Stumbling....

Duke keeps stumbling a lot! I don't know why. At first I thought he picked up a rock, but I cleaned his feet and he was fine... Then I just assumed he was having problems with the uneven ground. Now when i ride him in the round pen he still trips a lot and almost falls over.

His owner said his hooves might be getting too long and he needs trimmed, which makes sense. Also I don't think he picks up his feet enough...

Any ideas suggestions?

Needing a trim would be my first guess. Pictures would help.

grr, i totally forgot to take pics of his feet!! but in the critique section there are pics of him trotting and you can kinda see how he doesn't pic his feet up and that his hooves are kinda long....

http://www.horseforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=11926

there's the link

This could be anything from needing a trim to a neurological condition. If the horse's toes are long, then get his feet trimmed and see if he does better. If not then a vet exam should be scheduled and you shouldn't ride him until the vet sees him---having a horse fall is bad, one falling with you on him is even worse.

Those pictures are pretty hard to see anything in, too much dust and weeds..... LOL although in picture #5 judging by the depth of the groove/space to the frog it sure looks like he needs a trim. Not the kind of pictures for judging hoof length.....

As Ryle and I said, get him trimmed and go from there.

I'll tell his owner to deffinitely get him a trim... she doesn't even remeber the last time he got trimmed.... she said it was like 4 weeks ago or something, so it's about time anyway...

yeah, my mom said she could see him tripping over his toe... so that gave me a big clue that he needed a trim

I also agree. It could be that he's in need of a trim. ;)
Often if a horse's feet are a bit long they will stumble.

i had a horse who tripped alot...we got his feet done and he still did it...so we called the vet and he couldnt find anything...it was him being lazy...the silly boy would act so acared each time he would trip... :)

My guess would be "needs trimming"
However if he is still tripping after trimming, have the farrier watch you trot him around. He might be overstepping and need to have his feet trimmed in a manner that would cause him to pick up his feet differently to avoid tripping.

When I had Angel, she tripped a lot. I had the farrier watch her and he said her back feet were clipping her front on occasion. So he trimmed her back feet in a manner that caused her to pick up her front feet sooner.

Worked great.

here's an update!

the owner rode him yesterday and noticed he tripped a lot too (i guess she didn't believe me when i told her or something) and now she's calling the farrier to get out there ASAP to look at him, however i was informed that the farrier doesn't get around to things very quickly...