Hello! I have Walkers. Recently, I walked a friends horse from one house to next door to the boarding barn. Horse in hand, I noticed that the mare had a quirky heavy front end walk about her. Her feet weren’t sore so could it be her shoulders? The owner is fairly new to horse ownership, too. Nice mare. I heard that the mare won’t move out but just walk. Not even a running walk. I think it’s a past injury and that’s why this lady got her so cheap. $900. The mare is 19 yrs old and thin. I talked the woman into having the mares teeth done. Her friends talked the lady into giving it straight alfalfa block and her usual grain. Poor thing choked the other day on hay cubes and grain. Thank God we were there! I’m hoping that this quirky “walk” is just a muscle issue that can be corrected with exercise and decent care. I’m not a fan of alfalfa cubes BTW. She sets them down but the mare still choked. Plus, the mares urine is super strong and I know that the free choice alfalfa block isn’t helping. High protein overworks the kidneys. I’m in the medical field.
Good luck…
It could be a lot of things and you are right about the kidney.
900$ is quite expensive for a horse that can’t move…
Poor thing. They should get the vet out before it dies right there…
The strong smell could be caused by dehydratation, tying up or ulcers… or other imbalances…
Choking is very dangerous for horses. It can lead to aspiration pneumonia, which you don’t want.
Horse cannot vomit, so food and saliva can go straight into their lung when they choke and panic…
At least, they could soak the alfalfa cubes with warm water.
What are they expecting from this mare?
Vet ASAP. Choke and not willing to move? 
We need a lot more information to even begin to guess what is going on with this mare. Do you have a video of her walking? I don’t quite understand your description of her way of going.
Choking is usually caused by poor dental health or a horse who bolts its feed (or both). It shouldn’t have any relationship to the horse’s way of going.
Despite a lot of old-school horsemen’s superstitions, alfalfa (and “high” protein equine diets aren’t really all that high) does not damage a horse’s kidneys. Now, if the horse had a pre-existing kidney disease (which is very rare), that might be a different story.
I have a 12 year old TWH mare. She is not really heavy on the front end, but tends to be lazy with her feet. She was underweight when I got her, but wow is she amazing now! I would HIGHLY recommend putting the mare on Equinety! That product works magic I swear and sounds like this mare would benefit from it. I started my mare on it shortly after I bought her and within 30 days the results were amazing. I was very doubtful if it would really help her, but I am a firm believer in their product after seeing the results with my mare. It is an overall beneficial product. Check it out online. I was a skeptic, but not now. :winkgrin:
The horse’s owner needs to call the vet and have the mare looked over. There’s quite a few different issues going on.
