This must be a mistake.
They can’t have kept a horse in a stall for 16 months.
Especially not a seven year old Arabian stallion!
I tried to avoid looking shocked and horrified.
But the owner’s face confirmed it.
You know how a person can have such an “overcontrolled” expression, that you know they’re about to break down in tears? Yeah, that was Laura’s face. Tight, trying to be calm and friendly, but desperate.
I had been called in to look at her lame horse, but she met me out in the driveway the second I pulled in.
The short version of Jack’s (the stallion) history:
He’d been head-bobbing lame (Grade 2 out of 5) on the right front for almost a year and a half. Originally a suspensory ligament injury. They had done the usual treatments, plus extra therapies which I won’t get into to keep this short.
But the horse was still lame after months.
No improvement at all.
Laura had multiple vets, X rays, scans, ultrasounds and even an MRI of the right front leg.
And everything was clean.
Except if you squeezed on his suspensory — that hurt.
And he was still lame.
Every month the vet came by and they got Jack out of the stall to trot on the pavement. Still head-bobbing exactly the same as he had at the beginning.
Zero improvement.
And the vet would say, “Put him back in for another month.”
This is the kind of stuff that drives me crazy!
Excessive rest is never the answer – finding the underlying cause of the problem IS!
And this is where I came in:
I found that Jack’s right front leg was tremendously misaligned.
I was surprised he was moving as well as he was.
The point of his shoulder was twisted inward and elbow to knee was twisted outward. It was like he had stepped in a hole while turning.
His entire leg was twisted in a circle.
I was able to realign it using TBT (the Tucker Biokinetic Technique).
We walked him out and could see him “figuring out” how to walk straight again.
And he quickly got it.
His walk picked up speed and his ears perked up.
I wasn’t expecting any huge lameness change immediately.
But I couldn’t help myself.
I was super-curious to see, so we trotted him out.
He was totally sound!
I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it myself.
How is this possible?
Jack’s entire leg was twisted in such a way as to constantly strain the suspensory. It couldn’t work right. So much that his leg couldn’t track up properly.
And, the suspensory couldn’t rest, even when he was resting in a stall.
Once his leg was reset to normal alignment, then he could track straight, and the suspensory could work normally.
We did rehab Jack for eight weeks, just to make sure the suspensory was fully healed.
He’s been doing amazing ever since.
Jack’s case is one of several main cases that helped me figure out the true cause of suspensory ligament injuries.
Everyday, horses are resting and not riding, and not performing, and feeling sad, and they are not healing because they don’t need “rest.”
And anyone can fix them just like I did!
Want to learn how to do it too??
I’ve create an easy fun course to show you EXACTLY how to do the same for your own horse or horses you work on, learn more about it here:
It’s so important we get the true cause of suspensory injuries out (cuz the real cause is *not* the suspensory itself).
Want to learn to fix Suspensory Injuries Yourself? Check out our Save Your Suspensory Course: www.tuckerbiokinetic.com/Save-Your-Suspensory
We are looking for submissions for Dr. Tucker's "Featured Cases." If you have a puzzling case you want solved, we would love to post it to help others. Pictures needed, videos welcome. Email to support@wheredoesmyhorsehurt.com. Thank you.
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