Re: RC: Michigan-don't knock it til ya try it

[Tivers@aol.com]

In a message dated 2/17/00 5:57:32 PM Pacific Standard Time, Eenergonzillen 
writes:

<<  My response to your "test" is that the horse may have gotten a muscle 
cramp.  Or maybe he tripped and twisted something and had to "walk it off".  
You said that the head went down when the left fore impacted.  This leads me 
to believe that the lameness was in the right fore leg.  
 well, I hope that answers your question.  If I didn't answer it correctly, 
please inform me....I'd like to hear what was wrong with this horse.   >>


Part right. The left fore is the sound leg. There were other hints you 
missed, though. The fit horse being tapered back to very light work is the 
perfect invitation to the tying up syndrome, which often begins with a 
shoulder episode. On those occasions, people often think that the horse must 
have stepped on something, or had a temporary mishap--perhaps even involving 
a floating chip. But the evidence becomes conclusive the next day, or the 
next, because then the hind end ties up and you have entered the full-blown 
syndrome and have a very difficult situation on your hands. 

The horse? A 5yo bay gelding named Hypothetical. At one time or another, he's 
had every problem in the book.  At one time, after some fast work on hard 
ground, he came up slightly lame on the left fore. I had just raised the 
angles of his front feet. My infrared thermography machine spotted a little 
heat about 3 inches below the knee, but behind the cannon bone--kind of 
between the cannon bone and the tendons. What do you think that turned out to 
be? And why?

ti