My horse is a very sensitive and very opinionated thoroughbred. If something is not right, he will ALWAYS tell you.

For the longest time, he has had some discomfort/subtle pain in his back/hind end that we haven't been able to figure out. We've done stifle and hock injections, chiro, acupuncture, bodywork, has several saddle fitters out, the whole nine. He has always passed every physical exam and test his two vets have given him.

It's gotten so frustrating that I'm giving him a few weeks off work until we can figure something out.

Fast forward to today's vet visit. I was not there (BO oversees most vet checks at the barn) but I had the vet check his alignment and stifles and asked for xrays of the hind feet. The vet did several exams, like stretching, backing, acupuncture points, etc and all came back clean. He called me to discuss and I asked several detailed questions about his behavior during the exam, like did he kick when you picked up his back feet? Did he bring his legs around instead of backing straight up? Vet said no to all, he was totally normal, and that all those issues are probably just behavioral (basically I baby him too much). The vet said he did not think doing the xrays was needed.

Turns out both hind feet are at different negavtive plantar angles. He now has a special shoeing plan that the vet discussed directly with the farrier and we will be implementing it as soon as we have enough foot to work with (because of course he was just shod last week).

Moral of the story - trust your gut and listen to your horse!