Arthritis is a major problem for horses. The size of the horse joint supplement industry reflects this. There are at least 50 different products out there-probably more. Supplements, however, are not magic bullets for horses. It's important to understand how joint problems get started in your horse, what you can do to prevent or slow their progress and how to manage joints in a kind and comprehensive way.
A number of things factor into the arthritis equation:
Conformation. You really can't do anything about your horse's conformation, but it is important when buying a horse and understanding what types of activities he may or may not be able to do without running into joint problems. We can't go into all the possible conformation faults here that affect horses, but some common examples are sickle hocks and offset cannon bones.
When viewed from the side, the cannon bone of a sickle-hocked horse slopes forward, rather than being perpendicular to the ground. This puts the horse's hoof and ankle, his base of support and major shock-absorbing region, too far forward, which increases the forces delivered to the hock. In addition, the forces along the front of the hock, where arthritic changes occur, increase. A sickle-hocked horse has a higher risk of developing arthritic hocks.
In the front legs, offset cannon bones mean that, when viewed from the front, the cannon bone is not positioned squarely under the knee but is shifted to the outside. This leaves the inside of the knee joint, where much of the weight is concentrated, without adequate support and is a risk factor for arthritis.
Protecting Joints
- Keep hooves well trimmed and balanced to prevent arthritis.
- Use exercise to keep joints mobile while being careful not to overstress arthritic joints.
- Slow arthritic progression by supplementing before extensive joint changes have occurred.
- Feed a loading dose of your chosen supplement until maximum improvement occurs.
- After the initial loading period, Experiment with lower doses to find the level that maintains the positive effect.
Trimming and shoeing. Although "corrective" shoeing used to be all the rage and is still practiced to some extent, the truth is that trimming, balancing and exotic shoes can't really fix anything. When there is pain relief, it is temporary and often comes at a high price.
The feet are the horse's base of support. It's important to avoid overstressing arthritic joints and prevent arthritis from developing by making absolutely sure the horse's feet are kept well trimmed and meticulously balanced. This is true regardless of whether the horse is shod or barefoot.
Imagine how uncomfortable, tiring and eventually painful it would be to try to move around all day with a lift under only half of your heel. Pain would develop from your heel to your hip. The severity of the problem will depend on how bad the imbalance is. But even slight imbalances change the way the joints are loaded and can cause trouble over time.
Stand in front of the horse and picture what happens if you put a piece of wood under either the inside or outside of the foot. On the side that is higher, the bones are forced closer together than normal, while on the lower side the joint capsule and ligaments are stretched. Both can cause inflammation and eventually arthritis.
To understand what happens to a horse with overly long toes and under-run heels, try walking with a sandal taped to your foot so that it extends an inch or so in front of your toes, leaving the back inch or more of your heel hanging over the back end of the sandal. You'll feel pressure across the heel at the edge of the sandal (translating to navicular-area irritation in the horse) and excessive pull/stretch in your Achilles tendon. You'll also feel ankle strain.
In a horse, heels that are too short or too high may cause abnormal forces in one of the most common and difficult-to-treat sites for arthritis-the coffin joint (articular ringbone).
