You know you can find arthritis in most older horses’ joints. But did you know you can find it in ancient horses’ joints, as well? Researchers recently discovered osteoarthritis in a medieval horse’s pastern joint.

“We believe, that in the first phase of disease, the horse was progressively lame, but later, due to ankylosis (fusion) of the joint, the lameness in the second phase was not a result of pain but of anatomical dysfunction,” said Aleksandra Skalec, PhD candidate in the Division of Anatomy in the Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences Department of Animal Physiology and Biostructure, in Poland.

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