Front leg twitch under saddle?

[FitzRoy]

For as long as I’ve had him (2.5 years), my gelding has done this weird twitch with his front leg under saddle. You can see it in the video right as he gets to the mirror. Sometimes it happens 4-5 times during a ride, sometimes not at all. It has never seemed behavioral, or associated with a particular gait or direction. Loose rein or on contact doesn’t seem to make a difference. Sometimes it seems more prominent if we are crossing from shadow to sunlight, but not always. Vet is stumped, trainer is stumped, but nobody thinks it’s anything to worry about. He is currently due for a dental, but it seems to happen regardless of what stage his teeth are in. It doesn’t seem to be getting more or less frequent, but a few weeks ago it happened about 10x in a row at the canter- this was unusual so we stopped riding at that point but couldn’t find anything that seemed to be bothering him. Finally captured it on video today. Just curious if anyone has seen something similar? 8 y.o. warmblood gelding, if it matters.

IMG_1907

[Bluey]

I assume you have tried other saddles, other riders?
One zebra situation similar to yours.
50 years ago, we had a new 4 year AQHA gelding that did something like that.
I rode him, he would not do it, trainer rode him, there it was.
Trainer used a western saddle, I used my Stubbed Rex and weighed 98 lbs.
We changed saddles, nothing happening, put trainer’s saddle on, horse would do that, aha!

Western saddles have skirts screwed down to the tree and the left front screw had gone thru the tree into the sheepskin underneath just enough you could not feel it, but it compressed as the horse moved enough to poke horse thru sheepskin and single wool saddle blanket enough for him to feel something and complain.
Screw may not have poked him directly, but he definitely was feeling the poking in that area of the shoulder.
We backed that screw up a couple turns and no more complains.

Hope your problem is as easy to remedy, good luck.

[RedHorses]

I just get audio from your video, no picture.

In a similar vein to Bluey, I had to remove the upper velcro straps on my saddle pads (the ones that go under the flap and velcro around the saddle billet) because they irritated my horse. He wasn’t twitching, but they were a problem.

[outerbanks77]

I know someone with a mare who does something very similar, but probably more frequent. Showed my trainer a video last weekend and she mentioned headshaking syndrome. I think there can be multiple root causes of that. If you have access to good chiro/osteopath/bodyworker types, I might have them check it out. It might sound a little woowoo, but I’d personally stay open to trying craniosacral or something like that since he’s been checked out by the vet already.

My WB mare will throw a leg out, but there is usually l not a head shake with it. With her, it sometimes seems to be a way of rebalancing - when she was green she would sometimes do it in the canter, like she got her mass a little ahead of her front legs and this was her way of readjusting. Sometimes in trot it also seemed like she was just stretching out her shoulder (and she does tend to get bound up in her shoulders per multiple chiro/bodyworkers). Now she typically does it when she is frustrated or impatient (e.g. I took her out of town last weekend, and when she got back, the BO said she Spanish walked all the way out to the pasture).

[FjordBCRF]

Does he do it on a lunge line or out in turnout?

[FitzRoy]

@Bluey

I assume you have tried other saddles, other riders?

Yep, I’ve seen him do this with numerous riders, and numerous saddles (both dressage and jumping saddles). Interesting about the horse in your case though!

@outerbanks77

Showed my trainer a video last weekend and she mentioned headshaking syndrome. I think there can be multiple root causes of that.

Headshaking Syndrome is what I’ve been wondering about too. In college we had a horse with headshaking syndrome that would constantly toss its head up/down whenever you rode it outdoors, so thankfully this is nothing like that, but I think the kicking out and headshake does have something to do with his head.

Not to doxx my horse but he has a large bony lump behind his eye from being kicked as a baby/yearling, I’ve always wondered if it caused any nerve damage. It’s not sensitive to the touch at all, but I could see how having a halter/bridle sitting on it could cause weird sensations occasionally.

@FjordBCRF

Does he do it on a lunge line or out in turnout?

Yes, I’ve seen it on the lunge line, and a few times when leading him outside (but sometimes it’s hard to tell this reaction vs a bug up the nose).

[Lunabear1988]

I agree, my first thought when watching the video was headshaking.

[Bluey]

You tried to just lead/longe him with something around his neck only, see if he still does it or not and so may point to halter/bridle touching a nerve on his head, as you are wondering may be happening?

If so, you may be able to then narrow it to one spot, eventually, by trying different head pieces.

[Marla_000]

Does your horse have high/low
Front hooves?
Had a young horse with front leg twitch but it went away as I slowly corrected her unbalanced
Front hooves. It showed up as she was a long yearling and I only noticed it as I was her trimmer so I’d check the trim/angles.