Have any of y’all ever had, or heard of, a horse who is sound at the trot both ways when lunged, and sound when ridden to the left, posting trot, but when you switch diagonals, is slightly off even before you actually trot to the right?
It has just dawned on me, I had just begun to suspect this was the case and was changing direction, when, for the second time, horse stepped on himself with his right front pulling the shoe off his left front. I asked the farrier about it, and he wondered, shoulder?
Horse has had X-rays of foot and ankle, had some navicular changes and some ankle arthritic changes. Has has the left coffin joint injected, and Legend, and is on Previcox. Also sees a chiropractor regularly, which has greatly helped him. I did the whole very slow rehab, with stall confinement, then just walking, straight lines, adding trot, straight lines, and now am up to very large circles?
I described this to one very experienced horse person who said she had seen something like this with uneven muscle development, particularly in horses ridden incorrectly sidesaddle. This horse is an OTTB who I have hunted and done very basic dressage and little jumps in the ring with, who became noticeably lame last May during a dressage lesson. He has always been very much better to the left, even though this was the worse joint on X-ray and the one that was injected. but always, when I think back, it was when I changed diagonals, before changing directions, that he became worse.
I just wondered if anybody else has any experience or thoughts about this.