If you saw a hunters bump on a horse advertised for sale, what would be your thoughts? I have no experience with this, so maybe it’s not a hunters bump??
A picture would be helpful. Also horses age. breed, use (light, moderate, heavy or pasture ornament) and discipline.
I would think the horse had suffered some stress to his pelvis, and I would consider whether this was consonant with his age and training.
I might think differently about it in a seasoned older horse stepping down versus a young prospect.
However a horse in thin or under muscled condition can show the pelvic bone in a way the resembles hunters bump but is just normal configuration.
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She’s 9, warmblood, dressage, 3rd/4th level. I don’t have a good pic. When she’s in work, I don’t see the bump. Standing still, yes. Maybe she just needs more muscle??
This is what I’m wondering…
Is she currently fit and in work?
At that level she should have muscle.
If you are thinking of buying this horse, ask the vet when you do a PPE.
However in my experience dressage horses get hunters bump when they are ridden incorrectly in a fashion that allows them to hollow their backs and strain their pelvis. So on a dressage horse I would take it as a possible sign about the quality of training. The good thing is, I’ve tended to see these bumps go away on dressage horses once the training improves, or the dressage specific training stops.
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If she’s 9 and in regular work at that level of dressage, and is sound, I’d be more inclined to just think it was her conformation. However, I would definitely discuss with the vet doing a PPE to ensure they didn’t think it would be a problem in future or indicative of some sort of medical issue (instead of just how she is put together).
It’s true that some horses are susceptible to hunters bump, and some will never get it. Depends on the quality of the loin and relation of hip to SI joint. However, a true hunters bump is a pathology, meaning the result of injury. It may or may not cause any pain or trouble. A true hunters bump is different from an angular pelvis in a thin or young or unmuscled horse.
The vet/chiro Dr. Travers told me while working on a barn mates horse, that the hunter’s bump is muscle atrophy.
I have heard this too… but for many clinical cases, atrophy is a symptom and not the cause. The muscles surrounding and supporting the SI and pelvis can waste away, making a hunter’s bump more obvious… but usually a hunter’s bump is a sign of sacroiliac scarring and chronic inflammation resulting in that raised croup appearance over the sacroiliac joint and LS gap.
In short, evidence of a hunter’s bump is evidence of trauma – but, many horses have trauma to the area you would never see, over a layer of fat and muscle. Does it impact future sport performance? The answer depends on the age of the horse, and the type of work it is doing, IMHO.
This is a fairly informative blog post about hunter’s bump, but it is in German - for those that don’t know, it’s easy to copy/paste the article in google for a fairly reliable translation:
https://blog.hippothesen.de/hunters-bump/
It goes onto suggest that hunter’s bumps are fairly conformationally driven: horses with longer ischiums, horses with a further LS placement gap, are typically more prone to develop a bump. Horses under long periods of rest, or layup from injury, are also prone to develop it – but IMHO, this is a chicken/egg, and it may be that the compensation from the injury caused scarring in the area, or, the wastage of muscle and fat from being on stall rest made the bump more apparent.
Horses that work at speed are more likely to develop SI and hunters bump issues; this is because at the gallop and during jumping, maximum efforts require maximum output from the iliosacral ligaments and surrounding supporting structures… which is why it’s very common to see scarring on race horses, and jumpers.
I generally don’t like to see a hunter’s bump if the horse has a weak loin, or clear muscle atrophy. I walk away in that case. This picture shows a good example of the type of back conformation I avoid:
https://blog.hippothesen.de/wp-conte…7260137348.png
You can see SI scarring, back roaching, weak loin connection in all four: and, in the case of the TB (first/top image, “VB”), a very clear deformity of the spine – likely caused by trauma and/or racing. Both the top two are young horses, and the lack of muscling in the 4 y/o WB and the clear point of hip showing muscle atrophy and the raised tailbone, would be a big flag for me that this horse is battling some hind end issues and the SI scarring is showing up as a result.
To make a long story short, a hunter’s bump is only part of the whole picture. What does the rest of the horse look like, what kind of work are they doing, or did they do, and are they sound?
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I’ve understood the hunter’s bump to be caused by strains in the pelvic ligaments that allow the pelvis to tip, bringing the bones into prominence. I don’t know if that is always the case, because the term is used as a layman’s observation, and often there is no diagnosing done to see what the actual underlying structural problem is. I like these photos though because they show a range of back problems including the quite subtle that many riders might not even notice. And I agree to stay away from these kinds of backs.
As far as atrophy of the muscles, it is true that a very skinny horse will have a prominent pelvis (look up before and after rescue photos to see that), but that is not a deformed back per se. Atrophy of the muscles is not the root cause of back bumps in a horse of normal weight (as are all the horses in these photos) though it may be harder to see a bump in an actually obese horse.
The tern “hunter’s bump” covers a variety of conditions, some of which are just conformation (and may indicate jumping ability) and others are the result of some sort of damage.
No, there is no inherent conformational quirk that you can see, for instance, in green horses that looks like a hunters bump and indicated jumping ability.
The correlation between ability and a bump is that some horses that jump a lot, or are ridden on the forehand , develop stress injuries to the pelvis.
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If it’s a true hunter’s bump, probably not. But I’d use a good vet for a PPE and discuss it with the vet first if I liked everything else about the horse.
But it may not be a true hunter’s bump. Which is why it would help to discuss it with a vet.
Thank you for great information. I fear that said horse looks most like the 4yo WB. There is most definitely a bump there. I’m thinking I’ll pass on this horse.
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That was an interesting post, thanks for sharing! I hit the “translate” button in Chrome and this was my favorite line: “Factors such as well-developed musculature in the back and / or a thick layer of bacon could prevent the change from being recognized.” :lol:
