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Discussion on PINFIRING
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New Member:
Horsey
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Posted on Friday, Sep 15, 2006 - 2:52 pm:
I WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT PINFIRING. AND THE DOWNSIDE OF GETTING A HORSE THAT HAS BEEN PINFIRED, BUT IS TOTALLY SOUND, KIND AND GENTLE.
THANK YOU
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Member:
Jojo15
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Posted on Friday, Sep 15, 2006 - 4:28 pm:
The best places to look are probably old bloodhorse articles. I had a pinfired mare off the track. The scars on her legs showed she was fired. On black legs these little white dots were there. isn't it a process to calcify the bone to stop growing. hence making that part of the leg stronger? in theory? not quite sure. my horse was pin fired on both legs.. So it doesn't seem like there was an injury, but another reason they did it. Is this horse pinfired on both leg or one? they did it for bucked shins, and bowed tendons and other anomolies in the leg.
This letter askes the same question you are. and a google search brought up alot of articles on it..
https://www.horse-sense.org/archives/20031028043247.phtml
My reseaerch had found it to be an antiquated process that the breeders would use in stunting their growth. It supposedly would help them train sooner, younger,etc...
I haven't heard it done in recent years. and i never saw any adverse effects of it happening on my mare. So i can't say if there are any downsides per se. But would consider it a bit cruel. If your horse is sound than i wouldn't worry too much. but a vet check and xrays might answer the question better...
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Friday, Sep 15, 2006 - 7:23 pm:
Welcome Vivian,
Pinfiring is a procedure done on horses usually for "bucked shins" in race horses. If this was done on the front of the cannon, check out Diseases of Horses » Lameness » Diseases of the Lower Limb » Bucked Shins in Horses where both bucked shins and pinfiring are discussed. If the pinfiring is somewhere else could you give more details? The pinfiring itself does not cause problems, the question is what was the condition the horse was pinfired for.
DrO
PS Writing in all CAPS is thought of as shouting. It is harder to read and some don't reply to such posts.
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Member:
Tuckern
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Posted on Friday, Sep 15, 2006 - 11:01 pm:
I once leased a lesson horse that had the back of one front cannon pinfired. I leased him when he was in his late teens, early twenties (he had been pinfired as a young, young racehorse), and that leg never gave us any problems, the only thing that told us that he was penfired was the four dots of hair on his leg that were white.
But like DrO said, it depends on why the horse was pinfired, and if it "fixed" the problem.
Nicole
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Member:
Vrich
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Posted on Tuesday, Sep 19, 2006 - 9:06 pm:
My standardbred, who raced successfully for several years in Maryland, was pinfired on both front cannon bones. He has no obvious ill effects from it ~ moves out nicely and has never been lame in his 3 years with me.
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Member:
Liliana
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Posted on Wednesday, Oct 4, 2006 - 11:43 am:
In many countries Pin firing is illegal, as it causes unduly pain to no avail, as mentioned before is neither good nor bad if done correctly,
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Member:
Zilpha
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Posted on Wednesday, Oct 4, 2006 - 4:47 pm:
I also had a TB mare from the track a long time
ago and she also had scars/marks on her
cannon bones from being pin-fired when I bought
her. I used her for trail riding but it would have had a visual impact if I wanted to show her.
She never was fond of people. Turned her out
on 30 acres and could never catch her, but could you blame her! Come time for a trim or just to groom or ride her, she ran away from anyone that tried to come close.
Mounted up a few riders and still couldn't catch
her! It could of been her breeding (the "Nasty
Nasrullah" line) or I think it could have been her past. She was the one pin-fired.
I personally think it is a primitive technique
which can leave unpleasant scars for the rest of the horse's life. There's got to be a better
method. I was informed by a TB trainer they did it to make the horse keep pressure off of that leg from the pain produced by the firing so it would heal. I hope this isn't true! I'd like to pin fire their you know what! Bend over buddy!
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Member:
Liliana
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Posted on Wednesday, Oct 4, 2006 - 5:57 pm:
there has been some research that indicates that the lameness on the horse heals from the fact that no work can be done for several months after pin firing which would be achieved just by not working the horse without the need of the pin firing. It is indeed a barbaric practice used when they did not better. Right about the time that they used leaches to cure people
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Member:
Zilpha
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Posted on Wednesday, Oct 4, 2006 - 9:31 pm:
Leaches! Yikes! Couldn't even stand to swim with
them in Minnesota as a young girl! I watched
a show recently where they are using leaches, medically harvested of course, to
promote increased circulation on certain types
of patients that have compromised circulation
to the tissues. They have found that they secrete
an anti-coagulant too that is thought to help
increase blood flow in addition to their "leaching" effect. Excuse the pun please. I guess I would try them if it came to me keeping one of
my extremities or such, but only after conventional methods were were failing. When
it comes to life or limb, who knows what one will
try? I probably would too.
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Member:
Amara
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Posted on Friday, Oct 6, 2006 - 10:51 am:
when i was on the track i learned that pinfiring was used to promote blood flow to an injured area...usually as a result of bucked shins as Dr.O mentioned... it is most usually seen on fronts of cannon bones, tho i have seen it in other areas...
generally it seems that it creates enough inflammation as to cause the horse to decrease its use of that leg-in effect immobilize it-while it healed and increase time off for an injury... does seem kind of silly to go thru all that just to give the horse time off...
i have never heard of a pinfired horse having any problems later, and have seen many go on to highly competitive careers
as an aside i have had something similar to pinfiring done on my back, and in this instance it was used to burn soft tissue attachments into the bone... was fairly pain free and worked very well...
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Member:
Frances
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Posted on Friday, Oct 6, 2006 - 1:39 pm:
My horse has evidence of pin-firing (I think) on both knees - everyone remarks on it when they first see her.
Presumably it was done long ago when she was at the track. She does have arthritis in those knees today - whether cause or effect or for some other reason I don't know.
My vet said to me once that it improves a problem joint in the short term, but destroys it in the long run. I suppose short term is all they're looking for at the track.
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Saturday, Oct 7, 2006 - 11:29 am:
There is a lot of controversy over the benefit of the practice with respect to bucked shins. The track veterinarian I worked for during an internship (second generation race track vet who was very much into improving the science of equine medicine and I hold in much respect) conducted a nonblinded study over several years time and became convinced it remarkably decreased the incidence of rebucking. However Melissa's experiences were apparently with very mild forms of pinfiring. The procedure as I saw it practiced was extremely painful required a horse to be cross tied for several days to prevent self mutilation of treated areas. I did not think the ends justified the means.
DrO
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