Pedigree Query

This is hard to explain but maybe someone has seen this. WE have a yearling who on occasion has been seen with his right hind completley locked behind him from stifle down (picture a horse stretching his hind leg straight back and it staying there) when he tries to pull it forward while walking it doesnt move. He works out of it after being turned out. Any ideas? Someone mentioned stringhalt but it is locked back and does not appear as normal stringhalt symptoms.

My colt had been doing that quite a bit, it is locking stifles. He only did it in mornings and was fine after being turned out. I was told have him out as much as possible. Vet was not too concerned at this point as my colt had done quite a bit of growing in a short time and he felt he would grow out of it. He had been doing it fairly regularly up until January. Since he has been back from being broke I have only seen him do it once. Also had a gelding who did this very severely and we were told to work him up hills as much as possible (he was 4) to strenghten his hind end. Once he was in regular work and doing trotting poles and such, he did come out of it also. He too was quite large, 17 hands at 3 years old.

I once had a pony whose stifle would lock periodically; he was also a yearling. My vet said he would most likely grow out of it and recommended we start exercising him regularly to strengthen his muscles. That helped a lot.

I also have a pony and he used to lock one of his stifles when he was young. No one seemed concerned with it and he outgrew it by the time he was 4 or 5. Very similar to what you described in term of when and how.

Generally that will be a muslce-tone issue. If the horse is too young to ride, try some in-hand work, especially moving laterally. If you can come up with some cavaletti (ground poles) for him to step over, that is all the better.

Hill work helps, too.

Good luck.

In bad cases a little surgery is done... I have seen people do an internal blister on stifles and it has worked. I don't understand the reasoning behind it, but it did seem to work...

I had one horse with a stifle after hitting the rail at Philly Park. I sent him to Jim Orsini at New Bolton and he often writes in the Blood Horse and is very prominent. He told me the stifle is always a problem because it is difficult to be treated locally. For example, a knee is right there, you can treat it. A stifle is down deep.

I've actually seen a horse with that same problem, but I don't know what they did with him, it was in MD. My horse I retired, he's doing other things and ok, but we just couldn't get that problem solved for racing.

Just for your information, locking stifles can be a sign, and sometimes the only sign, of EPM, early in the disease. Mary

We had a gelding who had the locking stifles, Our vet had us wait to see if it got any better but about 90 days before he went to training he had the stifle surgery.. Our vet is cheap and If I remember right it was around 300.00.. He went on to race until 5 and was retired sound and now is an event horse for one of the best riders in the u.s.