LAMENESS
How do I investigate when my horse just “doesn’t feel right”?
Q: I’m worried about how my 16-year-old gelding is moving. He doesn’t look or feel lame, but his stride seems to have gotten increasingly shorter over the past year and he’s reluctant to move off my leg.
My veterinarian says he doesn’t see anything obviously wrong, but we haven’t done any radiographs or deeper diagnostics. My horse doesn’t compete or have to be a tremendous athlete; we just go out on the trail and do very small, local hunter shows. I don’t want to spend thousands of dollars on diagnostics. Yet I don’t want to keep riding him if he’s in pain. Where do we even start investigating and/or treating a vague “doesn’t feel right” sort of problem?
A: Thanks for asking this question—it is not as unusual as you might think. Having spent most of my career in the performance sector of the horse industry, I can confirm that many lameness assessments revolve around vague issues similar to those you are describing. That means there are veterinarians who specialize in specifically in this type of evaluation. But if you don’t have such an expert readily available, you can do a bit of investigating on your own. Here’s how:
Start by spending 30 minutes a day working your horse in an area where the
