Arthritis in neck

[SLW]

A friend reached out to me yesterday to share she’s helping sell a 8 year old, 17.1 TB who has done some low level eventing. The rider has been away at college and in the past school year the gelding was diagnosed with arthritis in his neck. Friend shared that “blocking” made him whole and he will need it as maintenance.

Is this a “no go” if your buying a horse?? I’ve never dealt with it and I’m not looking to buy the horse but also don’t want to spend time sharing his data if this a career ending thing within a few years. He isn’t cheap either, 10K with some wiggle room.

[Simkie]

Having gone through it, it would be an absolutely no from me. It’s not uncommon that they do well with injections for a round or two and then they don’t.

Have they actually injected the neck and shown the horse has a positive, lasting response? Or are they still in the diagnostic/treatment phase, of showing an anesthetic block resolves the lameness, but they have not yet treated it and shown the horse can compete?

If the later, absolute hard pass, especially with five figure dollars attached.

[SLW]

@Simkie

Having gone through it, it would be an absolutely no from me. It’s not uncommon that they do well with injections for a round or two and then they don’t.

Have they actually injected the neck and shown the horse has a positive, lasting response? Or are they still in the diagnostic/treatment phase, of showing an anesthetic block resolves the lameness, but they have not yet treated it and shown the horse can compete?

If the later, absolute hard pass, especially with five figure dollars attached.

Thank you!! They’ve done one injection and the horse has responded positively and become sound. Best guess is the horse was injected in the past 60 days.

[IPEsq]

What were the symptoms of the neck issue? I wouldn’t knowingly buy another neck arthritis horse, but if I were to consider it, I’d want to know what deficits the horse had pre-injections as well as what the neck rads look like. Some horses can maintain fine with regular injections (like maybe every 6 months to a year), some not so much. Risk would be higher than average in an eventing horse IMO due to demands of the sport.

[SLW]

@IPEsq

What were the symptoms of the neck issue? I wouldn’t knowingly buy another neck arthritis horse, but if I were to consider it, I’d want to know what deficits the horse had pre-injections as well as what the neck rads look like. Some horses can maintain fine with regular injections (like maybe every 6 months to a year), some not so much. Risk would be higher than average in an eventing horse IMO due to demands of the sport.

My friend said the horse was lame in front. The owners investigated many things before narrowing it down to front legs. An equine specialist did nerve blocks and rads on the front legs, no better. Rad of neck showed arthritis, I do not know if it’s high or low in the neck, and the block made the horse sound.

Friend is a friend of a gal who knows the family, both of them ride western. The horse was moved to one of the gals small farm so the gelding could be turned out full time.

The 10K seemed way high to me because it seems like he needs a low key job like trail riding or hilltopping.

[Xanthoria]

@SLW

Is this a “no go” if your buying a horse??

For me it’s a heck NO. My 7 yr old WB was dx with the neck of a much older horse and that arthritis was the final nail for me - I had him PTS. It caused neurological symptoms.

[2tempe]

That would be a “no” for me. I do know of one horse, well into his teens’ that has gotten along ok with periodic injections. He is a pony size Arab, ridden 3x per week by an 80 yr old woman. Was never neurological, nor really lame, just NQR when diagnosed. Had one and know of others, who did have neuro issues, most of them diagnosed much later in their lives(late teens/20’s).
Quite honestly I wouldn’t take the horse if it were free. The maintenance question is large and not cheap. As mentioned above, injections can stop working or work for shorter times. They will not make the horse better; arthritis could (or maybe has?) impact the spinal cord which leads to neuro symptoms. The horse can become unsafe to ride at any point, and its possible that is figured out after a fall or some other incident which puts rider at risk.

[SLW]

Thanks so much for the insight! For me, arthritis that already needs maintenance in an 8 year old horse would be a no go. The price being asked is nuts, IMO.

[leesa1]

I wouldn’t take a horse with neck arthritis for free let alone paying $10k for one.
My last horse was diagnosed with neck arthritis. injections helped, but wore off within 6 months and have heard from multiple people that a second round rarely has any benefit at all. Within a year he’d developed neurological issues and was euthanised.

[Equisis]

I am from the “success story” camp- I had a horse with neck arthritis that was managed and he was competitive at the mid levels (prelim/2**). He wasn’t lame, but a bit NQR prior to diagnosis. Even with our success, I wouldn’t touch another known neck issue. Too much risk and too many unknowns.

[sjp963]

This would be a hard no for me. My mare was diagnosed with neck arthritis in January. She presented with explosive behavior issues of running sideways across the arena as fast as she could and getting “stuck”.

I’ve done one round of injections that seemed to help. But she really can’t carry a frame without an issue. I do think the neck issues were there for the last 6 years I owned her. Now that I know what her reaction is I can see incidences in the past that would indicate she had some pain throughout.

She was never lame and has not shown neurological symptoms yet. But the whole process to diagnosis and subsequent retirement has been long and frustrating for the both of us.

[Rhymes_W_Orange]

Adding in another “no”. I had an OTTB eventer that we chased soundness issues for a long time on before getting the arthritis diagnosis. We did try the neck injections and they made a fantastic but temporary difference and the horse ended up making himself worse since he thought he was fine again. Six years after retirement from any real work, he is maintained as a walk/trot trail horse on ButeLess. Probably nearly all of the earlier soundness issues were related to that.

[Live_Wire]

Also sharing a bit of a happy story - my friends mare was diagnosed with neck arthritis while she was a working student for a BNT. She was successfully managed and continued to compete successfully through FEI/3*. She likely would have seen the the blue flags had she not contracted EPM. The same mare was born horribly windswept, has kissing spines, pops splints, and has some ugly ankles. She’s packing a young rider around training courses now - her owner will hold her at training due to the EPM history, but you’d never know she has any underlying conditions. She’s healthy, comfortable, and sound with minimal maintenance but very specific management.

[beowulf]

@Equisis and @Live_Wire – can you guys elaborate on what specific management helped these horses with neck arthritis?

[Live_Wire]

@beowulf this is a secondhand account, so I’m sure there was more involved, but after the appropriate shockwave treatments, she worked with a physiotherapist and re-started her under saddle very slowly to build muscle corrrectly to support the neck. She basically had to learn how to ride her horse all over again with a much different approach. Her program consisted mostly of hacking. Dressage flats meant very long warmups and interval schooling. Jumping didn’t bother her nearly as much because she could carry herself in a more comfortable manner. Swimming was also incorporated into her weekly routine as well as a lot of stretching. After hard work outs she would get magnawave and rocktape. 24/7 turnout made a bid difference as well. Nothing terribly over the top, but it does require some dilligence.

[Equisis]

For me, it was a number of things.

• Injections- we tried this once and honestly, I don’t think it really helped. We did three joints on each side of the neck. I never did it again because I didn’t see improvement, but YMMV.

• Paying close attention to his feet. I kept him on a 4-week schedule year round because if his feet started to get long or the angles got low, his neck would get sore. Posture has a huge influence on the neck.

• Conditioning. Lots of hacking and riding in the fields to strengthen the rest of his body and the muscles supporting the spine.

• For mine, inflammation elsewhere in his body would cause an increase in soreness in his neck. I’m not sure if this would be the case for others as well, but I was proactive about treating any potentially inflammatory events (vaccines, for example).

• Carrot stretches and body work. Not sure the stretches really did anything, but they did help me keep tabs on how he was doing and notice if he was getting stiff or sore. The bodywork (masterson method) absolutely helped. I actually began studying it myself, because the difference was so profound for this horse.

[NaturallyHappy]

@Equisis

The bodywork (masterson method) absolutely helped. I actually began studying it myself, because the difference was so profound for this horse.

Me, too! This helps my horse dramatically!

[wanderlust]

Many, many horses have and do just fine with mild arthritis in their necks with no symptoms, and/or they have symptoms and get appropriate maintenance. We’ve had multiple in our barn that were maintained with no problems for many years.

I personally had one that was intermittently lame in front, neck rads showed mild/moderate remodeling, and one round of injections plus osphos fixed him right up with no concerns about him continuing at the jr/ao jumper level at all from one of the best sporthorse vets in the country. He’s dropped down to the ch/aa jumper level now, 8 years later, but is still going around and I think the current owners have only injected once or twice since.

That said, unless very deeply discounted and with a history of continued high performance with maintenance, I would not purchase one with the issue.

[goodhors]

No, I would not buy a horse with neck arthritus diagnosis.

We had such a horse, lame when we got her as a 2yr old and we knew it. Only horse I ever got just because she had charisma! Ha ha. She was just “off”, short stride on the right front, but improved a lot as a 3yr old. Took her to my lameness Vet who kept her a couple days trying different blocks. No reason for lameness and no improvement. His suggestion was to work her to the right twice as much h, trying to stretch things she did not use when loose. Seemed to work, she was pretty even moving as a 4yr old starting her driving career.

She was very nice to use, just did not collect well, got dancy with a vertical face. That was OK, still doing Driving at training, moving long, nose out was fine. Got a match so she was driven as a Pair, nose was not so obvious. Took her to a clinic where nose out was an issue with Clinician. He said bring her back to free lunge, see what we could notice. Several horse friends around the arena, not seeing anything. I got in front of her, saw her nose twitch right every time her rt front landed! The AHA moment. Did not happen going left. So she went to the College Vet clinic for neck X-rays. Pictures showed previous broken bones in the neck, healed, a bit of arthritis. Going with face vertical was painful!

The Clinic folks said bring her over here we will put her down for you. Husband said “No Way!!” They said she has a damaged neck, not a performance horse, best to let her go. They figured she had done a somersault going downhill as a yearling, when her being off, limping, appeared. Damaged the neck then. Husband said “She performs just FINE. She rides, drives, jumps without a problem. She is here to see why she could not comfortably bring in her nose, not to kill her!” Docs and students did not believe him so he gave a demonstration out in the parking lot, jumping parking barricades, some rollbacks, spins on the lawn. They were amazed! He packed her up in the trailer and brought her home. She worked hard for us, Leader in the Four doing CDE things over the years, trail riding the Cross State Ride, being the go-to horse for us.
We continued using her until she was about 14 and the arthritus got worse.

She has 4 wonderful foals for us, all as nice minded as she was, good workers AND competitive for us. She was put down at age 28 with a broken leg from a pasture accident.

She was VERY cool, interested in people, the horse everyone went to first. Queen of all she surveyed!. But managing her was enough to keep husband (the Farrier) tearing his hair out! He tried many kinds of shoes on her, which really developed his skills in diagnosing issues on other horses! They would work for awhile, then she would change. Retired, she was not limping lame, just off.

She cost a dollar, her seller knew we would give her a good place and I did love looking at her, should she never get sound! But knowing now what she taught us, I would not own another with neck arthritis.

[MissusS]

Hard no from me. My mare very suddenly turned up incredibly lame with a significant head bob at a walk, (surprisingly, mostly sound looking at trot). Looked like left front lameness based on the head bob. Very flexible usually (like… abnormally bendy!), one day she could not turn her head/neck to the left, or drop her head to eat. Turned out to be arthritis in the neck that flared up and presented over night with no known cause (pasture incident maybe? no swelling, contusions, etc to indicate that ANYTHING happened). Pain and discomfort could not be managed despite weeks of trying. Multiple experts consulted, none with a manageable prognosis. It was incredibly traumatic and not something I am willing to go through again if I can help it.