Interesting! I am wondering if this could be my guy as well. At the very least, it’s worth changing his diet around a bit to see if any changes are noticeable. What did you put her on for Vitamin E? I’ve heard so many conflicting pieces of info on Vitamin E - that it needs to be liquid to work, or that Elevate is fine, etc. so I’m not sure where to start with that.
Not who you asked but I’ll answer anyway 
Natural E is more bioavailable - meaning to get the same benefit you have to feed more of the synthetic. Best to pick a natural E, in whatever form your horse will eat, and start around 2000IU+ if you’re just trying to supplement and are feeding a commercial grain or balancer. You may need more if your horse is eating only a V/M supplement, or is getting a lower quality feed that doesn’t have much E in it. If you’re specifically addressing an issue, you can feed more or reach for liquid natural E (the most bioavailable), but these are not cheap or always palatable.
Santa Cruz E powder and pellets are some of the cheapest horse specific options, and I’ve always had horses eat it. Smartpak makes a natural E pellet that’s more expensive, but it goes on sale all the time for cheap! Also very palatable and easy to use. Some people use the human gel caps, but I’ve never had luck with those myself. They usually end up a mushy mess on the bottom of the bucket, and popping them open every time isn’t practical for me.
As with anything, check the actual IU not just the serving size to see what is most cost effective. For example, Smartpak’s E is 2500IU/serving at 1 scoop/day. Santa Cruz is 8000IU/serving at 2 scoops/day. Very confusing
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Yes that’s it!
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I use a human gel capsule of natural E from amazon that is 1000iu per pill. I order on subscription and right now she’s on 5000iu per day.
I’ve used the liquid Vit E but it was a mess and I honestly felt like a lot got wasted. I also have used Elevate but felt better bang for buck with the human liquid gel caps: more targeted iu’s, clean, easy storage, and price competitive
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A couple favorite under saddle exercises for straightening asymmetrical sensitive horses:
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At the rail tracking in the direction they counterbend, ride shoulder-fore or shoulder-in with the front end pointing towards the wall (so shoulder-out, I guess) down the long side. Don’t harass them if they want to tip their neck towards the rail. Then at the corner, ask them off your inside leg to straighten and give a moment of bend toward the difficult direction. Resume shoulder out after only a few steps and repeat at the next corner. After several repetitions add another straightening for a few steps in the middle of the long side. Generally the weak hind leg is the one opposite the bulging side, so they get sick of pushing with it on shoulder-in quickly and realize the straightening is easier, reducing their desire to brace without having to arm wrestle them for the inside rein.
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In a large arena or field, proceed on a straight line well away from the rail or fence, picking an object in the distance to head for. The goal is to stay on the straight line with both reins completely loose and both of your legs neutral. If any part of the horse’s body falls off the line, correct, send him forward firmly, and return to neutral quickly. When the horse understands his job is to keep himself on the line in all 3 gaits you’ll have a much less resistant starting place for practicing flexions, because a lot of horses brace/counterbend so habitually on the rail of the arena that they are fighting you before you even apply an aid.
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X2!
And easily sourced, bioavailabile and horses just eat it out of the grain, no hesitation.
I’m surprised no one has suggested
ECVM. The asymmetry in the shoulders could be a sign. I had a young mare with it.
Another thing that I think is worth noting and may or may not be related-this horse is girthy. I figured it was an ulcer issue or perhaps back soreness, but he has just been treated for ulcers as noted, and his back is palpating quite well (teeny bit reactive around the SI and that is it).
I stretch his front legs before tacking up by standing in front of him, picking his leg up, grabbing behind the knee and gently pulling it forward. Then I grab the hoof and stretch the whole leg straight. He used to struggle with this, but now he relaxes into it and stretches really well. I girth him up slowly, starting with one hole on each side then I’ll grab my boots, go up another hole, grab my bridle, go up another hole etc so I’m not just yanking it up quickly.
Once it is tightened enough, I’ve been trying to pick up one leg at a time, bend at the knee and pull it forward again a little bit to make sure his skin isn’t pinching under the girth. He pretty much refuses-he won’t pick up his leg at all, then will walk sideways away from me in the aisle. When I do finally get him to lift it, many times he will hold it up himself and refuse to stretch or slam his foot back down (frequently hitting his other foot in the process) as he wants to keep his feet super close together. It’s so strange!
His saddle has been professionally fitted as recently as a month ago (this is something he’s always done before & after saddle was fit), and he has a shoulder relief girth with sheepskin as well. So, I don’t think his saddle or girth is pinching him. Maybe just some sort of general sternum problem?
I’m not super well versed in ECVM, but I did just briefly read an article on it. My other gelding has a bone spur and arthritis between his C6 & C7, so I’m familiar with some other neck problems. I would certainly not rule out that possibility right now, but don’t want to jump to that yet since it seems to be pretty detrimental to ridden careers from what I read.
Also-I just put him on Vitamin E & Selenium. I might throw him on my other gelding’s magnesium as well, but I want to add one thing at a time right now to be able to tell if anything makes a difference.
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Has he always used this? I was using a shoulder relief girth on my new gelding but he actually hated it, I discovered he prefers a plain straight girth.
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No - I initially just had him in a cheap straight fleece girth (I think lettia) but we noticed last year that as soon as we tacked him up, he would walk off lame. I ended up trying both the stubben equisoft girth and the TSF stretchtech (purchased the TSF and the stubben was given to me for free), and he doesn’t walk off funny anymore. But he is certainly still really unwilling to lift his legs the minute I tighten the girth.
Not sure whether this is girth related or he’s just sore in his shoulders and tightening up the girth makes him uncomfortable.
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Do you have a surcingle you can try girthing him up with for a few days? Not just once - maybe do his lunging while wearing a surcingle (one with pads or with a spine relief half pad/two bathing sponges under it to keep it off the spine)?
My thinking is if it’s your saddle he may react differently to a surcingle. If it’s the girth or something else, he should not show a change in behavior. A bareback pad could also work.
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great idea! I tried throwing the saddle on and lifting his feet without the girth to see if it was just sitting tight on his shoulders, but that doesn’t really help much since a saddle isn’t super tight on the shoulders anyways until the girth is on and tightened.
It shouldn’t be the saddle given how recently I had it fitted, but who knows!
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Having neck rads taken next week just as a precaution. He certainly has a tough time bending to the left still. Carrot stretch to the left side makes his neck pop really loudly-I know that doesn’t necessarily mean anything but it just brought me back to considering if his neck could be a problem given the comment about ECVM.
My other (older, lighter work) gelding has a bone spur between his C6 & C7, so I am not unfamiliar with neck issues. With him however, once you get him travelling correctly under saddle he still feels quite uncomfortable and never really settles into the work. With this guy, when you get him connected correctly and using his topline, he does seem to settle into it and realize that is the most comfortable way for him to move and then he feels pretty good, so I am hopeful there are no neck issues present.
On the bright side, he has begun backing up much easier. Still goes a little sideways from time to time, but generally is pretty straight now. I have the chiro coming next week as well, so I’m curious to see what she will find.
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Chiro appointment tomorrow and snapping some rads of his neck on Thursday-now that we’ve had better weather I’ve managed to vary our rides a bit more. We’ve gone out on the gallop track, done some hill work in the fields, a little bit of jumping, etc.
The issue has persisted for the left lead canter. His right lead he will occasionally thrust his head up and leap still, but the left lead is where it’s really stuck. Tonight I had a lesson with some really lovely trotwork, a great right lead with one tiny moment of head tossing, but everything fell apart asking for the left lead. He will eventually settle into a decent canter but even if I am diligent to give with my hands and let him move out once he settles, he will still go right back to the head tossing and leaping after a circle or two. I can hold my hands steady and kick him through it and he’ll settle again, just for the cycle to continue.
On the gallop track he swapped leads in the back a couple of times when the terrain varied slightly, but I ignored it and he’d either swap back or swap the front to match. Around the hilly fields he was fine-breaking to trot downhill sometimes but that’s fine by me given his current fitness level. He’s backing up well, walking over raised poles well, his back palpates pretty darn great (a little reactive around his SI but even that’s getting better gradually). I suppose I’ll just keep doing what we’re doing if rads don’t show anything and chiro doesn’t seem to help him, and see where we end up!
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neck rads were done today and appeared fine. Not really sure where to go from here
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Maybe back off the cantering and really put the work in at walk and trot? Making sure he’s really using himself and even in the rein, not shlumping around on the forehand.
One fitness plan for bringing back a horse out of the pasture I have saved is working up to 10 minutes of trotting, then an additional 19(!) minutes of trotting per ride before going canter. Another has the horse going for 20 minutes of trotting before cantering. These are trot sets, but the horses are supposed to be doing poles and lateral work (not tiny circles) as well.
He could just be telling you you’re pushing him too hard and he needs a more tailored program before you ask him to canter. If that method falls through, then you can have the vet out again, looking for sneaky soft tissue or something. I hate it but sometimes you have to make them “lame enough” for the vet to see what you’re feeling.
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Could be! It’s frustrating because he’s always done this even in full work with jumping twice a week, but now it’s worse. I’m having him chiropracted next week as well so who knows. I’ll lay off the cantering unless he picks it up trotting small fences for the time being and see how that helps.
Oddly enough, last night I put him on the lunge and he was refusing to pick up the left lead canter as usual. This past week he has downright refused to pick up the lead, whereas normally he’ll pick up the lead, but can make it maybe two circles tops before swapping his hinds (yes, we have injected SI but it never made a difference). Last night he picked up the wrong lead, and rather than asking him to trot again I just stood there and let him circle a few times-I was feeling pretty defeated lol. Well, whaddaya know he gave a few leaps, settled back into the wrong lead for another half circle, then came back to trot, picked up the left lead with no shenanigans and held it quite nicely for 4 or 5 circles. No swapping, no running off…he got a lot of “good boys” for that and we stopped right then and there for the day! I don’t like letting him run around on the lunge since it’s so hard on their joints, but it seemed yesterday he just needed to romp around for a minute and then find his balance on his own…intriguing.
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Does he show signs of the neck being the problem? Sorry I didn’t look back at the original post.
You could still do things like mesotherapy, massage, and acupuncture if it could be a muscular neck issue.
With my guy who is 6 and did have some mild changes in his neck, I really need to let him have his head and have a looser rein. It’s definitely different as he is a TWH and I’m not jumping him. But short reins and tight holds on him are of no benefit to either of us. I agree with @fivestrideline and adjust/back off cantering and what aggravates him for now. Maybe just spend some time on more relaxed rides and let him get over this period so you can start fresh again.
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