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Dr. Empress, Congratulations on finishing vet school!

As I said before, I am jealous of the life you have in front of you.

I hate to hit you up on your first day and all, but our farrier just pointed out something that I had noticed occasionally before but not been able to put my finger on. Perhaps you and the other horseman can offer some help in figuring out what to do.

Cyn's stifle locked up today when he was going to lift her back leg. We'd walk her around, back her up, re-position her again, and when properly set up, she was fine. The farrier could repeat the problem by backing her up before trying to pick her foot up. When locked up she couldn't lift her foot well at all except at the hip. Hard to say if it hurt when it locked up, but I don't think she seemed stressed by it. I've seen her have a weird kind of hitch before from time to time, that never quite lasts long enough for me to identify where it came from. And I might say that I've seen it less since she first arrived, in fact we commented that recently, she's been moving a lot better and a lot more coordinated than she seemed when she first arrived.

A quick look on the web seems to indicate the first way to try to improve her is with exercise and build up of the rear muscling, which she is starting to develop now. She ~had~ no muscling whatsoever when we got her.

Farrier also recommended MSM and Glucosomine supplement, which is easy to start today because we already buy it for my old horse Bay.

He also recommended chiropractic, and I can't quite get my head around how that would help. We have planned already to have our vet out in January to give everyone a once-over.

The questions I have, without probably giving anyone enough information yet, is as a pleasure trail horse, will this overly limit her, or is it just a hitchy quirk that she shakes off and goes? Is it temporary till she's in shape, or is it permanent and/or degenerative? Was it likely caused by an injury or a fault of her conformation?

Here is a pic of her from yesterday lunging... the near rear leg is the one that locked up today.

Hi Hair! I'm sure Empress can answer you better, but here's my comment for what it's worth. My mare Truly did this, as did her mother. I was told that it was caused by the horse being "too straight in the stifle". From what I understand, a horse has 3 ligaments connecting the stifle joint together that run over the knee cap. The one in the middle is the one responsible for a horse being able to lock their knees and sleep standing up. Sometimes the conformation of the joint is such that this ligament engages when it shouldn't and the leg "locks up" just like you said. When it would happen to my mare, she would be trying to take a step and the effected leg would just hang out there behind her all stiff for a second or so, or she'd get this funny look on her face and you could tell she was trying to move it and all of a sudden that leg would jerk off the ground so fast that you'd think she was fixing to kick you, but she wasn't, she'd just gotten it unstuck, plus it would kinda pop when it happened. She also seemed to be uncomfortable while traveling down hill under saddle as well as when the farrier had that leg pulled up high over his knee to shoe her on the back. My vet recommended "clipping her stifle" which is when they cut that middle ligament. He did both of hers at the same time. He just made little quarter inch incisions over both knee caps, under anaesthesia of course, clipped the ligaments and closed with a single stitch and she's been fine ever since. The only drawback is she can't sleep standing up anymore.