I ride a 12 year old apendix gelding named Dancer. Over the past few years he seems to never stay sound, with no changes to his diet, exercise program, or turn out schedule. He is usually stall bound and gets turned out for about an hour a day. Some times when I ride him he will be perfectly fine, and then suddenly go dead lame. I have suspected Catch Stiffle, but also fear that he may have something wrong with his feet but we havent been able to figure it out.
I am wondering about any feed suppliments that I could use to help him limber up. I've seen people feed their horses silicone in order to lubricate their joints. What are your thoughts on feeding things like that?

Where are you from? Ontario

How did you locate this forum? search

Hello Carolyn,

The first bit of advice I would offer is to have Dancer diagnosed by your veterinarian. There are many issues that can cause lameness.

The main problem I see from what you’ve told me is that he is stall bound for 23 hours each day. For a horse, this is extremely difficult to cope with and is quite stressful. He may be extremely stiff after standing in virtually one place all day. And, the release of stress-related hormones can cause inflammation throughout the body, including the legs.

So, if it is at all possible, turn him out at least 8 hours a day. The ideal, of course, is to let a horse roam and graze 24/7, but I realize that this is not possible for most horse owners. So, the closer you can get to giving him the ability to move around, the better it will be for him.

About lubricating his joints – yes, there are several supplements that will do this. I would choose a supplement that contains Hyaluronic Acid, along with Glucosamine and/or Chondroitin Sulfute.

Please keep me posted on how Dancer is doing.

All the best,

Dr. Getty