Horse with a Funny Hip

Question
I have a 5 year old Belgian draft cross that seems to have one hip higher than the other. When she walks it isn't very noticeable from the ground, but when I'm riding her I can feel her left hip swaying/rolling more than her right hip. At the trot it is very noticeable that the left hip goes higher than the right, and it almost feels like she has a three beat trot when the left hip comes up. Also, she tends to favor picking up the right lead when asked to canter, I don't know if that is because of the hip or because she is still learning, but I figured I might as well add it. A couple years ago she was kicked in her left hock and now has a capped hock, other than that she hasn't had any other injuries. I really don't know what is wrong with her hip, and I am debating whether or not to bring the vet out or if I should start looking for an equine chiropractor. Do you have any ideas about what the problem could be? And which do you think would be the best professional to call out? I really appreciate any help you can give me.

Answer
Chloe:

first off, getting a chiropractor involved before a daignosis is made is, in my opinion, not an appropriate sequence. You need a vet to first make a diagnosis and decide if there is a condition affecting the back for which a chiropractor is an appropriate choice to address. A chiropractor will only tell you about the back and will undoubtedly find something wrong with the back if the horse is not moving the right way. The problem is that more often than not that the back is a secondary manifestation of the primary problem.

Im not sure what you are referring to as the "hip". The hip is actually a joint and cannot be seen in the horse as it is underlying a huge amount of muscle in the upper hind limb. However, most people also refer to the tuber coxae as the hip in the horse. This structure is actually the wing of the ilium in the pelvis. It is commonly fractured when it is hit and it gives the appearance of one side being higher than the other. The affected side (fractured side) is actually "knocked down" relative to the normal side. This can be an old fracture that does not cause pain, but I would suspect that  the assymetrical appearance of the hip would have then been present for a long time and you would have noticed this. That is one potential explanation. Another explanation is that your horse is simply lame in a hind leg. When a lame horse in the hind leg trots, the limb with the lamemess exhibits a "hip hike" as a manifestation of the attempt to keep weight off of the lame limb when the limb is loaded in the ground contact phase of the stride. I recommend you get a good equine vet out to evaluate your horse for this and to determine why you are seeing what you are. good luck to you. feel free to contact me again with any further questions.