We just brought home our new trail horse a week ago. He is a 8 year old Quarter Horse, has not been worked much this week, and is a little overweight. He was fine when we put him out this morning but around lunch our neighbor noticed he was walking strangely. Our other neighbor who is a very experienced trainer said it is locked stifle, which seems to fit. He has been in his stall since, after we tried backing him up which only fixed it for a little bit, until it locked again. When I checked an hour ago, he was barley able to walk. The vet is coming out tomorrow, but is there anything I can do make him more comfortable? He doesn’t seem to be in any pain and can kind of pivot around his stall to get hay/water, but it just looks so uncomfortable.
Hopefully the vet is there now-- for next time, I would consider this an emergency and get a vet out immediately.
How’s he doing?
The usually protocol for a locking stifle is to kick the horse out of any confinement. UFP tends to lock, and lock worse, when there’s no movement.
You can also massage the flank muscles, as the tensor fascia muscle is in there and that plays a large role in helping the ligament over the patellar hook. If that’s sore, injured, tight, etc it can cause or exacerbate the issue.
The general protocol is to keep the horse out, unstalled, and then just get to work on fitness, slowly and carefully. If it happens a lot, it’s likely a too short/tight ligament, and estrogen therapy may be really useful while you work on the fitness aspect.
We called the vet last night and she said there was nothing she could do that night and to call he back in the morning if it was still locked. We checked on him early this morning and it was back to normal, but it as locked/unlocked a couple times. Hopefully she will still come out today but seeing as it has kind of fixed itself it may not be as urgent anymore.
We considered keeping him in the pasture, but he usually goes in at night anyway and we didn’t want him walking as he was so unstable in his hind end. Vet should (hopefully) be on the way out now.
I’ve had and taken care of several horses with this problem. The worst thing you can do is keep them stalled.
As JB said, constant movement is needed to keep the joint working properly.
If you work on fitness- hills, backing up, low stepovers and outside 24/7, you can probably bring him through this.
Also look at how his hind hooves are trimmed and balanced. Out of balance hinds can make the problem worse and
correction can often times eleminate the problem completely.
Back him up until it unlocks and then throw him out and leave him out. I had a filly that would lock horribly to the point of walking on her fetlock/pastern (did not bother her but freaky to see) she was fine as long as she stayed out 24/7. Conditioning is key, long straight lines, hills, caveletti, backing up good transitions in a frame anything to strengthen that hind end. Surgery can be done if basic conditioning does not help.
I assume the seller never said anything about this? I would contact them and ask how they handled it. To be as severe as you say, they had to know. I would also be pretty pissed to be sold a horse with a known condition such as this. I have a horse I bought at 10 months old that developed this in both hind legs but his is pretty mild and mostly occurs in the morning after he’s been standing in one spot for a while. Once he starts moving around, he unlocks and stays unlocked as long as he continues to move around some.
Thanks for all the recommendations!
Quick update:
He is unlocked now and is moving around fine, and is turned out in a fairly large paddock with his friends. I rode him yesterday, mostly walk/trot but a tiny bit of canter, and he felt good. The old owner did admit that it had happened a few times before. We are getting him on a training scedule to keep him moving. Right now the plan is to ride at least 5 times a week and try some hill training. Anyone have more recommendations? If/when you do hills, how steep and how long? Do you trot or canter? There’s always a lot of conflicting info online so let me know what works for you and your horse:)
Don’t be so quick to get to hill work. Forced hill work is for horses who have some base of fitness on them. Get him going a solid w/t, to where you are ready to really introduce canter work, before you work on hills.
Always start at a walk, straight up (assuming not too steep, that’s not a good beginner slope), and zig-zag down. Then walk up, and walk down. The add trotting straight up, walk down, then trot up and down. There’s no real need to canter up at that point, but it IS good work. Canter up on a diagonal to start, walk or trot down. Hills are HARD, so just a few times to start, a few days a week. Require that he use himself properly - he cannot pull himself up with his front end, and he cannot plop down on his front end. Push from behind going up, sit while doing down.
You can do some in-hand backing, a few steps at a time, teaching him that backing is a diagonal gait and requires the head to be at or a bit below the withers, body straight.
Incorporate raised poles that make him lift his hind legs as they move forward. Hills and raised polls are concentrated with that you can do a few at a time more days a week, or more work in a session fewer days a week. Start with the former so he learns good form.
Sounds like a good plan. Start lightly on some gradual hills. Estrone injections have helped some horses with locked stifles too. Also watch for secondary stifle joint soreness that can sometimes occur because of the strain of the locked patella tendon.
