She is pretty close behind. Not total bunny hop, but I bet if you saw her at true normal you would notice. This happened to me with the horse I used to have (posted a lot about him on here). He had chronic SI issues but the vets for some reason took forever to be on board with treating it. (But he did lots and lots of bucking, not front end leaping). One day for a recheck, a resident came along who had not seen him for a while, and they commented about how much closer behind he was compared to the last time. None of the rest of us noticed it because I guess it had crept up gradually, and he wasn’t totally hopping. I found some old video, and sure enough he used to step under much better. And did improve in that respect also after treatment (and quit the bucking).
What treatments did you do?
Steroid injections for that horse. He had chronic instability in the joints. Steroids seemed to help the most. Done every 6 months-ish. Also kept a close eye on hind foot angles. He would tend to look bullnosed because he tended to drag the toes a bit and needed periodic X-rays to double check. He had decent feet and was not prone to NPA otherwise.
I’ve got a horse now (the IAD horse) who had an acute SI injury a while back, and steroids don’t do anything for him (except make him colic, due to IR), so he gets ProStride when needed, but it’s been over a year now. He gets regular chiro, acupuncture and magnawave because conformationally he is a bit prone to lumbosacral discomfort. His lower lumbar is fused and he has mild changes in the upper lumbar. Plus a longer back. But his main sign of SI trouble looked more like stifle (slipping out behind, late lead changes). His only canter porpoising happened during his last rehab from the scapula fracture when he would rather not do trot half pass and instead would offer to canter in place.
horses
When she comes down to the trot from the canter, she takes a little funky step. Reminds me of my horse in that regard. That’s actually what finally got a vet to take me seriously and ultrasound his stifle.
Otherwise I think she looks pretty cute! Maybe stiffer in her SI/lower back but not terrible at all.
Fingers crossed that some hind shoes do the trick for her.
Right lead canter looks funky to me. She did not want to pick her head and neck up at all and repeated that in both canters. I can’t help you with what it might be but she just looks stiff and uncomfortable in the neck in R lead canter.
Susan
Your mare appears to be long- coupled.
She may not have the muscle tone to canter in self carriage.
Thst may be one reason why she stretches her neck down trying to get enough impulsion.
She does not track up on the hinds at all.
Her hocks don’t articulate much, but they don’t seem to be hurting her either, perhaps maybe up in the stifle?
Do you live in an area where you can do hill work?
You could also do a lot of trot-canter-trot doing only 2 or three strides of canter at first , making sure that you dont pull her nose in trying to get her round.
You may also want to look into Equiband.
As a point of interest, her trot seemed to improve for a few steps after she centered.
There are some very good exercises for building the top line as well.
Hope this helps.
We lunge in the equiband several times a week.
She is long coupled.
Again, this is horse I was showing first, schooling second with last year. I don’t think at this point, after several months of trying to build fitness (which I’m a big stickler on, before asking for hard stuff), that this is a strength issue. I do think it’s a physical issue, though.
Stifle is certainly a possibility. Unfortunately I live in the flat lands of Illinois, and the boarding property is super flat. Edit: We do do poles a couple times a week though.
She does/is capable of tracking up on her right hind (maybe not in the lunge videos), but free lunging she does. Her left, never. It’s always short.
I have tried the trot canter trot but it really gets her upset and tight. I don’t want to build the wrong muscles, and this is something that didn’t upset her before.
Shoes go on Monday. Saddle fitter Wednesday. Then we will reassess. If it’s still an issue, off to Purdue we go.
The others pointed out what I see also; she is NQR behind. Her way of moving reminds me much of what I see in my mare. With mine, it’s KS, SI, hocks… sigh…
What we’ve done: Steroids with mesotherapy along her back, steroids in the SI. At my most recent appt (about 5 weeks now) we found her hocks to be fusing… Given you can’t do that many steroid injections at one time without risking laminitis, we opted to do steroid/meso along her back and then PRP in her SI and hocks.
Right now, she seems to feel pretty good. I’m a little on the fence how well the PRP worked as opposed to steroid, but time will tell.
Knock wood our most recent canter work has been the best it has ever been, and if you knew us IRL, that is saying something.
For sure something is up with my mare. I remember you talking about the troubles with your horse - I’m hoping mine doesn’t need quite that level of maintenance, but knowing her… she will.
Compounded ponazuril is so cheap, and an easy box to check. I treated all of mine last year–three with whopping titers, and one with a low “exposure level.” There was just something NQR about him, and while the vet didn’t recommend treating him, she was willing to humor me, and he very quickly improved.
My vet didn’t recommend treating her based on her results, but I can ask again.
I’m really wondering if this is something PLUS a negative reaction to the arthramid. How common is a negative reaction to gel injections? Why would this have gotten WAY way worse with the injection?
My vet didn’t recommend treating my low titer horse either, but he sure got better when we did. There’s so much we don’t know about EPM. There’s little risk in treating, and little cost using the compounded product.
I did have a horse get significantly worse following hock injection years ago. Turned out that the issue was in her neck–arthritis and spurs at C6/C7.
Perhaps your mare’s hock pain was aiding in proprioception, and without it, she’s not 100% sure where exactly that limb is in space.
Why is she still short on it, though? Even with sketchy proprioception, I would think they would travel evenly.
I think I’m going to put going to Purdue ahead of trying to treat for EPM, but I will put it on the list. I have heard from others too that their horse got better even with a low titre. This seems so focused on the left hind though, doesn’t drift or come-and-go, but it’s still possible.
Not at all. Traveling uneven behind is the #1 symptom I see in my neuro horse. They can’t swing evenly if they don’t know where the leg is.
How long ago was the Arthramid? They are not a quick fix and some horses do get worse for a few weeks afterwards. If it’s been more than a month, I honestly just don’t think a hydrogel may have been the best choice for inflammation as they act more for cushioning. I feel they have a huge disadvantage that way and are not a magic bullet. I also have only used them in high motion joints like stifle.
I love how if you look up Arthamid or Noltrex they say if it didn’t work the first time, wait 5-6 weeks and give another dose! In all seriousness for some conditions this is appropriate, but maybe not for your beautiful girl.
I love how good she is on verbal cues 
It works really well for horses that are even behind and step under coming into the trot. I would absolutely not recommend this exercise for your girl at this point.
I hope the shoes help. If not, it’s probably time to chase down what’s going on behind (and RF if my eyes don’t deceive me) with a trip to the horsepital for good diagnostics 
Fair enough. It was short before, though too. Hence the arthramid. 
Yes- no opinion on whether EPM is to blame here but unevenness behind can absolutely be symptom. In addition to proprioception issues, the actual nerve damage caused by the protozoa is very often asymmetric. It’s just a function of the location and severity of the lesions that the protoza create on the spinal cord. My EPM gelding was NQR on his right hind in particular (and even though he’s recovered, he still doesnt track totally straight with his RH)
I don’t see how that could rule out anything neuro, either from EPM or another more mechanical cause.
With an EPM titer (just how high is it?) it seems very reasonable to rule that out as a cause, esp given the low cost of treatment. EPM is a better thing than a neck issue 
Did you tap the hock because of the shortness? That’s exactly how my neuro horse went. She presented like it was her hock, we injected, she got worse. Bone scan and the neck lit up. Injected the neck, got six great months. Injected again, and got two weeks. Retired at that point. “She doesn’t swing evenly from behind” is exactly how I describe her now when introducing her to vets or whatever.
Arthramid was January 22 or 23rd.
