Last year in July my gelding abruptly stopped turning his second Barrel which was our right Barrel. I ended up treating him for ulcers and he seemed fine although we only made one run after treatment. Then this spring he just seemed off he was kind of going wide and starting to refuse going in the gate and he also stopped on the backside of our second Barrel which is the right Barrel. So I started him back on ulcer treatment. he has been on treatment for 3 weeks and I took him to a race he refused going in the gate but he had a beautiful first Barrel beautiful second barrel and going into our third he abruptly stopped and felt like he was panicking felt like he was going to explode and flip over and just absolutely refused to go in the direction of the right once he calm down I was able to get him to Lope on the last barrel and lope home. the night before we were loping circles and he was getting really goofy going to the right but after I took him loping to the left he seemed to calm down and I was able to get him to go to the right. I thought it was ulcers but now I am kind of stumped. he gets adjusted regularly. he was seen by a lameness vet. have any of you had this happen and what did you do. I feel like he could be a bleeder. He is normally so willing and enjoys his job and this year I've been asking more of him. 

Personally I would get him to a vet as soon as possible. It could be anything-kissing spines, EPM,  anything. 

Yup^^ Vet ASAP. You don't want to create a bad habit, best to find out what it is now rather than later when more damage is done. 

GET VET!  Just rode a horse did the same thing...vet xrayed back he has kissing spine...this horse is so kind, could go slow, lope trot but when asked to turn at a run physically could NOT...listen to your horse.  Eliminate all possible injury...

He has been to two lameness vet. He gets Chiropractic done regularly his teeth done regularly his saddle fits it started last year and I thought it got better when I treated him for ulcers but we also took the winter off. And this year he started out fine but then started to refuse the gate and then stopped on the backside of the barrel I wonder if he is a bleeder when everything calms down in Minneapolis I plan to take him down there to have another vet look him over. The other day when we went for a ride he didn't even want to lope to the right. The chiropractor is coming out in two days.

I hope it is not kissing spine. Did the horse that you rode ever return back to work? The vet never really looked into his spine just mainly lower limbs

Vets are not all the same.  Even with 2 of them.  Where are you located?  

It could be so many things.   Draw blood and test for EPM, PSSM, etc. 

Vets needs to check whole body, not just legs. 

I'd discuss KS, sounds like my mare. She wasn't running the pattern yet but doing certain things she'd all the sudden just stop & get frazzled randomly. And refused to lope to the right. he passed multiple lameness evals with flying colors too 

I'm in  northern Minnesota. My gut is telling me he's a bleeder. The vets just seem to want to listen. I'm my horses voice. No one knows your horse like you do. He's going to get some time off and then get a full evaluation from the vet. Chiropractor is coming tomorrow.

Which vets did you use if you don't mind me asking? No offense at all, but I'm very familiar with the vets in MN/WI and there are very few I would take my horse to to have a full lameness eval. The U of M would be a great if you decide to really get into what's going on. 

I'm treating one now for EPM that would not go to the left.  He didn't get ugly about it.  He just couldn't do it. Like he hit a wall.

He is finally going left with no issues.  I did test him for EPM.  He definately has it.  Took about 7 weeks of meds before he started really

improving.

Try pulling your saddle back off his withers and shoulder blades.  I believe when we really can't find a lameness issue, it's the saddle.  Their backs change.  You may need to add more pad, pull the saddle back another inch or two or add a little pad to the back 2/3 of the saddle to free up his shoulders.  JMO 

I have no idea who or what vets are good in N. MN.   But, there is a good vet here in Central Iowa at Ankeny, who used to work for Iowa State (Dr. Scott McClure)  and Dr. Brunk in Nebraska (Lots farther for you).  Both are strictly horse vets.  Might be worth a drive for sure!  

I've had several people speak highly of Anoka's clinic - have you tried them?

How did you test? Bloodwork?

Yes! Dr. Tracy Turner. He did the navicular surgery on my mare and has treated many of my other horses. 

I used to have a gelding that would do this. He wouldn't refuse to go into the gate, but he would refuse to take off. If you got him going then he'd go to a dead stop on the 1st barrel, if he didn't do it on the first then he'd stop on the 2nd. If you got him past all 3 he would do you the pleasure of trying to run you into the fence when you were turning off after the timer. He was on and off, there were days where he would run a pattern, I even pulled a check on him once for pole bending but it was a hit or miss. He had seen vet after vet, I gave him a year off in between just to see if it would make a difference. Worked cows on him (which he wasn't much of a fan) but he was a phenomenal trail horse. I just concluded that he just was a jerk and really didn't want to run barrels anymore. 

I'd either take this guy back to the vet or maybe give him some time off to do something else. You said you are expecting more from him, maybe he is folding under the pressure?

I've taken him to stillwater equine with Jon engstrom. He injected the hock. And i took him to anoka equine to Dave swimghamer. Its not his tack . Ive covered ALL the basic bases. I took him to a new vet who specializes in performance horses and she noticed right away he was lame hind right. Got the si injection and stifles injected. He felt much better for picking his feet but he still wont lope to the right in a large circle. But he will lope willingly to the left. Ive already been in contact with the vet. Im demanded spine xrays to rule out ks. Also going to start epm treatment. Its not even just loping the barrels to the right that he has an issue , its loping to the right period. Hes a very willing horse who knows his job. He does the first barrel beautifully and commits to the second or sometimes third but physically cannot turn it on the back side. The vet said his bsck palpated good thats why we didn't look into it more, but now that it seems everything is pointing to that I'm going to get some xrays of spine and hopefully answers. 

he has already had time off. 9 months then 2 months and its made no difference. Hes actually worse cuz now he wont lope a circke to the right

did you do surgery for ks? Or just injected? Is your horse back to 100% if you can tag a video id like to see what your horse was doing! 

Get this poor horse checked for KS, if nothing there then start at poll and work all the way down his spine to the tail head.

Mine I posted above about also palpated fine, passed a lameness exam no problem. Refused to lope right, got worse with time. No pain killers made her better either, they still don't. My friend that does her PEMF just happened to have a thermal attachment for her phone for imaging. White hot spot on her spine just behind withers, took it with to Langer at WEC and we xrayed that spot. There was KS and old fractures there. That was October, still working on her now. Injected 4 of the spinal processes in May and just did her SI Friday from what we assume in compensation soreness. If your horse does have KS then be prepared for a long never ending road of maintenance, even after surgery. If I can get mine on the pattern I will most likely only run her long enough to determine if she's worth breeding or not & be done 

Have you looked into PSSM - more likely than not, PSSM2 being it's started later, vs when horse was first broke out, ridden, etc.  Since the vets are not finding anything "physically" limiting his movement, I would sure look into that.  University of MN is doing a study right now, wanting horses with symptoms and a control horse w/no symptoms. If you ask your vet about PSSM2, chances are they are going to say only way to diagnose is muscle biopsy but unless horse has been tying up, it probably won't show anything.  A company called Equiseq DOES do the dna via hair follicles - some dispute their testing since they are not "Peer Reviewed" yet, but that is in the process and will be proven once U of MN's study is done.  OR you could start "treating" him like a PSSM2 horse and see if any of the chances helped at all.