My young horse has been catching a front toe and tripping during our walks out of the ring. She’s actually gone down to her knees twice!
She doesn’t trip while trotting or cantering, only walking and more so when out in the field.
She seems to just have an ADD moment and trip, but now has me worried to take her for walks outside the ring!
She wears shoes all around and the farrier comes in 2 weeks so I will be sure to mention the tripping to him.
any suggestions?
Have the vet check for neurological conditions. I’ve dealt with Wobblers Syndrome and EPM. The Wobblers horse would only stumble/fall at a walk. I also once took care of a horse that if he went past the six week mark for shoeing would stumble and fall because one front hoof grew oddly. Falling down is a sign there’s something wrong. Good luck!
I would also recommend to look very closely at your horse conformation. Rope walking can be caused by a horse that is base narrow or toes out on the front. This can lead to tripping too. My horse is base narrow on the front and tripped frequently when I first started her under saddle. The added changes in balance with tack, and later a rider, made her more “trippy”. I had her vet checked and farrier checked. She was completely sound and healthy, just narrow on the front. I did a lot of bending and stretching exercises with her to get her more mobile on the front end. We worked hills a lot to build up her shoulder strength and that seems to help. She’s much more balanced now.
Make sure she is marching along and not slouching onnher forehand. Just because you are not in the arena doesn’t mean she can get away with not moving right.
I’ve had the same problem forever. A 16hh Paint gelding with a ton of TB vs. QH and narrow in front. When I bought him he wasn’t well cared for and his toes were very long. As we brought them back, the farrier decided to try natural balance shoes on him. Vet said he also needed 2 degree pad. He’s been in that combination for 15 years and while he does still trip some, it usually happens towards the end of a shoeing cycle when there has been a lot of growth when the toes are a little long. I like the NB shoes because the toe can be rolled which helps the breakover. She uses a medicated hoof packing with extra copper sulfur powdered added in, so thrush has not been a problem.
how young of a horse is it? In young horses stumbling can be due to inadequate conditioning
Wondering how young the horse is as well. Seems like a lot of them tend to go through a stumbling phase at one point or another.
One of my horses right now is 6. Normally, he’s pretty good. But he does stumble here and there, and did go down to the his knees yesterday while walking. He’s been vetted twice this year as part of his wellness program (I’m pretty proactive with my barrel horses). No problems. He’s just not paying attention to his feet. 
If you have any reason to think there might be a lameness problem or a shoe/trim problem, by all means, get him checked out. But it could just be normal “young horse stumblies”.
yes she’s 6 too! She’s also big - 17.1. She’s sound, solid, and shows 0 Nuerologic signs, she really just seems to have an ADD moment and forgets wear to put her front feet.
If you think she’s having “problems” knowing where her feet are, maybe look into some of the Linda Tellington-Jones TTouch exercises. IIRC, there are a few that are structured to help a horse become more “aware” of their feet and legs.
I would talk to both my vet and farrier and have the horse evaluated. It may be just a big young horse that is uncoordinated or it could be neurological.
If it is neurological it may just be starting to show. At 17+ hh I wouldn’t mess around.
How do you know it’s not neurological? Did the vet check?
I’ve had one horse with Wobblers who fell down and tripped. My current horse has never fallen or tripped, but had other issues and just recently was evaluated as very neurological. Just watching what the vet did was shocking, it was obvious he has no idea where his feet are.
A neurological check shouldn’t cost much and is worth checking out. I honestly hope that’s not your horse’s problem, but falling down is a red flag.
Took my 8 year old Lusitano to Tufts for tripping. Nothing like having a lovely canter in a lesson, and having your horse go down to his knees for no apparent reason! That was the last straw. He had a complete workup - not neurologic but some hot spots on bone scan in the neck, left shoulder and SI joints. He was injected and gets regular visits from my acupuncture vet. Now he almost never trips, has an overstep after work, and feels much more balanced. I am feeling more confident on him too.
I had one that was similar to this. The vet who did the scintigraphy explained that the cervical narrowing didn’t make the horse neurologic, but that occasionally a “packet of information” didn’t make it properly down the spinal column and the horse would have a transient loss of proprioception. That could be enough to cause a trip or to make him put a foot down a bit harder. That vet (Mark Martinelli) felt that the latter over time ultimately caused him to damage the collateral ligaments in his coffin joints.
In my experience, the taller horses tend to be more stumbly. It seems like when they have a growth spurt, they forget where their feet are with those long legs.
My old guy I used to have went through a terribly stumbly phase when he was 5. Of course, he also grew another inch when he was 5. He topped out at just a hair under 16.1 hands. My current horse that is 6 is currently at 15.3 hands. And he is lazy and drags his feet, which probably contributes to him tripping from time to time.
If it’s just happening here and there, truthfully, I would not be that worried about it. (This is coming from a person who takes her horses to the vet twice a year for “preventative” lameness evaluations!) But again, if you’re gut tells you something isn’t right, then trust your gut and go to the vet.
So is there still hope for my 20 year old to stop stumbling?? 
Outside of the very sound advice from all the other replies (vet check, farrier check, etc), my guy stumbles when he isn’t paying attention/working correctly. He has a slight overstride that isn’t a big deal until he forgets that he has four feet or gets lazy because I’m not riding effectively.
Of course he gets fancy (read expensive) shoeing anyway for a whole different can of worms.
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