PEOPLE vary in their appetite for risk, their acceptance of hazards and how they deal with them when they inevitably happen. There are known risks associated with injecting equine joints and I’ve had my fair share occur over the years. To my mind the important factors can be grouped under headings such as: what is injected, how it is injected, by whom, where it is injected and into what kind of horse.

Most commonly the substance is a pain-relieving/anti-inflammatory agent such as a local anaesthetic or cortico-steroid, or alternately a joint-nourishing agent such as hyaluronic acid (changing the engine oil so to speak!):