So what's wrong with your horse?

[newfavouritething]

On countryfile last night, the Blue Cross stated that 'three quarters of all horses have something wrong with them'. So come on, 'fess up, what's wrong? Mine has a small curb and had a sarcoid last year, but I would class him as sound and healthy, 75% sounds very high.

Deamon ppony has dodgy teeth that have to be done even 6 months & box feet at the back.

Big girl is a bit unsound at times.

loan pony has strange looking walk from the back - looks as though he's wet his pants. Doesn't seem to affect him in anyway.

Ginger ninja can make respiratory noise but nothing wrong says vet after a scope. He has a slightly turned in front toe and he's a bugger to catch

How do you define 'something wrong'? Healthwise, both DD's ponies are absolutely fine, the Sheltie hasn't had a single bad day in the three years I've had him; the Welshie had mild colic a few months ago but is a picture of health usually. Neither have gone lame since I've had them and both have good clean legs and wind. The Sheltie got sweet itch last year when out on loan but I think that was bad management as he hasn't ever had it with me, and they both got lice a few weeks ago.

pony has Intermittent Explosive Disorder if out in a group and it all gets too exciting, he might do a little handstand but I do the same thing when I am excited so I can't complain

horse is old and stiff but willing and sound so again, mustn't grumble :)

they are both a bit intolerant of pollen though

mine has got sweet itch

TB has sweet itch and ringbone but she is 27 so it doesn't really affect her day to day life, since she's retired and on a very expensive diet of oils and minerals that keep her happy and pain free, she also currently has a major attitude problem but I'm putting that down to a change in food rather than something being wrong with her

Shetland has laminities but it's under control so no real problems.

Mine tore a tendon slightly which, despite proper time off developed into a weakness that mean he got sore about nine months & then three months back into work (tried bringing him in twice) - we had to retire him at 12.

Mind you, he is now heading up a small gang of similar retirees and living fat and happy in a field with them. Was really the world's most perfect horse though so I'm only really properly thinking about trying to find another one nearly three years on.

meant

"The Sheltie got sweet itch last year when out on loan but I think that was bad management as he hasn't ever had it with me"

one of our ponies (who we loan incidentally) had what we thought must have been sweet itch last year. No sign of it this year...vet said the midges were particularly horrible last year. He was rubbing on anything and everything. Touch wood he is fine this year despite there being midges in the field.

Tumour in thyroid, general cronkiness (thanks to being raced as a 2 year old) and is a head shaker. She is a 22 year old TB.

DDs riding pony has a bit of a squinty walk at the back when she is trundling about, a good foot trim and walking out properly helps a lot. She also has a random cough. It happens when she is unfit, and doesnt seem linked to dusty hay, or exercise. It doesnt seem to bother her either!
Ducky is a perfect if you discount being built like a rhino!
Polly paddles a bit behind and has a tendency to act like a rocking horse if she thinks her rider can be exploited.
Alfie and Skye seem perfect, but are still young!

The welsh nothing. Never had a day sick in her life. Been footsore on a c

Whoops pressed post!!

She's been footsore on two occasions, both were straight after she'd been shod and it was literally for two days. Not lame, just sore.

The tb is ok. Possible dust problem, vet thinks she'll be ok come winter. She's a walking accident prone creature but at this moment in time, she seems ok!

Shetland has a bit of arthritis in a fetlock and has to be carefully watched to avoid laminitis but considering she's 30 that's not really what I'd call 'wrong', it's actually pretty good going!
Dpony, Mmm, well he's not doing so well. He's been having treatment for various leg probs and now the vet thinks he has stifle trouble. We've had a hard job keeping weight on him this year and he's still on two feeds a day.
Dhorse crosses fingers to ward off jinx is perfectly healthy, sound, good weight, beautiful shiny coat, hard feet. I can't think of anything 'wrong' at all unless you count a tendency to get stroppy and an uncanny ability to get his tongue over the bit when he gets bored with schooling!

Oh dear where do I start:

R has a weird muscle wasting problem with some neuro symtoms that we were trying to pin down as a rare metabolic disorder (after thinking it was KS and changing his shoes to straight bars) while having effectively retired him as he looks like a welfare case...

and then F begun showing the same symptoms on Thrusday, so R is off for a muscle biopsy while I am collecting water and soil samples for testing,

C showed signs of lami last month, no improvement on bute/ACP...only to recover fully with steroids, so god knows what that was,

but M, the companion mini, is the picture of health.

My vets fees are always legendary.

Dhorse has kissing spine, reasonably under control atm, but a life limiter. Also lots of lumps and bumps on his legs and a general case of intermittent looniness (in fact the when I heard "swivel eyed loon" on the radio at the w/end I thought they might be talking about dhorse).

Dpony is as hard as nails - in the 10 years of us being together he has had colic twice, and that's it. He is currently doing an impression of a tennis ball on legs despite starvation and 30 mins lungeing every day.

I don't want to tempt fate,but dpony aged 23,fit as a fiddle,Brandy,aged 7,the same.[touches wood].

A couple of hoof abscesses. That's been it in ten years. not a lot wrong with him, bar a bit of stiffness. He's 23. More wood touching...

dpony is v fit and well. He will be back in what we like to call the 'paddock of shame' once the grass really gets going in his herds paddock as he is a v good doer. His medical interventions in the 2 1/2 years we've had him have been a sum total of some purple spray and some sudocreme.

Big horse has atopic dermatitis permanently . Basically his body goes into overdrive and starts forming blister like circles to repel the trigger . Unfortunately , the trigger is ... His winter coat change . As soon as the summer coat starts falling , and the winter one starts arriving , that's it . A scab appears , which is highly contagious . Touch the scab , and then another part of him , and he'll get a scab and blister there too . So you have to have 2 sets of grooming kit , gloves , you name it . We call him the follicly challenged one , because essentially, he's allergic to himself.

Only I could end up with one .......

Mine has a stiff poll from a fracture as a youngster (apparently he knocked his brain out too because he is as thick as pigshit) some scar tissue on his gluteal that sweats randomly following a tear, a lovely big lump inside right canon bone from when the dozy twit got himself cast (in a massive stable) and most recently he is lame on left fore intermittently for reasons unknown despite ££££ of X-rays scans and nerve blocks. He is currently a very expensive field decoration and I am a very pissed off horse owner.
10 months Of someone else riding him and he's perfectly sound. I have the baby, get back on, manage to ride him 3 times and he's bloody lame. I think he just doesn't like how I ride lol.

Wow, reading this makes me think that their 75% figure isn't so extreme after all.

Well, it is sort of self-selecting. Looking around friends - one has five, with only two that occasionally have something minor wrong. Two have beasties that always seem to have something, and five have beasties who don't ever seem to come down with anything.

So that's only 38% if you include mine in the above too.

stomach ulcers and crib-biting.......section C ex-show pony....