My older (18 years old) horse won hacks at some very big A shows in his day, and now he moves terrible at the canter. His walk and trot are still very nice… free… elastic… even. His right lead canter is decent, but his left lead is awful! The vet can’t find anything wrong because he’s completely sound at the walk and trot. Oddly enough, he prefers his left lead if given an option and prefers to land left after jumps. He is occasionally late behind with his left to right lead change. He looks the same on the lunge as under saddle. He has had very little maintenance besides Adequan/Legends/Polyglycan, so it’s entirely possible that he needs something injected (I’ve only had his hocks injected once, 7 years ago… and didn’t notice any change then.). He has mostly been lightly hacked and trail ridden for the past 6 years. Any ideas on what could be causing him to be so choppy on his left lead, and what I can do to fix it?
Have another vet look at him?
Look at stiffles and SI joint.
He’s getting older, he might need those injections again. Why not trying a round of Previcox for a few weeks and see what happen?
It could be a lot of things. I had a mare and that was her only symptom (except it was right lead). After injecting her hocks and SI, we saw no improvement (although we all agreed that was a logical step). Turned out to be EPM. She was 100% again 8 days into treatment.
Have the Chiropractor check him. Back issues can cause weird stuff to appear that normal flexions aren’t going to catch.
I have a similar thing going on with my horse, so far yet to be fully diagnosed. People have offered tons of good input if you want to read it. It’s titled Lots of Stumbling and Out of Ideas,
Anyway, your horse’s choppy canter.
Is he reluctant to work, jump or go downhills?
Is is bad both on the longe and in the saddle?
Have you started using a new saddle on him in the past year?
Does he slip or stumble at all?
Does it feel bad just behind or more like an overall body bend thing?
Is he stiff anywhere? Has he had a massage recently?
Any changes in farrier work? Different shoes?
[QUOTE=tbchick84;8330501]
I have a similar thing going on with my horse, so far yet to be fully diagnosed. People have offered tons of good input if you want to read it. It’s titled Lots of Stumbling and Out of Ideas,
Anyway, your horse’s choppy canter.
Is he reluctant to work, jump or go downhills? No, no, no
Is is bad both on the longe and in the saddle? Both
Have you started using a new saddle on him in the past year? No
Does he slip or stumble at all? No
Does it feel bad just behind or more like an overall body bend thing? I feel it more in the front, but lacking push from behind.
Is he stiff anywhere? Has he had a massage recently? Not particularly. Has not had a massage in 10 years.
Any changes in farrier work? Different shoes? No[/QUOTE]
See answers above 
On an aged horse who used (or is) a jumper, I would highly except some arthritis.
Have hocks been x-rayed?
Stifles?
Has the chiro checked him?
I would absolutely find a second opinion from another vet, if yours can’t find anything. Make sure you deal with a vet who is used to dealing with lameness.
If you KNOW something is wrong with your horse (not a pretty mover anymore and choppy), then keep looking until you find it.
When you say he’s sound at walk and trot, does this mean you have done flexion tests?
Look to the right hind if he’s choppy to the left. Have you taken any x Rays recently? At 18, maybe older if you don’t have papers with the actual foaling date, he has likely got some " treadwear" that’s going to need to be dealt with and even then may not come back as sound as he was.
Id get some X Rays done and probably avoid any canter work until you find out what hurts him so much and treat it.
[QUOTE=beau159;8330643]
On an aged horse who used (or is) a jumper, I would highly except some arthritis.
Have hocks been x-rayed? No
Stifles? No. But they do catch occasionally… once per ride, max.
Has the chiro checked him? Not in a while. I guess I should have him out!
I would absolutely find a second opinion from another vet, if yours can’t find anything. Make sure you deal with a vet who is used to dealing with lameness.
If you KNOW something is wrong with your horse (not a pretty mover anymore and choppy), then keep looking until you find it.[/QUOTE]
Answers above ^
We did flexions – nothing was positive. I was hoping something would be!
He is definitely 18. I’ve had him since he was a baby.
“Does it feel bad just behind or more like an overall body bend thing? I feel it more in the front, but lacking push from behind.”
If he’s pulling himself along with his front end, it might indicate a lack of strength in the hind end. I normally fix that with lots of hacking/trail riding, but it sounds like that’s all you’ve been doing for a few years.
You might try pentosan. Perhaps ask your vet about it. It can really help the kind of older, achy horse, and is a lot cheaper (and seems to be more effective for some) than Legend/Adequan.
I’d also have a good chiropractor look at him, if you have one available.
Look at his back. I have a young horse that had a decent walk and trot and forever had trouble to the left. Right OK. He eventually could not canter at all. Finally after investigating everything else, his back was xray’d. Kissing Spine. He had that fixed and his canter is his best gait now!
Depending on where you live, it might be worth ruling out Lyme as well. We had a horse with unspecified lameness, just NQR but nothing flexed positive or seemed sensitive, turned out to be Lyme.
Made an appointment with a chiropractor/acupuncture vet… Hopefully they can help. Lyme is a good point… He was treated for it 2 years ago. Might not be a bad idea to pull a Lyme test again. Thanks for all of the ideas!
The very first thing I would do is have hocks and stifles x-rayed. You need to know what you are dealing with; especially with an aged performance horse. For stifles, catching once per ride is a lot, IMO. They really shouldn’t be catching at all.
Flexions are important but they don’t tell you the whole story. My horse Red had VERY advanced fusing hocks on his right side but showed very little on a flexion test. When we finally did x-rays, my vet was shocked because his arthritis findings did not match the flexion findings.
Secondly, a chiro check is a good idea. Back issues can make a horse uneven on one side.
[QUOTE=Nevada10;8330411]
My older (18 years old) horse won hacks at some very big A shows in his day, and now he moves terrible at the canter. His walk and trot are still very nice… free… elastic… even. His right lead canter is decent, but his left lead is awful! The vet can’t find anything wrong because he’s completely sound at the walk and trot. Oddly enough, he prefers his left lead if given an option and prefers to land left after jumps. He is occasionally late behind with his left to right lead change. He looks the same on the lunge as under saddle. He has had very little maintenance besides Adequan/Legends/Polyglycan, so it’s entirely possible that he needs something injected (I’ve only had his hocks injected once, 7 years ago… and didn’t notice any change then.). He has mostly been lightly hacked and trail ridden for the past 6 years. Any ideas on what could be causing him to be so choppy on his left lead, and what I can do to fix it?[/QUOTE]
Clueless. Only thing I can offer is caudal hooks (farthest back teeth). Getting those things ground off made a huge huge huge difference in my horse. She was so tight and choppy and would. not. go. I always got dental work done every year, but apparently the guy I was using did not get those way back teeth. Switched dentists and got amazing results.
