The leg bone's connected to the back bone...

Most people have no difficulty accepting the concept that the state of a horse's feet will have an effect on the rest of his body. In practice, though, when a horse is being assessed for lameness the tendency is for the vet to try and pinpoint where the problem is coming from and often a nerve block to the foot will improve lameness so much that the diagnosis is of a foot problem.

This approach is fine as far as it goes but it can overlook the other problems which have developed.

Kingsley is one example: he is a young, athletic horse and is full of energy. His natural response to having foot pain is to try and find a way of carrying himself which allows him to keep moving and reduce discomfort - a perfectly normal response of course.

In his case, the solution resulted in him twisting his body and throwing his legs out at strange angles with each step he took. This had knock-on effects on his neck and shoulder muscles, as Wiola has documented in her blog, and also meant he was unable to trot correctly because trotting requires movement on a diagonal and therefore a loose back, which he didn't have.

Other horses, perhaps those who aren't as young and flexible as Kingsley, end up with neck pain, from bracing to stabilise a weak front limb, or hind limb weakness where they have locked the back muscles to prevent the weaker front limb from too much pressure.

One thing is for sure - any horse who has a leg problem for more than a short time will also have neck or back pain.