Knee action at the canter

[friedmas]

Hi!

I’ve noticed my geldings canter has had increased knee action. He used to travel fairly flat kneed but I’ve been seeing a bit of a difference when I’m getting videos. For context we do pleasure (western and hunt seat) and recently we started showing hunter/jumper.

He seems perfectly comfortable under saddle and nothing has changed in his warm up routine. There’s no ear pinning, he’s willing and forward, his saddle fits, he’s seen routinely by the chiropractor, and I’ve used the same farrier with him for almost two years.

Should I look into a lameness evaluation. Different shoes? (He wears fronts to deal with the rock hard ground here in the summer). Is he not engaging enough or is this a product of more proper hind end engagement as he gets stronger?

Any suggestions are helpful!
thank you!

[Willesdon]

Quite likely, the last: stronger and using himself better. Do you have video for comparison?

[SonnysMom]

I have seen where a change in farrier can make a horse go from a daisy cutter to one with a lot more knee action changed to a different farrier and back to daisy cutter. Both changes happened slowly over a few shoeing cycles.

[JustTheTicket]

Typically more knee action means that he’s rocking back off his forehand and is now able to lift his shoulders. Not necessarily a bad thing (though I guess it is in western pleasure).