Ridecamp: Re: [RC] [RC] Trimming your own horse's feet

----- Original Message -----
From: "Rob" <haksaw@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: "k s swigart" <katswig@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>; "ridecamp"
<ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, July 08, 2002 4:29 PM
Subject: Re: [RC] [RC] Trimming your own horse's feet


> >Kat Swigert Wrote:
> >You cannot evaluate soundness in a dead horse....and....get
> >this....it is a serious mistake to think that it can be told how lame a
>
> >horse is by looking at the condition of the bony column and tendons of
> >its legs.

Amen to that, kat!

My foundation stallion Surrabu had a very nasty basilar sesamoid fracture
when he was 16.  We managed it conservatively, with a support wrap,
antiinflamatories, and a winter of daily passive flexion.  He had a bit of a
short stride in that leg after he healed, until he tore loose some adhesions
when he was 17, was lame for about a week, and re-healed completely sound
and with a much better range of motion.  I followed the fracture
radiographically until he was about 20, and it never fully calcified--just
had a fibrous knit.  The damage to the flexor tendons resulted in about a
two-inch "projection" of calcified material that went up through the tendons
and looked kind of like a skinny Christmas tree--REALLY ugly thing in
tendons on a radiograph....  This horse died sound, in his 20's, and at age
18 went back on the endurance circuit to Top Ten 5 rides, one of which he
won.  I'm sure that speculators dissecting his leg later would have assumed
that he was lame as heck.  I always joked that it was sure a good thing that
the Old Man couldn't read radiographs...

Heidi


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