Just to add I have a horse with known hock issues, he’s had his LH hock chemically fused. I put on hind shoes for a trail ride where I knew it would be rocky and he immediately didn’t like them, resisted his hinds being picked up and after a few weeks was hopping like described here and having trouble with the canter. Pulled shoes obviously (and he’ll never get them again) but he still needed an SI injection to get rid of the inflammation and discomfort. The vet’s best guess was the hock fused without shoes and the change in angle of the hock due to adding hind shoes made him sore and ultimately ended up in the SI.
I have a horse that I’m leasing have some of the same problems with hopping in the canter and swapping leads. She dragged her hind legs and had problem putting weight in the hind legs also. Had a lameness expert come out and diagnosed her with very tight deep flexor muscles in both hind legs. He then explained how the tight muscles can cause the problems that you’re seeing. He did one round of shockwave therapy and thinks with proper exercise that it should be a one and done situation. I’m keeping my fingers crossed!
Would love to see pictures of the hind feet. If they have a bullnose appearance when looking at the straight from the side, it’s contributing to the soreness.
Primarily the hinds, but front hoof angles can impact soundness too! I see sore suspensories way more often with long toes and underrun heels, than with too upright toes.
Some ways you can tell a suspensory is sore besides filling (which is not always evident):
overall body soreness that is difficult to pinpoint
toe drag behind
uneven steps behind
lack of overtrack behind
stiff or bracing back - no movement of back in motion
poor canter work
difficulty maintaining leads
difficulty in tight turns at canter (stabbing canter during turns)
leg feeling as it is dropping out at canter or trot (stifle slip)
The main thing with NPA angles is it almost always guarantees a too thin sole, causing subclinical laminitis, which causes horses to not want to move out or step through behind - which leads to changing the way they move and stand, which leads to overall body soreness, which then leads to the compensating structures becoming injured or sore (SI, stifles, hamstrings, back).
That’s an impressive change in the bull nose!
His right hind was worse… he’s still not there yet. Collateral groove measurements show that he’s probably flat now, instead of negative, but I’ll take it for now. I am amazed at how many hind feet I see like this and that it’s mostly overlooked when trying to resolve hindend lameness.
