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[RC] rachitic ringbone? (semi-long) - Soli SorokinWe recently picked up a yearling Tennessee Walking Horse colt as a companion to the arab, and possible future "guest horse" (i.e. horse with training wheels aka smooth gait;) I noticed today two hard, quarter to dime sized hard lumps on his rear pastern, one on the outside, one on the inside. No apparent lameness or tenderness or soft swelling, although he has six different gaits (he has the walk-trot-canter PLUS his running walk, rack, and pace) and for someone who has never owned a gaited horse, identifying mild lameness can be difficult with all those different cadences. The lumps are about two inches from the coronet band. He gets free choice grass hay of medium quality and about 2lbs of strategy morning and night. He had been underweight with ribs showing and protruding backbone/hipbone when we got him, and is looking reasonable now, although not "plump" by any means. He lives in a 1/2 acre paddock where he amuses himself by running circles around the arab and destroying fence. He tends to climb fences - seriously - puts his hooves on the boards or bars and stands up on it- then tries to vault over. He's succeeded a couple times. He's also gotten himself hung on the fence a few times, but is completely calm about it, either standing or laying there to wait for someone to detangle the fence from him. But the legs usually tangled are the fronts, so I do not think it is an injury from this type of mischief. (new fenced area being completed shortly with electric fence - currently he is in corral panels and wood board fencing). It sure reminded me of ringbone when I first saw it, but after some research I've found that it could be rachitic ringbone - something I've not heard of before. We'll be heading to the vet's in the next few weeks to get West Nile vaccines and new Coggin's pulled, and I'll have the vet examine him at that time - but in the meantime - anyone familiar with this condition and its treatment? A web search turned up very little information. I was thinking of using him as a guest horse in the future, perhaps as a LD horse to introduce friends to the sport. Obviously, something like this may not allow that. Thanks, Sheree =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
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