July 2006

Get Ringbone Pain Under Control

Ringbone is one of the most frustrating lamenesses. To be successful, treatment has to occur along multiple fronts.

Each case of ringbone will be described as either high (pastern joint area) or low (coffin joint area), and by whether it involves the joint (articular) or not (periarticular). Traumatic ringbone may occur anywhere along the pastern. It’s important to make the distinction between the types of ringbone because this influences the prognosis for soundness with treatment.

X-rays can tell you exactly what’s going on in the horse’s hoof.

Our "Types of Ringbone" table (see above, right) lists the various types of ringbone and possible causes. Horses with club feet or upright pasterns are less efficient in distributing forces on impact and this jamming and jarring is hard on the pastern and coffin joints. Biomechanical studies have shown that the hoof wall and…