Does your horse have windgalls?

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only_me

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Was wondering how much windgalls affect performance and if they are an indication of a weakness in the tendons.
 
Hi my pony lucy has windgalls to be proud of! They don't effect her at all we compeat mainly in endurance we do rides of up to and including 80km. We also do hunting, dressage, jumping and showing. They have never effected her and she gets away with her windgalls as she is 19 years old.
 
My highland gets them but only when he gets chased around the field or the hunt are close. They have never affected him and although I clicked "happy hacker", he is now 17 and doesn't compete. We used to do showing, fun rides and long distance rides.
 
My girl has them on her hind legs - and a puffy spot where she damaged her tendon sheath. Shes 17 and competes in showjumping mainly.

Hers are very small now, and they came up when she was about 13/14.

They don't bother me or her and haven't caused a days lameness.
 
We have wingalls on the hind legs - they came up while she was in the riding school and they never bother her.

We show and I just grew her feather to disguise them.
 
My girl has windgalls on her hinds. They tend to come up more if the ground is hard, and go down a lot if the weather is cold. When we had all of the snow this winter, they pretty much disappeared when she was turned out.

I think they probably are a sign of some weakness - otherwise why would she have them? Hers came up about age 5 - no obvious trigger. However they never seem to cause a problem (apart from making me stress about them) so it wouldn't put me off buying a horse that had them, if it ticked all of my boxes in other ways.
 
my horse has got them on all legs. i don't know when he got them but i assume it when he was over worked in germany as a baby, he's never been lame with them though. he had a 5 stage vetting when i bought him and they're just added as another exclusion on insurance.
 
Soap has developed 'occasional windgalls' this season on his front legs. If he stands in they fill up more so on the left fore than the right, and not at all on the back. After walking out for 10mins they have drained and he is back to normal. I was told by my vet that they are down to old damage which being an exracer he probubly has lots of, but they do go away with cold hosing/cold weather/walking. It is just standing in his box that brings them on.

My old tbx eventer had windgalls so bad his joints looked almost square! I bought him like that AND he failed a 5 stage!!! (not because of wg's) He went on to event up to PN and do sch and rc teams and was the best most honest little horse I ever had, so for his efforts he is now living the life of riley munching his days away in the paddock
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I think I would be slightly concerned by a horse with them at say 5 or 6 but it wouldn't put me off.
 
My horse has them on fronts only. He developed them as a 7yo after a particularily hard-ground summer (I dont have an arena, just paddock to ride in so not ideal even though I limited any fast work!), and he has a high leg action in front so quite a lot of concussion I guess. Theyve not caused any probs at all so far. Im very careful to cool them after competitions though. We've done CIC* and 1.20 BSJA.
 
I bred my mare and she has pretty much always had them, they never seem to change in size or appearance and nothing i do make a difference to them. She has never ever been overworked, quite the opposite
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I tend to agree with Milliepops about the weakness thing although in my experience they have never caused me probs (touch all the wood around!), my mares mum had them and they never caused a problem and one of my other brood mares has them and so do her offspring. An hereditary weakness of some sort maybe??
 
My gelding has an enormous windgall on his near hind. Apparently he developed it when he was about two, vet thinks he must have suffered some kind of trauma at that time.

Other than not looking great (although with dark legs you can't really spot it, especially when he's moving) it doesn't affect him it all. He doesn't favour one leg more than the other and doesn't show any other signs of weakness.

I'd rather he didn't have it, but in the scheme of things, it could be worse!
 
My home bred boy has a windgall on the left fetlock and he's got arthritic changes in that fetlock (aged 7). I therefore believe in his case the windgalls are there for a reason, his developed at about 3yrs I think. I put yes to did they cause lameness but I think they are because of his issues and not causing them.
 
My boy windgalls on 2 legs, he is 10. I only bought him in march and he had them when i bought him and it didnt put me off. I did have 5 stage vetting and xrays done thou. He is a showjumper and has jumped from a 4 year so think it was not surprising that he had them. He has sjumped up to 1.20 and doesnt seem to have effected him in any way, and since i have had he done sj and some xc and i dnt notice them increasing after hard work. Think its just a result of working on hard ground.
 
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