can horses fake lameness?

[Dannyo]

I used to do a lot of breaking and training and I will go ahead and agree with everyone else that they will fake it sometimes. There is a couple simple suggestions that did help with a few of the lazy horses I worked with:

1. When you put the saddle on don't cinch it up right away let the horse walk a while so that the hair and tack settle to a comfortable place, before tightening up for your work out.

2. If you are riding only in an arena try to change the scenery, take her on a trail or in the open pasture, see if she still limps.

3. Make sure your farrier sees her gate both with and with out rider. The Farrier's job is to keep the entire boney column in alignment from hoof to back. And maybe able to address soreness more accurately than a vet.

Good luck! I wish I was still riding.

 

[TheDuckCrew]

thanks! normally i don't put the cinch all the way up right away because she gets mad, so i do it very slowly and let her walk around and get comfortable with it, and then take it up a little more. she doesn't get as mad anymore. i did take her out on a trail the other day and she was limping just like she does in the arena. her owner took her out and she was limping, she also kicked another horse in the chest which she has never done before!

 

[babalubird]

I had one fake stumbling, so maybe...I don't know but it makes me smile. Per someone's good suggestion, I set my frame and hands that whenever he stumbled, he bumped himself a good one right in the mouth--I didn't! He quit stumbling in a matter of a few days.

I think horses are much smarter than we give them credit for.

 

[Akane]

While it's possible there are also a ton of possible causes for only being lame under saddle. Some of which have been mentioned. My most difficult one was a mare with navicular. Navicular can come on slowly and gets worse after work or with increased weight on the horse. Then it may go away after the horse is turned out for awhile. The mare seemed to just be lazy and not want to move out. In the pasture she'd run around with the rest. She never clearly limped because she was evenly lame on both sides so she just walked slowly to avoid the pain and refused to do work. Every spring she'd be worse than she was last summer. Over and over again the vet said she was fine. Eventually though a spring came where she just would not do anything. Finally after another round of xrays we saw the problem. Xrays also don't always show the start of mild navicular. That year was her last. She went downhill fast and despite injections into her legs, corrective shoeing, and everything else we could think of she was unable to walk by that winter.

I also had an older mare that I think contracted epm. The symptoms of this disease are highly variable so it's hard to say and we didn't have a vet test her. She was fine one year and the next every time a rider got on her she'd stumble and refuse to go beyond a trot. Being old, lazy, and incredibly smart (one of the smartest horses I've ever dealt with) we at first thought she was trying to get out of work. Again though it got increasingly worse until it was obvious something was wrong. Unable to find any real cause at the time we figured old age and joint problems. We gave her away to a family that just wanted a pasture pet the kids could sit on.

A third example... There was a small gelding in my college class that I was assigned to along with another rider. When asked to turn he would refuse and start limping in the back but was fine in the pasture. Another lazy horse that we thought was acting. One day I went to saddle him and when I tightened the cinch he flinched severely. I pulled the saddle, went to find my instructor, and she checked his back over. She thought maybe it was just some scrape he had that was upsetting him. Eventually I asked for a new horse because I hate lazy horses. I like running barrels and speed events. A week later his other rider came to tell me they'd had a chiropractor check him because after I brought it up they'd watched him more carefully while saddling and found he flinched nearly every time. His back was out of alignment and after some work he was like a new horse. Extremely active, ready to go, and no longer required spurs or a crop every other stride.


More times than not there is a real problem behind the lameness. If it were me I'd start by hopping on bareback and see what the horse does but then I grew up with an ornery pony and no saddle so bareback is no problem to me. Otherwise I would get someone out that really knows tack fit to check the horse over. Then also have some flexion tests done after riding. Your vet should have done these. You bend the leg into various positions and hold for so many seconds then try to trot the horse out. Usually in a straight line but sometimes on a circle. If the horse moves uneven or is harder to move out after bending the leg it's likely a lameness issue in the leg. It helps to do these on concrete where you can hear the even or uneven gait in the foot falls.

 

[TheDuckCrew]

thank you so much. i'll hop on her bareback next time (she's fine with it) and check her out. i'm so glad i've gotten so many answers!

 

[ratlummountain]

i'm a saddle fitter and several things you've said are all red flags for an ill fitting saddle.

you mentioned she "works out of the lameness" after a little bit of riding, and that's she's terribly girthy. displaying lameness under saddle but not lame out to pasture.

i'm not saying the saddle is THE problem, you may have several problems and all added up is leading to lameness.

if i were you i'd contact a competent saddle fitter pronto. a good saddle fitter will palpate your horses back and they'll recognize muscle soreness & chiropractic problems and can advise further treatment.

it wouldn't hurt to contact a chiropractor either, money is never wasted on a chiro imho.

you might want to double check the horses front feet and/or shoeing prescription.

but yes, i've witnessed a few horses fake lameness. but before you dismiss this, i'd explore every other avenue first.
it's my belief that horses don't lie, and behavior is their form of communication. if a horse has figured out *how* to lie then there's a reason for it.

good luck!

 

[patandchickens]

"very lazy and non-forward" plus "terribly girthy" plus "can't jump, tripped over jump and was lame for 3 months" equals an EXCEEDINGLY high chance of real pain, IME. It may well be something that causes the horse to hold herself stiffly and carefully, either all balled up and unmoving or moving in a boardlike fashion. Prime candidates would be a saddle fit problem (switch to English making her less unhappy is suggestive) or upper-body lameness such as back and pelvis.

Just for the record, if a horse goes much better bareback then that is definitely a strong hint it may be a saddle fit problem; but if the horse is no (or not much) better bareback, that just does not prove anything one way or the other, as some horses are made uncomfortable by bareback as well (the rider's seatbones on the long muscles of the back, or etc).

Good luck,

Pat

 

[Cara]

If a horse appears lame one minute and sound the next, it still can be caused by a real physical problem. We have a colt that will literally drag his back leg around in the pen one minute, but if you make him move out and trot he is back to normal. He's not been started, so it has nothing to do with avoiding work.

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Locking stifle, yes?

It is usually quite fixable with time and fitness. There is an operation for recalcitrant cases but I'm not sure what the success rate is.

Good luck,

Pat

 

[Cara]

Yes, it seems to have improved greatly just from him being turned out. Our pastures are a workout in themselves. He is still growing, he is only three, and that may also have helped.