I am in the frustrating position of being hours from our vet with a horse that has progressively refused trot/canter to being lame even at walk. They came last week and did lameness exam and x-rayed lower portion of both front legs. Diagnosis: high ringbone-not severe enough to think surgery or alcohol to fuse bone. He is on bute now and the farrier is coming 5-16 to work on a shoe plan. In the meantime I just wait and was told to tap on his hooves with a hammer-I guess since he has not been shod before?.
Anyway-this is a new one to me and I would greatly appreciate any advice/experiences you can offer.
Follow the guidelines set by your vet and farrier. IIRC high ringbone can be lived with by recognizing what is causing it and managing that. It could be conformation unsuitable for current job, hoof angles, hard ground, hard work or mileage/age, often a combination of these. Need to commit to staying in a good, regular program with a good farrier who is willing to consult with the vet and study the X rays to develop a treatment protocol.
It won’t go away but you can keep it from getting worse and be able to use the horse with some limitations if you get on and stay on a good farrier program.
Practice holding each foot up for an increasing amount of time and pick each up more then once besides tapping them to prepare him to stand nicely for his new best friend.
The type of ringbone, articulate or periarticular, may be treated a little differently. Sometimes joint injections, Adequan or Pentosan can be used along with changing the break over of the hoof, but ringbone is progressive.
You’ve got some options to make the horse comfortable depending on the exact location, as neversaynever said.
I’d be asking about: joint injection options (steroid/HA, IRAP, PRP, Pro Stride, Adequan), shockwave, cold laser, Tildren/Osphos (off label here), systemic options (Adequan, Legend, Pentosan), NSAIDS (Previcox, bute).
Can you post pictures of the feet, like in this link?
http://www.all-natural-horse-care.com/good-hoof-photos.html
The xrays too - can you post them?
So very often, ringbone is caused by unbalanced trimming, which means if you don’t fix that, it’s just going to progress.
My first horse was diagnosed with both high and low ringbone around the age of 15. It was exacerbated/made obvious by some spectacularly bad shoeing. (I was young, I didn’t know any better.) She was lame/off for a few months, but during that time the combination of rest and a kick ass farrier fixed the issue entirely. He used a variety of different shoeing combos until he got her angles back to normal. From then on out she was sound and shod normally. That’s about 10 years ago now and she’s semi retired (hocks and old age, ringbone was never a problem again), but totally sound for trail riding/light ring work.
So there’s at least one positive outcome and some hope for you! 
I requested copies of everything but have not received yet. Will post when I get them. He is 18 hands, 10 years old, used for dressage, huge feet and never had an unsound day in his life until now. Thanks for all the information.
