X-rays in competition horses.

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not_with_it

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Gins big weakness has always been her canter and she has real problems taking weight back. The canter becomes laboured and she wants to hollow.
She usually gets around 64% at elementary and 6's for her canter. If we could just sort out the canter we could get really good marks as the trot is well up to standard.

This morning I had a lesson and I thought the canter had improved on the left rein which was always the worst rein but as soon as I asked for medium she swung her quarters in to avoid taking weight. On the right rein she just wanted to run away. We worked on pirouettes in the canter which she really finds difficult.

After the end of the lesson my instructor said I should get Gins hocks x-rayed to see if their is a reason she finds the canter difficult. She isnt lame at all, doesnt twist anywhere through her hocks and doesnt have terrible conformation. She wants to rule out bone spavin which seems to be so common these days and it doesnt always show on the outside. If the x-rays show up clear then we know its just Gins attitude to work.
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Everything just seems to be happening at once.

Has enyone else had similar problems? It just got me wondering how many people x-ray to see if there are any underlying problems. Is it something you would consider? People always automatically go for teeth, back or saddle but they are all fine.
 
Does Gin jump at all? This would also prove a useful indication of whether pushing power through her hocks was painful or sore in anyway. Also her style of jumping could tell you a lot if she was compensating for stiffness in the hind leg......
 
Certainly alot of the competition horses on our yard would be x-rayed if such a problem occured. For us they are mainly jumpers so the hocks are very important
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I know a friend of mine tried everything with her horse and she just didnt seems right, she wasn't lame, just not 100% happy in her work. they took her down to the vet and they discovered bone spavin in the hock unfortunately
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For me I think it would be best to know at the end of the day!
 
She doesnt like jumping but I had thought about doing some with her. The only thing thats putting me off is the fact I only have a deep seated dressage saddle and no jumps!
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It is something I would like to try though.
 
The same thing has happened to a couple of people I know. It seems to be common in WB's. She is fine in the trot, does all the moves and everything with no problems but there must be a problem in the canter.
 
Even if the saddle fits I would be tempted to try other saddles and wider saddles to see if there was any changes there. Every saddle has a different cut/design which suits some horses really well and other horses not so well. My horse although you could have 5 different saddles made to measure for him but he would only be able to perform 100% in one type of saddle, that is fully able to collect and engage in all 3 paces as well as use the shoulder properly.

Re the hock spavin usually spavin can only be seen when the horse is in trot from the following -

1- narrow plaiting action behind
2- abnormal action of one or both hind limbs when viewed from behind- i.e one limb swings out rather than under
3- not overtracking in trot

As your horses trot work is so good would doubt that it is spavin as the trot is usually the only pace that is really compromised in a horse with spavin.

Could be saccroliliac strain?
 
[ QUOTE ]
She doesnt like jumping but I had thought about doing some with her. The only thing thats putting me off is the fact I only have a deep seated dressage saddle and no jumps!
tongue.gif

It is something I would like to try though.

[/ QUOTE ]

i jump Bloss in my Albion SLK - i love jumping in my dressage saddles!
 
It's not as simple as x-raying the hocks to look for spavin.

If you x-rayed several horses the chances are many of them would show abnormalities that actually have no significance to performance at all and the problems you describe could relate to many other things ie stifles (very common in my experience), sacro-iliac, suspensory ligaments, fetlocks, annular ligaments etc etc.

It is possible that your horse has a very subtle low grade lameness somewhere. The type that only a really good specialist competition horse vet would notice, and then a full work-up would be necessary to get to the root of the problem.

It's also possible that this is just a schooling problem that will take time and an increase in strength and suppleness before she finds it easier.
 
I have just changed my saddle as my old one was slipping forward. She goes so much better in the new one and seems to be much happier. When I was trying saddles I tried every one I could get my hands on.

When trotted up she is perfectly straight and showing no signs of lameness which is why my instructor thinks it might be an underlying lameness.

I dont really know anything about saccroliliac strain but I will definatly look into it. Thanks.
 
Its got to the point where we no longer think its a schooling problem. Shes 11 and has been with me 5 years! Although its only really been this past year thats shes settled down and got on with her work. At her age she should know better!!!
 
My horse wasn't right behind, and at first they thought it was Bone Spavin, so nerve blocked for it and it wasn't. She was then nerve blocked for proximal suspensory desmitis PSD(lesions on the high suspensory ligaments) which it was and she was then scanned.

PSD is quite hard to diagonose as it can be really mild, but as it is becoming more well known as a condition, it appears that it is quite a common thing to go wrong.

If she was mine I would have flexion tests done and if there is no change (both Spavins and PSD should show up) I wouldn't worry. Then probably nerve blocks, x rays if it was looking like a spavin and scans if it was PSD. Ask your vet what he thinks
 
Was your horse lame or was it just a gut feeling that something wasnt right?
I think I will have everything tested to be on the safe side.
If it turns out she has a problem then she might be going in foal next year to give her a break from work. Shes 11 so its now or never.
 
She was actually lame, but not a lot, about 1/10th. The flexion test really showed it up. Unless you were really looking for it, it was very hard to spot, the vet noticed it when he came to jab her. The only indication of it from her performance was that if you turned very tight into a fence with that leg on the inside she would stop. But that was asking her to jump a 1.15 spread of one stride. We think she has had it a very long time, which probably explains why she has gone from jumping 1.30s down to 1.10s by the time I bought her.

She is booked in for an operation in september, so fingers crossed she'll be cured.
 
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