How does the suspensory ligament become damaged?
The ligament and its branches are strong but only slightly elastic. Excessive stress can occur to the ligament when a horse lands after a jump or when it travels at fast speeds. Essentially, an over-stretching injury can occur resulting in damage to the ligament. The damage may be only slight tearing of fibers at the level of their ‘origin’ (upper cannon bone) or their ‘insertion’ (sesamoid bones). The damage is usually accumulative over a period of time and may be considered a type of ‘repetitive strain injury’. Alternatively a ‘core lesion’ i.e. ‘hole’ can be seen (with ultrasound scan examination) in the center of the body of the ligament or in a branch of the ligament where a number of fibers have ruptured. These injuries usually have a more sudden onset. Complete rupture may occur, in extreme cases, but this is fortunately uncommon.
