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Horse looses balance when mounting and dismounting

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Horse looses balance when mounting and dismounting
  • My sweet gelding, Nacho, is 8 years old. Today, I went outside and put on his bosal for a short bareback ride Nothing strange or different. When I mounted, he seemed to be a bit unbalanced but recovered himself quickly. I am only 108 lbs and he is a big boy, but it didn't concern me. We had some fun, I experienced no more problems. Then, when I slid my leg over to dismount, he lost his footing again. This time, he fell to one knee. I was concerned and tried it again with the same result. I finally decided to rub his legs down and give him some more food. I have ordered a mineral supplement with some selenium and am planning to go to tractorsupply later to get some alfalfa and deworming meds. He lost some weight during the winter but not a whole lot, any tips/ideas?
  • Seems very odd.

    And are you mounting properly, not pulling the horse sideways?

    Use a mounting block.

    Welcome and good luck.

  • I am using a mounting block, I have done some research and have reason to believe he may have eaten some Yellow Star Thistle, as he is showing  some of the  symptoms, and its all over my neighborhood...

  • Maybe the thistle really caused such a reaction. Be careful and be healthy!

  • A long time later now, it turned out Nacho simply needed readjustments in his back, done by a horse chiropractor. The vet put him on a 20 lbs of forage  + 10 lbs of grain a day and he is doing great!

  • He could very easily have EPM from being turned out to pasture.  I would have your vet run a diagnostic test which consists of walking your horse in a figure eight.  If the horse tries to put one leg over the other or trips they consider that positive for EPM.  Hope that helps.