Shake a leg

Odd hindlimb action may point to shivers or stringhalt, but how might these complex conditions affect a horse’s future prospects? Andrea Oakes investigates

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WITH some smart bloodlines in his breeding, Rebecca Friend’s young warmblood/Irish Sport Horse gelding has the potential for a successful competition career. Yet Rebecca’s hopes were put on hold last year when six-year-old Sam experienced difficulty when asked to move backwards.

“I first noticed the problem on the yard, when I pushed him back and saw him hold out a hindleg and shake it,” she says. “It quite surprised me. I bought Sam as a four-year-old and backed him myself — nothing untoward has happened to him and I’d never seen him do this before.”

When she realised that Sam might be a shiverer, alarm bells started ringing in Rebecca’s head.

“I had hoped that he would one day replace my current competition horse,” she says, adding that her farrier had mentioned that Sam seemed “tight” behind when being shod.

“However, if he couldn’t perform rein-back, then he would surely have little future in dressage or high-level eventing.

“The shivers action was quite extreme and would upset him,” says Rebecca, describing how Sam would slide a hindleg out and hold it as if it was “locked”. “I wondered if he had any future at all.”

SHIVERS SIGNS

WHILE shivers has been recognised for many years, Alex Draper MRCVS, from The Queen’s Veterinary Hospital for Animals, University of Cambridge, explains that there is still confusion as to exactly what clinical signs are associated with the disease and, importantly, what causes it. The definition was standardised in 2015.