Stringhalt…???
About four days ago our 15 y.o. QH mare Rain started walking funny, a kind of ‘John Cleese’ exaggerated comic walk except it was only the left hind leg doing it!
Now when I first saw her doing this I had no clue what was going on! I did all the usual stuff, checked the foot, felt the leg for any swelling or heat, looked for injuries anywhere on her body, watched her behavior and payed attention to her appetite. I couldn’t find anything obviously wrong with her on the physical level which might be a cause of this weird gait. She seemed normal, didn’t act like she was in pain and had the same voracious appetite she usually does.
A few days later I brought a knowledgeable horse friend of mine out to the pasture. I was trying to explain Rain’s weird gait (as she was happily eating hay and not moving) and as I was doing this she took a couple of steps and my friend immediately exclaimed “She has Stringhalt!”And of course I said “Say what???”
Here’s a video of a horse with a fairly sever case of Stringhalt although it isn’t the worst case which is when a horse actually kicks his belly with every step!
Video of a horse who recently developed Stringhalt:
Rain’s gait isn’t as pronounced as this horse, but it is still noticeable. And the odd thing with her is that it isn’t consistently the same – i.e. it sort of clears up a little as she walks and even gets a little better at the trot, then goes back to the way it was, although intermittently, at the walk again.
My friend explained what little she knew of the condition but told me to do a little Internet research on it when I got home. According to her, it’s not always curable and is caused by eating certain toxic weed plants. However, she knew of a horse who had it and recovered.
This was somewhat depressing news, except for the recovery part, of course. Later that evening I did some searches and found a few things out. Veterinarians aren’t sure what causes Stringhalt. Some hypothesis are:
- eating certain types of weed plants – some possibilities being dandelion, cat’s ear and flatweed
- certain climate conditions
- some trauma to the dorsal hock or dorsal metatarsal regions
- nerve degeneration
According to what I’ve read so far the prognosis is vague and is all over the board. Some say surgury is the only way to relieve it. Others say it eventually clears up on it’s own. I did come across an interesting article about the bio-mechanics causing the abnormal gait. It’s a pretty heavy article with lots of anatomical terminology but for those of you who enjoy that kind of thing…check it out here – www.horseshoes.com.
In racking my brain about what might have brought this on I’ve come up with two possibilities.
- Rain caused some tramua to her hock flexor tendon with all the kicking out at the new mare, Buttercup, we put in the pasture
- A few days before the Stringhalt showed up, Rain clocked her head pretty good on the low end of the barn (it was a cattle barn originally) when going after…yup, you guessed it…Buttercup and possibly did some “brain damage”?? Good God that sounds bad…..
The horses grazing in one section of the new pasture
We walked the entire new pasture area and inspected the hay and could not find any obvious weed plants. In fact, the pasture is all beautiful grass although there are some areas of marsh grass. The hay is from the same guy I have been using for the last 2 years and out of the same fields. Nobody had anything weird go on in past years! And the big thing is that they’ve been on the new pasture for almost 3 weeks before this started showing up.
It is just a mystery to me. However I think it is a mystery to most veterinarians too. My plan is to observer her for awhile and see how it progresses. Rain doesn’t seem to be in pain and it did seem a little less pronounced when I worked with her today. I’ll just plan on tackling the problem a day at a time…!
Horses coming up from the back part of the pasture
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