Strengthening Crooked Pelvis + Poor Posture

[4horses]

I just have a couple comments.

In the video, she looks okay starting out but at the 2:00 mark, i can see some off steps behind.

The uneven muscle development is a common symptom of EPM. If she has had falls, especially on good footing, i would suspect that is an issue. Please get her tested for EPM. I watched a video on thehorse.com with EPM in a thoroughbred. It can present with many different symptoms. Uneven muscling, and slight lameness issues are some of them.

Next, her conformation is a mess. Long ankles, very upright shoulder angles. The left front ankle looks dropped in the picture. This could be from long toe, low heel, or this could be something like the beginning of DSLD. That said, my friend has a horse with absolutely terrible conformation and the mare is as sound as can be. Given her conformation, she is definitely not something I would consider breeding, and shame on the people you got her from.

If she doesn’t have EPM, i would suspect some sort of traumatic injury to her pelvis at some point, perhaps as a foal. I’ve seen many young horses but never any with that degree of muscle loss. Were your pictures taken with her standing square? As an uneven stance may make her look even more lopsided then she really is.

All things considered, she doesn’t look that lame. She may be a horse with physical limitations. I would probably just stick to flatwork with her. Eventually this will cause problems down the road. Most of my horses have physical limitations - it’s just a matter of management and not forcing them to do something they can’t.

Her canter looks bad. I suspect her canter will be terribly uncomfortable under saddle. She doesn’t look like she’s moving correctly behind.

As for bits, one of my mares hates broken snaffles, but rides really well in a mullen mouth, or even a pelham or kimberwick. Nothing wrong with a Bosal either if she’s well behaved in that.

Good luck with her. I’m not sure physical therapy will help. I would want her fully checked by a lameness specialist and diagnostics done. Before asking her to work, make sure you know as much as you can about what you are dealing with.

[J-Lu]

PS. A fracture at birth could very much explain what you see. Fractures heal well in neonates to allow the neonate to stand and function. But a fracture could very much explain what you’re seeing in your mare as an adult. Healthy mares don’t pee on themselves. Many horses are “springy” in their gaits while moving incredibly incorrectly. This happens “all the time” when the springiness is an evasion to moving forward and using themselves correctly.

[J-Lu]

PPS, I just noticed you posted a video! To me, your mare doesn’t use her back. Her legs move, and often with quick steps, but it looks like she either doesn’t move her back well or is protecting it. She has nice leg activity at the trot sometimes her hind legs are together at the canter but horses bred for racing (even if the didn’t race) sometimes do that when they propel forward… Her neck is usually up, with brief moments of stretching, but back into the air. I see no obvious red flag, but I see a horse that can’t use herself very well. This is no different that a lot of horses who don’t use themselves very well, including racing-bred TBs (whether they raced or not). To me. Perhaps quality riding and training can teach her to use her back better.

[JB]

@J-Lu

She suspected the horse might have tried to jump a fence as a foal, and didn’t make it/crashed/totally whacked out the pelvis. This chiropractor worked on the pelvis for a year or so, at first all the time and then tapering off into time-spaced adjustments.

This is exactly why, when my guy was pretty young, maybe not even 2, and I saw him rear (in play), his high legs shot forward (because he screeched to a halt to rear on a downward slope) and he slammed backwards onto his butt and rolled over, I had the chiro out about a week later (to allow for any soreness to at least mostly go away), and work on him. He was never lame, I didn’t tell her why I wanted her to work on him, but she asked me if I’d see him fall.

If I’d never seen the fall (and I"m sure I’ve missed a few!), or had just done nothing because he was never lame, who knows how he might have healed in compensatory mode. It could have been a major issue to fix.