A Bit More about Bones

Bones:
The bones of a horse are the framework of the body. They are protection to vital organs and move the body.
They are made up of calcium and phosphorus and within the bone marrow, red blood cells are made.

Does anyone remember what attaches bone to bone?
Ligaments

What about Bone to muscle?
Tendons

With the use of ligaments bones stay connected to each other but they can’t move without the use of muscles so tendons attach the muscles to a bone so it can function.
Here I have a display of how all the bones connect. (Go through the names)
Now I’m going to take them off and you have to put them back on.

So what happens when one bone is injured? Will it affect the rest on the horse or just a few bones around it?
It depends on the situation.
So name some common unsoundness’.

Bone spavin:
Its arthritis in the tarsus of the hock, if those calcium deposits occur in the lower tarsus bones then they can eventually grow together and stop the pain and lameness. But if the calcium deposits are in the upper tarsus bones the hock can’t move properly and will affect the movement of the rest of the bones of the leg causing the horse to be permanently lame.

Ringbone:
Occurs when horses carry extra weight on one side to the foot and leg; in high ringbone the fusion of the two bones will allow the horse to become sound but if there is calcification in between the pastern bone and coffin bone it causes a horse to be permanently lame since is inhibits movement of those bones.
As you can see sometimes injuries of certain bones will affect other bones around it, but sometimes it will only affect itself.