Horse flipping head around/leapy - ONLY at canter

It twists as she loads and unloads it. It was noted on her inspection papers. She also tracks narrow behind, but that has improved since she was 3 - she used to scrub the velcro on boots loose, but doesn’t anymore.

I see an unusually low ROM in her hocks, personally. It’s like a shuffle.

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Both hocks don’t have a lot of ROM but that concerns me less because it is bilateral. Of course - if you stare at a horse long enough, especially the hinds, they all look a little wonky. It almost looks like she picks up that left hind, moves it, and then it’s a little stabby in the toe like it’s offloading the back of the leg. The right appears to be swinging a bit more. Of course she could be doing that because of pain in the right which would invalidate my theory entirely but because the right tracks up more it just makes me point at that left :slight_smile:

I’ve got one who is doing something similar. I have stared at his videos for hours - he is even I think but it’s his right hind that doesn’t look entirely correct. For him I think it might be tendon or tightness in some muscle as it does get worse in deeper footing, and he strongly objects to cantering in odd footing (if for instance he has to go through mud, there are many emotions involved). He flexes fine, so it’s definitely more subtle and deep. And 9 times out of 10 he goes into canter fine, but if asked to canter before he is entirely warmed up - even if he has been out - we get bunny hops and leaps. Not exuberant ones, he appears sore and resistant. If we warm up for an exceptionally long time we don’t have the issue. I’m hoping his goes away without more medical intervention as I strongly believe with a horse that is over 10 you’ll find things that might not be the culprit.

Anyway - she does lateral work I am assuming based on your description of her training level. How is she in a LY or shoulder in - can you ask that LH to step more toward the midline? If you can, that might help you strengthen that leg if you’re not ready to do more work ups.

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I’m certainly no expert, but there are a few things that would make me look critically at it:

If there’s a lameness issue
If the horse is only going low one direction
If the horse only goes low and seems unwilling or unable to have a different outline
If the way of going changes significantly without explanation

This horse moves very differently to me going different directions. I’m really out of practice eyeballing lameness, so I sure can’t explain all the parts of “different,” but I did think it was pretty striking, and worrisome.

Neck crap does suck–I have one in my barn, and she’s been retired ohhhhhhh close to 15 years now?–and I sure hope there’s a better, more hopeful, explanation for what’s going on here. But definitely some similarities to that thread linked above :frowning:

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It’s just the videos, for the head up/down thing. She equally enjoys making a dirt track with her nose in either direction. It’s just a matter of whether she heard an invisible ghost in the last minute or not.

I see her moving all the time though, I can understand how short videos may taint things. Really the only consistency is the lack of tracking up on the left hind.

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She can do all the lateral things. I was just starting half pass when my life got crazy and she got time off.

I’m trying to be patient here. Shoes will be this afternoon - I’ll talk to the new farrier and see what he thinks based on her symptoms.

My gut is still saying it’s something behind - the tightness in the hamstrings being the tell-tale.

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I would just do the spinal tap and know for sure. The number on the titer doesn’t correlate very well with symptoms, it conveys exposure rather than severity of illness/parasite load.

A lot of neuro things present very similarly, I’d rather just spend the money on the tap than treating something that may or may not be relevant.

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We’re going to start with shoes. :slight_smile:

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IMO, it’s time to go to a large clinic.Get yourself on the schedule now, and then you’ve got time to see if the new shows help at all (I will bet they won’t, but that’s JMO).

Here is what I see.
On your first set of trotting videos you posted, she is sometimes dragging her LEFT hind foot and she does not reach under herself with the left hind as much as she does the right hind.
This was reinforced in her cantering videos. She does NOT reach under her as much with the LEFT hind when she is traveling counter-clockwise, than when she is traveling the other way in comparison to the right hind.

So I would say something is hurting her on the left hind leg. As far as “what” well that is a question. Could be stifle, hock, SI … neck… Yeah, I know that a person can go crazy chasing zebras, and I personally really hate stifle issues because they just don’t seem to respond well to usual treatments (like injections).

Typically when they don’t want to reach under themselves, it’s stifles. Not always but that’s the most likely culprit.

But I can absolutely tell something is bothering her in that hind end.

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Shoes are on. Farriers suggestion was to keep it simple for the first round (and his first time trimming her), so they’re just standard shoes with quarter clips.

The only interesting finding was this pocket that looked like an abcess, was filled with “blood” but the consistency of jelly. She was negative to hoof testers.

Today was busy for other reasons, so I paid him, gave her a smooch, and I’ll see her tomorrow.

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Which foot was that?

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Left hind. Again, negative for testers, but maybe. Doesn’t explain the many year ongoing part.of the debacle tho

Interesting find! Agreed that that video snippets don’t show us the whole picture. Let’s hope these shoes help. My experience has usually been if there is any hind end trouble and they overload the front, the shoes can better support the front. One thing at a time so you know what helps.

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Could it be a keratoma?

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If she were a cow lol that would be called an ulcer - precursor to an actual abscess. They can hang out a while and be very uncomfortable. With cows they are usually found at that stage (often quite large) due to the softer nature of cow feet. They are always cut out and the hole packed with antibiotic and the foot wrapped. Five days later (yes, cows are weird) unless it was heading into abscess territory in which case I’d give them horse abscess treatment) the wrap would come off, a callous would have formed and they were good to go.

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Declaring shoes a failure, as expected. If anything she moves worse in them, IMO.

Well that’s a bummer. Left hind looks much worse to me here.

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Me too. Wonder if the shoe is gripping more, tweaking whatever it is that’s bugging her.

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We have an appointment at Purdue mid-late April.

Still trying to schedule the saddle fitter for a check - she had some personal stuff come up but we will get there.

It’s also in the works for someone very kind and skilled to come and ride her this weekend, hopefully.

Ticking away at the boxes.

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This was raised in another thread, but it’s a great point and reminder: make sure they know you’re concerned about something neuro in addition to lameness, and you’re booked with the neuro team, rather than “just” sports med, or whoever is next up in the rotation for the day.

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We’re going to focus on lameness for this round. They can’t do it all in one day anyways, realistically.

I might go somewhere else other than Purdue for neuro anyways - maybe I caught them on a bad day, but it surely didn’t seem thorough when I had my late mare examined.

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