Owners rarely report that affected horses appear to be in pain, but that doesn’t necessarily mean slipped and herniated discs don’t hurt, Bergmann said. | Photo: iStock

It’s been a long-held belief that horses’ intervertebral discs don’t degenerate except in rare cases. But recent study results have overturned that idea.

“We now know that degeneration of the intervertebral disc in the horse is not rare,” said Wilhelmina Bergmann, a PhD candidate at the Utrecht University Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, in the Netherlands.

Bergmann and colleagues investigated the intervertebral discs of 33 Warmbloods of various ages and sexes that had recently died for reasons other than intervertebral disc issues. Using high-resolution photography and light microscopy, the researchers evaluated the vertebral bones and the discs