Just ran into this a few weeks ago with another horse, and now I have some one looking at the trees and not the forest again.

My neighbor, who leases one of my pastures for her two brood mares, called and told me the water wasn’t working.  Now I love this neighbor.  She’s a knowledgeable horse woman, and just a nice person on top of it.  Whenever we get together we can spend hours talking horsey stuff.  So as usual, we stood over the watering trough and just hashed out stuff that’s happened in the last month.  Some people meet for lunch, at bars, we meet at the trough, in the pasture, at sunset.

So we’re talking and she mentions that her daughter started barrel racing this particular mare again.  Legged her up, took her to a show, and she ran the best set of barrels ever.  However, the mare has been off since.  She’ll go fine and then not.  They had her hocks injected, no difference, had x-rays done, didn’t find anything.  So I asked if she had checked her back?  No, did I think that could be a problem?  Could definitely be an issue if something is out.  Then she mentioned this mare is a total witch, and has horrible heat cycles.  “Light bulb” moment.  I have gone through the same thing with Zoey every summer for the past four years.  Her ovaries!

I explained that Zoey will walk fine, trot slightly off, but when it comes to the canter, she will either not pick up the lead or hop on three legs.  This woman’s mare is doing the same thing.  She said the thought had crossed her mind about her heat cycle (which seems to be constant), but figured it couldn’t possibly have anything to do with lameness.  Oh yes it can!

I left her with a feeling of this could possibly be the problem.  There was hope.  I explained that first I would have her back checked by a neighbor of ours that is my horse chiropractor.  She would be able to tell her if it’s her back or ovaries.  Then it’s off to acupuncture and Chinese herbs.  It’s always worked for Zoey.  She was going to make two phone calls today and get right on it.  It’s like night and day.  One day I have a dead lame horse and a week after treatment, I have a horse that never had a problem in her life.  Go figure.

Now this may not be this mares problem, but all the signs say that there is a good possibility that it is.

We have to share our knowledge and experiences.  It may help someone else or it may not, but it certainly is worth a try.