[ october 2019 | horseillustrated.com 37 ]A good physical exam is important, but it
can be misleading, too. Sometimes, a horse
with an obvious lameness does not respond in
any meaningful way to all of the poking, prod-
ding, and manipulation. On the other hand,
some horses respond to just about any sort of
poking, prodding, and manipulation, thereby
rendering such well-intentioned annoyance (to
the horse) somewhat meaningless.
For example, if a horse reacts to having the
base of his neck pinched, it’s possible that
could indicate some neck or shoulder sore-
ness. It could also mean that the horse doesn’t
like to have his neck pinched.
Such things are important to keep in mind,
especially when you’re confronted with unique
diagnoses based on a response to a horse
being poked at some special “point.” One of
the difficulties in interpreting the response of
horses to various stimuli is that they’re sub-
jective. If your horse is doing fine and some-
one tells you that there’s a problem based on
responses to such stimuli, don’t be too quick to
think that there’s a hidden problem.tHe HoRse IN MotIoN
After the physical exam, the horse is usually
examined in motion. In the field, this can betreatment
options
once your vet has come up with a diagnosis, there’s
still the cost of treatment. assuming that you can
find the cause of your horse’s lameness, there are
usually many, many possible treatment options.
From a scientific and biological point of view,
these can range from the sublime, that is, treat-
ments supported by good studies and data (oth-
erwise known as “the ones that you should be
inclined to use”), to the ridiculous (an extremely
long list).
if the cause of the lameness remains elusive,
the list of treatment options and opinions is virtu-
ally endless, and virtually guaranteed to make any
caring horse owner crazy—and poorer.
often forgotten is that when it comes to thera-
peutics, particularly with lameness, in most cases,
the most important tool in the toolbox is time. time
does heal many wounds, and if you’ve had a
good exam and determined that there’s not likely to
be a serious problem, there’s nothing wrong with
stepping back a bit to wait and see how things
turn out.Diagnostic nerve blocks
numb part of the leg
in order to see where
lameness is coming from.shelley Paulson