Farriery for the Sport Horse

Palmar foot pain is thought to be the most common cause of lameness in the sport horse1 . The diagnosis of palmar foot pain using palmar digital perineural analgesia is relatively straight forward while diagnosis of the site of injury in the palmar section of the foot is often difficult or confusing. Until recently, lameness originating from the palmar section of the foot that was positive to hoof tester examination over the navicular area and that became sound following a palmar digital nerve block was given a presumptive diagnosis of navicular syndrome. The advent of new and more sophisticated imaging modalities such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has shown this assumption to be inaccurate. The source of pain could originate from any number of structures enclosed within the palmar section of the hoof or in the hoof complex itself ...