Drags Back Feet and Trips Or Are We Just Lazy?

[banderanch]

I either have the laziest guy or a problem. When riding he tends to trip front and back, not constantly but it gets like "dude what are you doin". Farrier has checked all his feet, he's shod every 7-8 weeks. (no shoes) His toes tend to grow pretty fast but I see no difference after he's trimmed or not. We have him lounged and watch him as he will trip a few times in doing this too. I give him exercises, like stepping over poles and as large as a telephone pole. He seems to do this at ease except for a few times his back toes will knock against the pole. Just had him at the vet too and he didn't see anything either?? Any information I can get will be great!

 

[patandchickens]

A large percentage of vets basically suck at seeing subtle lameness, so the fact that the vet didn't find a problem doesn't really mean much IMHO, my first guess would still strongly be a physical reason for tripping. Hocks, stifles, back/pelvis, neurological.

However if you do not have access to a GOOD lameness vet (and not even all vets good at *treating* lameness are good at *finding and identifying* subtle lameness), it may be somewhat of a moot point.

If it were me, and I were stuck in a good-vet-less wasteland (which I have been at times), I would suggest doing exercises to promote hind end awareness and then, once that is improving, gentle strengthening work, and see how it goes. If the tripping gets worse then that is almost guaranteed a sign it really *is* a limiting physical problem and I would back way off and maybe make more effort to find the right vet unless I was happy with just a ponyride-pasturepet type horse. OTOH if the tripping goes away with this work, then it does not really matter how much of it may have been physically-based if you have fixed it

In terms of hind end awareness exercises, if you have Linda Tellington-Jones' book(s), I would suggest doing many of her exercises, done strictly as per the book. Yeah, if her "necklace of the graceful swan" type stuff annoys you, then join the club , but the actual groundwork poles-type exercises are still very useful. You do have to do them slowly, one foot at a time, to get real benefit. If you cannot get any of her books that contain the poles exercises, you can just try walking the horse thru ground poles SLOWLY, moving one foot at a time so the horse has to deliberate and think about what he's doing. Walking poles, straight or in a fan, can also be useful if you set them up right but if you don't they can be neutral or even problematic.

JMHO,

Pat

 

[Electric]

Really, it sounds like Founder, how much grain have you been giving him?

 

[banderanch]

Thanks! I will check into the book by Linda Tellington-Jones and I am also going to have him checked by a chiropractor next month. Vets out here (AZ) if they can't physically see it, lets do tests! And if that test comes back negative lets do this and that one and on and on. My last horse went lame and they never did find out why. I spent LOTS before making that painful heartbreaking decision he had to be put down. I am not going down that road again. As for grain, he gets very very little, and only on Bermuda hay.

 

[Electric]

Hm , has he ever gotten into a large amount of grain or hay ? Even when he was younger?

 

[banderanch]

Nope!

 

[Electric]

Well, it could also be that he just doesn't want to do the work. Some horses do things like that to get out of exercise. I had a QH that would cough, and cough and cough so he didn't have to go for a hack, I took him to the vet, and everything, but he was fine. So I jest carried a crop with me and tapped him whenever he stopped to pretend cough. He still does it, but I jst smack him with a crop a bit, and hes fine.

 

[Roll farms]

I have an awesome vet, she's very horse-oriented and owns horses, too.
She did a 'soundness exam' for me on a gelding once. He would drag his back foot about every 4th step.
Her diagnosis was he had a 'hitch in his giddyup' (her words, I swear) and for me to exercise him on a hill, going downhill. It caused him to sort of scrunch up his back legs and use muscles he hadn't had to on flat ground.
I'm probably wayyy oversimplifying it, but...it worked...he stopped dragging his hind feet.

 

[banderanch]

These horses are funny aren't they...to say the least. Did I mention he's also spoiled rotten! Thinks he's a dog half the time and has the run around our property and walks right up and across our patio and looks in the windows. So I already thought that, about not wanting to do his work.

About the hill thing...how long and how many times did you do this? Now I have to find a hill???? Very, very interrrresting!

 

[Roll farms]

I worked him every day for a while. I live on a big hill so it wasn't a huge problem for us to find one.

I started him out walking down a few times, then we'd trot.
It was probably a couple weeks of working every day before we saw real results. Then I went to 2x a week, then 1x a week.

Once the tendons are stretched out / working ok, and if the horse is exercised often enough, she said they'd stay ok.
Her impression was his lack of exercise previously had caused the issue.

Once I started riding him after that, I found out he was insane under saddle...but that's another story....we sold him in the fall. When the buyer's vet came to do a soundness exam, he wasn't dragging his feet any more.