[hermonine]

About a week ago I went out and noticed my injury prone 5yrs horse had a bump on his back left leg and it had some swelling on the outside only. The bump was hard but he did not seem to favor the leg. A couple days later the swelling was practically gone but the bump remained. The bump seems a bit smaller today but that could just be wishfull thinking. He does not favor the leg at all and does not care if I pick-up the leg and squeeze the bump. The leg does not seem hot compaired to his other leg. I was wondering if it could be a spint (never dealt with one of these before) or just a knot type bump he got from kicking the corral. He is stalled in around a 24x34 corral by himself but next to other horses. He does have a tendicy to try to kick my younger horse sometimes threw the rails and could of hit his leg on the corral causing this bump but who knows what he does in his corral while I am in the house. I was not surprised when I went out there and saw this bump. In fact I was kind of prepared for something to happen soon for he cannot seem to go a few weeks without hurting himself .

This picture was taken a few days ago and I think it maybe a bit smaller today. I have been hosing the leg everyday just incase.

[imjustjoking22]

Sounds like it could easily be a splint. Don't worry though, they are quite common in young horses and do not normally cause any problems. My 5 yr old has a little one that he has had since he was first started under saddle and it does not bother him, and in no way interfered with him passing a vet check.

[hermonine]

When can I go back to riding him? It has gotten smaller I noticed and he is not favoring the leg. He has had it for about a week now and it does not seem to be hot or bothering him. In fact my lazy horse was troting and a little bit of cantering around his pen during dinner time like he was trying to prove to me he was fine lol. I have not let him out in pasture lately for I was not sure if that was ok. I can tell he has some stored up energy now for he is a lazy horse that usually does not trot around in his pen but lug himself lol. If I let him out I know he would canter and trot for a small bit and if he has a lot of energy and few bucks. Would that hurt the healing process any?. After a few mins he will stop and just probably walk around and graze like his lazy self thinking it is too much work to run around anymore now that it is out of his system lol. Thanks

[Dawn]

It does look like a splint. If it doesn't hurt him, ride. Since the swelling is gone and it's hard, there's nothing you can do about it now. And it appears to be quite small anyway.

[hermonine]

Here are some pictures I just took of it a few mins ago. The bump is much smaller (though it may or may not seem it in the pictures) but now the bump is really soft. It has been a really hard bump for a week now but today it is really soft (it was really hard like bone yesterday). It still does not seem to bother him though (but I sometimes can't tell he is not a fan of holding his back legs up too long without making a small fuss when I don't have him tied) and their doesn't seem to be any swelling.