Horses usually pick this up very quickly if you first show them how to do it unmounted. A sound horse should step in or past his front hoof print with his hind foot. The leg looks 'locked' and the horse may have to kick out or move oddly to unlock his leg. In severe cases, the horse will be unable to flex the affected hind leg and may even drag it behind him. a couple of weeks before xmas , my instructor noticed after about 20 … 7 January 2009 #1. Various techniques have been developed. What can you do to address the problem and how should you go about it? CASE STUDY: SHORTENED STRIDE FROM HIND LEG. I was going to start walking him over ground poles. In the end, what will help you figure out the vast majority of hind end lameness is to stand behind the horse. Assessing and Treating Lameness in Your Horse Importance of never ignoring signs of lameness. • If all feet are hurt, the horse will move with a short ungainly stride and keep his head up at all times. To begin with, stand with your horse facing you. LESS PUSH FROM HIND LEG. My horse is short behind! A horse should have well-formed withers where the shoulder can attach to the rest of the body. • A horse may drag the toe of the hurt foot. There's nothing wrong with your horse! After comparing left to right in both the front and back, compare the diagonal legs. If forced to do so, a horse not using the vertebral column properly will deeply engage the hind leg underneath himself furthering the forward rotation of the femur around the hip joint. Thread starter MeganLindsx; Start date 11 December 2011; 11 December 2011 #1. In any case, a veterinarian will need to examine your horse and manipulate its stifle joint to see if she can manually induce the unlocking mechanism. To introduce the concept of moving the hind feet in response to pressure from a single leg, teach your horse the turn on the forehand.

A horse with a problem will often distribute more weight to the diagonal front or back leg. Over reaching is where the hind hoof hits the BACK of the front foot, and can pull off shoes or cause nasty heel bulb injuries. In these cases, a locking stifle is hard to miss. Also, my friends have told me that his ankles are set back and I should get him some boots, but I am not sure which ones to get. In this exercise, he’ll step sideways with his hind legs, pivoting his body around his forelegs. Then watch the points of the hips and ONLY THE POINTS OF THE HIPS. • In cases of hind leg lameness, the horse will … Joined 11 September 2008 Messages 34. hi i was just wondering whether any one could know whats wrong with my mare? My horse is on a buy trial with a lovely couple. Hi All, This forum was recommended to me as I have 3 (very short) video's of my horse who occasionally does this little collapse behind.