Sorry, wasn't sure if this went in veterinary/health and care section or training of the horse so went for here as the safe option, sorry mods, feel free to move it wherever you see fit.
Slightly confused though, for the past year or so Soda has been doing a really weird thing, where when I stretch his legs out after doing up the girth to make sure there are no wrinkles of skin under the girth he has stretched really really far as I'm pulling out his fornt leg, then done like a cat stretch type thing and laid down (you know the type of stretch, rock back really far on front legs so and bum goes in the air). Obviously this is a bit of a problem if he's tacked up as am always terrified he's going to catch himself on something and hurt himself etc. I can get him to get up but have to be quick. I've always sor of dismissed it, okay, it's not the most normal thing in thw world, but just assumed it was a reaction to a leg stretch to go into a big stretch and then possibly he just lost his balance or whatever. He stretches a lot anyway, usually first thing he does before he goes anywhere after the rider has mounted (stretches out his back legs before he walks on).
Anyway, yesterday morning I was picking out his feet in the stable (into a bucket), all fine until I got round to his last leg, a front foot, picked out, all fine, didn't take long, just about to put it down when he started doing his funny cat/dog strecth thing while I was still holding his leg in the air! He went down really really far, massive stretch, like he was about to lie down, then promptly lost his balance (I had put his leg down by this point) and fell over, putting his knee straight into the skip buvket (thanks Soda!) breaking it and sending mud everywhere, before getting up and looking most hurt and upset about it. (He was fine, no harm done).
But I'm really confused. Surely it's not normal behaviour for a horse to stretch and then try and lie down whilst you're holding a leg in the air?! He doesn't seem bothered, just like he can't be bothered to stand up any more, huge stretch and then he just slowly starts sinking down to lie down, it's really bizarre. Apart from looking most disgurntled when you don't let him, he seems fine and unbothered by anything, and given that it's in a few different things I can't think that it's just a reaction to somehting as before he's always been okay to have his feet picked out and gave me no warning signs before he began to sink down.
Really werid. Anyone experienced this? Know what it might be? Am a bit worried really. He's quite a lazy horse naturally, spends a lot of his time lying down and is generally very chilled out. Is it just that he's a bit simple? It doesn't really bother me, but when 16hh and half a ton of horse starts sinking down into a stretch and lie down manoeuvre whilst you're holding his leg and standing right next to him it's quite alarming if you're not expecting it, I thought he'd collapsed the first time he did it.
Before anyone asks he's had back checked extremely regularly and just recently been done, never any problems (the occasional tweak needed but nothing more than the average horse gets from playing in the field apparently) and had his back done recently, teeth were done quite recently and all fine, saddle was checked last week and was fine, hooves are all fine etc. etc. He has a full MOT probably more regularly than most people say is strictly necessary basically and never found any problems.
This is why I'm puzzled, and slightly worried.
Any suggestions appreciated.
Slightly confused though, for the past year or so Soda has been doing a really weird thing, where when I stretch his legs out after doing up the girth to make sure there are no wrinkles of skin under the girth he has stretched really really far as I'm pulling out his fornt leg, then done like a cat stretch type thing and laid down (you know the type of stretch, rock back really far on front legs so and bum goes in the air). Obviously this is a bit of a problem if he's tacked up as am always terrified he's going to catch himself on something and hurt himself etc. I can get him to get up but have to be quick. I've always sor of dismissed it, okay, it's not the most normal thing in thw world, but just assumed it was a reaction to a leg stretch to go into a big stretch and then possibly he just lost his balance or whatever. He stretches a lot anyway, usually first thing he does before he goes anywhere after the rider has mounted (stretches out his back legs before he walks on).
Anyway, yesterday morning I was picking out his feet in the stable (into a bucket), all fine until I got round to his last leg, a front foot, picked out, all fine, didn't take long, just about to put it down when he started doing his funny cat/dog strecth thing while I was still holding his leg in the air! He went down really really far, massive stretch, like he was about to lie down, then promptly lost his balance (I had put his leg down by this point) and fell over, putting his knee straight into the skip buvket (thanks Soda!) breaking it and sending mud everywhere, before getting up and looking most hurt and upset about it. (He was fine, no harm done).
But I'm really confused. Surely it's not normal behaviour for a horse to stretch and then try and lie down whilst you're holding a leg in the air?! He doesn't seem bothered, just like he can't be bothered to stand up any more, huge stretch and then he just slowly starts sinking down to lie down, it's really bizarre. Apart from looking most disgurntled when you don't let him, he seems fine and unbothered by anything, and given that it's in a few different things I can't think that it's just a reaction to somehting as before he's always been okay to have his feet picked out and gave me no warning signs before he began to sink down.
Really werid. Anyone experienced this? Know what it might be? Am a bit worried really. He's quite a lazy horse naturally, spends a lot of his time lying down and is generally very chilled out. Is it just that he's a bit simple? It doesn't really bother me, but when 16hh and half a ton of horse starts sinking down into a stretch and lie down manoeuvre whilst you're holding his leg and standing right next to him it's quite alarming if you're not expecting it, I thought he'd collapsed the first time he did it.
Before anyone asks he's had back checked extremely regularly and just recently been done, never any problems (the occasional tweak needed but nothing more than the average horse gets from playing in the field apparently) and had his back done recently, teeth were done quite recently and all fine, saddle was checked last week and was fine, hooves are all fine etc. etc. He has a full MOT probably more regularly than most people say is strictly necessary basically and never found any problems.
This is why I'm puzzled, and slightly worried.
Any suggestions appreciated.