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[RC] rachitic ringbone? (semi-long) - Soli Sorokin

We recently picked up a yearling Tennessee Walking Horse colt as a
companion to the arab, and possible future "guest horse" (i.e. horse
with training wheels aka smooth gait;)

I noticed today  two hard, quarter to dime sized hard lumps on his
rear pastern, one on the outside, one on the inside. No apparent
lameness or tenderness or soft swelling, although he has six different
gaits (he has the walk-trot-canter PLUS his running walk, rack, and
pace) and for someone who has never owned a gaited horse, identifying
mild lameness can be difficult with all those different cadences. The
lumps are about two inches from the coronet band.

He gets free choice grass hay of medium quality and about 2lbs of
strategy morning and night.  He had been underweight with ribs showing
and protruding backbone/hipbone when we got him, and is looking
reasonable now, although not "plump" by any means. He lives in a 1/2
acre  paddock where he amuses himself by running circles around the
arab and destroying fence. He  tends to climb fences - seriously -
puts his hooves on the boards or bars and stands up on it- then tries
to vault over. He's succeeded a couple times. He's also gotten himself
hung on the fence a few times, but is completely calm about it, either
standing or laying there to wait for someone to detangle the fence
from him. But the legs usually tangled are the fronts, so I do not
think it is an injury from this type of mischief. (new fenced area
being completed shortly with electric fence - currently he is in
corral panels and wood board fencing).

It sure reminded me of ringbone when I first saw it, but after some
research I've found that it could be rachitic ringbone - something
I've not heard of before. We'll be heading to the vet's in the next
few weeks to get West Nile vaccines and new Coggin's pulled, and I'll
have the vet examine him at that time - but in the meantime - anyone
familiar with this condition and its treatment? A web search turned up
very little information.

I was thinking of using him as a guest horse in the future, perhaps as
a LD horse to introduce friends to the sport. Obviously, something
like this may not allow that.

Thanks,
Sheree

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