locking stifle

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i have a horse that has a problem with his leg/stifle locking out.
i have tried strngthening the stifle by having him do different exercises and i thought he was making progress but the other day i was trotting him to exercise it and he went lope and it locked out and he almost fell.
now i am concerded for his health and my own safety.
i talked to the local vet and he said there is a procedure that perforates the tendon and tightens it up so it doesn't slip back/over and lock up.
i have read about it some but i'd like to hear from someone that has dealt with it first hand.
does the horse recover 100%
is there any disadvantages after it's done
anything i need to know
 
This is going back YEARS ago- had a very expensive young(4) dressage horse I was taking care of.
I was told to just walk the horse- it seemed like it locked up regularly for three or four months straight. Seemed like it was in wide turns never going straight,never in his stall.So I avoided turns/loops as much as possible.
then it was gone.
These were the best vets available- and it sure was hard to be patient - but they were right.
 
It is not the same as string halt. Over the years I've had several horses and ponies that had the problem. One was a Shetland who was so bad he had to drag his hind legs to move them forward.

One horse's stifle would lock after backing up. You could back her on the ground and lead her forward and it would lock.

All had the surgery where the offending tendon was clipped. They returned to normal and remained sound. The surgery is pretty simple.
 
A friend of mine had a calf roping horse that I rode a lot that had stifle surgery. We gave him a few months off and started him back slow. We roped off of him for several more years and he was always fine. This was probably 10 years ago, wish I had that horse still he was a good one.
 
I would be concerned about that being kind of like the "fix" for navicular horses... You know the one where they cut the nerve and tell you the horse is good as new and then your perfectly sound horse that doesn't limp anymore falls off the side of the mountain because he can't feel his feet...
 
my concern is i have no experience or know anyone that has had it done.
the way i understand it(i may be wrong) is the tendon that slips back over the bone(?) that locks it, so a horse can sleep standing up is perforated which widens the tendon thus making it shorter and unable to slip back behind the bone.
this fixing the lock out since the tendon is no longer able to slip back and lock up.
it all sounds good but i don't want to have any regrets.
i was all for exercise and rehab until he nearly fell.
i am now concerned about what damage he could do to himself if he does fall and i sure don't want to be under him if he falls.
before it was just at times it would catch a little but when the corner falls away and your think "were going down" has caused me to not trust his leg/health.
so i want whats best for the horse.
 
It works. If I had another horse that needed it done, I would do it. The way the horse is now, he is dangerous to ride, plus it is painful.

ETA: the shetland was our oldest daughter's pony & she rode him in games in the local youth rodeo association.
 
Is this on your project horse that's gone back to the hacamore? If it is I think I'd be cutting my losses unless you're seeing something golden on the other side that we don't know about yet.
 
cow pollinater":13zvsojo said:
Is this on your project horse that's gone back to the hacamore? If it is I think I'd be cutting my losses unless you're seeing something golden on the other side that we don't know about yet.
Click to expand...

i'm too soft.
i had a chance to sell him to the kid that started him as a 2 year old.
he thought a lot of the horse but the ranch he worked for sold him to an older man.
the man had him a couple years then wanted to sell him and the kid heard he was for sale but i had already bought him.
he called and we made a deal and he was going to come get him that weekend. (i had just got him and didn't know he was having trouble)
i learned before the weekend he was having some trouble/pain so i couldn't sell him to the kid like that and i didnt want the horse to be mistreated since they might not realize the horse was having pain.
for me it's a moral issue and i am going to do what i can for him
 
Hi, I had a gelding go through this when he was 4 years old due to his post legged conformation. No amount of exercise would've healed him, so I had three options: blister, cut ligament, or pierce/slice the ligament. It was recommended and I chose to go with the surgery to pierce the ligament. Gelding fully recovered and never took a lame step for the following five years I owned him. He's now a heading horse. I would recommend the surgery as it worked great in my experience.
 
it just gets better.
i saddle camo and start checking his feet.
i picked up his right front and he starts leaning on me and starts pulling it away and his left leg is bending and he nearly falls, before i let go of his right.
i thought i had just gcaught him off balance, so i try it again same result.
i check him out and can't find anything wrong so i lead him around and he seems to drag his left toe some so check his foot and i and notice his toe is worn flat across the front where his has been dragging it.
the left side is the same as the locking stifle so wonder if it's related or if this horse has some bad problems.
 
Very often they will have the stifle problem on both sides. Did you get a vet to do a soundness exam on him?

This past summer I had one of our mares at the trainer's getting tuned up for the state 4-H horse show. She is 9 years old and a big soggy mare. I had started noticing that she would "click" sometimes when leaving the barn. While at the trainer's it was discovered that her right stifle was causing her problems. She would cross fire when on the right lead. His vet checked her and discovered the problem. You could see the muscling had atrophied in her stifle area. She was given an Adequan injection and it helped her a lot but she still clicked a bit.

I am fitting her for halter now and put her on Uckele Tri Amino and she has stopped clicking and it has helped her muscling return to normal.

I hope that Camo is an easy fix.
 
There are to many good ones out there to justify staying married to a bad one. That sucks but I think you need to start looking for something else and get rid of him if he's not going to get it done for you.
 
cow pollinater":yy7m1ejy said:
There are to many good ones out there to justify staying married to a bad one. That sucks but I think you need to start looking for something else and get rid of him if he's not going to get it done for you.
Click to expand...

i don't have the heart to do anything with him.
if i thought someone would want a pet i'd let him go but i couldn't do anything else with him
i guess he may become a pasture ornament
 
The last time I had his feet trimmed I had read to shorten the toe and have a higher heel but that made things worse.
It's been a while and his feet need trimmed(not sure that is a factor) I am riding him and he wants to work and I have a 5 wt bull that won't cooperate and he handles him without his stifle catching.
So just to test him I lope him around some and he seems to be cured and about that time it sticks, just a little, but still a little sticky.
I have an appointment made with the vet but he seems to be better
Do I have the procedure done or give him more time(I have had him 6 months or so)
 

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