My horse has weird leg problems...?

Question

I have a qaurter horse appendix that i love very much. He is very smooth and sweet when i ride but i noticed something. He doesnt bend his legs very much. i will go at the trot and he doesnt bend his knees as much as most horses. He try's to keep them straight with just enough bend to pick his feet up. The canter is worse. He barely bends his legs but just enough to pick up his feet again. He also does stumble sometimes and even when i jump him he will just stretch his body enough to get over and not really bending his knees to his belly like he's suppose to. I find this quite odd and was wondering if any of you could help me with this question. I'm planning on calling my vet Monday to see if they can tell me the problem. And also i do give him joint formula once a day to help loosen him up, and stretching. I also test to see if there was any soreness in his legs by stretching his legs a lot, touching his legs all over, and bending his knees up to his stomach and there is no sign of soreness or irrataion when i do it. My horse just stands there like a good boy and doesnt mind what i'm doing unless of course it hurts when i do it.

Answer 1

It may be some physical issue but from the sound of it he just moves in a way you are not use to. Some horses have a lot of knee action while others have a straight legged movement. Your horse sound like he just has VERY little knee action. It is a desirable trait in h/j at least.

The tripping is probably because he is on the forehand. A horse that I know has EXTREMELY straight legs and trips a fair amount because she is not really picking her feet up and is on the forehand most of the time. Whenever her rider bothers to get her working off the hindend she stops tripping.

Some horses jump with the 'superman' look over low fences. My horse will stick his legs out in front of him vs. tucking them with anything under 2'6". At that height he begins to tuck them with even knees and at 3' he has a right pretty front end.