Setting Up for the Year Ahead: Maintaining Joint Health in Your Horse

As the new year begins, it’s an ideal time to focus on proactive joint care and setting horses up for the season ahead. Subtle changes in movement often appear long before obvious lameness. This blog explores early signs of joint stress and practical strategies to support long-term joint health.

Why Joint Health Deserves Early Attention

Joint disease is one of the most common causes of reduced performance, comfort, and longevity in horses. Importantly, osteoarthritis does not begin with obvious joint damage or clear lameness.

Early disease is driven by inflammation within the joint , or soft tissue changes in the joint. This is known as synovitis, where biochemical changes alter the joint environment well before structural damage becomes apparent and includes inflammation of the joint lining and increase in joint fluid. This is accomanpied by inflammatory proteins that perpetuate the cycle of inflammation and can degrade cartilage.

Joint health in horses plays a critical role in comfort, performance, and long-term soundness, particularly as workload and training demands increase. By the time a horse shows consistent lameness, joint pathology is often already established. Early recognition and proactive management provide a greater opportunity to preserve comfort, function, and long-term soundness.

Early Signs of Joint Stress

Early joint discomfort rarely presents as a clear limp. Instead, horses often compensate, and the signs can be subtle or easily attributed to training or behaviour.

Common early indicators include:

• Stiffness at the start of work

• Reduced consistency between sessions

• Resistance to transitions or one rein

• Difficulty maintaining engagement or outline

• Shortened stride length or reduced impulsion

• Behavioural changes under saddle

These signs often reflect discomfort or altered biomechanics rather than a lack of fitness or training compliance.

Proactive Strategies to Support Joint Health

Supporting joint health is not about masking pain. It involves recognising early signs, managing load appropriately, and intervening before problems become limiting.

Key strategies include:

• Gradual increases in workload

• Attention to surface quality and variation

• Conditioning programs that respect joint adaptation

• Early investigation of movement changes with regular gait monitoring. This is particularly useful with objective tech such as the SLEIP app.

A proactive approach allows joint stress to be identified and addressed early.

From Assessment to Informed Joint Management

A structured veterinary assessment is the foundation of effective joint care. A baseline joint and gait assessment allows evaluation of how a horse is moving, loading limbs, and compensating, even when overt lameness is not present.

When combined with a chiropractic assessment, this provides insight into:

• Joint comfort, range of motion, and symmetry

• Compensatory movement patterns affecting other joints or the spine

• How spinal mobility influences limb loading and performance

Learn more about different different Joint Therapies here, or you can read our blog about different joint supplements here.

If your horse is returning to work, increasing workload, or showing subtle changes in movement, now is an ideal time to consider a baseline joint, gait, and chiropractic assessment.

We offer structured assessment and treatment packages designed to support proactive, evidence-based care.