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  Discussion on Stifle lock
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New Member:
Antlog

Posted on Monday, Feb 14, 2005 - 5:36 am:

Hi my name is sarah
I have a 17 yr old 15.3hh thoroughbred which i have had for eighteen months coming out of winter he was in poor condition but i built him up and he now has a considerable amount of weight and muscle and looks a different horse compared to when i first got him .
however before christmas i was at a pony club gymkana and he came up slightly lame in the show jumping and his back became extremly sensitive especially in the area just in front of his loins,a few days later we got a local horse chiropracter to come have a look at him ,the chiropracter picked up on a back injury which had probably been there for a number of years he also showed me how because of his back injury his right buttock was weaker than the left and that his neck was developed in the wrong place (speenius?),after the chiropracter had been my horse seemed to feel much more free in his movement but he started lifting up his back left leg and moving it in an outwards arc in stead of using it normally while he was doing this i called the chiropracter and asked if i should worry the chiropracter said that he was most likely just streching as he would be using himself differently now that his back was better The said to give it a week and that he would come out again if the horse was still moving akwardly but by then end of the week the lameness was gone everthing was fine until two weeks ago when we had our pony club camp over3 days we did a alot of hill work which he finds difficult and by the end of camp he was mving his leg in the same way but not continuosly only a handful of times on the last day .the day after this we had a showjumping competiton and he was fine for the first part of the day when iwas warming up except for stopping at a few jumps which is really unusaul for him but he lost confidence the weekend before when he slid into a jump so i thought it was just him lacking cofidence we did our first round which he stopped in then i warmed him down and tied him up while i got luunch i hopped on about 30ins later and as i started trotting he came up really lame on the same back leg and was hanging it in the air and moving it in an arc again
so we took him home and his back was really sensitive again and th chiropracter came the next day he put his back in 3 places and adjusted one front leg i rested hm for three days and he was fine no leg arcing or lameness but then 3 days ago i went to have a dressage lesson and his leg did the straightening and arc movements worse than before but not continuosly the instructor mentioned that he probably has stifle lock and over the past day or two i have been reading up on it and surfing the web and it seems he has upf looking back over the past few weeks i have done everyything possible to aggrevate the condition which makes me feel really mean! i have just started to establish working paces so he is more collected than ever before and have been doing a lot of 20m cirlces ,hill workjumping and and ihave just learnt about turns on the forehand ,
to sum up i am wondering if there can be any relation between stifle lock and back injuries?
our is it more likely that both are due to my increased demands on an older horse?
i am unsure on what do next as i have rested him for the last 2 days and the supposed upf seems to be more frequent and worse than ever before ,but maybe im just looking for it ?
your advice will be very much appreciated
thanks
sarah}}
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Monday, Feb 14, 2005 - 7:01 am:

Stifle lock is not found as a complication of back pain in any of the studies I have seen or my experience. You need a good lameness exam by a experienced equine veterinarian to sort out all of these issues.
DrO
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