Unenthusiastic mare - or windgalls/loneliness/feed/barefoot?

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I posted a week ago about my 14hh mare who is being lazy. Currently she is barefoot which is great as she has really tough Arab feet. However we have done a couple of pleasure rides to get us started in Endurance and are having real problems getting fit because of her lazyness/napping. I'm reluctant to use spurs as 1) they aren't allowed under EGB rules and I don't want to get reliant on them, but 2) I'm not sure if there's something a bit more to it.

I tried riding her bareback yesterday to see if it was the saddle pinching and we had the same response, have also tried riding only on the grass verges as thought it may be due to her being barefoot - is it worth putting shoes on? I managed to get her to trot for a decent length of time on a semi busy road on Thursday (the rest of our work is on quiet back roads, woodland and tracks) which is the longest for a long time. She seems to be less lazy when there is more going on (like traffic), but the majority of the time she just stops, or shuffles in walk. When she is interested (like when we are going home!) she is great.

Last year I had her off hind fetlock scanned as she had swelling (windgalls) which showed nothing, and xrayed for suspected arthritis as she was a bit clicky, again the vet said she was in really good health for a 19 year old and to continue with hacking and feeding a supplement. The other fetlock has since gone the same way.

She hasn't been overworked, mainly just hacking in the 13 years I've had her, but one significant thing that has changed is that we moved from my farm where we had 5 horses to my husbands where she lives on her own (with some sheep!).
She has never had separation issues (believe me, I've had to deal with those with another horse before...) - when I first got her she lived alone for around a year and a half.

Feedwise she gets 2 mugs of baileys lo cal, 2 scoops sugarbeet and cortaflex, split in to two feeds, she lives out during the day and in at night.

Also connected to this is that we are starting to have loading problems which again is setting us back in our training. We took part in 25km ride around two weeks ago with another pony (who was 32, he's amazing!) and she was fine all the way round with a really good speed. Last week we tried another 25 km one on our own and it was hopeless - she had no enthusiasm at all and we had to quit after 10km. I'm working far harder than her at the moment!

Sorry for the long post but I hoped people would have some ideas - I thought it would be helpful to give the bigger picture. I'm worried as she is generally enthusiastic about hacking out.
 
I'd get the vet out for an MOT, blood tests too to check for anything nasty lurking. You could try hoof boots to see if it makes a difference that would answer the foot question.
not wanting to go forward & refusing to load when she's usually fine would suggest to me that she's trying to tell you something.
 
I would get a blood test first,there could just be a small problem.

Your feed looks fine although you could add a small amount of the Baileys No 6 (Endurance Mix). At 19 your mares system could be a bit sluggish you could add some "Cleavers and Marigold" Herbs this is for the Lynphatic system,I get mine from Hilton Herbs.

What is your weekly work load (Training)

Where do you live and what pleasure rides have you done.
 
I agree, get the vet out. It may be something straight forward like sore feet or a medical problem.

Windgalls do not usually cause any problems.
 
Thanks guys, I'm going to have to get the vet out whatever - we've had further developments. We hacked out this morning and met a racehorse out training which perked her up, so I thought great, its the lack of company that is the problem.

Anyway we even managed a brief canter along a track - however at the end she pulled up hopping lame in her off hind. Luckily we weren't far from home so I walked her back - she walked fine, no sign of lameness then, I cold hosed her fetlock, then put a gel ice pack on for 15 minutes and left her in, she was resting the joint (thats not unusual for her).
Anyway an hour later I walked her out and she is now really lame on that leg, and you can see she is having difficulty flexing the joint. I don't get it, the vet X rayed both fetlocks for arthritis and there was no sign, but this must be the cause of her recent behaviour.

Both fetlock joints have swelling round the back of the joint but this is a long term thing, could it be tendon or ligament damage? This also happened with her other fetlock (they now both look the same), after which I had the tendons scanned before and the vet (different practice to my current vet) couldn't find anything untoward. She wasn't this lame then thought, only on a tight circle and after the flexion test. Are they missing something?

To answer your question Mydass, we have been hacking out about 4-5 times a week, but the pace varies depending on where we go, generally very steady but I was trying to increase the pace of her work (more trotting) to get her more fit, but was having problems getting her going. We are in Cumbria and did a 23km ride at Ullswater two weeks ago which was great, then another in Egremont which was 25km but we only managed about 10-12km before we quit. Looks like we'll be quitting for a while now.
 
I disagree with putting shoes on, that decision really shouldn't be made until after the vet has been and diagnosed the problem. And lack of shoes wouldn't have caused the injury (if thats what it turns out to be).
 
Treating it as tendon/ligament injury, with advice from the vet over the phone. He's coming out on Tuesday as he says the treatment would be no different if he came out as an emenrgency case out of hours. It would be a bank holiday when this happens.

I think she must have done something already (perhaps when loading?) and its been a bit sore which would explain her not wanting to go forwards - now something has torn and made it worse - she's going to be on box rest for a month to 6 weeks, on bute, cold hosing and walked out in hand after a while.

The one positive is that she's not silly so won't be unmanageable, but I just feel awful. Gutted in fact.
 
I disagree too, keep shoes off until you know more; It does sound a bit like my ex pony, he was lame in trot, vets coudln't find anythng wrong, x rays showed bones were fine.
I got a second opinion and had him nerve blocked and scanned, turned out to be right hind PSD which is hard to diagnose.
 
Also there is no heat or swelling ( except for windgalls) around the suspensory ligament in a hind leg if it is higher up.
Thats what makes it hard to diagnose. Hope it gets sorted soon, I know how gutted you feel!
 
Thanks for all your advice, I don't know why I didn't come on here earlier! It's nice keeping your horse at home, but you do miss out on opinions and advice from other people.

Having done a bit of online research on suspensory ligaments, I know think she has damaged the 'branches' lower down around the fetlock, and the swelling is blood clots or haematomas withing the ligament. I don't think it is PSD, which is higher up the cannon bone, but I will hopefully know more once the vet has been on Tuesday.

Bit scary that two vets from different practices have examined her other leg (which was the same but chronic rather than acute as this lameness is) and neither of them have mentioned this and just told me to carry on as normal... It is almost certainly what she has now and has had before.
 
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Bl**dy H** get some shoes on this poor mare, she sounds footsore and in pain.

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I must say when I first posted this problem, I did think this could have been the reason for her behaviour, but the developments since then are definitely leaning towards ligament damage, and until the vet comes out that is how I am treating it, unfortunately. Thanks for your contribution though.

Just as an aside, she has been barefoot for over a year and the farrier is out to trim every 6 weeks; when we were at the EGB Ullswater ride 2 weeks ago the farrier checked her over before we set off and said she had fab feet, and also said 'why would you ruin a perfectly good foot by putting a shoe on?', which I must say I was quite surprised at but very pleased to hear - they aren't all out to just to make money out of us poor owners.

Everyone who comments on the fact she is barefoot (a lot of people do, I didn't think it would be such a novelty...does anyone else find that?) says what good feet she has. I'm constantly checking them for signs of them wearing down but they have been fine up to now, and I actually felt she went better without them on (up until now, obviously). I wouldn't say it is for every horse, just it seemed to suit her.
 
If it was that she were footsore at this time of year the first thing i'd be tempted to do is take her off the grass to see if it was low grade lammi.
But I quite agree with you, if she doesn't need shoes there's no point shoeing for the sake of it and she probably has such good feet because they work so hard and get so much stimulation.
 
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