The OTTB I have on trial has three white dots down the inside of both front legs. Each dot is about the diameter of a dime, maybe a little smaller. Is this freeze-firing? If so, I’ve been reading that it is done for popped splints and that it shouldn’t affect future soundness. Correct?
It could also be loss of pigmentation or leukotrichia, likely from some sort of trauma or infection. This is what a pinfired leg looks like:
http://img05.deviantart.net/f9f9/i/2010/265/6/b/pin_firing_is_not_cool_by_sarahkate2011-d2za1et.jpg
http://s2.postimg.org/vxsw0xny1/pinfire3.jpg
http://i402.photobucket.com/albums/pp107/cherrytopspicerystud/Feb%2009/DSCF5102.jpg
Or, it could be pin firing, but I think it’d be obvious. They do it for anything though for the life of me I cannot figure out why it is still in practice today. If a horse is pinfired that means something somewhere bothered it during their racing career (and they have owners behind the times). I usually see it for bowed tendons or soft tissue injuries.
We have a gelding who has ‘egg-splatters’ on his pastern - there is chip there from his racing days. The pattern changes with each shedding, but the frequency does not. His is a localized group of dot clusters, very interesting but not an actual marking.
Hmm, interesting! He only has three dots down each leg, but they are the exact same size, shape, distance apart, and are in a straight line down his leg. I’ll take a pic today and post that. I’ve seen pin firing on the hind legs, but I’d never seen just three dots on the inside of the front legs before.
Freeze firing. I had to have a horse freeze fired — he had the splint-from-hell (2" in diameter) and it was impinging on the suspensory.
It resulted in exactly the white circles you are seeing. (I put black boot polish on the spots when we showed — there were 9 circles and you could not help but look at it if you had not seen it before.)
The horse never had a minute’s problem with the splint again. It shrunk a little, but mainly it got hard and was not tender to the touch.
[QUOTE=Lord Helpus;8212407]
Freeze firing. I had to have a horse freeze fired — he had the splint-from-hell (2" in diameter) and it was impinging on the suspensory.
It resulted in exactly the white circles you are seeing. (I put black boot polish on the spots when we showed — there were 9 circles and you could not help but look at it if you had not seen it before.)
The horse never had a minute’s problem with the splint again. It shrunk a little, but mainly it got hard and was not tender to the touch.[/QUOTE]
Thank you for solving this mystery! Even my trainer was baffled as to what these were 
Good to know your horse never had another issue, and the boot polish is a great idea, thanks!!
Whatever it is, you could use Shapley’s Touch-Up for showing (if you can’t find the right shade of boot polish :winkgrin:):
Our local farm store carries it. The Western people use it a lot, I think.
[QUOTE=Lord Helpus;8212407]
Freeze firing. I had to have a horse freeze fired — he had the splint-from-hell (2" in diameter) and it was impinging on the suspensory.
It resulted in exactly the white circles you are seeing. (I put black boot polish on the spots when we showed — there were 9 circles and you could not help but look at it if you had not seen it before.)
The horse never had a minute’s problem with the splint again. It shrunk a little, but mainly it got hard and was not tender to the touch.[/QUOTE]
I also had a horse freeze fired for a splint that would not harden after time off and the usual treatments (cold hosing, wrapping etc). He has 3 white dots on the inside of his leg over the splint. I also noticed that it shrunk a bit and became hard and no longer sore. 10 years later this horse is in semi-retirement at my house due to old age, and the splint was never an issue. I showed the jumpers up to 1.10m and evented up to prelim and never had an issue with it.
If there are no splints evident under the spots, a trainer could have felt that the fusing of the splint bone to the cannon bone was not going well, had soreness but not solidifying well enough, or quickly enough, in their opinion. So freeze firing to help it along to completion. Freeze firing has pretty much displaced pin firing these days. These treatments are used for many different problems, sometimes effectively and with good horsemanship, and sometimes not. Depends on what, exactly, the original problem was. For splints and curbs, it is very helpful both to the horse and to the owner and trainer. For some other things it gets used for, it’s not such a good idea. Firing shins is rarely a good idea unless combined with adequate rest. Trying to use it to treat deeper issues, tendons etc, not such a good idea either. But for superficial non lethal soreness, like curbs, splints, or inoperable breaks or cracks in splint bones, or inflammation between the splint bone and cannon bone, it works well.
I had one once who had a pattern of firing below the knee, and to the outside of the cannon bone, back from the sore shin area, but forward of the outside splint bone. This spot seemed to me to be one of the few spots on a horse’s leg that normally is without known problems occurring. However, some former trainer felt that THIS was the trouble spot, and fired it LOL.
Don’t worry about it with regards to future soundness.
no----------- nor is it pin firing…
its prssure marks from to tight bandages or boots, often people do disapline say like one to two day event or do eith sj dressage or eventing or hunting whatever
and its when bods put bandages on there horses for protection of either the eilements or going through water--------- they forget that banadges constrict so tighten with the wet as they dry if left on like wise if boots have hit sand and had got inside the boot or water- when drys gets warm hot and constricts
they are pressure marks and will never go
[QUOTE=SugarCubes;8212386]
The OTTB I have on trial has three white dots down the inside of both front legs. Each dot is about the diameter of a dime, maybe a little smaller. Is this freeze-firing? If so, I’ve been reading that it is done for popped splints and that it shouldn’t affect future soundness. Correct?[/QUOTE]
no----------- nor is it pin firing…
its prssure marks from to tight bandages or boots, often people do disapline say like one to two day event or do eith sj dressage or eventing or hunting whatever
and its when bods put bandages on there horses for protection of either the eilements or going through water--------- they forget that banadges constrict so tighten with the wet as they dry if left on like wise if boots have hit sand and had got inside the boot or water- when drys gets warm hot and constricts
they are pressure marks and will never go
While pressure from bandages can cause patches of white hair, the evenly spaced round spots described by the OP are almost certainly freeze firing marks. It seems more common to see them on STB than on TB these days. This photo is of a STB I knew who had freeze firing in various locations on all four legs
http://www.furlong47.com/pics/spikelegs.jpg
This horse was sound after racing retirement, BTW, and had raced fairly successfully for 8 years.
You do still see traditional pin firing marks on occasion too.
Interesting. I have never heard of freeze firing. What is it?
We leased a horse that had been pin fired. He had lots of marks but they were much smaller than any of the pix shone here.
It’s based on a theoretical medical principle called “counter irritant therapy”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pin_firing
The logic behind it, is that the irritation caused by the superficial human inflicted skin injuries, will cause the horses body to increase the blood circulation and immune/healing response in the area, and that in turn is thought to speed the healing of the primary injury being treated.
Sweating, lazering, and blistering are somewhat based on the same principle, although sweating with a medication might sometimes simply be viewed as method of transdermal medication delivery.
A lot of vets have no use for pin/freeze firing as they believe it’s archaic. But I have heard it said that some race track vets still use the method. One interesting explanation I heard from a vet was that the intent is sometimes to simply create a way to force overly zealot trainers to give a horse enough layup time to recover from the primary injury. The oozing mess caused by the firing works as a visual aid to prevent the trainer from putting the horse back to work too soon… but I can’t say that’s a fact though.
[QUOTE=furlong47;8215668]
While pressure from bandages can cause patches of white hair, the evenly spaced round spots described by the OP are almost certainly freeze firing marks. It seems more common to see them on STB than on TB these days. This photo is of a STB I knew who had freeze firing in various locations on all four legs
http://www.furlong47.com/pics/spikelegs.jpg
This horse was sound after racing retirement, BTW, and had raced fairly successfully for 8 years.
You do still see traditional pin firing marks on occasion too.[/QUOTE]
that is pin firing- not pressure sores i know and i have seen a lot more horses than you give me credit for… pin firing is always behin the legs and on the tendons
what the op describing is on the front of the legs its not them same as pressure marks andthey are normally on the front of the legs
