are there ANY horses that are 100% sound?

TarrSteps said:
One area that's really interested me is shoeing. I seen a fair number of horses with not particularly good shoeing jobs (sometimes just poor, but other times very odd aggressive) who eventually go lame . . . are they intrinsically unsound horses? Others have aggressive treatment for one thing which leads to a problem somewhere else . . . again, inherently unsound or victims of circumstances? There are legions of similar influences, from footing to riding practices.

Also, we have so many more diagnostic options available now and vets are hardwired to keep looking until they find something. I suspect some horses that come right with significant vet intervention might also have come right with a year off, with no one any the wiser to the specifics of the problem. (I'm not saying lame/ill horses should be turned away or that intervention isn't a good idea, just that when it was more common practice to wait and see, a surprising number of horses DID come right.)
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I have one that falls squarely into that catagory!!

My broodie arrived as a lame horse, but with a very aggressive farriery history - think feet pared right back, small shoes. She had been diagnosed with a coffin joint injury, and had haf 5 months of intensive treatment.

Shes been with me since March, and dare I say it....only shod 4 times - on advice of an excellent farrier, to allow her feet to grow and spread to bear weight better. Shes had no treatment other than her feet being done, and shes been out in the field since March.

She trotted up sound in August and has stayed sound since.
 
TarrSteps said:
All I'm saying, is don't assume a worrying diagnosis is necessarily a disaster. I do try not to be the patron saint of lost causes, but there are lots of things you can do to improve situations you won't ever be able to cure.
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^^ This ^^

I had a chat with my vet a while back, mainly about my horse, and he says he is of the opinion that people tend to get hung up on whether their horse is "sound" or not when what they should be looking for is whether their horse is happy. Mine has ringbone in his left fore. He dishes a bit on it on the road if it's downhill or uneven (country lanes where the edges have worn away, for example). You don't see it on a soft surface, ie grass or arena, and not on a fairly level hard surface. I only see it in walk, and not always. In trot he has just lost some of the movement he had in front so his stride is a bit shorter than it used to be. In the last couple of months, both my vet and physio have said they don't believe he is in any pain, he just has a slightly odd action which may be the way he has learned to move, or it may be that the RB has fused in such a way as to give him a slightly odd action (sometimes, on some surfaces). He has one Danilon per day, which isn't a lot for a 17hh IDx, and that is mainly to help his spavins (yes, my horse is crocked!). His action in front is the same whether he has no bute or three so I truly don't believe he is in any pain. Vet told me he is happy to do the job I ask of him so therefore keep going. Farrier tells me regularly that arthritic horses need to be in regular work, and TBH the more work he does, the happier he seems to be. He's had a few courses of Adequan over the last three years and his hocks medicated twice. Had Tildren twice this year which is great for about 3 months (after the 4-6 weeks it takes to kick in) but then it wears off.

I don't compete much and only at really low level if I do so don't really class as a competition rider. I might do the odd bit of DR (Prelim, occasional Nov if brave!) but he does school at home and does quite a lot of in hand work too. I'm a bit of a crap jockey but in hand he does a lovely LY, SI and we're just starting to develop his Travers. He will also hunt a few times this season - took him a week last Saturday for the first time in a couple of years and he loved every minute - and was sound afterwards. I know a fair few hunting people with technically unsound horses who still hunt them fairly hard.

The shortened version of this would be to say my horse isn't 100% sound but he's happy to do his job so I go by how he feels. Some days he can be stiff so we might just amble around the block. Other days he'll do a fast 2.5-3 hour hack. Some days he schools and we only do 15 min if he's stiff, others he does some basic lateral work, bit of medium trot. Nothing special but I think it's just a case of working within the boundaries of what your horse can do. I don't actually think mine has been as well as he is now for years! Have had to change his management a lot though, and I don't jump him anymore.
 
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Can i be awkward and say - i have one of each!! :p

My old boy, is 25 never had a day lame EVER! he's 13.2hh connie X slightly longer in the back, semi retired now, i.e. does 3 days a week hacking and schooling, but in the past has done all RC activities.

My younger boy, is NOT 100% sound, he's not lame, or sorry, happy to do what i ask of him, he has an unlevel trot especially where the road drops away, walk is fine, canter gallop jump and everything else fine! just this drop in trot that you feel sometimes.

Soufull - keep positive as TarrSteps said, its not necessarily a disaster ;)
 
Wot TarrSteps said :)
I had Antifaz for 3 years and he never took a lame step or showed any pain at all, despite being horribly shod and irregularly exercised before I got him. He has huge windgalls. Who knows what the future will throw up (he's now 12)
PF (TB) has only ever been lame on an abscess or splint. Does that count? She has much cleaner legs than Antifaz did, but then I've always looked after them.
LC (almost 3) went a bit sore in the back end when he was gelded, but I suppose that's only natural ;)
 
CrazyMare said:
I have one that falls squarely into that catagory!!

My broodie arrived as a lame horse, but with a very aggressive farriery history - think feet pared right back, small shoes. She had been diagnosed with a coffin joint injury, and had haf 5 months of intensive treatment.

Shes been with me since March, and dare I say it....only shod 4 times - on advice of an excellent farrier, to allow her feet to grow and spread to bear weight better. Shes had no treatment other than her feet being done, and shes been out in the field since March.

She trotted up sound in August and has stayed sound since.
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I think there are a lot of stories like that.

A friend has a horse that was diagnosed with a couple of issues last year so they decided to breed her (not as insane as it sounds, as she is very well bred, graded and has spent a lot of her life being very badly looked after so there was reason to believe the issues were injury more than inherent weakness) after only limited success with special shoes, medication etc.

So she's been standing in a field with her shoes off for a year. She didn't catch so is now back in work, still unshod and, knock wood, sound, at least for her hacking job. Interestingly, the minute the horse appeared back in the yard everyone just assumed she would be shod again and vet and farrier said she'd never stay sound without. . . .

And again, my disclaimer, I'm not saying don't do the supportive stuff. If the horse above was supposed to go competing again, she might very well need more aggressive management. But for now, she's sound on her own so my gut says leave her be. If you saw her today you'd say she's remarkably sound for a horse with her history, if you saw here a year ago you would have said she was crocked.
 
I think that people are too quick to fly off the handle with lamenesses & their various wacky backy diagnostics.
When in actual fact most things could be sorted with the right Physio, farrier, a good fitting saddle& the right exercise/ training scheme.
Its all the little parts of the big picture that have to be made to fit together.
The trouble is finding the good farriers and physios
 
... have the wrong farrier & Physio & hey presto your horse is at the vet clinic & has been diagnosed with XYZ.
Not in all cases, of course- I do accept that there are genuine cases of problems but when you start to hear of 100's of horses being written off you do start to wonder!
Also agree that in the cases that a horse has been diagnosed with something, people need to listen to the horse in what it says he can and can't cope with, not just assume its
 
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