# What is pin firing?



## Spastic_Dove (Oct 4, 2007)

I couldnt figure out how to explain it properly, so here is how wiki explains it: 

Pin firing is the treatment of an injury to a horse's leg, by burning, freezing, or dousing it with acid or caustic chemicals. This is supposed to induce a counter-irritation and speed and/or improve healing. This treatment is used more often on racehorses than on other performance horses. It is sometimes used in the treatment of bucked shins or splint, curb, or chronic bowed tendons.[1] There was also the theory that it would "toughen" the leg of the horse. This treatment is prevalent in equine veterinary books published in the early 20th century; however many present-day veterinarians and horse owners consider it barbaric and a cruel form of treatment.[2] It is not generally taught in veterinary schools today


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## My Beau (Jan 2, 2009)

My TB mare, Daisy, was pin fired back when she was on the track - still has little white dot scars all up the inside of her front cannon. 

I've asked a few vets about it and from what they said, only people _thought _pin firing worked... they often used it on horses who would recover from their injury with just stall rest, so they pin fired and then gave the horse time off to recover from that, not the injury itself. While the horse was off for the pin fire wounds to heal, the splint/bucked shin/etc would heal also. Hence, people thought pin firing was the answer. 

Hope my explanation makes sense.


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## MIEventer (Feb 15, 2009)

My Little Buddies TB Gelding, he has a tattoo so he was raced, and is 17 now, has these interesting marks on his front legs. It looks like someone took a pair of splint boots, that has nails in them and wrapped them around his cannon bone's.

I asked what that was, and they said it was something that happened to him on the track - what in the world is that? Pin Firing?


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## paintluver (Apr 5, 2007)

^^Sounds like it


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## My Beau (Jan 2, 2009)

That's exactly what it is, MIE. I'll try to take a picture of Daisy's (she's 17 also) scars this afternoon when I feed them.


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## maura (Nov 21, 2009)

And yes, it is barbaric. I owned an OTTB who had pretty little dotted grid patterns across his front cannon bones from being pin fired for bucked shins. 

I did also see it done at racing barns. I asked a vet why he agreed to do such a discredited procedure and he told me that if he didn't do it, race horse trainers would find an unlicensed or back yard person to do it; at least if he did the procedure it would be performed with aseptic technicque. 

Blech!


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## Honeysuga (Sep 1, 2009)

The first is the procedure

The second is what it looks like when healed


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## paintluver (Apr 5, 2007)

^Awww, that looks so painful =[


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## trailhorserider (Oct 13, 2009)

Ick! I saw a TB with healed pin firing marks once. They were white dots on his chestnut legs, similar to a freeze brand. But I have never seen it "fresh." Poor horse! Looks painful. :-(


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## QHDragon (Mar 6, 2009)

Here are the legs of a horse out at where I use to ride:










Those lines are on both sides of the leg on both front legs. They said they thought he has been pin fired too, but all the pin firing scars I have seen have been dots where his are lines. He was a rather valuable WP horse at one point in his life.


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## Alwaysbehind (Jul 10, 2009)

QH, that does not really look like pinfiring scars to me. That looks more like someone used ill fitting splint boots or such.


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## Maverick101 (Nov 8, 2009)

I agree w Alwaysbehind

Those marks are not from pin firing. Those are from ill fitting boots. 

Pin firing marks are tiny dots in straight lines...generally all the way down the front of the cannon bone. And dont grow back w white hair. At least the ones I have seen are just like black dots.


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## Brithorse1996 (May 25, 2010)

What do they actually do when they pin fire though?


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## reachthestars (Jul 2, 2010)

They use a small tank of liquid nitrogen with a trigger and applicator. The vet marks the areas to be treated with a sharpie, and then puts the applicator to the leg. If I remember correctly it's 25 seconds of liquid nitrogen directly onto the skin, and often times there are up to 30 separate points to be 'treated'. The horse is heavily sedated for the procedure. 

I assisted several times in the short amount of time I worked for one of the local vets. It's not a practice I agree with, but I'm thankful for the experience of seeing it first hand. I even had to take over (under the vet's supervision) when her hands would get too cold (I worked there through the winter, and you couldn't wear gloves to do it).


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## EthanQ (Sep 5, 2011)

I have a horse that was pinfired by his previous owner, adn now he's lame where he got his marks. What now? I'm really not interested in having that procedure done to him again, cuz i know how terrible it is.


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## EthanQ (Sep 5, 2011)

my horse has pinfiring marks on his hind hocks and he randomly mysteriously goes lame on the same legs. Could the injurie3s jsut be returning?


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## IterAndEra (Feb 12, 2012)

I know I'm a little late but those marks on his leg were made from him dragging his shoes up his leg - either scratching at flies by rubbing opposite shoe with clips up the leg (what my farrier says) or because the nails in his shoes were a little long during the same activity (what my common sense says). Injury was not serious in my guy's case - he had these superficial cuts down both legs that did not even merit serious care (cleaned and rubbed corona on them) but the hair still came back white.


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## smilin1590 (Aug 4, 2009)

Seeing pictures of a fresh pinfired horse makes me hate the procedure even more. Especially since the new guy I just got had both his front legs pinfired before I owned him when he was a racehorse. He's gray so his dots came in all white, and most of the pinfire scars I've seen are white not black.


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## IterAndEra (Feb 12, 2012)

This is in reply to QH - sorry. Could be ill-fitting boots but my case was dragging the shoe.


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## Allison Finch (Oct 21, 2009)

Pin firing is being used less and less frequently these days. And, while I would never turn a horse down because he had been "fired" I would give the horse intense scrutiny in any prepurchase exam.


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## Lockwood (Nov 8, 2011)

Pin firing is done several ways and the term "pin firing' covers them all. Many years ago I worked on a track as a walker and exercise jocky. The whys of it I DO NOT agree with, but many track folks thought it worked. 

Anyway, at one of the barns I worked at, the trainer would decide to have it done on a certain horse. Depending on what he was trying to accomplish, he might try a blistering agent first. So the groom would rub a chemical paste on the legs then wrap them, which in turn would burn the horse. More often than not the horse would stomp and rub his painful legs and get the paste all over his face, thereby burning his face too. Once time a horse rubbed his head, which was covered in the paste, on me. Hurt like h**l and blisted my skin right up.

If that didn't work, or the trainer decided to go for the harsher treatment right away, a vet would come out and plug in this nasty device with a little metal rod sticking out of it to the wall to heat up. Yup, red hot, just like a branding iron. The horse would be sedated, then burned with the red hot rod up and down the legs. Usually these things were done in the afternoons when most of the staff was gone, but one day I had to hold a horse and help out. Well, after a minute or two I handed the lead of the drugged horse to someone and ran off to toss my cookies. 
The stench is unbearable and up to that point I had only heard about it, never witnessed it because the horses were always kept with standing wraps to cover everything up.

Needless to say I quit that barn and looked for one where that didn't happen. Not all race horse trainers do that, just some.
Nowadays I'm sure the liquid nitrogen method is safer (although just as painful I'm sure) but there are probably trainers who still use heat and chemicals.
Hence the name pin firing.


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## missyclare (Sep 14, 2011)

That is sad. Looks like they just went nuts with that stupid tool. Hard track surfaces, undeveloped, young feet etc. and these are testaments to the trouble the horse had with it all, why he's not on the track now still winning races, which is where they wanted him, cause its all about money. I'd love to see an xray. I'll bet there is permanent residual damage from this....a miracle if there isn't. Pin firing may outlawed in Canada, not sure.


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## Mstar (Nov 26, 2011)

I've also heard of trainers pin firing horses nowadays just because the owners won't let them just turn the horse out when they need it. So they pin fired them and say, oh have to turn them out, vets orders. Very very sad. Now it's used with liquid nitrogen (no different than freeze branding I think). 

Blistering is common, it can be very mild or very severe, just depending on what is used and how it's used. It can be effective, but I don't agree with aggressive use of it. 

The great racehorse Cigar was pin fired I believe on his hock as well.


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## minihorse927 (Aug 11, 2008)

When I was in highschool and going to equine science programs we had many standardbreds that had been pin fired. The majority of them were younger horses and had been pin fired in the hocks or rear cannon and had white dots a couple inches apart. These guys were done with the cold nitrogen, I watched it get done and they seemed fine. Even after waking up from being sedated they did not seem to be in much pain, most didn't seem like they were in pain at all, just mildly uncomfortable. It is used mostly in cases of a chronic lameness which they can not solve in any other manor.


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## Courtney (May 20, 2011)

My mare has (I think) 4 pin fire marks on one of her hind legs. I can't remember the exact injury she had, but I believe she had a splint that wasn't going away with stall rest, light walking and wrapping. At the barn where I worked, our vet tried everything he could think of before suggesting pin firing, and even then... he did the absolute minimum that he thought would do the trick. Vanna was about 2 years old when she had it done and to my knowledge, it has never affected her. She's 16 years old now and she is 100% sound on that leg.


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## equiniphile (Aug 16, 2009)

I was at the KY Horse Park this summer, and one of the retired racehorses there (I forget who it was) had those marks on his legs; the handler said they were treating some condition with it. Is that what it was? I can't believe a modern-day vet would do that.

ETA: Picture attached.


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## minihorse927 (Aug 11, 2008)

^^^Those are pinfire marks. It is still used as it is pretty effective but the majority of it going on is the cold version, not the hot. 
Maybe it is just the picture also, but look at the ankle/fetlock area on that horse on the same leg as the pinfire marks are! It is HUGE! Go into most standardbred race barns, you will more likely than not find at least 1 with them.


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## goneriding (Jun 6, 2011)

Sick, we humans are selfish creatures. In all of the years of owning horses, I have never heard of this.


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## equiniphile (Aug 16, 2009)

Here's another picture. It does look swollen to me. I think this is Cigar, actually.


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## minihorse927 (Aug 11, 2008)

Yeah, that fetlock looks swollen in the pics. As far as whether that is Cigar, I don't know but I do know he did have pinfire marks on his hocks.


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