Vet investigations for horse that naps jumping on grass?

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fredflop

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Horse is nappy when jumping on grass. It is intermittant, and has happened on harder ground, and softer ground. Assuming either a schooling/attitude issue, or a vet one. All fine in the school and out hacking (hacking is over lots of varied terrain,)

My intention is to work on the schooling aspect first, as I know my horse and she does have an argumentive streak, and has also been just galloped around in the past, so she could be having a strop as we are not going faster and faster as she wants to do!

Obviously it could also be a vet issue, which I will look at booking in a month or so if no improvements have been made with the schooling. So crux of the post, my first intention with a vet would be to get them to come to yard first. Get flexion tests done, then potentially X-rays of hooves/fetlocks/hocks. Ultrasound on tendons, ligaments etc?

She could of course be bilaterally lame, as she's certainly not showing up lame in her current work. My intention for doing stuff at home first is that I don't have access to transport readily, and the vet I'd go to for a "proper" lameness work up is miles away, so I'd like to at least be able to discount some stuff at home first.

My initial thoughts are is it's more a schooling issue, and that I currently don't think there is anything serious enough to warrent taking her for lots of tests. (Had enough broken horses in the past to know when it needs looking at.) teeth/back/saddle either done recently or booked for next week.
 
I would at least get the vet to get the hoof testers on the horse before I went any further .
Not jumping on grass screams a foot issue so if the vet found no lameness ( I would
Lunge the horse on a hard surface with a camber on a small circle ) I would have one foot blocked out and see what happened .
 
Is it insured? If your spaying out of pocket it's more economical to just do the full lameness work up at the clinic vs paying for some diagnostics at home which may or may not show anything up.

Is she sound lunged? (on hard and soft). How does she hoof test? How often is she shod? Is she different away from home?
 
Shod every 6 weeks. Doesn't have any stud holes in, so it could be as simple as she needs them to feel confident.

Can be good and bad both at home and away, no pattern to when she's nappy or not.

Prefer to get vet out at home first, as I'm looking at a bill of £200 transport to get to the vets for a work up.
 
Do you use studs? I had a horse that would not jump a stick without them, didn't nap, wasn't allowed to, but did pull himself up about three strides away. There are also horses that will not jump on grass at all, Robert Smith's Kalusha won world cups but wouldn't jump a stick on grass. sound til nearly twenty just didn't like the feel of it. Big studs on hard ground can cause it, unbalanced studs can cause it i.e. just one in each foot. I always school them in the studs a couple of times before I try jumping so that they get used to feel of them and to give me an idea of the type that suit. heavy horses need bigger studs generally and horses with low action need short studs. Also some horses will not jump at all on grass without studs and I have even had one that would not jump with them in! He is still sound at nearly twenty so nothing to do with soundness. Jumping without is a no no. Once they slip they get frightened I would only take them out if the horse actually objected to them.
 
She's fine to lunge on a soft surface, not tried her on anything hard, haven't really got anywhere suitable at the yard, but may give it a go this weekend.

I haven't tried studs, as per post above. It could be that she needs them, but she's not due for shoeing yet, so it's something to think about in the near future.
 
I don't school very much on grass at home as we haven't got the best fields for it. However my plan was to increase that this week, if I'm allowed to ride in our fields, and if it's not too slippery.

However she's hacked out several times a week, a good proportion of which is on farm tracks/grass.
 
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