful incidents and react (limp?) is anticipation of a recurrence.

I had a flat coat retriever that got a cut on it's leg. A simple skin cut. Soon after, it ran into the sea to retrieve an object. The salt water in the cut was obviously painful and the dog came out limping. It was not limping before it went into the water. It would often limp when slightly stressed after that although the cut was completely heal and no muscles or tendons were damaged. "All in the mind"? Or possible nerve damage? I have a scar on my hand I can't bear to touch. That was left when I put my hand through a pane of glass very many years ago and there is nothing wrong physically.
 
Horse trod on a stone first time, just before the end of the xc, and you jumped off immediately (of course!) Horse now knows you'll jump off immediately he's finished xc if he hops? If he does it again, try staying on.

I had a horse in rehab once. If I got him to walk from his stable into the barn where he lived overnight by himself, he was very lame in walk. If I led him, he was sound!
 
Thanks for the replies.

I'm not so sure this is any kind of remembered pain or a response to get me off him. He's really is the most genuine and honest horse I've ever ridden. He LOVES his job and attacks everything I ask of him with enthusiasm. He's also very stoic, not a lot stops him from doing what he loves and he does love XC ��

It's just so perplexing, his flatwork session 3 days later was one of the best we've ever done ��
 
When you bring back to trot after xc, are you actually riding the transition or allowing him to drop down himself? How many strides before you detect lameness and jump off? If he is unbalanced and tiring, that can sometimes present as temporary lameness that resolves once horse rebalances itself or stops.

How much galloping work do you do apart from xc? Him being keen to do his job and the adrenaline of xc sometimes hides how tired they are when actually galloping, it's only once you've finished it shows.

If it only appears in this specific situation, I would stay on, bring him to walk, and see how it is after about 50m or so. IME, bruising significant enough to cause non-weight bearing lameness does not go down that quickly!
 
smja said:
When you bring back to trot after xc, are you actually riding the transition or allowing him to drop down himself? How many strides before you detect lameness and jump off? If he is unbalanced and tiring, that can sometimes present as temporary lameness that resolves once horse rebalances itself or stops.

How much galloping work do you do apart from xc? Him being keen to do his job and the adrenaline of xc sometimes hides how tired they are when actually galloping, it's only once you've finished it shows.

If it only appears in this specific situation, I would stay on, bring him to walk, and see how it is after about 50m or so. IME, bruising significant enough to cause non-weight bearing lameness does not go down that quickly!
Click to expand...

Thank you smja.
I would say, in hindsight, I probably do just allow him to drop. The lameness is immediate and severe, within the first couple of trot strides. Both times I've jumped straight off and he has then taken maybe 3 or 4 lame steps in walk, improving progressively but quickly and by 5 or 6 strides is sound.

He doesn't do a great deal of gallop work, just fast canter work when we can find decent ground. This is something we are now building into our prep, planning to box to a local gallop on a surface once or twice a week.

Thinking about it, it's probably only this year that we've started to become more competitive and attempt to make the time. This problem didn't happen at all last year but I would have been asking less and we always ran too slowly back then.
Also, this last run was more strenuous and the lameness felt more severe this time somehow so maybe this is indeed linked to tiredness and a sudden drop of adrenaline.

I should also add, he is quite a heavy chap with a high trot action. He is of indeterminate breeding but looks like he has some Welsh D in there!

We are running again in 2 weeks so I will definitely be mindful of riding the downwards transitions and will stay on if it happens again, see how that influences the recovery.
 
He's not catching himself with a hind when tired? Does he wear OR boots?

Hopefully it's just been a coincidence both times. Maybe get someone to video you coming off next time then if he does do it again you'll have something to look at.
 
FfionWinnie said:
He's not catching himself with a hind when tired? Does he wear OR boots?

Hopefully it's just been a coincidence both times. Maybe get someone to video you coming off next time then if he does do it again you'll have something to look at.
Click to expand...

I don't think he's overreaching, there's no signs of anything although he does have a big trot action & has overreached in the past so always wears OR boots for any ridden work so would never rule it out.

Brilliant idea re the video. My friend is coming with me to the next event so I'll definitely ask her to film as much as she can from the finish line.

Oh I really hope it's coincidence and there's nothing more sinister going on! I've never wanted to be worrying about nothing as much before in my life!!
 
My horse started a bit like this behind. He would randomly go 3 legged lame though - could be walking out of his stable and occasionally for a stride or two when working. We never truly got to the bottom of it and finally he was never truly sound. I wish I had looked at it a bit more carefully earlier. Definitely try and get a video if you can if it tends to happen at a specific time.
 
Just wanted to update...

Today we ran at 80-85 in an unaff ode. He stormed XC, gave me a beautiful ride, went clear and.... pulled up perfectly sound :))

So looks like the lameness was temporary. I'm suspecting a deep bruise aggravated by fast work on firmer ground.

Very relieved! Thanks to all for thoughts and suggestions :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top