Stringhalt

The October 2010 issue of The Horse has an interesting article about stringhalt. Thanks June, for sharing! I was unaware of the the difference between Australian type and classic type. My personal experience with stringhalt is that my client’s horses that have it tend to be huge over-jumpers which led me to believe the problem was neurological. These horses that I know tend to do their job well, so it doesn’t necessarily mean a performance loss is inevitable.

As a farrier, stringhalt or shivers (similar) can be a nightmare. The horses can be extremely difficult to work under. If I co-operate with the horses and take considerable time, I can usually get the work done, but it is dangerous and frustrating to say the least. The best solution for many of these horses I work on is to sedate them with some sort of sedative (dormosedan) / pain killing concoction. It seems that not all horses respond the same, so the veterinarian often has to try a couple times to get it right.

Any thoughts? Anyone been able to make progress in dealing with it?