Any thoughts on why a horse would circumduct its hind leg occasionally? Recently took her to best sport horse vet in my area and neurologic problems have been ruled out. He thought the hock may be a tad sore, took xrays and they were clean. He injected the hock to be sure. She still has the problem. I have buted her in the past…made no difference. The circumduction doesn’t happen all the time. I mainly notice it after I have cantered. She does have quite a bit of difficulty with the canter. Tries to go too fast; won’t bend in direction of circle, general lack of balance. She has been this way for 2 years; training does not improve her. Cavaletti and hill work do not help. At a total loss. Any thoughts?
Look higher up.
Can you provide a video of what your mare is doing W/T/C? I am having trouble envisioning what you mean by ‘circumduct’.
Generally if there is no improvement after a set period of hill or cavaletti, you are looking at stifle, SI or neck arthritis. Since you say she has trouble cantering, my bet is stifle. Then SI.
Just to rule out other issues:
- her saddle fits/has been seen by pro fitter in last ~6 months?
- how are her feet?
- is she better in one direction?
- can she back up?
Some other things to consider: if she is swinging her leg in the loading phase where the hock rotates outward while the hoof/pastern sink and rotate inward, that is generally an SI issue, not a hock issue: what is happening is the horse is compensating for a sore stifle and the hock becomes sore as a result. So your vet may have seen the sore hocks, but may have missed what was causing it.
I agree with findeight. I’ve had a couple of massage clients with occasional to regular circumduction of a hind and in both always found muscular issues in the hip and pelvis areas. One client had radiographs and scintigraphy done and found some old injuries that were treated, and the condition improved quite a bit. The other has not done any diagnostics, at least not as of yet; the issue continues to come and go, but is not a regular thing with her horse.
She swings the leg outward in the unloading phase and is more likely to do so as she is turning rather than just going straight forward. Vet did not think SI was involved and also thought range of motion in neck was very good. She had no response to flexions of the stifle. I do need to check saddle fit. Sounds like I’m going to have to do further veterinary work-up though. 
[QUOTE=horsephotolady;8934669]
She swings the leg outward in the unloading phase and is more likely to do so as she is turning rather than just going straight forward. Vet did not think SI was involved and also thought range of motion in neck was very good. She had no response to flexions of the stifle. I do need to check saddle fit. Sounds like I’m going to have to do further veterinary work-up though. :([/QUOTE]
Hmm. that is a stumper. Do you have a video that we can see?
Are you saying she is propping the whole leg out as she pushes off the ground? What part of the leg is furthest from the body during this, the hock or the stifle? Is she propping a hip, or are you seeing a decreased motion in the stifle?
How is she for shoeing? Is she shod behind? Can she hold that hind leg up and forward for 10s without difficulty?
Sorry, no video. She swings the leg wide when it is in the air. In the past I’ve seen that motion in neuro horses, but vet says she is not neuro. She doesn’t wear shoes behind, but she is absolutely fine for trimming and for 10s. The right hind is the problem, and when she is cantering to the right, she is absolutely determined to not bend and it seems to me that she does not want to bring that right hind leg up under herself enough to support a bend.
I just spent big $ on a similar issue…bone scan, etc. to rule out other issues. All the vets seem to feel it is a mild upward fixation of the patella. He’s not locking, but just enough “catch” to slow down the forward movement phase of his left hind before his swings it forward. We will try exercise and see what happens. If that doesn’t work, then will probably try the estrogen injections. Sorry you are dealing with this - it is frustrating, I know!
would like to see a video taken from behind the horse with tail out of the way
so we can see the swing of the hind legs. would also like to see good photos from all angles of hind hooves.
there’s an excellent article online from an old time farrier and he explains the
outward swing of hind legs as being caused by uneven trimming of hind heels.
he claims the inside heels should actually be slightly shorter than outside heels and that hind hooves are not naturally symmetrical. he says a good test
is to see how sore a horse is in the muscles of the hip and pelvis. once corrected, he says the soreness is gone. this did work on one of mine who was always sore over the hips and swung the hinds outward also.
try googling for articles on swinging hind legs and in the meantime i’ll search for the article also.
My mare had a serious accident right after I got her 4 years ago. It took awhile to diagnose the problem, which was a shredded medial collateral ligament at her stifle. Because I couldn’t trailer her, my vet sent the ultrasound and Xrays to the best surgeon around. He was very grim with prognosis, saying that she’d never be pasture sound. When I took a video of her walking - he actually brightened up and said she doesn’t circumduct nearly as much as he thought she would … so I gave her a chance with stall rest and slow work back up and she’s not only pasture sound, but sound sound. We do a lot of hill work, dressage, ground poles and she’s been sound. I know when she hurts though, she gets cranky, and crow hops. And she hates to pick up the canter … sounds similar to your horse. When she is feeling good, she’ll do it both leads; but most of the time we get crow hopping and kicking out when she’s not in the mood.
I’d do an ultrasound of all the ligaments high up in her leg - and I hope that it isn’t something terrible. But even if it is, with rest she might recover. Ana is a walking miracle and I thank my lucky stars I didn’t believe the vets when they said she’d never heal and gave her the chance. Last ultrasound showed very little evidence of healing, however she’s sound and we haven’t gone back to ultrasound since she’s in work and staying sound. Of course, she was also very young at injury, which helped. She’s a great horse, and we’ve come so far over the past 4 years.
Good luck with your mare!
ok found the article in my files. from the website thehorsemechanic.com/hoofcare
article title is hoofcare/-the hoof point/- a simple solution to a crippling problem by howard jesse
maybe you could print this up and show to your farrier.
sorry my keyboard is not working properly for caps, etc.
Thank you Marla!
Ligament laxity? How old is the horse?
I agree, videos plus pictures from the side and back would help us help you.
I had an older mare that did this and when we had her vetted the conclusion was that it probably orginated from her SI.
Does she do this on straight lines and circles? With and without the saddle?
It is something I see often linked to poor saddle fit.
Pelvic fracture?
These are really hard to diagnose but do cause some odd movement sometimes.
[QUOTE=no.stirrups;8938240]
Does she do this on straight lines and circles? With and without the saddle?
It is something I see often linked to poor saddle fit.[/QUOTE]
She does it only when turning, with or without the saddle. Just noticed today that she also does it with left hind, but not as bad as with right hind.
You should get a video of her doing this. You won’t get any good answers unless people can see the horse going themselves.
Since both hind legs are effected, I would definitely focus on the hips and the back. This is a job for a chiropractor. Post before and after vids for the “disbelievers” 
I’d test for EPM is haven’t yet.
Agreed video would be useful.
