4. Osteoporosis

My non – horsey friend asked me once if such a problem as an osteoporosis existed in horses and ponies. Osteoporosis is the decrease of bone mineral density resulting in very fragile and prone to fractures bones. Bone density is a measurement of the level of minerals in the bones. Osteoporosis (similar to people) doesn’t have any specific symptoms because the main consequence is obviously increased risk of actual breaking a bone in a situation when a healthy, normal animal wouldn’t injured itself. Osteoporosis is usually associated with deficiency of calcium, phosphorus or vitamin D in a diet (see the article about skeletal system) but it can also be caused by poor diet in general. Osteoporosis isn’t a common disease in horses and sometimes it may be hard to prove it. However there’s a disease called osteopenia which includes lower bone density but not so low to classify it as osteoporosis. It’s more common.

3. Skeletal system - structure

Last time I focused on emphasizing the importance of maintaining health of our horse’s bones even though they’re not so visible like let’s say muscles or coat. They create a strong framework of a horse’s body and actually knowing how they are ‘set up’ within body can help to understand our horses good sides, limits and potential problems. As I said before it’s impossible to move certain bones excessively to get in a result a horse with a perfect conformation, proportions and extraordinary movement. We can shape muscles but we need to stick to “a set of bones” we are given.

It’s really interesting knowing where bones are positioned within a body. I did lots of stable management lectures for children, teenagers and adults. Sometimes we went into bigger details. It was really surprising for me to find out that people believed horse’s cervical (neck) vertebraes are on top of a neck (just where crest is). Usually people also thought scapula (shoulder blade) was much smaller and when pointing it they usually stayed very careful with showing boundaries of that big, powerful bone.

By knowing how the skeletal system is built and where bones are positioned and possibly how big (or small) they really are, we can save ourselves problems with just to mention fitting saddles, bandaging (unbelievably lots of people believe all lower leg is built up with bones and they don’t care about the way of applying the bandage either stable or exercise one), grooming and talking to a vet.

I don’t push anyone to know the names and location of all of the 205 bones within horses body (unless you really want to!) but some basic knowledge may always turn up to be extremely helpful. There’s 37 bones in a scull, 54 vertabreas, 1 sternum, 36 ribs, 40 bones in a forelimb and 40 bones in a hindlimb including pelvis. We can divide skeleton into 2 parts: axial skeleton includes skull, vertabreas, ribs and sternum. Appendicular skeleton includes bones of forelimbs and hindlimbs.

Next time you go riding, check if you can locate these on a real horse easily (and remember them too):

Maxilla – upper jaw
Mandible – lower jaw
Scapula – shoulder blade
Humerus – arm bone
Radius – forearm bone
Cannon bone (metacarpus)
Cervical vertabrea – neck bones (7)
Thoracic vertabrea (18)
Lumbar vertabrea (6)
Sacral vertabrea (5)
Coccygeal vertabrea – tail bone (15-20)
Sternum – breast bone
Ribs – 10 true (attached to sternum) and 8 false (not attached)
Femur – thigh bone (the largest bone within horse’s body)
Tibia – leg bone

Facts to remember:

axial and appendicular skeleton
femur the biggest bone

Extremely useful bookhttp://www.amazon.co.uk/Horse-Anatomy-Pictorial-Approach-Structure/dp/0851317693

2. Skeletal system - introduction

Horse skeleton isn’t really something that would bother us in an everyday life. Set of bones put together in certain order, that’s all. We obviously start being more interested when let’s say injury, poor performance or problems with fitting tack occur. Why is it important then to know a bit about skeletal system of our horse even though an animal seems to be perfectly ok?

Skeleton system is vital. There’s approx. 205 bones to provide a good protection of internal organs and muscles within horse’s body and create a body structure (framework). Not to mention that they also support horse’s weight. Horse’s skeleton isn’t really something that we can easily change. We can affect horse shape by building up the muscles but we can’t directly change the shape or position of bones (just a quick word – in this case I’m excluding deformations, fractures or neglecting animals etc). We can make bones stronger and more resistant though. Poor bone quality will affect performance and horse wellbeing.

The basic and sufficient care for bones would include good stable management, sensible workload for a horse and providing enough calcium and phosphorus in a diet. We must remember that bone is a living organism and needs constant mineral supply. Therefore calcium and phosphorus are essential. Calcium can be provided by feeding leafy green foods like alfalfa. Phosphorus works closely with calcium and can be obtained from cereals. If you are concerned your horse isn’t getting enough minerals to support his skeletal system you may also add a limestone flour supplement to its diet. Remember to carefully read the label, not to overdose and if any doubts – talk to your vet.

You may find some limestone flour supplement online here:

http://www.baileyshorsefeeds.co.uk/whatproduct/supplements/lime.htm

http://www.naf-uk.com/products/detail.php?id=91

Facts to remember:

• approx. 205 bones
• protection, support, framework
• calcium and phosphorus are essential

1. Welcome

Welcome!

Recently I did think that nowadays it’s very easy to find nearly any sort of information we need about riding, training, stable management or veterinary care. Having a good amount of facts included in articles and on professional websites is obviously very valuable but sometimes I struggled with actually finding “real” people opinions and experiences about e.g. horse products, training aids, competitions etc.

Having a reasonably good experience of working in two competition yards, few riding schools, stud and livery yards in Poland and England, re – schooling race horses, bringing youngsters on, teaching beginners and competition riders, taking care of horses after serious injuries and surgeries I thought I could share my knowledge and show my point of view according to different available ways of dealing with problems. I’m going to try to present what actually works in a real life situation and what effects you as a horse owner or/and rider can expect.

Any questions are welcome.