>>>> Rings can mean founder, but they can also be stress, and travelling horses are in stress state.
Yes, rings can come from other stresses, but those will grow out, usually as a single ring. If the rings are from laminitis, they may too grow out as a single ring if there is no long-term rotation and the cause is addressed. I've also seen horses have a single ring after a cross-country move. And, many years ago, one of our horses got into some drying wild cherry leaves, but luckily we found him and immediately called the vet. She treated him aggressively, and he grew out a single stress ring. In the past though, we've heard the rings seen in imported Icelandics (and in Icelandics still in Iceland) that Barbara referred to as something like spring feeding rings (or maybe spring grass rings - can't remember now) when folks denied that they were related to founder. To me, that's just silly. What would be stressful about eating spring grass - UNLESS the horse is insulin resistant or has some other metabolic caused founder problem? Founder/laminitis is NOT a man-made condition. Granted, poor management practices may trigger episodes, and good care can keep it at bay for extended periods, maybe even indefinitely in some cases. But, there are plenty of horses who are fat all their lives and who never succumb to spring grasses, while their pasture-mates do. A noticeable percentage of laminitis cases are in average-to-thin horses - my farrier estimates maybe 25%-35% of the founder cases he works with are older, thin horses, usually diagnosed with Cushing's. Karen Thomas [EMAIL PROTECTED]
