My 9 yr old gelding has started ducking barrels suddenly. What has been the reason horses have done this for others and how did you fix it?
Ditto to response above. If a horse starts doing something suddenly and out of character, I would go to a performance vet for a lameness eval. A lot of times, something is hurting and the only way the horse knows to "get out of it" is to avoid their job.
Mine have always had a vet issue when this happens. Sometimes it's as simple as injections. It has also been a torn suspensory in one case and pedal osteitis in another. I truely believe good horses don't just stop working for no reason..
My bet would be bleeding. I didn't want to believe it with mine and wasted a whole season trying to fix it with training and riding. A few ccs of Lasix fixed it right away.
Bleeding, hocks, stifles, kissing spine can all do it. 99.9% of the time, I would say 100% but theres always gonna be one weirdo that doesn't fit, its because they hurt. Figure out where and go from there