Re: splint -should I sell?

[Magnumsmom@aol.com]

Hi Teresa,

Not that you need any more than what Barbara wrote,
but I don't think a splint is worth selling a horse
over either.  Young horses often pop splints.  Very
few ever cause problems.  They have to do with the fine
bones left over from the horses evolution... one on
each side of the cannon.  Once they heal, the area is
stronger than it was... sort of spot welded.

Splints only cause soundness problems if they interfear
with a joint or a tendon... which very rarely happens.
If the splint is in the usual spot... right along the
side of a cannon bone in that grove... no way would I
give up on your filly.

I do treat them with DMSO to help with the local
swelling.  I just use the roll-on.

Both of mine have popped splints.  Magnum popped a big
splint after his first 50.  He was 14 at the time.  He
was lame on it for the first couple weeks.  I think it
had to do with him being a handful and the trails being
hard and dry, and the farrier putting 1/2 rounds on him
to help breakover (but then he didn't have the same
latteral support).  He was sound within a couple weeks,
but we gave him 7 weeks off and then another 7 under saddle at a walk.  It's 
barely visible now and hasn't
given him a bit of trouble since even when he was still doing 35mph around a 
140 acre pasture.

Blue just popped a small splint after this last 50.
Interestingly enough, same trail and same time of year.
He was, er, also a bit of a handful.  His is small and barely visible.  He 
hasn't been lame at all.

Blue also has an old splint.  It's never cause him any
problems.  He did all 200 miles of Death Valley before
I bought him from Jackie Bumgardener.

My conservative vet doesn't lose sleep over splints, but
he does suggest treating them conservatively.  6 to 8
weeks off and then back to work slowly taking some time
to run through a couple weeks of walk / light trot, a
couple weeks of moderate trot work, and then back to
regular conditioning work like any other layoff.

Not that you are working your 3 yo filly.  You might just give her an extra 
couple months before starting
her under saddle.

I was supposed to pen up Magnum in a flat pasture, but
he had other ideas which included tearing a deep hole in
his shoulder ($$$), working him self into a frenzy and
finally jumping the barbed wire fence.  So we just put
him back out into the 140 acre pasture with the rest of
the horses, let him be, and he healed up fine.  Magnum has many issues, but 
the splint isn't one of them.

:) - Kathy Myers
AERC#14492
in No. Cal. with Magnum the TB ex-racer
and Mr Maajistic... resident endurance Arab