the Neck
More Than a Pain in
Veterinarians pinpoint neck injuries as the cause of mysterious lameness issues.
“I had never had a horse with a neck problem before, and it just didn’t jump out at me as a possibility,” says Gabby.
By Tracy Gantz
Surprising Diagnosis Dr. Furlong referred Gabby and Cellina to Dr. Mark Mar- tinelli of California Equine Orthopedics in San Marcos, California. Dr. Martinelli and some of his colleagues have researched how a problem in a horse’s neck can translate to lameness, both in the forelegs and in the hindquarters. “We’ve found that a lot of these horses start getting
heavy on the forehand,” says Dr. Martinelli. “Sometimes the riders tell us that the horse resists lateral bending or is heavy on one rein.” Though Dr. Martinelli has seen neck problems in a vari-
ing into a World Cup-level jumper to the delight of her owner, Gabriella Salick of Thousand Oaks, California. Once in a while,
M
Cellina would stumble slightly on the fore- hand, but Gabby attributed it to the moder- ate incline on the path to her arena or simply one of those things a horse sometimes does. Gabby didn’t think she was dealing with a lameness
problem, and she certainly never would have zeroed in on Cellina’s neck as the culprit. “We had bought Cellina as a young jumper prospect,
and she was very talented,” Gabby says. “Over a period of about a year, she developed a little bit of front tripping, but it was so imperceptible. Then she started going with her neck stuck forward in an exaggerated way.” Cellina’s frame changed very slowly, yet she continued
to jump successfully in international classes and showed no typical lameness symptoms. Fortunately for Gabby, when her veterinarian, Dr. Brendan Furlong, came out for a routine call, she mentioned the stumbling issue. Dr. Furlong watched Cellina travel, conducted a lame-
ness exam, and told Gabby that while he didn’t think the mare had a lower-limb lameness, he thought she could be having a problem with her neck. The diagnosis surprised Gabby.
36 November/December 2013 Gabriella Salick and one of her current mounts, Gredo la Daviere.
any years ago, Cellina, a nine-year-old Holsteiner (by Coriall), was develop-
ety of breeds performing in many disciplines, the athletic maneuvers often asked of Warmbloods, particularly in the upper levels of jumping, dressage and eventing, can high- light a neck problem that might not show up in a horse do- ing lesser work. Dr. Martinelli examined Cellina and confirmed the neck
problem with a bone scan. He and his colleague, Dr. Norm Rantanen, treated the mare, and she was able to return to work almost immediately. “Dr. Martinelli had her for a few days,” says Gabby. “She came back and went right back into the sport. She was
Maurine L Webb
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