Diagnosing Performance Problems in Western Horses
Western horses do it all: pleasure riding, trail classes, reining, cutting and roping, barrel racing and other speed events, and more. There’s even Western dressage. All these disciplines place different stresses on the horse’s body, potentially resulting in a variety of injuries. When one of these horses isn’t performing as he should, there are more than a few places practitioners can look.
William Rhoads, DVM, Dipl. ACVS, ABVP, owner of Premier Equine Veterinary Services and Sports Medicine Center, in Whitesboro, Texas, and an experienced reiner, is well-versed in evaluating and treating Western performance horses in multiple disciplines. At the 2018 American Association of Equine Practitioners Convention, held Dec. 1-5 in San Francisco, California, he shared tips on how veterinarians can approach poorly performing Western horses.
About 90% of the poor-performance-related cases Rhoads sees in his practice involve clinical (apparent) or subclinical (inapparent) lameness or musculoskeletal pain
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Written by:
Erica Larson
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