Fully loaded

RUNNING down the back of each cannon bone is the suspensory ligament, the tough, fibrous structure that supports the fetlock when the limb is loaded. The ligament starts just below the hock or knee and splits into two branches closer to the fetlock.

With the advanced imaging modalities now available, such as magnetic resonance imaging, we are more aware that not all suspensory ligament injuries are the same. Pain can come from the ligament and the bone where the ligament attaches – the cannon bone at the top and the proximal sesamoid bones at the bottom.