i have a giant 18h Percheron with bilateral stringhalt. He is not in a stall…and walks around the 10acre compound freely. There are hills involved and i am pretty sure this has helped him as he moves a lot better after having come home with me. My saint-of-a-farrier trims each of his hind feet on a platform we make out of four bricks and a small square of plywood. With the toe and then the heel hanging over farrier is able to trim and rasp without causing my big boy to have to lean against the wall to support himself.
I have had my 17.2HH wb mare for three years. When I bought her she had really pronounced shivers and was constantly lifting her legs, though she backed up quite well. In about four months of regular work and supplementation it was almost imperceptible. If you do buy the horse it might be good to check his e/selenium as that seemed to be a game changer for my mare. Good luck, he sounds like a fabulous prospect!
Edit: On the conversation around price I don’t think this disorder would make the horse lose significant value. I paid 24k for my mare with very little training and a severe case of shivers. I also got the friends and family discount because the breeder and I became good friends. This isn’t a real price dropping disorder like OCD.
The market here does not agree with your statement. A horse with shivers here in the northeast is a very difficult sell.
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Agree. Unless it is well-established at upper levels a horse with shivers should be close to free.
I also don’t believe that muscle weakness caused by vitamin or mineral deficiency is the same as shivers. One can be cured with supplementation. While good quality vitamin e may slow the progression of shivers it’s not a disease that can be significantly improved , according to everything I’ve read.
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I’m not minimizing it, and I think that’s a nasty and uncalled for thing to say to someone. I guess I’m just a clueless eventer on the dressage board. 
I’m saying THIS is has been my experience and I don’t think the OP should be relying solely on a bunch of internet strangers to tell her what to do. Ask the same question about kissing spines, or navicular, or whatever, and you’ll get the same divided responses.
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Here too. A horse with shivers is pretty much a giveaway, given the maintenance needs and potential outcome.
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Seems to me that not only you, but this whole “bunch of internet strangers” have related their experiences and opinions based on those experiences. The OP asked for exactly that. Unfortunately, most did not have such good luck as you. There’s nothing “nasty” about telling the truth.
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Stringhalt affects the nerves of the hind limbs and shivers is lesions on the cerebellum in the brain, to distinguish these two different conditions.
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I really do appreciate everyone’s input, the good and the bad. I would have some financial restrictions if this new guy needed to be retired in a year. Probably couldn’t afford that 3rd horse to ride.
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I wish I’d had more input from people who had personally experienced the downsides of “mild” shivers in a young horse. I thought I had done enough research and thought I was prepared for how difficult it would be but I wasn’t.
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B4 making statements such as yours, listen and comprehend this site, as the cerebella Dx is ancient history from a small sampling.
https://thehorsefirst.libsyn.com
BTDT
Thank you very much for sharing this. I euthanized my horse at the end of 2015, when the cerebellum study first came out (I believe from the University of Minnesota). I had not seen anything really new until this podcast you have shared, which was released last month.
I learned that in this vet’s opinion, the cerebellum study was flawed due to a very small sample group, and that shivers and stringhalt are the same type of syndrome caused by nerve impingement underneath the spine & pelvis. She has treated over 400 horses with her own technique of ultrasound-guided muscle injection. She is trying to train more vets, but says ‘it’s very difficult to train people because they just don’t have the skill’. This is a podcast aimed at farriers and she says the condition ‘makes your life very difficult, very difficult’. ‘It is so dangerous and so painful’ for the farriers and the horses. She has ‘never seen the syndrome in western horses’, only those ‘worked in compressed frames’.
I wonder what I could have done differently with this information, but I can’t think of much. I WILL leave the side reins hanging on the wall while I start my next youngster, whose pedigree is as close as I could get to my wonderful old friend.
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Thee “compressed frame” theory doesn’t match my guy’s history but I guess anything is possible. I’m inclined to lean towards a breed / genetic component which explains why it wouldn’t be seen in western horses, since they rarely share bloodlines with the large warmbloods and draft crosses who typically have shivers. I did read an interesting theory that it was caused by bordatella infection.
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Tons of western horses are worked in compressed frames every day.
There’s certainly a breed/type mismatch between traditionally English disciplines and traditionally Western ones that may be a more complete explanation of the difference in outcomes.
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https://youtu.be/ipz_UCgxTZQ this western horse sure looks to be in a compressed frame to me!
I agree that a breed component would make more sense.
Ugh, that’s gross. I love a good QH and his is lovely, but how is maintaining that kind of flexion any better than rollkur? And while at least it’s not shuffling and lurching like a WP horse, the nose in the dirt can’t be great physically either. How does a horse balance itself will all the weight in the forehand like that? And why is that considered optimal in those disciplines?
Based solely on my experience and what I’ve learned from articles and research posted online, I don’t believe shivers is caused by poor riding / poor training. I do believe that correct riding / training and regular work plays a role in managing the symptoms.
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It’s a mystery to me, across many disciplines. 
But yes I agree about shivers.
For videos like that we need an “aargh” button!!
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