Hi all, I’ve lost my long term buddy and am looking for a new friend. Their role would be to be a companion and would have a forever home. Riding would be a bonus, but not required. I’ve been approached about a 6 year old mare with shivers, which has limited her otherwise stellar work as a horse working in crowd control. I have NO experience with this - will this affect her long term health? Will I be facing life-ending decisions sooner? Any advice or experience would be appreciated.
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I don’t have a ton of experience with shivers. I have known exactly one horse with the issue, and I put him down just shy of his 30th birthday.
His only issue was that he required a sympathetic and patient farrier to shoe his hinds, as he had a lot of trouble holding the one hind up.
However, I don’t know when his shivers presented - I didn’t meet him until he was in his mid 20s.
I’d have some concerns about a horse that was showing symptoms at 6, and I’d need to know why her symptoms kept her from working in crowd control? The horse I knew was sound and useful into his late 20s, and was still capable of light trail riding before he was put down.
I would want a lot more info before I took this horse on, even as a companion animal.
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I have one with shivers, and standing they occasionally randomly raise out a hind leg. I always warn the person behind me hunting, so they don’t stand too close and get accidentally bumped, and so they don’t think he’s about to kick them. I could see it being an issue in crowd control when people are really pressed in.
Otherwise, you just need a good farrier.
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Thanks for the information. Her owner said she would show some discomfort when having to stand still for a long time, but that was really it. I agree I’ll need to learn a lot more, both about the disorder but also the horse before we decide to take her.
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Thanks for sharing about your experiences. I am a little extra concerned about an issue with the hind, as she’s a draft. Mine that we just lost had to be euthanized because although he had arthritis he suddenly lost all strength in his back end, went down and couldn’t get up. The vet thinks he might have slipped a disk. They are such big horses that I worry any hind end compromise could be a more significant issue than in a lighter horse.
Well, if you aren’t shoeing her behind I wouldn’t be too concerned. If you need her shod, then yes, it’s going to be very difficult with added weight. Although of course shivers can present to different degrees, so basically my advice is go pick up a leg and see what you’ve got.
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My personal horse, who just passed a couple years ago at 28 years old from colic, had pretty prevalent shivers. I knew him since he was 7 or 8, and as far as I know he always showed symptoms to some degree. They did worsen slightly as he aged, but never inhibited doing his job or his daily life. He wasn’t a high level horse, but he did his job as a 3’+ jumper just fine. Same as CBoylen said, sometime when he was standing still a hind leg popped up and he would recalibrate his balance. I always warned new people who were working with him that he was not trying to kick them.
We did sedate him for shoeing, because he would try so hard to not let the shivers affect him and it made him worry. Sedating and shoeing where he had a wall on the opposite side to lean on really helped. He was a thoroughbred so not a heavy draft horse which may complicate things.
I did a whole video on shivers for a class at school demonstrating his symptoms and how I worked around him.
I have also known several other horses that had some degree of shivers. All the same protocol, go slow, know they aren’t trying to kick you, let them find where they’re comfortable holding their back feet. None of them had restricted careers due to it. I would say my horse was definitely the worst out of the one I’ve known, but I wouldn’t shy away from a horse just because of shivers. Depends on what you’re willing to deal with I think.
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Interesting. My shivery horse only showed symptoms when having that foot picked up; so only for the farrier or for hoof picking.
That makes perfect sense that it was a problem for crowd work.
Thanks for all of the info. We’ve decided to not take her, but more because we are really looking for a gelding.
I had a Wb gelding for almost 20yrs with shivers …he was 15 when we got him…it started as lifting and holding his hind legs up high when picking up hind feet …never affected him for riding -we competed hunters well into his mid twenties (he was formerly a dressage horse ) it advanced alot when he was about 30 …but he also had neck, and hock arthritis as well as Cushings …it got to the point where he could no longer lift his hind feet up and he had trouble getting up from laying down …but again his other issues also played a part in that …we had to put him down at 35yrs old when he went down and couldn’t get back up .
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