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I think it is more prevalent in areas of the American West because of 
high alkaline content of the soil. I live in the great sand bar known as 
Florida. I like in the Florida sand hills to boot. I ride and train in 
sand - from hoof deep to knee deep. The only horse we have had that got 
scratches was one with two white feet (pink skin ) and the backs of his 
pasterns got sun burned. Once we starting putting sun screen or bell 
boots on him - no more scratches. There is very few places in the US as 
hot and humid for as many days a year than Florida.

The fungus - actually the organism is a somewhere between a fungus and 
bacteria - is always there in the soil. When the skin get compromised it 
can get in. Skin can get compromised because it dries out - semiarid 
West with alkaline soil, because of sunburn, because I expect of insect 
bites. I also expect some horses are more prone to reacting to the 
organism than others.

Truman

Maryanne Gabbani wrote:
> This is a really interesting topic, Angie. I've been wondering about 
> scratches for years because our horses live on sand, work in sand, and 
> I've never seen a case in 20 years of riding here. I did slide down 
> some sand dunes in Death Valley when I was about 12 and almost died 
> from the itching that the chemicals in the sand caused...I suspect 
> that is a very special case.  We have all sorts of interesting dust in 
> our desert, everything from pulverised adobe brick from pharoanic 
> building works to white gypsum and limestone...those are alkaline, 
> right? But no scratches. I'll bet it is some kind of pre-existing 
> fungus or something in the kind of pattern that you 
> mention...especially with the flare ups.
>
> Maryanne
>
> On Tue, Oct 21, 2008 at 6:52 PM, rides2far@xxxxxxxx 
> <mailto:rides2far@xxxxxxxx> <rides2far@xxxxxxxx 
> <mailto:rides2far@xxxxxxxx>> wrote:
>
>     >>>>>>Do you suppose that your heat and humidity contribute to
>     this condition?  Of
>     course it all seems to be connected to the continuous flexion of
>     the pastern, but maybe a >>>fungus is more prevalent in humid
>     conditions?
>
>     The problem with this theory is the fact that my horses *don't*
>     get them and other farms get them every time, and we compete in
>     the same conditions. It does not seem to be dependent on the venue
>     like it is on the alkaline soil.
>
>     I happen to have darn near zero grass on my place. It's a chert
>     hillside with some weeds. I feed hay year round. I kind of wonder
>     if whatever is the source of it lives better on quality pasture.
>
>     Those who deal with it seam to deal with it every time, and when
>     they get new horses in from different bloodlines, etc. they fall
>     right into the pattern.
>
>     Angie
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> Maryanne Stroud Gabbani
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