Shoeing for a Horse with Ringbone

[Pico_Banana]

I bought a dressage schoolmaster earlier this year. He’s 22 and had shown at PSG. Rads from the PPE uncovered ringbone in both fronts but no clinical signs. After much hand-wringing, I bought him despite the rads. And in fact I’m so glad I did because he’s wonderful.

But . . . I remain concerned about the ringbone and longevity. He’s shod up front in the plainest of plain shoes and does well. Do I just leave well enough alone since he is going well? Or is there something I could be doing to improve his comfort and maybe help slow down any further progression?

In the reading I’ve done, it seems like there’s no obvious answer here. My farrier thought we could try shoes with more bevelled sides but that’s usually all she does. We just put on winter shoes so no plans to change anything probably until those come off, but wanted to pick the COTH mind on this.

[JB]

High or low, articular or non-articular ringbone? High, non-articular ringbone can easily be asymptomatic, as long as the trim is and continues to be balanced. Even low non-articular can be asymptomatic.

But as soon as you get articular, then you have to start trimming to cause the least amount of bone on bone movement, and sometimes that means trimming a foot to be “ugly” from the outside.

I WOULD say that some beveling all around is a good proactive idea

[Pico_Banana]

I believe my vet (as opposed to the vet who performed the PPE) described it as high articular ringbone.

The PPE report summarizes it as “some osteoarthritic changes affecting the proximal interphalangeal joints of both front feet.”

What does one do to cause the least amount of bone on bone movement? His feet are already fairly ugly - they grow out very splayed - like duck feet.

[JB]

High articular is the next to last worst kind, with low articular being the worst. Can you post the rads?

how you trim to minimize those bony deposits rubbing on things that hurt, entirely depends on where they are and how big they are.

[Bonnie2]

I would keep him shod the way he was when you bought him with no “clinical signs”. Don’t change what’s working!
Edited to fix typo.

[spacehorse]

I agree with Bonnie2. I will say I have recent experience with this, my 20 yo TB had been having intermittent lameness on RF. We had been wanting to xray his feet to get his angles, and low and behold there is low ringbone on his RF. His feet were fairly flat angle wise, so we put on a 3D 3 degree wedge pad with DIM. He is now so much more comfortable and I am riding him lightly again.

But I agree with Bonnie, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!