Windgalls

[monkeybum13]

Just received a call from the owner of the mare I ride to tell me she has windgalls. I do not know much about them and was hoping some of you could shed some light on them. Will she be off work for a long time? Do they cause much pain? Etc
Last night I took her SJ at West Wilts however this was no more strenuous than other competitions as I do lots of ODEs with her so I do not know what has triggered them.

 

[alsxx]

I am no expert but windgalls are more of a blemish, a build up of synovial fluid.

Windgalls can affect horses, or I should probably say whatever is causing the windgall can cause lameness, and quite a degree of lameness at that.

For example my mare has tendon sheath synovitis, and as a result has a windgall (quite a small one actually), yet she is about 3/10ths lame on a circle on a soft surface.

On a lot of horses they are purely cosmetic, but on others they are a nightmare, as often the underlying issue is very tricky to treat successfully, and often flares up again.

 

[Birker2020]

My horse had terrible wingalls on his back fetlocks, they are huge and always there. However if he does a lot of work, on a surface or going for a hack they do go down. I put magnetic Bioflow boots on and they help as well. They are normally caused by concussion on the hard ground to start with. In its most simplistic terms from what I can gather they cause no real problems, but if the horse had never had them before and then suddenly develops them then this swelling is significant because its the body's way of saying that the horse has strained/overworked something, possibly to concussion - a bit like how we would get puffy ankles if we had gone over slightly on our ankle.

 

[loopylucifer]

mine had what i thought was a windgall (it was not very big) turned out to be damage to her tendons so far had surgary and 3 1/2 months off. so whilst in many cases they are just cosmetic if any sign of heat or lameness vet should check out to be on safe side.