Running out of ideas

My friend's horse did almost the same thing. He would be fine then suddenly acutely lame, three legged hopping. Vet & farrier found nothing. A chiropractor found something out in his neck & withers. One adjustment fixed him.
Maybe try another chiro? X-rays would be good too, maybe of the neck, as in his picture he appears to have odd muscling, a kind of circle on the lower side about midway between his throat & shoulder. It kind of covers where you would normally see the neck groove.

I think its just a bad angle let me get another side shot of him.


Ground is a little un ever in this picture to

I would NEVER suggest putting a horse down simply because he is lame off and on but his quality of life otherwise is fine. I have a mare, my first horse, Lucy, who after only a year of owning her, was chased by a mare and trying to get away, stumbled, slid in some soft dirt and took a stick up into her suspensory tendon sheath, ripping it about 2''. We did everything the vet said, she got a bad infection in it, we treated that, 5 months of stall rest and hand walking/grazing, and after a trip to Texas A&M to their ortho team, even then said it would be amazing if she was ridden ever again. She was only 9 years old. Today, 10 years later, she can be lightly ridden, she carries our grand daughter around, has a slight limp if I over use her any, and walks sound.

So don't give up on him. A chiropractor may be very helpful, so is the thermal body scan. Have you done any google searches or contacted any other ortho vets who may specialize in tendons/hoof/leg issues and asked their opinion? What do you have to loose?

The trainer I talked to is super old school when it comes to horses and since I'm a competitive rider he was just stating his personal opinion.

Twinkie means more to me than showing and I plan on doing everything I can until I run out of money or options. I really wanna do the body scan and find his hot spots them ultra sound them and take it from there.

I don't see it on this side. Are both sides of the neck symetrical?

I would.
Quality of life is a judgement call, my personal judgement is that a life spent in a good % of pain, is not a life worth living. Now if it were short term while the solution was being figured out - fine.
This has been going on for 2 years. It's not the horses fault that no one knows what is going on, nor does it change the fact that the horse has been in on and off pain for 2 years.

If it were my horse I would put to sleep.

His neck is kind of cresty in this pic. Has he been foundered? If he is acutely lame now then now would be a great time to take him back.

He is beautiful. Good luck
Posted via Mobile Device

I agree. Also not real impressed with the trim job. Angles look off.

Are his hooves as tiny as they appear? (if his toes were the correct length)

Grasping at straws too, but when you said he stumbled did he hit anywhere up near his poll/head or crack his neck that you could tell? It just struck me that when he went down on three legs that it might be some kind of neurological problem. Beautiful boy by the way.