Mild Roarer?

[Ottbaxel]

Got a bit of a weird case here with questions at the end-

My ottb gelding who is turning 18 next month has had contact issues for the better part of my owning him. Along the way of diving into this, we’ve discovered fusing hocks, mild navicular changes of his right front, a teeny tiny bone spur between C6 & C7, and a couple summers ago he started head shaking. The headshakers is managed very successfully with Magnesium 5000, his hocks are injected, he gets monthly Legend, etc among other things. He also cribs.

Now, I had my vet out to check up on him because he’s felt like total crap. He gets halfway through a ride and just kind of loses steam (he has been in 6 day a week work for years, flatting and jumping so it shouldn’t be a fitness thing). He’s super, super hard in the contact-using your leg at all to get him round causes him to bare his teeth and jerk his head a bit. This has always been a problem for him but lately it’s been exacerbated. He’s holding the bend one direction and refusing to change it, and he’s very behind the leg, among other things.

So anyways, my vet took a look at him and of course we checked his neck first because I was concerned about that the most. No neurologic signs at all, he does carrot stretches very well, etc. On the lunge he looks phenomenal, honestly-appropriately active in the hind end, very sound, just awesome. He has a tendency to be back sore, so my vet said they were thinking of checking his back but wanted to see him go under saddle first.

Well, the first thing my vet asked was “has he always made that sound?” What?! I feel crazy!

He has always made a very light puffing sound, only in the canter. It‘a so mild that I guess I just always thought it was him breathing a bit heavier because he was cantering? He doesn’t even do it on the lunge, just once he steps up to canter with a rider on him. I can’t believe I never thought further about this-I have known about roaring, known horses to get tie back surgery, but never considered it for my own horse.

We are going to scope him in a few days to see if something is up. My vet is thinking if something is restricting his breathing in a frame, that’s why he’s so difficult and that’s why he would get lethargic and fall behind the leg.

I am wondering if falling behind the leg and being so difficult in the bridle could then cause his pretty frequent back soreness as well-I just always figured his problems were the hind end not his actual head.

Has anyone had these secondary symptoms in a horse that roars mildly? Tough in the bridle, super behind the leg, back sore? Did the roaring get worse in the winter (thinking maybe I didn’t notice it before because it wasn’t ten degrees outside)?

[atr]

Short answer, yes. My roarer was really tough in the bridle and would conk out halfway through a ride.

The tie back surgery helped a lot, but he was still never the easiest to have reliably on the bit and through.

[Ottbaxel]

Interesting…makes sense that they would get tired halfway through if they can’t breathe-I just never thought of bridle resistance being an issue.

The weird thing with him is that it’s gotten worse over time it seems-not the noise, but the losing steam while riding and the issues in the bridle. I just figured it was either his neck (nope) or his hocks (nope). I would think those wouldn’t get worse as time goes on if it’s a roaring issue?

[Amberley]

In an older teen horse who never made noise before I’d be concerned about a sinus issue

[atr]

The paralysis of the larynx can be progressive. It was with my horse. I’m trying to member as it was a while ago, but I think we first scoped him when he was about 10, but my vet felt it would be worth waiting a bit for it to progress so the larynx had less movement to it, so I think we did it maybe 3 or 4 years later.

The tie back was truly a tie back in those days, they stitched it open, whereas nowadays I think lasering is involved?

[Ottbaxel]

Honestly - I am going through old videos. I haven’t gotten to 2019 ish when I bought him yet, but in 2023 videos I could hear it. It’s pretty subtle and only at the canter so I kind of just always thought he was just a bit out of shape or something - but now when he peters out halfway through the ride, I know for a fact it’s not a fitness issue.

It could absolutely be something other than roaring though, so we’ll check everything out. Now that I think about it, he does cough at the beginning of a ride once or twice (VERY intermittently so given the headshakers that we believed to be allergy induced as well, I always thought it was allergies) and has the occasional runny nose that I assumed was allergies as well.

[Ottbaxel]

Welp he got scoped this morning. We actually did a gastric scope to check for ulcers and viewed his airways on the way down.

He is a super super mild roarer - my vet noted that the left noid is lazy, but when he takes a really deep breath it does actually open all the way.

He also has cysts in his airways that could be causing the noise. We are not too concerned about either right now - we actually found grade 2-3 gastric ulcers that we will be treating. I am hoping that this is the main reason for falling so behind the leg. He’s always lazy in general so perhaps he gets halfway through a ride and finally says nope, screw you I’m sick of your leg on my sides.

I can’t believe this whole time he’s been a mild roarer and I haven’t really noticed. How dumb!