Bucking/kicking out in left canter transition, bute trial in progress...

[somanyhorses]

My 12 year old thoroughbred, who is an exuberant and explosive type but has never been a bucker, randomly bucked in a left canter transition with me about a month or two ago. It was a serious buck, after which he WALKED off like nothing had happened. It felt like he’d been stung by a bee, totally out of the blue. I’ve had this horse for 5 years and all of his education has been with me, and he is one that will leap through the air if he is feeling fresh or reactive but not buck. If he’s having a fresh day, he will be fresh in every respect, spooking and dramatic and leaping. This buck came totally out of the blue on a day when he was behaving like an angel. He is a fit eventer in full work, nothing had changed in his diet or tack. He has done two rehabs in the last 2 years (one for a near fore minor tendon strain, one for an off hind splint bone fracture), and even during those rehabs he never bucked.

After the buck, I got myself organised and calmly schooled some walk/trot transitions, then popped him into canter and he was fine. So I assumed it was a random thing, maybe an insect had bitten him! Two days later I was jumping, landed on the left lead and he did three decent pig roots. He was feeling a bit fresh that day, so whilst the pigroots surprised me I thought, OK maybe he’s just a bit fresh (spring time here in Southern Hemisphere).

A few weeks later I was at an event, and in the warm up for the dressage, I asked for left canter (after some good right canter with no issues) and he did a massive buck. He was pretty upset, it took a while to get a civilised left canter transition, but I did get it. In the test, he anticipated his canter transitions on both reins and shuffled into them quickly, he genuinely felt worried about cantering and offered it before it was asked for. He warmed up great for his show jumping, no sign of a buck, jumped clear, and went clear cross country (except for his rider missing a fence…). He pulled up well, no signs of stiffness etc.

A week later I had 2 consecutive lessons with my dressage coach who had travelled down from interstate. I explained my concern about this new bucking issue and how I was worried that it’s discomfort, not behavioural. My horses IS stiffer on the left. At the end of lesson one, during which horse was perfect, said he couldn’t see any signs of discomfort/unsoundness, and suggested that his old “explosions” of leaping had now become a buck to relieve tension, because he is working much more correctly and round through the back (hence a rounder explosion, ie buck, rather than a flat, strung out leap). He explained it a bit better than my paraphrasing! Coach is very good grand prix rider, very collect and classical, horse is worked very much from behind into a light contact, so the tension he describes is not a big feature of our work - horse is quite relaxed the majority of the time.

Day 2 and we were working on flying changes and after a walk break towards the end of the lesson we went walk to canter on the left lead and he did quite a big kick out/buck. Coach said it looked like tension and excitement/reacting to my aid after he’d had a break, so we moved quarters in/out etc in walk before asking again and got a good transition. Then got a good flying change, so finished on that note, with the lesson being, don’t surprise him, prepare prepare prepare, which I have been working on since at home.

I had a few good rides since with no bucks, but a few where I do get this kick out or buck. I’ve been quick to blame myself for not preparing him enough. But it seems to be getting more frequent, and so I called the vet.

I am in a reasonably remote area and my vet does not see a lot of eventers, he is the “go to vet” in my region for surgery, repro work and general vet work but not performance horse soundness. He does do a fair bit with racehorses, but is the first to admit that he doesn’t see a lot of eventers.

We trotted him up, flexed hocks, he didn’t flex well, flexed worse on the left, took x-rays, x-rayed surprisingly well.

We didn’t x-ray stifles, I wish we had.

We decided to do a bute trial, horse is a bit ulcer prone however does not seem ulcery at all at the moment however I have put him on ulcerguard during the trial.

Day 1 on bute, no bucks. Day 2, we had a buck. Day 3, no bucks. Day 4 (today), various bucks. Today I worked the left canter transitions a bit more and he got it OK sometimes, then other times would grunt quite loudly and really kick up.

I rang the vet today to discuss bute trial results so far and stressed that it really does not feel behavioural to me. It doesn’t feel like a reaction to the aid, or about anticipation of the aid. It feels like he starts to canter in response to the aid and then has a physical reaction. The bute doesn’t seem to have changed his performance in any other respect, and the horse (with the exception of this issue) is going better than ever both pre bute trial and during it, and I am/have been very happy with his attitude and progress.

Vet has suggested trying another few days of the bute trial. Today I tried riding without spurs (I just use roller spurs) incase they were tickling him, tomorrow and the next few days I am going to try another saddle.

Vet is returning on Monday ie 6 days from now and we are going to x-ray stifle. Vet does not have the equipment to x-ray back or SI and would need to refer me to somewhere 5 hours away…

I am going to get teeth checked, and have a body worker who is very good with SI issues apparently, coming within 2 weeks, date TBC.

I am so upset about this, I feel awful for my poor horse who really does feel like he wants to be a good boy, and I am genuinely concerned that there may be a serious issue.

If anyone can offer any thoughts on other avenues to explore or similar stories, I would appreciate that.

Conformation wise, this horse is a compact, uphill, very correctly put together horse with a strong loin and back. He does not look like your “typical” SI issue, kissing spine issue horse, which in my experience seem to be longer and weaker and sometimes tending a little roached. Would an SI or spine issue present with an issue on only one side ie left transition but not right?

For those that have done bute trials, have any of you seen no change at day 4 but then suddenly the issue has disappeared later in the trial? I really don’t love giving my horse bute 2 times a day and feel like continuing on with the bute trial isn’t a great idea, but will keep it up for a few more days as suggested by my vet.

Thanks in advance.

[IPEsq]

This is a typical response to an SI problem. Might be primary or might be secondary to whatever is going on that is causing the positive flexion (hocks, stifles, both). Given the positive flexion I’d guess he’s been feeling NQR for a little while, causing him to be stiff on the left. And now he is sore in his SI and/or lower back as well.

Given that his anxiety / anticipation seems to be escalating, I’d try to get to the pain quickly before it becomes a big training problem.

[retiredhorse]

I knew a horse that didn’t like to pick up one canter lead, though didn’t buck like yours, but would anticipate the transition and pick up the wrong lead, or not canter at all with head shaking and going through your leg at the trot, the first few times; if you insisted, he’d eventually pick up the correct lead and stay straight. Horse was young, thought to be just greenness for a while, turned out to have arthritis in one front fetlock. I’m not saying that’s what your horse has, only to agree that it sounds like a physical issue.

Only horse I had with an SI issue would be very tense and spooky, both ways, and not favor one lead over the other. Which is not to say it isn’t a problem for your horse. But given what happened with the first example, I’d check the front legs/feet also.

[JBD]

My horse is also worse to the left and injecting the stifles did help earlier this year. His hind suspensories were also sore as was his back. Kind of a “what came first” thing.
However he was off again this fall and the injections did not help as much. I think the difference was he was worked harder in preparation for a big show. Never lame just off.
It could very well be that going in a better frame is moving more of his weight to the rear.

[Thekrakensbride]

Sorry if you addressed this in your post and I missed it but have you tried lunging him to see if he has the same response without a rider? If hes still bucking on the lunge then that will at least help put to rest the idea that its in some way a reaction to your aids (though now that you’re doing a bute trial that might muddy things).

My horse presently very similarly with what turned out to be a strain in both hind proximal suspensories. His first symptoms were a sticky right lead that eventually escalated to bucking/cross firing when asked for that side. He was never overtly lame and as he is green at first my trainer just chalked it up to a combination of weakness on that side and being a fresh young OTTB. I had him looked at by several different vets/chiro/body workers and the only thing anyone could come up with was that he was noticeably sore in his SI. Long story short, after several lameness evals my own vet missed it and we ended up having to trailer to the clinic to get a diagnosis. There’s lots of info on this board about suspensory issues, they can be tricky to diagnose and it seems that the symptoms/severity can vary widely. If your vet has access to an ultrasound machine that might be worth checking out.

[Feliz]

Mine has had specific bucking/kicking out episodes twice - on the right rein only, usually as we’re turning to a jump. Both times it was a pulled muscle in his quarters - luckily easily fixed.

Good luck figuring it out

[somanyhorses]

Thanks for sharing your ideas and experiences. The two rides I’ve had since I posted have been good… still on bute, and with a different saddle, an old Passier I rode him in for years until I upgraded earlier this year. Yesterday he was croup high in his left transition, I only did one canter transition as it started raining quite heavily and I was happy to end on a good note! Today I rode in the Passier again, he was very slightly croup high in his first transition, I came back to a trot, asked again, and got a good left transition (noting that pre bute trial, I also sometimes got good transitions, ie the bucking/kicking out did not occur every time). I did some quarters in up the long side and he went croup high again when first asked, but then was OK. After then doing some really forward trot work I popped him casually into canter with not much preparation and he was very relaxed about it, so I ended on that note.

I would be delighted if this is just a saddle fit issue, but my gut feel is that it’s multi-factorial. Some SI and back pain is definitely possible, with a chicken/egg scenario in terms of whether that’s related to hocks, stifles, saddle fit, etc etc.

Great question re lunging, I haven’t tested that as yet however it’s been on my mind. He’s typically an idiot on the lunge, and I’m the first to admit I’m not great at lunging, much better and happier in the saddle! However, I’ll have a go at lunging tomorrow and see if I can pick up anything from the ground and what reaction he gives when asked to canter left.

I’ve decided tomorrow’s lunging will be his last session on bute, then I’m going to ride him for a few days in the Passier without bute before the vet is back here on Monday.

Scanning the suspensories will certainly be something we do if we do end up being referred to a more specialised vet, my vet has been quick to say that if this is a suspensory issue (which he doubts at this stage) it’s likely to be high hind suspensories and this requires diagnosis by a performance horse vet that sees these issues more frequently than he does.

I’ll keep you posted! Thanks all.

[Lord_Helpus]

As I was reading down I was thinking: Why does everyone focus on joints and bone, to the exclusion of soft tissue, especially suspensories? Then I saw your last sentence.

I have a lovely young horse (now 7 year old) who would probably be in work now if I had considered suspensories 2 years ago. Alas, the total focus was on joints and, by the time we got around to scanning soft tissue, his LH suspensory had pulled away from the bone, taking some bone with it. He is now looking forward to 20 years in my big field.

My other comment is that horses who have big bucks in them rarely have back problems

[IPEsq]

@Lord Helpus

My other comment is that horses who have big bucks in them rarely have back problems

Mine sure had a LOT of bucks in him when his back and SI was not normal. The first sign that something we were doing as far as treatment and rehab was working was that the bucks under saddle stopped except for something that made sense like a big spook and buck move at something obviously scary.

[slp2]

One of my horses started to do this—left lead canter would set her off especially after landing a jump and turning left. After vets kept trying to diagnose it as hocks, ulcers, stifles, ovary issues, and kissing spine . . . . . it turned out to be a SI ligament injury. After stall rest and rehab, we were back to a happy left canter.

[stargzng386]

I second the SI. I chased around and around with my guy trying to figure out the issue and it was the SI. We injected it and he was much better after. The saddle fit could be making it worse but I’d be surprised if that was the main cause.

[findeight]

Just review the sequence of footfalls in the left lead canter depart. It originates with the right hind supporting and driving the body forward on its own. Then you have the diagonal pair of left hind and right front sharing the load. Then horse rolls entire weight onto the left front.

If you get bucking on the left lead canter depart only? Need to look at right hind and left front all the way up with both x ray and ultra sound as soft tissue injury is a huge possibility with inexplicable bad behavior repeating with specific action.

IMO, suspensories are a likely culprit. Seen quite a bit of such behavior that proved to be related to soft tissue damage that did not manifest as lameness, Least until it was way too late. Some vets prefer to blame joints as they are easier for the typical farm vet to diagnose and treat with what is on their truck. Rather see you save the money here and pay more up front for a Sport Horse lameness specialist with the right equipment then spend and spend and spend over time for a general practice vet at the barn.

If this continues, you need to think about a clinic visit,