Has anyone had a horse with a splint?

OH mare has one on her off-fore, no treatment - vet called out as slight lameness with no apparent reason but the forming splint didn't cause any heat and it couldn't be felt. She was unsound on it for a few weeks. She is totally sound on it now, though it can be clearly felt if you run your hand down her leg. Unfortunatly it came about as the result of a poorly balanced hoof, poor farrier was going through a bad time and his work suffered - for our mare this resulted in her splint. She is barefoot now and balances herself perfectly so no further probs thank goodness.
 
Splints are usually a sign of unbalanced feet and/or hard ground.

My little lad (not ridden now) had one past year during the very dry, hard spell. His feet are perfectly balanced and at the time was having the remedial farrier every 3 weeks usually with xrays.

Got rid of mine by putting arnica on twice a day for about 6 weeks-splint disappeared.
 
Both of mine have and never had any problems.

One came with quite a large one on his hind leg, i was competing in WH classes at the time so wanted to see if i could make is less noticeable. I got some splintex from America which was pretty much acid in a bottle. I used it for about 6 months (following the instructions as it's so many days on and then off etc). It made a tiny bit of difference but nothing much so i gave up.

Second horse developed one a few years back - not sure what he did whether it was in the field or while being worked but it just appeared one day - he was over due for shoeing at the time by about 1 week. He was slightly lame so on box rest for a few days and no problems since.

They've both competed at county level WH where they may (depending on the judge) been marked down on the confirmation but the open horse qualified for RIHS so didn't hold him back that much. They both now event.

Hope everythings ok
 
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My girl managed to break out (with her heard at the time) - and gallop about over the roads for a good overnight session with untrimmed feet (and all over a freshly prepared cricket pitch!!!) - in the middle of a hard summer - just before I got her.
Cue Splint on showing mare! DOH!

It was warm and unsound for a 10days or so, then hardened off and cooled down and she came to me - broke her in and havent had any troubles since. (touchwood!)

Im sure yours will be fine. :)
 
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Thankyou for your replies. The vet has said to box rest him for 6 weeks, he was in for a while with a tendon injury, when he was turned out again, the ground was very hard and even with him being knocked out he went absolutley mentle! Hence the splint!!! Silly boy! It will be 6 weeks next friday, im going to lunge and see if i can see any lameness, apparently it could take 6-12 weeks box rest, ive got my fingers crossed that 6 weeks is enough! Has any of the horses had a problem after they have gone sound? Is it something that could keep reacuring? x
 
Oh its good to hear that your horses havent had problems since!! And by the sounds of it 6 weeks is plenty enough time, he had the smallest amount of swelling possible but didnt really have any heat... Fingers crossed, thanks guys x
 
Ours didn't have box rest (rest the injury not the horse), and she is sound on it - no probs at all and is 100%. No probs at all since, though we are alot more uptight about keeping a close eye on trimming and making sure her feet are balanced for her!
 
Obviously you need to take your vets opinion in the first instance. However my rule of thumb is, if there is no excessive heat and no sign of lameness I wouldnt box rest. If you are showing, you might want to look at splintex. Never used it myself, but seems to have some success. Can be aggresive to the skin though.
 
I have handled a few horses that have had splints, none of them have ever been box rested because of it (a few of them would probably have made it worse by weaving/box walking etc). Still being turned out, cold hosing, arnica...and a tack shop even told us to use lemon juice! The horses had no problems with the splint at all. As Sprite said, obviously take your vets advice first....but if there is no sign of lameness and no excessive heat...then I would still turn out (so long as the ground is ok).
 
Penny, my 5y/o TB has a splint on her front left. When the previous owners got her, she already had it (as a 3 y/o). So it would have formed when racing... never had any problems with it at all. I always boot and bandage her up when doing polo just to keep it safe and padded as it's quite large.

Never been hot or anything, never been lame from it. :)
 
my horse got two last year from hooning around the field and jumping fences while turned out in the middle of summer. He didn't go lame but I gave him a week off work. No problems have resulted
 
Mine has thrown his a few times in the summer on the hard ground jumping out of fields and being a general prat.... have moved herds, yards and farriers now and hoping this will help for the coming summer! If there is heat I just cold hose and walk in hand until it is formed and no longer sensitive (normally a couple of weeks) with very limited turnout because he just re throws them if I turn out too soon after he has done them! Never had a problem at all in winter or when ridden, only ever when turned out when he jumped out, he now has bar shoes and gels on too so this should help.
 
That's made me feel better! He was 2/10 lame when he was diagnosed, the only reason he is on box rest is because he is a complete prat and runs around the field all the time, one little thing will start him off so we thought box rest would be best to help him heal, thanks all, we are going to trot hm up next Friday so I will keep u updated x
 
foraday said:
Got rid of mine by putting arnica on twice a day for about 6 weeks-splint disappeared.
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was this when it had hardened or when it was still soft?

interested as mine recently developed one, its awful but i didnt notice it until it had hardened (i think it may have arisen over christmas when he was on full livery and i was away visiting family, he was turned out on the frozen ground - i'm not blaming YM, completely happy with her services, but as he has poncy TB legs, the slightest knock/cut and his legs swell to elephant size, so she probably assumed it was just a minor knock)

I dont really want to try anything too invasive; he's not lame on it at all and its not like he's a show pony, he only gets used for prelim dressage and jumps no more than 2ft 9 indoors. But if something as simple as arnica could help then i'd want to try it.
 
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