Hi Cherry,
I have an quarter horse mare that I just bought she is the sweetest thing in the world, she is at the stables where I keep my other horse the owner sold us the other too and perfectly healthy,my quarter I was testing her and noticed that her thighs and back legs are very swollen I know for an fact that she has not been out for one month so due of being in her stall for so long I am pretty sure that is the problem. Also when I made her trot she was limping but her hoofs are very long and broken that will be fixed this week. I will exercise her every day and i massage her legs, someone said that it never goes away I am not sure about that. It is cold now and the barn is not heated so I do not want to put cold water on her legs can I do cold compresses and the then wipe her dry?
When she walks she does not limp only when she trots what are your suggestions on that?
I just want to know if this stays for the rest of her life or with exercise and taking her out it will go away she is not in pain
Thank you so much
Monika
Hi Monika,
There was a salty and sweet vet that I worked with once that used to look at a horse like yours and say, “All she needs is fresh air and exercise.”
A horse that has not been out of her stall for a month will “stock up” which is a horseman’s way of saying “swell in the legs”. Some horses stock up if they don’t receive daily exercise. All horses should have either free daily exercise (turnout in a large area where they can run and buck and roll) or daily exercise such as longeing or riding.
But before you even think about exercising the horse, she needs hoof care. All horses should have their hooves attended to (trimmed or shod) every 6-8 weeks. When a horse’s hooves have become so long as to begin cracking and breaking off, it is way past due for the horse to have farrier care.
When a horse limps at the trot, that means the horse IS in pain – it hurts to put its weight on that hoof or limb.
So my suggestions are to get the horse hoof care immediately, keep her on a 6-8 week hoof care program per your farrier’s recommendation and exercise her daily.
Then your sweet horse will be comfortable and will last you a lot longer.
Cherry Hill's Horsekeeping 
I have a10 year old mare that has started limping. My farrier checked her an found no pain in hooves & legs what kind of shoulder injury could there be?
Hello,
If you use the Ask Cherry feature in the right hand column of this blog, I will put your question in line to be answered as a separate post with a through response. Cherry
When my pony trots she does a skip and a jump allmost it is when she is already trotting. Some times she will do it a few times then stop and other times she won’t do it At all. Her right fetlock seems to be a little bit bigger than the other one but this is hard to let as she has lots of thick feathers. She hasn’t done this before and it only started about two months ago but is getting worse the more she is being ridden
This is something you should have your veterinarian look at. Depending on your pony’s age, it could be arthritis in one of the joints of the foot or leg. The only way to determine is through a lameness exam and/or x rays. Best of luck.
hi my horse has a swollen pastern which is hard but causes no pain when felt, she is lame when she trots and there is also some heat but not much i was wondering weather it is stocked up or more of a side bone, i cold hosed it today for about 10 minutes and applyed cooling gel and the heat went away for hours and i kept checking her through out the day and the heat kept away please leave a reply she has been like this for about 2 weeks but seems to be getting slightly better thanks