Is this always back/SI/hind end/hock issue? Or is it ever the front?
Have one that is baffling me.
My horse was doing this a little bit and it turned out to be hocks AND front end suspensory, not sure which one was the cause of that specific symptom though. It could also be just back soreness resulting from incorrect/compensatory movement?
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I’ve known 2 horses where it was hind end / SI primarily, but one of them did had bilaterally sore front feet at the time also. I think I’d lean to SI but this wasn’t the sole symptom so you’d also need to consider what else is happening. It really can look like it’s coming from the front end when they do this.
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My horse with stifle arthritis did that.
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I’m working with a carriage horse that does it under saddle…he’s had every imaging/scan known to man, including a full body bone scan, and nothing has shown up.
There are a hundred reasons why a horse might do this. In the carriage horse’s case, he had no idea how to lift through his shoulder sling and withers, drop his head and “carry” into the trot - he was all knee and hock action with a tight back and dropped through the base of his neck. Teaching him how to make that transition solved everything, but that was only after many thousands of dollars in work-ups and imaging looking for a physical problem.
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Huh, interesting. My horse was coming 6 when I got him, already trained to drive singles and pairs, and he hopped into the trot under saddle like this the first couple years I had him. He also has issues lifting through his shoulder sling like you describe. It went away as he got stronger, and he’s 15 and hasn’t done it since he was probably 7. I never put the driving and the hopping together. Interesting!
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@CobJockey, I see it a lot with horses built/bred to drive versus ride. Makes a lot of sense if you think about how they need to carry themselves to drive - push into the collar and onto their front end to pull the carriage - versus ride - lift through the back and flex at the SI to lift through the base of the neck and carry themselves.
Not to say that a driving horse can’t (or shouldn’t - they absolutely should) be taught to carry themselves properly, but those with a lot of joint action, IME, tend to be good at creating the illusion of self-carriage but in reality are stiff in their ribs and don’t know how to let go at the base of their necks.
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