Equine Injury Please

You might take a look at the Horse Forum and see what they have, or you could call you local horse doctor.

http://www.horseforum.com/horse-health/sprained-ankle-75017/

As someone who professionally showed horses for years, maybe I can help. It is possible for a horse to simply just 'sprain' an ankle like in a human. If you're wanting something a little more serious then you can look into hock injuries. My horse that I jumped with all the time when he got older had problems with swelling in his hocks which would make him balk at even the smallest jumps because it hurt him so badly. He seemed perfectly fine otherwise (would still run around and everything, it was just the pressure that jumping put on his hind legs that made him hurt so bad). If it is a jumping horse, a common problem would be the horse dropping its legs when jumping, meaning it would underestimate the jump and its back legs would hit the fence. In some cases this can cause a minor injury similar to what you are wanting. Is it a young horse in training or an older one? Not sure if any of that helped, but yeah, if you do have access to an equine vet then they would probably have a ton of advice.

I'm not a horse person myself, but I've asked some questions about them in the course of researching my books. What environment does your horse live in? I'm told that horses being used in rough terrain, like on mountain paths, can apparently bruise the "frog" of their foot--the soft part on the underside of the hoof--by stepping on a rock or something similar. I guess that causes them discomfort for a few days.

This is just repeating what other people have told me.

No problem! Good luck on this and I'd love to read it once you have it started (I love reading horse things!) ^_^

If your char is horse savvy, s/he will not call it a sprained ankle. (Glass knows this, was just explaining it to you without actually saying that horse people will say "ooh, he popped a splint/ gah hope that's not the DDFT bothering him/etc.) Let the non-horsey person call it a sprained ankle, or the horse person can explain it to a non-horsey person that way. Horse folk might mention a half dozen tendons and ligaments that could be causing the heat, swelling and tenderness. They'll know to ice it and rest the horse. Also, note that it's more likely to be front end, not hind limb. Horses carry more weight on their fronts/get more lamenesses there. Cheers!

My big lad pulls stuff all the time - and he's a deamon for knocking his leg off the the wall when he rolls.

Pretty much anything can cause a swelling - as any horse owner can tell you - it's frustrating sometimes.

A bad knock, or just pulling something while dicking around in the feild - or, joy or joys, an abscess - which will lame the horse and require a poultice dressing, maybe draining.