Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

To expand on Dr. Faletti's comment.  Tripping could be from pain, functional interference and/or lack of knowledge of where the feet are.

 

'Pain' covers not only things that actually hurt, but also neurological inputs that overload others so that the body cannot coordinate itself.  In this category tooth problems can be included.  When you grab your horse's lower jaw and push side to side (with the mouth closed) it should move freely enough for the biting surface of the corner tooth on each side to be completely visible from the top.  Pain also includes sore feet and saddle discomfort.  For the body to be coordinated neurological messages have to travel between all the legs.  Pain and discomfort are like static on the phone lines.

 

'Functional interference' could be long toes or a saddle that is tight behind the shoulders.  For a horse to make a normal step, the top of the shoulder blade must rotate backward about an axis somewhere in the top half.  On some of our horses the top edge of the shoulder blade moves backwards as much as five inches.  The skin under the point of the front fork is thus no longer behind the shoulder blade, but on top of it    I have seen this point on the skin move to the side as much as 1.5 inches.  In a horse such as this, half of the difference can be accommodated by a Supracor pad; they go instantly from 3/4 inches thick to zero.  The other half is accommodated by the soft padding in the front of the English saddle and some saddle movement.  The failure of Western saddles to allow this important shoulder blade movement is associated with short shuffling gaits.  Horses suffering from this restriction are reluctant to extend the legs forward and can have bruising on the cartilage at the top of the shoulder blade.

 

'Lack of foot knowledge':  Knowledge of where the feet are is called proprioception.   Problems in this area often descend from the problems above.  Chiropractic problems can create 'low bandwidth' restricting the information coming into the central nervous system.  EPM usually affects the hind feet first.  Linda Tellington-Jones gives specific exercises to improve proprioception.

 

In short, stumbling can be from a lot of sources but most are fixable.  Certainly consult your chiropractor as well as your veterinarian and reevaluate feet and saddle fit.

 

Quentin