my horse has slight limp

FarmGirl · my horse has slight limp

yesterday- After spending time with my horse all day and seeing him be perfectly fine until the evening, makes me wonder what is causing his limp. The only thing I can think of is an abscess. He has no swelling of the leg, no heat from his shoulder down, no temperature, and nothing stuck in his hoof. He has been barefoot for three years and doesn't have any problems, we do use boots when riding on the trail.

Today- he was fine, so I tacked up and my sister and I went out for a three hour ride. He was absolutely fine (it was a really fun ride

) until the last half hour on our way home. Then his limp returned. It isn't bad and if I wasn't so observant I wouldn't have even noticed it.

So my question is do abscesses come on rapidly? How long do they generally take to resolve themselves? And is movement helpful for them or should he be confined as to restrict movement?

Thanks!

Clarissa

Absesses come on slowly (24-48hrs) & stay for a long time(weeks/months) if not treated promptly!

Perhaps your horse has a stone bruise & occasionally he steps on a stone & hurts it again.

Is it always the same hoof? Does he have a bar that is laying over the sole a bit which to the horse would be like us having a small stone in our shoe.

The other thing that can happen is a tiny piece of cartalidge gets broken off in a joint & floats around in the capsule. Occasionally it gets trapped between the bearing surfaces so causing a lot of temporary discomfort until it is pushed out of the middle of the joint again.

Point of the shoulder, knees, hocks & fetlocks are prone to such injury from knocks & bad bumps or kicks from other horses. The joint may have a small amount of fluid present or be a tiny bit puffy or warm & sore with deep prodding from your thumb.

Sometimes it can be a muscle/tendon/ligament injury that just doesn't heal well enough before it is strained a little again.