I recently moved to a new barn about an hour from my old place, so this also required getting a new trainer. Our first lesson together, I was lunging my nearly 22 year old, greenbroke AQHA on a line when she asked me to bring him to canter, and I effectively had to chase him in order for him to pick it up. I explained that the canter is something we’ve struggled with since I first got him more than a year ago, but we hadn’t touched on it much before because we still have a lot of foundation work to establish just at the walk/trot. She said that he might have arthritis in his hocks, which I’d be inclined to agree with since there’s a constant clicking coming from one of them that he’ll “work out of” at the trot, and he’s been prone to unexplained back soreness before. Then she suggested that I try joint injections, and when I countered with “I think I’d like to try something like Equioxx first,” she said Equioxx would cost me more in the long run.
I know with humans, steroidal injections are one of the last things you reach for when treating arthritis unless it’s pretty severe, and I was kind of approaching it the same way with my horse. I have an incredibly limited experience with arthritis in horses though, can someone who might know more explain why the injections would be better than an NSAID like Equioxx?
Side note: I’ve also wondered before if the canter issue was just related to him not knowing the cues, but he’s smart, and we’ve established the cues now and he still resists. I don’t think this is a tack or behavior problem, as I’ve had the tack examined and he never acts out unless I ask him to do something he physically can’t do yet. I have made an appointment with the vet, but they’re inundated and it won’t be for several weeks, so in the meanwhile I was hoping to hear some thoughts from others.
