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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 614
 
| Any thoughts about a horse that cross fires in back on the right lead but not the left lead. The confusing part the horse has been vet checked by two different vets and both say that his left hind is worse than the right hind. I would think the horse would cross fire worse on the left lead. Vets aren't sure why. |
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 Coyote Country Queen
Posts: 5666
 
| I have one that was drop her lead in the back when loping in the left lead. I fought her for awhile trying to keep her up because I assumed it was a strength/balance issue since she was still young without many rides. Wasn't making any progress there, so I quit fighting her so she could figure it out on her own. She would drop the lead, kind of stutter step, and pick it back up. The issue pretty much resolved itself, but then a new one came up. She would randomly kick out almost always while in the left lead. Gave her a little time to see if we could work through it, and when it didn't resolve had her vetted. She had a small spur on her right hock. So left lead issue, sore in right hock - just the opposite of your horse if I read that correctly. Did you get any xrays? We injected our mare. Haven't been able to ride much since the injections, but it appears that her issue has been resolved. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 614
| We haven't done x rays yet but did inject him and it improved. After reading yours Jenbabe it makes me think it is the inside leg not the push off leg that is the problem. I actually have wondered about that. Does that make sense? I am debating on whether to reverse the horse, left barrel is first right now, because I thought the pivot leg was the worse. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 589
| My gelding would do that and I just thought it was his hocks& stifles bothering him. Had his SI injected and he was fine after that. |
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 IMA No Hair Style Gal
Posts: 2594
| Have x-rays been done? We have a horse that crossfired on his left leg when circling right.
The horse is young and was only 4 at the time we started to try to fix some of these things. He was a $500 horse in very poor condition, but was bred well....and I felt as if he was a diamond in the rough, so we got him.
To start we went least restrictive route, as we felt if he needed injections at such a young age he would make someone a trail horse, but not a barrel horse. We did a flex test, but what showed up was very minor. We opted to start with a supplement that had great reviews (Equithrive, I talk about it a lot because it did so much and uses a newer technology called Resveratrol the "healing" ingredient in red wine). This worked for about a year. However, the more pressure we put on this horse the more resistance he had, and then he started crossfiring again. The straw that broke the camels back was when I was exhibitioning him-we were circling to the right-he was moving forward easily, and about 4 strides to the first barrel he stopped put his head down throwing me forward, and then reared up twice-so high that he almost fell back. Thankfully, I managed to get out of the saddle and bale as he was going up the second time.
We talked to our vet again-and at this point we were thinking that his body was not made to be a barrel horse because we would be injecting at such a young age, and injecting was not something we personally wanted to do, and selling a young horse that needs injections is quite frankly a turn off for most people. As a last ditch effort we contacted Park Equine Hopsital in Lexington to see if there was anything new out there that could be done for this horse.
There was and is....so turns out the formal diagnosis is that our horse has/had OCD in his stifle. He had a spot that was less dense and causing him to crossfire on his left side. We were told about a simple surgery where they place a screw in the spot that is less dense and the screw promotes bone growth. Here is a link to more information on this topic. http://instrideedition.com/2015/05/stifle-cysts/ This is a newer surgery, and actually was under study a year ago.
For $1,500 we opted to do the surgery. Turns out it was the right choice. He got 1 month of stall rest, 1 month of hand walking, 1 month of full turn out, and as of last month he is now fully riding and making some very nice moves. We have had no issue with the cross firing, and no longer need to give a supplement or inject.
Anyways, below is a picture of his leg 60 days after the surgery. The bone has filled in around the screw. I need to get a before x-ray from my vet so you call can see the difference! We were told that the little "lip" that had formed may cause some issues, due to his age we had a 75% chance of this surgery working. The younger the horse the more successful. However, it has not caused any issues for us at all. At the time of surgery Hank was 6-so this has been a process. My advice would be to get a formal diagnosis through x-rays and read up on the treatments available. Some of these things the sooner they are fixed the better your odds are.
Edited by magic gunsmoke 2017-01-02 10:07 AM
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 614
| Thanks everybody. |
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Coyote Country Queen
Posts: 5666
| My suggestion is to get X-rays so you know for sure what is going on. Even if you change directions, there will still be an issue that needs to be resolved or managed. Go to a good lameness vet that sees this type of stuff daily. They can help pinpoint the area and then focus on that area to get you an accurate diagnosis. There are so many possibilities of what could be going on, and I think you're going at this blindly until you take a deeper look with some xrays. |
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  Ms. Marine
Posts: 4641
Location: Texas | Get him checked out by a chiro. |
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 Take a Picture
Posts: 12842
| If a horse is off on the left, it compensate with the right |
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Veteran
Posts: 242
| My 4 yr old is at the trainer & she was cross firing. Was EPM. Started back riding after a month & was just off a little. Her stifle had a little fluid think it was from compensating. Doing well now. Hope you figure it out. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 614
| Thanks again everybody. I appreciate you taking the time to respond. X-rays are scheduled.
Edited by Dirt Dobber 2017-01-02 3:43 PM
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