The 'Stay Apparatus'

The answer to Question 1 is simply this, a badly misaligned pelvis. With this, they often refer so much weight to the front end, which puts more stress on the shoulders and front legs, causing lamenesses.


Have you ever wondered how a horse can sleep and stay on its feet? Well here's your answer, the stay apparatus. The stay apparatus is a group of muscles, tendons and ligaments in the front and the back end of a horse that 'lock' the lower leg joints. It takes very little muscular effort to do this which allows the horse to sleep soundly while standing up. Amazing eh?
Sometimes the stay apparatus gets fatigued. Why? Mainly because 60% of the horse's weight is on the forehand (in the front end). Thats a lot of weight and pressure to be put on the front legs. On top of that, if the horse's pelvis is badly misaligned, they refer even more weight to the front. Old age or old injuries that have caused some arthritis can also fatigue the stay apparatus. So how do you tell? Well there's a simple way to check. Set your horse up, and for a few seconds just watch at the knees. Are they shaking? Wobbling a little bit? Sometimes you can see this and know that their stay apparatus is tired. Another way to check, is with the palm of your fingers tap the back's of the kness. When the stay apparatus is fatigued, their knees will buckle forward and depending on how light or hard a tap, you'll know how bad it really is.

Question 2: What may be wrong with a horse that has started to stumble and has no tail pressure?

Feel free to send me your own questions and I can do my best to help you answer them!