Not sure about your problem. I would be interested to know what others say. My gut feeling is that your horse could have had a bit of a back or hip/leg injury on that side which has caused the problem. Maybe worth getting a physio or chiro to check him out. As far as I know the over stride only occurs in walk and it is may be used as a sign of their physical fitness and athleticism hence a horse that has a good overstride is often sought after in the markets. If he over strides for you evenly on both hind legs then it seems his back should be OK - so maybe its his hip or leg joints that is causing problems on that side.

Thanks Maggie
I have had him checked out and the physio did say his back was a bit out and she manipulated his hind legs to put it back in. That was now nearly 3 years ago though. He used to have hassle picking up that near hind for hoof cleaning too ever since i got him as a 2 yr old. He has been better since she worked on it though. I will measure his strides today. I am going to get his back re checked again though. Otherwise he seems ok, although occasionally when I get on he rounds his back for a short while before settling. Will keep you posted. Many thanks and have a fab day.

Helene;

The problem you have here is virtually impossible to address without actually being on site. As Maggie says, it could be anything from a stifle injury to a back or hip injury....Its an expensive call, but at least it is 100% accurate, and that would be to have a thermographic imaging done of the "whole" horse. At least that would certainly identify all "pertinent" areas excluding any bone injuries of course. At least then you will know in absolute terms.
Its (possibly) quite telling that he showed some discomfort as early as 2?

Good luck.
Paul

Helene;

I just checked, and one possible avenue would be to buy your own thermographic imaging camera. I intend to buy one this summer for use in farriering. Used ones are available at around $1,000.00 USD. It will probably cost you very close to that, what with trucking and so on unless you can have the image tech come to your home? I'm going to stick my neck out here and opine that I think you are dealing with more that one issue here. The thermal will let you know, as I said, with 100% accuracy.

Cheers.

Hi Helene

I agree with Paul, it could be absolutely anything and without seeing it happening it is really difficult to say whether its congenital, overcompensation/adaption for rider error, injury, habitual or whether it is not an issue at all and just a little quirk! :-) As well as above suggestions I would say an equine physio might be able to help,they have immense anatomical knowledge. One thing I will say, many horses are better at 'going left' because thats the side we tend to do everything on and being creatures of habit we tend to work on the easy side. If a horse goes well on the left and less well on the right and you work 50/50 either side then you will continue to get the same thing! However, worse still, many people work 80/20 with most work being on the left side because its easier so horse can really struggle with musculature issues as he is so out of balance. I suggest you longline/work 20/80 for a while i.e. put more work into developing the right side so that it catches up and you have a balanced horse (bearing in mind any outcome of further examination for his 'dishing' type problem)and then 50/50 whe you have a 50/50 horse. Paul has far mor expertise than I on anatomical matters - what do you think about this strategy Paul? Do you also find this happening?

Thanks a lot for the comments. I hacked him out today and am now convinced he has discomfort. We went for a canter and he just didn't feel like he was comfortable and kept wanting to go back to trot. I am certainly going to look into the thermographic camera idea. I need the peace of mind. We have very limited vet care here being in such a rural area in southern africa but i can't bear the thought of asking him to work if he is in pain. I am praying it is not something serious and can hopefully be helped with stretching and adapting his work routine etc. Holding thumbs. Thanks a mil!

Good luck over there. Something else to look onto is someone that studied acupuncture. That is an avenue to explore, and I can tell you from personal experience that horses can respond amazingly well to it.
Another rather simple thing to do is to measure his hoofs to check for balance. If he is out of balance, and has been for some time, that causes discomfort too.

Thanks lost soul. Please could you elaborate. How do I do that? I had the vet out today, who has quite a lot of experience working on the race yards in S.A along side equine physios. He checked Frodo out, flexing his legs, feeling his back and we trotted him up and down. We found he had a mildly sore toe from the farriers visit the day before which we thought must be why he was not going so well on the hack. I should have thought of that. He was quite happy with the horse and recommended stretching and building up back muscle and see if this helped. I was very relieved nothing serious jumped out. He is a little "cow hocked" so this could also explain his funny way of going here and there. I will keep a close eye on him. Thanks for the advice.

Ok I have just seen the video about measuring the hoof for balancing thanks:}