Hi soooo I’m really bummed out and upset right now but just looking for advice and comiseration. I have only had my horse for about ten months and I’ve basically been trying to figure out what’s wrong with her for a majority of that time.
She’s been just not quite right for awhile, probably starting in January/February. Her main symptom has been resistance to my leg under saddle and a general unwillingness to move forward. At one point it escalated to her fully kicking out / bucking in direct response to my leg aid.
I have clean x rays of her back and scoped her in March for ulcers, all good there. Saddle fitter, chiro, teeth done, etc. The chiro has been pretty helpful in at least just telling me where the soreness is, but each time she comes it’s just apparent that there’s something causing her to be sore and she fixes it for a short term but there’s still an underlying problem.
In May she saw the vet (Vet #1) for a full lameness exam, and that vet also took a look at my PPE notes and x rays of her front feet. She suggested that I put the mare in rubber pads up front after looking at her feet x rays, and then we ended up x-raying her hocks and then injecting them.
When Vet #1 x rayed the hocks, she said they definitely had significant arthritic changes, and said the right side is definitely in the process of fusing, but it’s not so far gone that we can’t inject it. And when she came back to inject them she said the same thing, like some liquid came back out but not a ton and she was able to still inject it.
Fast forward a month or two, the hock injections don’t feel to have made a huge difference, although switching her to a softer bit and completely not riding anymore in my hard, old jump saddle that needs reflocking have helped some. She’s not quite as resistant now but instead she is starting to be visually, intermittently lame, but kind of vague and changing location. Of course I suspected that it was her feet, and I’ve posted other threads on here about her feet where COTH hoof experts confirmed that my farrier was not helping her out at all.
So after a very frustrating search I think I finally found a new farrier but he has yet to actually work on her so that’s TBD. In the meantime I had a different vet out today (Vet #2) to get a new set of hoof x rays and give good advice and instructions to my brand new farrier.
After watching her lunge in a circle at the trot, Vet #2 said the lameness was a grade 1/low grade 2, and located mainly in the LF, sometimes LH but up high. She is and has been for awhile, SUPER sore in her entire back and SI area. No heat or pulse in any of the feet, negative on all hoof testers. I tried to get him to do nerve blocks but he basically didn’t think they would help because he didn’t think he’d be able to definitively tell where to block.
He x-rayed her front feet but said that he thinks they actually look fine… no need for pads (which I have taken her out of anyway) and he pointed out a couple areas where the pads were probably making things worse. He said that the trim job is slightly uneven medial to lateral, but that her shoulders look straight and that’s the most important thing.
So he concluded that he doesn’t think her feet are the source of the lameness at all, and then he took a look (on his phone, via email) at the hock x rays taken by Vet #1 in May and said they look “really rough”.
The images weren’t labeled left or right so that made it slightly more difficult for him to say for sure, but basically he suspects that the process of hock fusion on the right side is making her paddle with the right hind and resulting in a front left lameness / soreness that’s more pronounced when she’s circling to the right, because she is like bulging so far in with the right hindquarters to avoid moving that hock joint. Which definitely resonates to what I feel under saddle, and in videos the lameness almost looks better/goes away when I take up the contact and can get her into more of a correct frame.
So basically long story short, he said I’ll probably need to consider chemical or surgical hock fusion 
and he thinks that’s 100% the source of the lameness I’m seeing, no need for any more diagnostics.
I am like having trouble remembering everything else he said about the hocks right now but I’m happy to post the x rays here tbh if anyone wants to look.
Basically I’m just concerned because from what i’ve read, hock fusion is a somewhat high risk procedure and should be more of a last resort, and I’m just worried that I haven’t done all the diagnostics and could be missing something else?!!?
She has never really flexed lame in her hocks although the vet today didn’t do flexions, but I remember Vet #1 making a comment like “I’m actually surprised she doesn’t flex more lame in her hocks based on these radiographs.”
Could it be possible that there’s something else soft tissue going on? Could her feet still be a problem even though this vet seems to think her feet are just fine? Do I get a third vet’s opinion because now I feel like I’m hearing conflicting reports from these two??
I’m just like so bummed because I wanted to just have fun with this horse and now my hopes of ever getting her comfortable for the job I wanted her for are getting slimmer and slimmer. I honestly just kind of feel stupid for buying her and thinking I could do this any help or advice is much appreciated!
) Your mare is lucky to have you trying to get to the bottom of this for her.
