Why Scans Find Problems Your Horse Doesn’t Have
- 3 days ago
- 5 min read
A fascinating study from 2024 quietly challenges one of the most common assumptions in horse ownership: the idea that if an MRI or CT scan shows an abnormality, then that abnormality must be the cause of lameness.
A team of researchers took 31 Warmblood showjumpers - horses in full work, competing regularly, and assessed as non‑lame by both subjective and objective gait analysis, and put their front fetlocks through the full diagnostic gauntlet: low‑field MRI, fan‑beam CT, and radiographs (x-rays). These weren’t horses with a history of fetlock trouble. These were the horses you’d look at in the warm‑up and think, “sound, fit, going beautifully.”
Yet, when the images came back, almost every limb told a different story.
Over eighty percent of these sound horses had areas of increased bone density sitting under the joint surface of the cannon bone and long pastern. Many had small resorptive lesions, shallow defects in the sagittal groove, or thickened subchondral bone. Some had changes that, in a lame horse, would be confidently labelled “clinically significant.”
If you only looked at the images, you’d swear these horses should be struggling. But they weren’t. They were out there jumping 120–140 cm without a hint of relevant lameness.
That’s the point.
Just because they found something on scans doesn’t mean it is the cause of lameness.
Modern imaging is exquisitely sensitive. It can detect tiny structural variations that are simply the normal fingerprints of a working horse. Bone remodels in response to load. Subchondral plates thicken. Trabecular (the spongy part of the bone) patterns shift. Small imperfections appear in places that carry force. These aren’t necessarily signs of disease, they’re signs of a body adapting to the job it’s asked to do.
The trouble is, most of our understanding of “abnormal” imaging findings comes from horses who were imaged because they were lame. When you only ever scan the horses with problems, you start to believe that anything you find must be the cause of those problems. This study flips that on its head. It shows that many of the same findings we associate with pain are also present in horses who are completely comfortable.
It doesn’t mean imaging is useless - far from it. It means imaging must be interpreted in context. A picture of a structure is not a picture of pain. A lesion on a scan is not a diagnosis.
If we imaged every sound horse with the same intensity we reserve for the lame ones, we’d discover that “abnormal” is often just “normal for a horse who works.”
Confused by Vet‑Speak on Scans? Start Simple
If you’ve ever felt a bit bamboozled by medical language, you’re not alone. One of the most useful things you can do as an owner is to bring the conversation back to the horse you know. Ask your vet to explain what the finding means for this horse, in this moment, at this workload. Ask whether the same change might also be found in sound horses. Ask whether the horse blocked sound to that area, or whether the imaging result is simply an incidental discovery.
It's okay to ask them to describe what is happening in common terms. If they are saying a word you don't know, ask what they mean. You're paying the bill. You don’t need to understand every anatomical term to make good decisions, you just need the confidence to slow the conversation down and ask, “Does this actually matter for my horse, or is it simply something we’ve noticed because we looked very closely?”
It’s worth remembering something else. When a horse is lame, vets are under pressure from the owner and from the business to find something that explains it. Their job is to look for abnormalities, and, as this study demonstrates, modern imaging will always deliver a long list. Add to that the reality that, having invested in those medical machines, advanced diagnostics are a significant part of how equine practices stay financially afloat. It’s easy for the whole process to feel more like a hunt for “what the scan says is wrong” than a conversation about what actually matters for this particular horse.
The Reality Of Australian Equine Veterinary Care
Australia’s equine veterinary economy is not evenly distributed across disciplines. It is shaped, overwhelmingly, by the racing and thoroughbred breeding sectors. These sectors:
operate year‑round
require high‑volume veterinary services
use advanced diagnostics at far higher rates
have the budgets for surgery, imaging, and intensive management.
Because of this, the majority of revenue for equine specialist practices comes from racing and thoroughbred breeding, even though the exact percentage is not published.
This isn’t speculation, it’s the economic reality of the industry. Racing is a multi‑billion‑dollar sector in Australia. Pleasure and performance horses simply do not generate the same caseload intensity or financial throughput. The priority for this industry is not longevity, but to get the horse back on the track ASAP.
That doesn’t mean anyone is acting in bad faith; it simply means the system is set up to favour more information, more images, and more invasive interventions.
Your job, as the person who knows your horse best, is to keep the focus on the horse in front of you. That’s how you stay grounded in common sense rather than swept along by the momentum of medical speak and expensive diagnostics.
Here’s the part many owners need to hear out loud: you don’t have to follow every piece of advice you’re given. It's advice, not an instruction. It's your horse and it's your money. Vets will generally offer a number of pathways, often aimed at getting the horse back into work fast. This will often include pain-blocking pharmaceuticals, steroid injections, and other interventions such as “corrective shoeing”, all of which can have negative side-effects that could shorten the working lifespan of your horse in the long run.
Spelling is Always an Option
It’s okay to step back and look at a range of solutions before committing to the most expensive or invasive option. Spelling should always be on that list. Time off doesn’t generate income for anyone, but it remains one of the most powerful tools we have for managing low‑grade pain, early overload, or the simple wear‑and‑tear of a working life.
A brief spell also gives you time to thoroughly research for yourself the data on the likeliness of success, and what the long-term consequences of an invasive intervention might be.
A few months healing in a paddock can achieve what no injection, no scan, and no protocol can replicate. You’re allowed to choose the option that makes sense for your horse, your budget, and your instincts, even if it’s not the one that keeps the clinic busy.
Sometimes the most sensible, grounded decision is the one that costs the least and gives the horse the opportunity to heal naturally.
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