I trimmed a pony today and found this... it was definitely not there 7 weeks ago: I trimmed it back carefully in case there were any blood vessels in it, horse didn't seem to care. After I had trimmed it back I could feel a sort of 'disc' under the skin that it seemed to be growing from - you can make out the outline of it in front of my thumb in this picture: Any one seen anything like this before? Anyone know what caused it?
Did the pony have a "regular" ergot up a bit higher? That looks like a misplaced ergot. I've seen some ergots grow this long. I do one draft that grows what looks like 6 or 7 ergots, but I believe it is a single ergot that splits for some reason. I just shorten it to about 1/2 inch each time I go. Regards
yes Rick, in fact you can just about see it through the hair next to my thumb joint in the last picture. It certainly looks like an extra ergot, though I can't imagine what caused it to appear there and grow so quickly in the last few weeks. As I said, there was no sign of it last time I trimmed the pony. I quite often see split ergots like you describe on some of the heavier horses that I do.
