East-West Arena Construction Blog

Horse lameness is probably one of the most frustrating things one faces as an equine owner. Nearly every horse will at some point or another go lame, and it can often be frustrating to figure out why. In the world of lameness, a few ounces of prevention can be worth several pounds of cure. Here are a few factors to consider when trying to prevent lameness in your equine partner.

Horse lameness is something every owner dreads. Nothing makes your heart sink faster than going into the barn, greeting your equine charge, and then noticing as you lead him out of the stall that he just isn't moving right. Maybe he's limping, favoring one leg, or there's something off with his rhythm. He's lame, but the good news is that more often than not you can do something about it.

Horses literally spend almost all their lives on their feet. Except for brief periods of laying down during certain sleep stages, they even sleep on their feet with legs locked.  For an average-sized horse when standing still, each foot sustains 25 pounds per square foot (psi) of pressure continuously. When galloping, the horse sustains about 500 psi on the feet. That is slightly more than the pressure on a woman's stiletto heel and more than ten times the pressure on an elephant's feet. Because of the small size of the weight-bearing portion of the foot and the half-ton weight of the average horse, equine lameness is a significant risk.

The type of footing a horse is worked on is a major contributing factor to whether the horse will stay sound. One study of dressage horses found that the evenness of the surface was vitally important in preventing injuries. Wood chips were the most dangerous because they could never be turned into a completely even surface. Pure coarse sand was also dangerous because it rapidly became an uneven surface as horses worked on it. 

Many people think of lameness as just something that happens, but most cases of lameness are preventable. Even injuries that seem to be the result of uncontrollable events can often be traced to errors in basic horse management. Preventing lameness starts from the ground up.