My 4 year old Welsh pony, was in training with a driving trainer in Southern Pines NC, for 7 weeks. He has trained many horses and ponies to drive. Not sure what went on with my pony, but long story short. He drove her in the morning, put her in the stall while he worked another horse, came back to turn her out, she was acutely lame. Two vets have said it is Sweeny shoulder, which is nerve damage. Trainer told me she had been slightly off the week before, but he continued to drive her.
Pony is now at the vets barn on stall rest, she is to unstable to trailer the 4 hours home.
Has anyone dealt with Sweeny shoulder, has anyone heard of Sweeny shoulder being caused from ill fitting breast collar harness.?
Pony was pulling my light weight easy entry cart, and being driven in a breast collar style harness.
Pony has no evidence of soft tissue swelling from a kick or running into something, she did not come in from his pasture lame.
Vets have said it will be months of stall rest, pony might be sound, might not too.
Any experience with Sweeny would be appreciated.
Thanks
Laurel

Had one once. Horse ran off with a stone boat, the boat came to sudden halt, horse needed about a month off to get over it to where he could skid some logs. He was always cold shouldered after that, would not pull anything unless he could run off with it. Should have ate him but kept thinking he might be OK for some thing.

I do not know anything about your problem, but I hope you have a good outcome. For your information North Carolina State University Vet School has one of the top equine programs in the world. I would encourage you to seek their advice. Pinehurst has some good vets but the vet school has so much more available to them. They are less than an hour from Pinehurst

Southern Pines and Pinehurst are next door to each other.

I had a mare run off with me and the cart some 40 years ago. She hit a power pole with her shoulder hard enough to spin her around under the shafts, breaking the breeching straps. She damaged the nerve feeding the shoulder muscles, resulting in sweeney/atrophy of the shoulder muscles. Yes it was permanent. The impact was very severe. Sweeney would be caused by a too-low breast collar riding over the point of the shoulder where the nerve is fairly exposed. The same would happen with a too-large neck collar. It really IS a crap shoot whether recovery occurs. I really feel for you, and hope that your pony recovers nicely!

Barb

Have seen more and more cases of "sweeney'd" horses lately. A lot of people are too lazy or cheap to find a collar that fits. We have had excellent results with mineral supplements containing Magnesium.

It can happen. My Dad was doing chores for room and board in the 30's. A tug broke when the sling was about 15 feet off the rack. No decision other than get the teammate to pull as much as possible. Dang pup ate my glasses again. Spelling might be off.

I have seen a lot pics that show a team, one wearing a collar that fits and the other showing what appears the idenical collar and it looks like the animal could step through it. Either they don't know any better or they are too cheap to buy one that fits. Sometimes you hear the excuse, they aren't pulling that much of a load.
If you have to use one that don't fit while waiting for one to be shipped, at least pad it up the best you can with feed sacks so you don't hurt your horse.

Thank you all for your responses.
The pony was being driven in a Breast collar style harness, not a full collar and hame style harness.
I will be bringing her home next week.
Vet says that she is about the same, no worse, no better.
A Sweeny injury is so rare, that it is hard to find a vet that has dealt with one.
Was kind of hopeful that someone had had a horse with this type of injury, would like to know what worked for them, or didn't work.
Thanks again for reading.
Laurel