Should he be a driving horse?

[Jumpergirl99]

Last year we had to retire my 16 year old quarter horse because he has got what we think is a calcium buildup on his hock (we took him to a well know equine orthopedist in our state and not even he could tell for sure what it was from the ultrasound) The horse has just been hanging out in the pasture for the past year and we have no plans to get rid of him.

He is WAY to young in my opinion to be done but we can’t ride him, the poor guy is a total love that just wants a job to do. I know nothing about driving but do any of you think that it might be something to consider doing with him? He has limited movement in his left hind but still likes to run around and play with his buddies. I don’t want to show or anything. Also where are some good places to find all he equipment needed either online or in/around the Puget Sound. Thanks for any input

[IronwoodFarm]

Before investing in equipment, why not take him to a driving trainer to see if he is suitable? A cart and harness are not cheap pieces of equipment. Better to find out if the horse is suited for driving first. Some horses take to it and others do not.

[buck22]

To my knowledge (and someone please correct me if I am wrong) driving is pretty hard on hocks in general. Otherwise I’d be taking my pasture-sound retired gelding out for the occasional drive too.

What you can do however is teach him to go along with you in hand, long reining, like this: http://barnmice.com/video/long-reining-02-why-and?xg_source=activity

or if you’re adventurous you can try tandem riding: http://barnmice.com/video/wow-friesian-long-lining-in

[red_mares]

I’ve never heard that driving was particularly hard on hocks, or on the horse in general. Most (ASB) folks I know jog their horses to give them a break from the stress of riding. Now if you’re talking tight corners as in CDE obstacles or cone patterns that would be rough. I would advise a lot of miles on asphalt for the OP’s horse either.

My old horse does the occaisonal drive just fine. Now, if she hits the road 7 days in a row (and hell froze over) she’d probably be a little off. It’s like anything else. If it looks like he hurts, or looks like he hurts more than usual, STOP.

[gothedistance]

[QUOTE=buck22;7139946]
To my knowledge (and someone please correct me if I am wrong) driving is pretty hard on hocks in general. Otherwise I’d be taking my pasture-sound retired gelding out for the occasional drive too. [/QUOTE]
No, it isn’t “hard on the hocks” for 99% of the pleasure driving horses out there, unless they are asked to pull heavy loads way over their limit, or asked to constantly climb up mountain roads and then down them, or do higher level CDEs. Not even driven dressage comes anywhere near as punishing on the hocks as ridden dressage.

Honestly, for the most part, the majority of horses are conformed to move along on their forehand, and most carriage horses do just that. The effort to pull is hardest when the horse is going into draft (starting pulling), or going up inclines, in which cases most use their forehand to pull, and their hindquarters to push the rest of the body along. As soon as the carriage is moving the force of draft reduces significantly. Good wheels properly trued, and well lubricated hubs …AND ensuring the horse is NOT made to pull more weight than indicated for his size and build (ie: breed) and terrain…will make a world of difference in how much force a horse needs to use to move a carriage along. Many times during a drive the horse will be essentially trotting along with only the barest of pulling force being applied to the traces.

Just keep repeating to yourself “extra weight on the back=pressure on the hocks”. Carriage horses don’t carry weight, period, other than their own.

For 10 years we drove a wonderful Thoroughbred with arthritic hocks, and he’d tell you right to your face (sour expression and pissy attitude) that he’d much rather pull a carriage full of people than have someone on his back causing his hocks to be weighted. He was happy, happy, happy in harness. Tolerated (with an annoyed expression) being under saddle.

[buck22]

Huh. This flies in the face of what my vet (who drives) and the person who got me started (retired her ponies with bad hocks from driving, saying driving beat them up) both told me … BUT that doesn’t mean I’m not happy [thrilled] to hear this difference of opinion. I would be over joyed at the idea of taking my retiree out for a short spin once a week - and he would be thrilled for it - but with a bad stifle and bad pastern, I thought pulling of any kind would be out of the question.

I did know that while going along a carriage is quite light, but I was under the impression that it is the starting and stopping thats hard on hocks, and being on anything other than a groomed, firm, even surface (which I personally don’t have access too, but this isn’t my thread) was going to create some kind of drag and the horse will have to pull.

When you drove your TB, did you have to make sure the shafts were floated and you kept to ideal flat footing?

Very happy to have the opportunity to be corrected, thank you!

[Chewbacca]

I agree totally with what the others have said - have him evaluated as a driving prospect, and that driving is not that hard on the joints. Driving horses can stay actively working and sounder a lot longer than riding horses. One big thing with driving is that they are balancing themselves- whereas a poor rider that carries their weight more to one side, or more to the front, or more to the back, will force the horse to compensate for the imbalance by shifting his weight. In driving, there is no weight on the back, so the horse can carry his own body quite evenly, and help keep him sounder longer.

So, driving ? Yes!

I’m confused about the true problem. You said your equine orthopedic could not tell what what wrong from the “ultrasound”… this doesn’t make sense to me.

Surely the vet did xrays? or someone, right?? Ultrasounds are not used as diagnostic tools for bone problems. U/S are for soft tissue diagnosis.

If the question is calcification of the hock, that would be diagnosed with xrays, or even a bone scan should you go that route.

If your well known equine orthopedic didn’t do xrays, no wonder he couldn’t tell what was wrong.

Arthritic hocks can fuse together as calcium deposits build up. The hock itself is comprised of 5 bones, 3 of which are smushed together in the middle like packed rice cakes. The spaces between those bones can fuse due to arthritis. The hock will have limited motion for a long time while the joint actively fuses, and it can cause soreness and lameness while it’s happening, but often, once fused, a hock can still function, and the horse can still have a working career. I’ve known horses with fused hocks that were still jumpers (JUMPERS - not hunters!).

Joint injections may help. Living on glucosamine/MSM joint supports may also help.

I’d personally be getting a second opinion on the horse either way before ending his career.

Good luck!

[Jumpergirl99]

Thanks guys. I will definitely look around for a driving trainer and see about getting him started with it.

@Chewbacca, we did get quite a few X-rays done of his hock and we sent them to the orthopedist to take a look at the before we came down. Basically, there is a pretty sizable hard mass on the inside of my horse’s left hock, its about the size of softball if it was cut in half. The orthopedist couldn’t tell what was going on from the x-rays so he did an ultrasound of the hock to see if he could determine what the mass was and if it was fused to the hock or not. It still wasn’t clear form the ultrasound what has caused the mass in the first place or really what it was, so his best guess was that over the years a large amount of calcium had built up. Its doesn’t appear to be fused to the joint but again he wasn’t sure. The orthopedist gave us the option of bringing the horse back and opening him up to try and remove the mass but he said there was really no guaranty that it would help at all.

We had gotten the hock injected a few times but saw no improvement, and had also had him on joint supplements for quite a while. Trust us, if we thought there was anything else we could try to help him, we would have done it but at some point you just have to step back and say enough. At this point I really wasn’t all that interested in performance anymore and wanted to move into jumping so at some point we would have needed to start looking for a new horse anyway. There is no way that my horse is going to be ridable to the extent that he used to be, so I was just looking for a way to get him out and do something with him that he would enjoy without putting to much stress on his hock.

[Drive_NJ]

Converting a horse to a driving horse is an individual event
“it depends on the horse”

Our old boy Macrae did not like driving when he was younger, but when he retired (at about 34 yo) because he was unsafe-ly arthritic to ride - he did not like being without a job
so we asked him to try driving again

he took to it and drove for another 5 or more years
we did not go far or long but it gave him a job that he came to love
and we got extra time with him
he drove 2 days before he fell in the field and could not get up.=, at 39plus yo

he was given aspirin for stiffness and was “serviceably sound”
Driving kept him going for some extra years

I would definitely give it a shot to see if it works for you and your horse. You never know what you will get