Anyone has a horse with sac. problems? Please tell me about it. I'm trying to get as much informations as possible.

So my mare was a showjumper. She did upper levels and was good at it, but then her owner sold her because of college. Cand was sold to a dealer and our (vet's and mine) guess is that she was overworked there. She was 7 or 8 years old then. She must have tore ligaments around sac. joint there, because when she was sold to girl I bought Cand from, she would go crazy if she wanted to jump and she didn't take contact from bit. The owner lost interest after few bad falls and stopped riding her. Mare was lame from time to time, but their vet said it was farrier's fault.

I bought Cand when she was 10. She was sound, but wouldn't take contact, or even think about collecting. I didn't think much about it and just let it slip, thinking I'll learn how to ride her in time. We only do trail rides, so collecting wasn't needed and I rode with loose reins. Cand was great. It's been almost 5 years. She fell in the field this summer, nothing seemed wrong, I rode her normally. Weeks passed and she started with this weird standing, legs far apart. I saw her in past standing like that, but rarely and only when she was grazing on a really steep hill. Now she was standing like that all the time. Then she became lame on hind legs, dragging them.

She got 2 injections in the joint, supplement for arthritis and I'm doing dome stretches with her. She is getting better. This weird standing was almost gone, but she got worse today, after I worked her longer yesterday (in hand, walk, little trot). Vet says she has to work, to build muscles.

Her ligaments were torn at dealer, but noone ever treated it. It tore again and again, and then ligaments started to calcificate. This summer she injured herself again and finally we can help her. It won't ever be ok, though vet thinks she'll be fine with trail riding. She'll have to get injections every year.

Thanks for reading this long story and if you have any experience with this please tell.

The closest I can come is one of my horses catapulted himself backward off my 4-horse to such a degree that he landed hard on his butt with his back legs under the horse trailer.

I don't have a clue what made him decide to panic. He was 12 years old a seasoned hauler and trail horse. No spiders or bees in the trailer because I always check before I load someone.

Anyway the result was a fractured sacrum. I had planned on giving him the rest of the year off but thanks to me having a bad accident he's got the rest of of his life off from long hours of trail riding.

I am fortunate to have 22 acres of pasture that is nothing but hills so he has to work for his forage every day. That "quiet" exercise is good for him and keeps him in condition much better than I could. He gets to rippin' and tearin' around to where one would never know he has a fractured sacrum except for the "hunters bump" back there, close to the tail dock.

I also have him on the maximum daily allowance of pharmaceutical grade chondroitin/MSM. He can't have glucosamine because he is also insulin resistant <sigh>

He is now 16, if the day comes the chon/MSM isn't enough, I will add Hyalarin/Boswelia and hope for the best. Even though my current vet is a leg injur specialist, he will not do injections on this horse or my other one with hock/ankle arthritis.

While this horse doesn't get the Cipex, you might consider that herbal product as it promotes blood circulation. I feed it to both my 20-somethings and they come out of their stalls in the morning like they're ten again. If I thought that stuff had been processed in a "human-safe" environment, I would take it - lol

Herbal Remedies for Horses including Natural Equine Supplements for Laminitis and Founder in Horses- Herbs For Horses The Cipex is all herbal; you would just have to be sure there's nothing in the mix your horse might have a reaction to.

Lastly, I do my own trimming so I am particular, no make that anal, about keeping his hooves trimmed short and his heels low. He had a heel height prescription from the DVM/chiro up until last year.

When I fired my Trimmer for soring him up three times in a row, I decided to try and bring his hind heels down the other 3/8". I waited until we were in a rainy spell and the ground was soft. That was last Fall and he's still a gaitin' fool in the pasture (he's a Tennessee Walker). So his heels are now where they should be, I keep his toes short and a pretty aggressive roll on all four hooves. I don't roll the hooves at the 10 - 2 position either; I roll them all the way around from heel-to-heel.

I have a video of him at liberty but I haven't figured out how to convert it so a 30 second video doesn't take 42 minutes to upload to youtube or photobucket.

Point-being, with his injury even though his is only 5-1/2 yrs old you could see what I am trying to say about keeping the hooves short and properly balanced to support that injury.

I hope this helps in some way