Horses’ ribs, for the most part, go unnoticed. They do their job of encasing vital organs and, unless we can see or feel them too readily in matters of body condition, we tend not to think about them much. But, like humans, horses can sustain painful rib fractures. And while foals are the more likely candidate for these injuries, due to their perilous trip through the cramped birth canal, adult horses can sustain rib fractures too.

Suzy Hall, BVetMed MRCVS, a resident in lameness and diagnostic imaging at Liphook Equine Hospital, in Hampshire, U.K., noticed that rib fractures have not been widely reported as a possible of discomfort and poor performance in sport horse patients. Curious, she performed a case review of horses with discomfort under saddle caused by rib fractures to better understand the connection. She presented her results at the 2016 British Equine Veterinary Association Congress, held Sept. 7-10 in Birmingham, U.K.

Digging through 15 years of Liphook hospital records, Hall found 15 cases involving horses brought to the hospital with back pain and poor performance and diagnosed with rib fracture.

“All presented due to a sudden change in ridden behavior,” she said. “Only one of these horses had a history of trauma,” which in this case was a rotational fall. Clinical signs included bolting, bucking, or resistance to work. But, interestingly, she said, six of the 15 (40%) were sound