The Mystery of the Horse That Won’t Go Forward (And How to Solve It)

Look, if you’ve got a horse that refuses to go forward, I know exactly what you’re thinking right now…

“Just tell me the answer already!”

Fair enough.

Here it is:

The three most common causes for horses that won’t go forward are saddle fit, sternum misalignment, and ulcers.

Could be any of those three. In no particular order.

But here’s the thing…

Knowing the answer and actually figuring out WHICH one is causing YOUR horse’s problem? That’s where it gets tricky.

And that’s exactly what I want to walk you through today.

 

You Don’t Learn This Stuff in Vet School

There’s no class on “Horses That Won’t Go Forward 101.”

You have to think it through. You have to be a detective.

And I’m going to show you exactly how to do that by sharing a real case from my practice.

 

The Case of Steve and His Stubborn Warmblood

Once upon a time, I had a client named Steve who owned a warmblood gelding.

Steve called me up because his horse would not go forward.

Now, I don’t hear that very often. Usually it’s more like “reluctance to go forward” or “doesn’t really want to work.”

But Steve was crystal clear: The horse won’t go forward. Period.

 

Always Ask Questions FIRST

So I show up, and Steve’s got the horse all tacked up and ready to go.

“Hi, Doc. I have the horse ready so you can see what he does for yourself.”

That’s cool and all, but I stopped him right there.

“Can I have five minutes to ask you some questions first? I like to ask questions before I look at the horse so I don’t prejudge things.”

 

Here’s the key to being a detective: Ask the questions.

Based on those three probable causes I mentioned, I asked Steve questions that would help me narrow things down:

“When did this start?”

“Last week, Doc.”

“Was it sudden, or were there hints of it before?”

“Well… now that you mention it, he’s been hard to go forward for a couple months maybe. But you just kick him into it and then he’s fine. Now he won’t go at all.”

Okay, so it’s been gradual. Not night and day. That’s helpful.

“Is it only when you ride the horse?”

At this point, Steve—who was super tall, like 6-foot-something—looked down at me (I’m pretty short) with this look on his face like, “Are you an idiot?”

I caught that look.

“Steve, I just want to know… can you lead the horse out of his stall and back? Is he fine for that?”

“Okay, Doc, yes. That’s all fine. It’s only when you ride him.”

Perfect.
 

A few more questions:

• Is he annoyed when you tack him up? Nope, he’s fine.
• Any tack changes? New saddles, pads, girths? No.
• New riders? Still just me.
• What have you tried already? Rest for 3-4 days. Then Bute (strong anti-inflammatory) for 2-3 days. Nothing changed.

 

If a horse won’t go forward, be sure to rule out saddle fit

With just those questions, I’d already ruled out saddle fit.

Why?

• Still the same rider (so same load on the saddle)
• No changes to saddle, pad, or girth
• Horse was fine with this setup for quite a while
• It’s been gradually getting worse

That’s more than likely not the saddle.

Crossed off the list.

That left me with sternum misalignment and ulcers.

 

Watching the Horse Go (Or Not Go)

Then I watched Steve’s horse, and it was really quite stunning.

Steve got on and gave him a little squeeze.

Nothing.

He even gently tapped him with the crop a couple times.

Still nothing.

But here’s what was curious…

The horse would back up. Forever.

The horse would also go laterally.

He just would NOT go forward.

Fascinating.

 

How to Think Like a Detective

So how would I know what the top three causes are in the first place?

Like I said, it’s not in vet school.

You need a little knowledge of anatomy, sure. But mostly you just need to put on your thinking cap and ask yourself:

What does the horse have to do to go forward?

I know, I know. Sounds like a stupid question.

“The horse uses his legs, Renee. What the heck?”

Yes, the horse uses his legs. And we already know the legs aren’t broken, so we can rule that out.

But think about what else the horse has to do when carrying a rider .

Because he can be led back and forth with no problem. But carrying a rider? Not so much.

 

Put Yourself in the Horse’s Place

Imagine carrying a heavy backpack.

Not super heavy where you have to bend over, but heavy enough where you feel it—20 or 30 pounds depending on your size.

What happens immediately?

• Your back muscles tighten up
• Your abdominal muscles tighten up
• You feel it around your shoulders where the straps are

Same thing for the horse when they’re carrying a rider.

Their back muscles tighten up. Their abdominal muscles tighten up.

And there’s the “strap”—which would be the girth—right across the sternum.

 

Horse’s that won’t go forward may have a misaligned sternum

The sternum is that breastbone of the horse. The bottom center of the barrel, right where the girth goes across.

So when a horse has to walk forward with a rider, they have to:

1. Tense the back muscles
2. Tense the abdominals (which squashes the stomach a little—try it yourself right now)
3. Deal with pressure from the girth on the sternum

That’s why those are the three things I look for.

Horses that won’t go forward may have ulcers

If a horse has ulcers, the stomach has ulcers all the time.

But when you squash it (because you have to tighten your abdominal muscles to go forward), the ulcers get agitated.

The horse acts up because going forward hurts.

Now, most people think of ulcers and imagine a really severe case:

• Black poop
• Angry expression
• Grinding teeth
• Not eating properly or eating frantically

Those are when ulcers are really bad .

But a horse can have mild to moderate ulcers and still refuse to go forward.

 

Back to Steve’s Case

So I checked the sternum alignment.

It was fine.

That meant Steve’s horse had ulcers.

And here’s something important: When a horse has ulcers, their whole system is only interested in fixing the ulcers.

They don’t care how the bones are misaligned.

If I ever run into an ulcery horse, I tell the owner: “You need to treat this horse for 30 days with ulcer treatment and get back to me.”

There’s just no point in trying to align a horse with ulcers.

 

The Solution

Steve did the ulcer treatment I recommend (you can find that in my ulcer report.

And then the horse was fine.

I didn’t even need to come back.

He was perfectly fine going forward once the ulcers were resolved.

 

How to Check Your Horse’s Sternum

You might be wondering, “Well, how do I check the sternum?”

That’s covered in my book, Where Does My Horse Hurt?

It’s also a free video in my Taster video series.

So you can check your horse for sternum alignment yourself. Pretty cool.

 

The Bottom Line

If your horse isn’t going forward, you’ve potentially got:

• Saddle fit issues
• Ulcers
• Sternum misalignment

How do you figure out which one?

Ask a lot of questions to rule as much in or out as you can.

Then do some basic checks, like the sternum alignment check.

Most importantly, just keep asking questions.

Because there’s always an answer out there.

 

Podcast Transcript

Renee (00:00:01.9900)
Hello, friends, and welcome to today’s version of Horse mysteries Solved. Today, we are going to talk about the horse that will not go forward or is very reluctant to do so, and also how to be the detective who solves that problem. So if you have a horse who won’t go forward and you want to know the answer, I’m sure you want it right now. So you know what? I’m going to tell you. The three most common causes for horses that won’t go forward are saddlefit and sternum misalignment and ulcers. In no particular order, could be any of those three. Okay. So if you stick with me, I’d like to talk through a case and how First of all, how would I know those are the top three causes? And then how do you rule those out? Because let me tell you, you don’t learn those top three causes in vet school. There’s no class on that. You have to think through it. So I’d like to share that with you so you know how you can think through it, too. Okay. Once upon a time, I had a client named Steve, and he had a warm blood gälting.

Renee (00:01:09.72000)
So Steve called me because his horse would not go forward. Now, I don’t hear that very often. Usually, it’s reluctance to go forward or the horse doesn’t really want to work. But Steve was very definitive. The horse won’t go forward. So I show up, find Steve, and he comes over to me. He’s like, Hi, Doc. I have the horse ready. He’s all settled up to go. So you can see what he does for yourself. Well, that’s unusual to have the horse all settled up, but that was cool. But I did say to Steve, Okay, Steve, that’s awesome. But can I have five minutes to ask you some questions. I like to ask questions before I look at the horse, so I don’t prejudge things. So Steve understood that, and he’s like, Okay, cool. So I asked Steve lots of questions. And the key to being a detective is asking the questions. And so based on what I’m thinking for those three probable causes, I try to think of questions that would go along with that. So I said, When did this start, Steve? Well, Doc, that started last week. Okay, cool. So all of a sudden, or do you think it had any hints of that?

Renee (00:02:26.84600)
Well, Doc, now that you mention it, I think Yeah, he was hard to go forward for a couple months, maybe, but you just kick him into it, and then he’s fine. Okay, so it’s been a little bit gradual, not night and day. He’s like, No, now that you mention it, it’s been there for a for a while. Just now, he won’t go at all. So that’s very helpful information. Then I asked him, Well, is it only when you ride the horse? Now, at this point, Steve, who was very tall, 6 feet something, He looked down at me because I’m pretty short, and he had this look on his face like, Are you an idiot? And I caught that look. I was like, Steve, I just want to know, can you lead the horse out of his stall and back? Is he fine for that? He’s like, Okay, Doc, yes, that is all fine. It’s only one you ride him. Okay, so I asked him a few more questions such as, Is he annoyed when you tag him up? He said he’s fine. And he knew tack change, saddles or pads or girths, anything like that.

Renee (00:03:38.45000)
He said, no. He says, Are there new riders? It’s still just you. Yes, it is. And then he wanted to know, what has he tried already and how did that work? And Steve said that he had tried rest. I thought maybe he’s just muscle sore. Fair enough. Came three, four days off, but he was the same. Then he tried some Butte. That’s a very strong anti-inflammatory for you guys aren’t familiar with that. And he said, gave him two, three days of that, and that didn’t change anything either. So with just those questions, I’ve ruled out the saddle fit. As you said, it’s still him riding, so it’s not a different load on the saddle. He didn’t change the saddle or the pad or anything like that. And the horse was fine for quite a while with this saddle since he’s been using it this whole And then it’s been a gradual getting worse. So that’s more than likely not the saddle. I rule that out of my mind. Okay, so that leaves us with sternum misalignment and then the ulcers. Now, at this point, I did watch Steve’s horse go, and it was really quite stunning, really.

Renee (00:04:54.34200)
Steve got on the horse and give him a little squeeze, and he didn’t go. He refused to go. Steve even showed me gently, okay, it wasn’t a big deal. He hit him lightly with the crop a couple of times. Nothing. But the horse would back up. The horse will back up forever. The horse will also go laterally. He will not go forward. It’s so curious. So this leads into, how would I know in the first place what the top three causes are? Like I said, it’s not in med school. So So what you want to do is have a little knowledge of anatomy here, and I’ll share that with you. But you also just want to put on your thinking cap and say, Well, okay, what does the horse have to do to go forward? I know you’re thinking that is a stupid question. Okay. For the horse to walk, he uses his legs. Renee, what the heck? Okay, listen. Yes, the horse uses his legs, and we already know the horse’s legs are not broken, so we can rule that out. But you want to think, what else does the horse have to do when he’s carrying a rider?

Renee (00:06:06.4500)
Because he can be led back and forth with no problem, but carrying a rider, not so much. So think of it like this. And you would figure this out by trying to use your imagination, put yourself in the horse’s place to feel it out. If you think of carrying a heavy backpack, so not super heavy, so you got to bend over carry it, but heavy enough where you feel it, 20, 30 pounds, depends not, of course, on your size, but a heavy backpack. Well, immediately you feel it and your muscles tighten up in your back and in your abdominals, and also you feel it around your shoulders where the straps are. Okay? You can probably imagine that. So for the horse, when they’re carrying a heavy backpack, which would be a rider, their back muscles tighten up, their abdominal muscles tighten up, and there’s the strap, which would be the girth in this case, right across the sternum. So the sternum is that breastbone of the horse. It’s the bottom center of the bear, right where the girth goes across. I know the girth goes across the whole middle of the bear, but I’m talking about the center.

Renee (00:07:21.36000)
There’s a center bone there called the sternum. So that’s why I think, what does the horse have to do to walk forward forward with a rider? They have to tense the back muscles, tense abdominals. And when you tense your abdominals, you can even try it yourself just right now, however you’re standing, even laying down. If you tense your abdominals, you squash your stomach a little bit. It doesn’t matter if you’ve eaten or not eaten. It still gets tense around the stomach area. And then, of course, with the girth being on the sternum, that might be affecting that. Those were the three things that I looked for when horses wouldn’t go forward in my history of being a holistic veterinarian. And what I found is it’s true. It’s either ulcers because the stomach that’s going to have ulcers the whole time, but when you squash it because you have to tighten your abdominal muscles, they start getting agitated, and the horse will act up because when he goes forward, he’s got to tighten the abs and it hurts. Same with a sternum misalignment. There’s been plenty of times horses have been super girthy, for example, and all you have to do is straighten the sternum out and the horse is fine.

Renee (00:08:43.34200)
So things can be confusing, but it’s just step by step asking a lot of questions because there’s many variables, but you can get rid of variables by asking more questions, even the dumb ones, like how does a horse walk forward? Okay. So what the next thing I did with Steve’s case is checking the sternum, because with Steve, we had either the sternum was misaligned or the horse had ulcers. No other signs that Steve had noticed about ulcers. I will say that most people think of ulcers. They think of a really, honestly, severe case where the horse has got bad ulcers. They have black poop, and they have an angry expression, and they might grind their teeth, and they might eat their food or they eat their food. They try to eat. It’s just they’re not right with their eating. They’re not comfortable and relaxed. People think of those things. Those are when the ulcers are really bad. Okay? So the horse can have mild to moderate ulcers and not want to go forward. Okay, so in Steve’s case, all I needed to do was check the sternum alignment, which I did, and it was fine.

Renee (00:09:55.67500)
So Steve’s horse then had ulcers. That was the first thing we did. I didn’t even bother aligning the horse. You know why? Because when a horse has ulcers, their whole system is only interested in fixing the ulcers. They don’t care how the bones are misaligned. If I ever run into an ulcery horse, I say, I’m sorry, you need to treat this horse for 30 days with ulcer treatment and get back to me. And that’s what they do because there’s just no point in really trying to align a horse with ulcers. So Steve did the ulcer treatment that I recommend in my ulcer report. That’s a PDF report that’s available. I’ll put the link in the description. Okay. And then the horse was fine. I didn’t even need to come back. He was perfectly fine going forward once the ulcers were taken care of. All right. A couple of things. You might wonder, well, how do I check this term? Okay. That is in my book, Where Does My Horse Hurt? It is also a free video in my Taster series of videos, I’ll link below. So you can check your horse for sternum alignment. Pretty good.

Renee (00:11:05.18900)
So that’s in summary, if a horse isn’t going forward, you’ve got saddle fit potentially or ulcers or sternum misalignment. And how you figure that out is ask a lot of questions to rule as much in or out that you can, and then do some basic checks, like the sternum alignment check, and figure it out from there. Most importantly, just keep asking questions because there’s always an answer out there.