Yeh I have to say I didn’t really have issues bringing back and legging up my late ottb every spring. He wasn’t in work all winter but we walked under saddle and mixed in ground driving throughout the winter months. He was barefoot.
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I feel similarly for turnout. If I have the option for 24/7 turnout I take it, but always do over-night. Especially if I’m coming off a competition, post-xc kick them outside.
All of mine do a round of adequan every-6mo. My vet got me on this, I have a teen TB whose ankle I was injecting every 6-months, and she really pushed me to avoid sticking a needle in the joint as little as possible. So, happy to oblige, we’ve now gone much longer.
When this horse was running Int/3* I would also do a shot of legend before an event. Now, especially at $150/shot, my current guy has only gotten Legend before a long format.
He does not wear pads, so after a jump school or conditioning day i chuck him out with poultice in his feet. I often dont wrap them, just poultice and pack shavings over the top. I find it holds mostly overnight.
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Sidebar: I think what Jorrocks was after here was comparing two different scenarios of footing AND time worked: hunt horses ran only on hunting days on turf, mud, roads - varied terrain. But they didn’t work 8-10 hours a day, every day, on the road - like draft horses, carriage horses, and hacks. Stagecoach horses went 10-15 miles at a trot each day, and their career started at age 5-6, and was about 4-6 years long. So: done at 9-12 years old. Yet their life was considered luxurious!
This is an interesting read: https://djwilson22.wordpress.com/2013/04/04/care-of-stage-coach-horses/
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@beowulf I was thinking UL, as the initial question asked, but actually I’m troubled by “serviceably sound” at any level. It is a fine line between “stiff and tottery but will warm up and work through it” and “in pain and shouldn’t be working at all”. Sometimes I feel that line is crossed too easily for the convenience of owner, trainer or rider, particularly with the use of “something to keep him comfortable”. A judgement call, obviously.
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I don’t know - I kinda thought they just used them up! A 4-6 year career isn’t very long, and at the end I’m sure they didn’t go out to pasture… 
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Here’s a review from 2023 specifically about skeletal health: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10000203/
From the abstract:
Also an interesting read that says exercise benefits are much more limited as far as bone and tendon/ligament development after the horse reaches maturity: http://extension.msstate.edu/publications/breaking-horses-not-bones-properly-raising-young-horses-avoid-costly-injuries
And one more about tendon mechanics: https://equinemechanics.com/post/119769531498/tendon-training-age-and-maturity
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Oh yeah - hopefully!
@Xanthoria The coach companies ran vast studs of horses to maintain their teams and so ensure the speed and regularity of coaches on the main routes, where competition was often fierce. Good horses were a good advertisment. Once they began to show the inevitable wear and tear, the horses were demoted to less prestigious routes and in more remote places. Horses had value and were generally well looked after but their working life was still only 4-6 years. The phrase “to die in harness” still exists to describe a human who dies whilst still working.
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Not related to this exact topic, but can someone explain (because I’ve been curious for so long but need it explained in not-a-scientist terms) how bisphosphonates are treatments for osteoporosis and preventing fxs but then come with these risks? Is it the specific patient population so the action is the same but could have differing results? My brain can’t wrap around it.
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To make sure we are all on the same page, a very simplified description of bone physiology/biology.
Bones have two cells that keep it healthy. Osteoblasts are the cells that create bone and osteoclasts are the cells that remove damaged or unloaded bone. In normal adults, as we move we damage our bones every day just moving. Osteoclasts come and remove that bone and then turn on the osteoblasts to come and put in new bone. In osteoporosis and other diseases this balance is disrupted so that osteoclasts remove bone but the osteoblasts are not sufficiently active to make new bone.
Osteoblasts, when they make new bone put out special proteins that attract calcium and phosphates from the surrounding fluids to precipitate on them. This is biomineralization.
Bisphosphonates were designed to kill osteoclasts under the thinking that slowing bone resorption osteoblasts could catch up. But remember what I said about osteoclasts “turning on the osteoblasts.”
What happens is that when we kill osteoclasts, we don’t stop the biomineralization process. That means bone gets more mineralized and can be stronger, but is also means the bone becomes more brittle. Think of a piece of chalk. It can be strong but when it breaks, it really breaks and does not need much force in certain directions.
So bisphosphonates can stop the inflammatory cells of bones (osteoclasts) and prevent them from resorbing the bone that is there. But the trade off is that the bone becomes older and more brittle, subject to weird fracturing in normal life.
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Excellent, clear explanation. Thank you!
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I often use the analogy with my students of the Mass Turnpike–they’re always ripping up pavement and laying new road.
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Thank you, thank you! Makes total sense.
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