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 BHW New Catch of the Day
Posts: 9884
    
Location: Missouri | My mare has always been a tripper. You can be walking along and she'll trip. You can be loping circles and she'll trip. She's tripped since she was young but she never has tripped while running until recently and she stumbles alot at the 1st barrel.
Last night, my daughter who has taken her over couldn't get her to pick up her right lead. I watched her and she didn't look off. So I got on and the 1st time she didn't, but the 2nd time I asked her she did and she didn't feel off. She went ahead and ran a set on her and she stumbled at the 1st, the first time, but didn't the 2nd time.
Last year I had her vet checked and she passed the soundness check. Something for sure is going on though. I haven't had a chiro look at her yet and I'm thinking this might be my next move. |
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 Too Skinny
Posts: 8009
Location: LA Lower Alabama | Stifles? Is she dumping onto her front end when she is setting up for the turns?
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BHW New Catch of the Day
Posts: 9884
Location: Missouri | cowgalsissy - 2018-01-25 9:33 AM Stifles? Is she dumping onto her front end when she is setting up for the turns?
Maybe a little at the 1st, but she's spot on at the 2nd and 3rd. |
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Too Skinny
Posts: 8009
Location: LA Lower Alabama | Tbred - 2018-01-25 9:38 AM cowgalsissy - 2018-01-25 9:33 AM Stifles? Is she dumping onto her front end when she is setting up for the turns?
Maybe a little at the 1st, but she's spot on at the 2nd and 3rd.
She may be trying to get off the rear which is making her front end heavier and dragging enough to cause the tripping. May not be anything more than poor conformation but I would suspect something is off. |
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 Hummer's Hero
Posts: 3071
Location: Smack Dab in the Middle | One of the biggest hindsight symptoms of my EPM horse was tripping. Like, stubbing her toe in her turns--most frequently it was the 3rd. She short stepped sometimes, and very occasionally acted tenderfooted or would struggle picking up a lead now and then, but she was never lame until it BLEW UP and she could barely walk and almost died.
Edited by RockinGR 2018-01-25 10:22 AM
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BHW New Catch of the Day
Posts: 9884
Location: Missouri | RockinGR - 2018-01-25 10:20 AM One of the biggest hindsight symptoms of my EPM horse was tripping. Like, stubbing her toe in her turns--most frequently it was the 3rd. She short stepped sometimes, and very occasionally acted tenderfooted or would struggle picking up a lead now and then, but she was never lame until it BLEW UP and she could barely walk and almost died.
Yes, I had a horse 25 years ago before EPM became well known who died before anyone knew what it was. She had issues going right, but was a hunter/jumper not a barrel horse. Then 1 day she could only walk in circles.
I'm not sure this mare has it, just due to the fact that she's 13yrs old now and has been tripping since she was started under saddle. But has only been doing it at the 1st barrel recently, and not 100% of the time. I'm mention it to the vet though, wouldn't hurt to rule it out. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 678
Location: Canada | Id consider having her back or neck xrayed. I had a friend have a horse that was like that and she had a spinal injury. Depending on the level of inflammation she was experiencing it would affect how she could feel her feet and how she was placing them.
She's a broodmare now. |
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 Born not Made
Posts: 2937
Location: North Dakota | I would say to look at her front feet.
If you can even take a video on flat smooth ground, and then replay in slow motion
-- is she landing heel first?
Flat footed?
Toe first?
Horses that land toe first are at great risk for tripping.
How's her trim job? Can you post pictures of her feet?
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BHW New Catch of the Day
Posts: 9884
Location: Missouri | r_beau - 2018-01-25 11:36 AM I would say to look at her front feet.
If you can even take a video on flat smooth ground, and then replay in slow motion
-- is she landing heel first?
Flat footed?
Toe first?
Horses that land toe first are at great risk for tripping.
How's her trim job? Can you post pictures of her feet?
She's due for a trim this month. I'll see about getting pics after that. Right now she's going to look long in the toe. |
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Expert
Posts: 3514
| Early signs of EPM |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 534
Location: Ohio girl moved to PA | Maybe something going on in her shoulders? Ive never personally had this problem but i know when my friends mare starts tripping she has her massaged and is normally tight somewhere. |
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 A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | I would rule out EMP first. Do you have shoes on her? If so I would maybe try her without shoes for a while, I have one that would always trip over himself, so had the shoes taken off pulled his toes back a bit, this helped alot.  |
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 The best bad guy on the internet
Posts: 3519
Location: Arizona | I would get with your farrier first. Is she barefoot, if so maybe adding shoes will help her. If she has shoes then maybe you need to change them up, take more toe off, put a lighter shoe on...etc.... |
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Regular
Posts: 57
| Check her knees (especially her right knee).... |
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  Neat Freak
Posts: 11216
Location: Wonderful Wyoming | Bewitching Racer - 2018-01-25 2:28 PM Check her knees (especially her right knee)....
Lots of good advice and reasons for tripping but I first thought of the knees too. My old guy is going to be 25 in May. He started to stumble more and more in his teens and is now in such great shape except those beat up knees. He has a big knot on one. I wish I had caught it earlier when he was in his teens and been more proactive about them. We don't even let my young son on him in the corral to plod around because I am afraid he will go down one of these days. We trim him a little different to make him have a better break over. It has helped a lot. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 898
Location: Mountains of VA | Left stifle, that is where I would start.........problems with right lead and turning right. Also long toes in front but left stifle comes to mind first. |
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Expert
Posts: 2122
Location: The Great Northwest | I suggest a Chiropractor to check over the horse. |
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BHW New Catch of the Day
Posts: 9884
Location: Missouri | Vet is coming Thursday. Going to look at stifle and test for EPM. Sunday, this past weekend, my daughter was just trotting circles and mare went down in front to her knees, rolled over on her side and slowly got up. I'm starting to freak! |
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Location: Not Where I Want to Be | Tbred - 2018-01-30 1:03 PM Vet is coming Thursday. Going to look at stifle and test for EPM. Sunday, this past weekend, my daughter was just trotting circles and mare went down in front to her knees, rolled over on her side and slowly got up. I'm starting to freak!
if you're starting to freak, why are you waiting until thursday to have the vet look at her?
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Veteran
Posts: 160
Location: Texas | You might take a good look at her feet. She may be sitting too much on her heels and need to have some toes taken off. When I got my new horse he was tripping and that was what I noticed first and my farrier did also. It took more than one time trimming but he is not doing that tripping anymore. Check and see if she is sitting on her heels. |
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A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | Tbred - 2018-01-30 12:03 PM
Vet is coming Thursday. Going to look at stifle and test for EPM. Sunday, this past weekend, my daughter was just trotting circles and mare went down in front to her knees, rolled over on her side and slowly got up. I'm starting to freak!
I hope that y'all stay off of her untill you get this all figured out. |
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BHW New Catch of the Day
Posts: 9884
Location: Missouri | 1DSoon - 2018-01-30 12:10 PM Tbred - 2018-01-30 1:03 PM Vet is coming Thursday. Going to look at stifle and test for EPM. Sunday, this past weekend, my daughter was just trotting circles and mare went down in front to her knees, rolled over on her side and slowly got up. I'm starting to freak! if you're starting to freak, why are you waiting until thursday to have the vet look at her?
I'm freaking because she is the 1st colt I ever raised, she's my baby, and I'd hate to think her career is over. Not because I believe she's going to die.
Edited by Tbred 2018-02-21 2:41 PM
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Too Skinny
Posts: 8009
Location: LA Lower Alabama | Southtxponygirl - 2018-01-30 12:22 PM Tbred - 2018-01-30 12:03 PM Vet is coming Thursday. Going to look at stifle and test for EPM. Sunday, this past weekend, my daughter was just trotting circles and mare went down in front to her knees, rolled over on her side and slowly got up. I'm starting to freak! I hope that y'all stay off of her untill you get this all figured out.
I agree it sounds like it is getting worse and flipping forward is one of those hard to get out of the saddle roller coaster rides |
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A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | cowgalsissy - 2018-01-30 1:16 PM
Southtxponygirl - 2018-01-30 12:22 PM Tbred - 2018-01-30 12:03 PM Vet is coming Thursday. Going to look at stifle and test for EPM. Sunday, this past weekend, my daughter was just trotting circles and mare went down in front to her knees, rolled over on her side and slowly got up. I'm starting to freak! I hope that y'all stay off of her untill you get this all figured out.
Just scary because someone can end up having a head injury with a horse that stumbles alot.. |
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A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | OP do you have any pictures of your mare? How does she carry herself, does she have any head tilt? |
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BHW New Catch of the Day
Posts: 9884
Location: Missouri | Southtxponygirl - 2018-01-30 1:31 PM OP do you have any pictures of your mare? How does she carry herself, does she have any head tilt?
No head tilt. She doesn't feel off when you ride, and when she lopes on her right lead it doesn't feel off either. She'll pick up the right lead if your persistent. No swelling in her legs at all. It's just bizzare. Like I said earlier, she's always been a tripper, mostly laziness and doesn't pick up her feet at home when doing boring stuff like trotting and loping circles. The cause for alarm was her recent stumbling at the first on more than one occassion, and last week, not wanting to pick up her right lead. Otherwise she has never taken a wrong step when running. She's got alot of heart, she's a gritty little ratey turny mare. Never been more than 2D at her best locally.
Hopefully the vet can pin point the issue and we can get to the business of treating it and getting her back to normal. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 672
| How old is she? Just throwing this out there, my dad had a gelding that was always a tripper since he was started as a colt, nothing too bad, we always said he just was lazy and wasn’t watching his feet because when going after a cow or booking it across the pasture he never tripped. As he got older he got worse, quit picking up one of his leads, was on and off ouchy, etc. He had regular teeth/chiro/massage done. He was routinely checked by the two top lameness vets in this area and both were never able to really find anything.
They thought navicular, but he never had any navicular changes, but tried treating/shoeing for it anyway, that didn’t help.
He ended up having him x-rayed and shod at the vet every 6 weeks to make sure his angles were good. He was off and on sound then started getting really ouchy on his front feet and again xrays and blocking never revealed anything. They tried bar shoes, pads, boots, everything, but he ended up foundering on his fronts and had to be put down at 14 years old. This is just the cliff notes, but I know the vets were never able to find what was causing the issues. I think they worked on him for about 2 years and whatever it was just kept getting worse.
Edited by veintiocho 2018-01-30 2:29 PM
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BHW New Catch of the Day
Posts: 9884
Location: Missouri | veintiocho - 2018-01-30 2:28 PM How old is she? Just throwing this out there, my dad had a gelding that was always a tripper since he was started as a colt, nothing too bad, we always said he just was lazy and wasn’t watching his feet because when going after a cow or booking it across the pasture he never tripped. As he got older he got worse, quit picking up one of his leads, was on and off ouchy, etc. He had regular teeth/chiro/massage done. He was routinely checked by the two top lameness vets in this area and both were never able to really find anything. They thought navicular, but he never had any navicular changes, but tried treating/shoeing for it anyway, that didn’t help. He ended up having him x-rayed and shod at the vet every 6 weeks to make sure his angles were good. He was off and on sound then started getting really ouchy on his front feet and again xrays and blocking never revealed anything. They tried bar shoes, pads, boots, everything, but he ended up foundering on his fronts and had to be put down at 14 years old. This is just the cliff notes, but I know the vets were never able to find what was causing the issues. I think they worked on him for about 2 years and whatever it was just kept getting worse.
14 this year. |
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 Not Afraid to Work
Posts: 4717
| I would agree with feet. To be honest probably one of the easiest to manage once you find a good farrier. My gelding is clumsy by nature, just kind of a baby hewey type but if his angles are wrong, he stumbles. If he is long in the top he stumbles more. |
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 Popped
Posts: 20421
Location: LuluLand~along I64 Indiana | hoping you get good news today. |
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Location: in the ozone | Feet could be off, although I doubt they would be off her whole life. EPM and Lymes can cause weird issues, but again - wouldn't be logical for her to have either of those her whole life either. Another thing I would consider is PSSM - if tested for type 1 & n/n, consider testing for variants of type 2. Tripping is a sign of it, along with soreness, difficulty taking leads, off & on lameness that is hard to pinpoint, etc |
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 My Heart Be Happy
Posts: 9159
Location: Arkansas | Update?? |
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Boot Detective
Posts: 1900
| The tripping could easily be due to her toes too long, sore feet, (thrush or white line disease), EPM. Avoiding loping in the right lead would make me suspect a sore RF foot or lameness on the left hind. Most of the time if you trot a tight circle and get a head bob going on direction it is the front foot on that side. If they trot sound but head bob loping circles it is the opposite hind leg that has the lameness. EX: loping circles to the right and head bobbing would indicate the left hind leg/hindquarter has a lameness issue. Let us know what the vet says. |
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A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | Bumping this up..  |
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Go Get Em!
Posts: 13503
Location: OH. IO | bump ;) |
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BHW New Catch of the Day
Posts: 9884
Location: Missouri | Mare 76% SarcoFluor positive so we will be starting EPM treatment. She passed her neurological exam and soundness exam but we still did a blood draw and I'm glad we did. |
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The best bad guy on the internet
Posts: 3519
Location: Arizona | So she tested positive for EPM? |
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BHW New Catch of the Day
Posts: 9884
Location: Missouri | LIVE2RUN - 2018-02-21 2:45 PM So she tested positive for EPM?
Yes she did. I'm hoping after treatment she can get back to the 2D where she used to be too. She slowed down the past 2 years and we've played heck trying to figure out why. |
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Where does she hurt?