Elizabeth Guastella

Distal tarsal osteoarthritis is known by many different names—bone spavin, jack spavin, blind spavin, juvenile spavin and occult spavin—but regardless of what you call it, the lower hock is the most common site for arthritis in a performance horse.

Several different options for treatment exist, including laser therapy, surgery and—the most recent innovation—ethyl alcohol injections. But how do you choose which one is best for your horse?

He’s officiated at every major horse show in the United States. He’s won championship honors at the National Horse Show and the Grand Prix of New York, but for James Arthur “Bucky” Reynolds II, horses haven’t been about accolades, so much as they’ve been a way of life.  

When you call the veterinarian to help you pinpoint the intermittent lameness in your horse, the last two words you want to hear are “suspensory injury.”

“Like tendons, suspensory ligaments can take a very long time to heal,” said Lisa Fortier, DVM, PhD, ACVS, associate professor of large animal surgery at Cornell University (N.Y.). “When the suspensory ligament does heal, re-injury is very common. Most people, when they hear their horse has a suspensory injury, have the same gasping response because there’s no quick fix.”

A little research and an open mind can make your next horse-buying experience a bit easier on your wallet.

The pre-purchase exam can be a confusing and stressful experience for the soon-to-be horse owner. Buying a horse is not only a large financial investment but also an emotional investment.

Just like buying a new car, conducting research ahead of time and familiarizing yourself with the pre-purchase process can save you anxiety and some hard-earned cash.

A wealth of new scientific evidence and good clinical results are making biological therapies the treatment du jour for horses suffering from osteoarthritis.

Watching your equine companion suffer from the pain associated with osteoarthritis can be difficult to witness and, until recently, nearly impossible to fully alleviate. But across the country, veterinarians are working to make that conundrum a bit simpler through research into the most cutting edge biological therapies, including cultured stem cells and interleukin-1 receptor antagonist protein, or IRAP.

She rides Castello to a repeat derby win with a last-minute plan.

Liza Towell Boyd didn’t quite know what to do for the second round of the $10,000 ASG Software Solutions USHJA International Hunter Derby at the Aiken Spring Classic Masters in Aiken, S.C., on April 18.

She was leading after the first round on Castello, but Gary Young and Chase Boggio had upped the ante with brilliant handy rounds and she wasn’t going to win by being careful. As she prepared for her round, she conferred with her father, Jack Towell, and her brother, Hardin Towell.

Solving control issues helps the California rider earn blue.

Hot weather didn’t slow down Kristi Nunnink and R-Star at the Twin Rivers Spring CCI**, April 17-19 in Paso Robles, Calif.

Despite past troubles with making the time on cross-country, Nunnink and R-Star were on fire at Twin Rivers, placing first in dressage with a score of 45.0 and retaining their lead throughout the weekend.

Learning how to identify and effectively monitor angular limb deformities in foals may help save you money while creating a stronger athlete.

More often than not, a foal has some degree of angular limb deformity at birth. But will the issue resolve itself naturally, or does it require assistance? Evaluating the degree of severity of the deformity within the first few weeks of the foal’s life helps an owner develop a plan for treating the afflicted limb.
   

Periosteal stripping is the primary surgical technique for angular limb deformities of the lower radius and tibia. During the surgery, the veterinarian makes an inverted T-shaped incision just above the growth plates on the shorter side of the bone and then peels away the periosteum from the bone at the site to encourage growth.