Laminitis, inflammation inside the hoof that weakens the bond between the hoof wall and the bone within, rarely announces itself dramatically at first. The early signs are a cluster of small reluctances and small differences that an owner who knows the horse's normal will catch hours before a stranger would. Rich grazing, excess weight and certain health problems sit behind many cases, so risk rises in spring grass, after a feed-room raid, and in easy-keeping ponies and cobs carrying too much condition. Any convincing cluster of the signs below earns an urgent vet call the same day, not a watching brief.
Stance and Movement Tell the Story First
A horse developing sore front feet reorganises how it stands. Watch for weight shifted back toward the heels in the classic rocked-back stance, front feet camped forward, and constant small shifting of weight from one front foot to the other at rest. In movement the signs sharpen: reluctance to turn, especially in a tight circle, a short, pottery, ginger stride on hard or stony ground while the same horse looks easier on soft going, hesitation coming out of the stable in the morning, and lying down more than usual or staying down longer to take weight off the feet. A horse who usually walks out freely and suddenly needs persuading is showing you something, even if there is no limp to point at.
Pulse and Heat You Can Feel
Learn your horse's normal digital pulse before you need it: fingers resting lightly over the artery at the back of the fetlock should find a soft, modest beat. In early laminitis that pulse becomes noticeably stronger and bounding, and one or both front hooves may feel warmer than the hind feet or than a stablemate's. Neither sign works alone, since exercise and a hot day warm hooves too, which is why the cluster matters: bounding pulse plus warm feet plus reluctance to turn is a very different report from warm feet after work on a summer afternoon.
The Context That Raises the Alarm
Report the background with the signs, because the vet will ask. Recent turnout onto lush grass, a broken feed store and gorged grain, sudden weight gain, a retained placenta after foaling, serious illness or diarrhoea elsewhere in the body, and any recent change in grazing or hard feed all change how urgently the picture reads. Ponies, cobs and horses with a previous episode or a cresty neck and fleshy body condition deserve the lowest threshold of all: for them, footiness after grass is laminitis until a vet says otherwise.
What to Do While the Vet Comes
Keep the horse still and comfortable rather than walking the signs off. A deep, soft bed that supports the feet, ideally in a stable the horse can reach with minimal walking, is the right holding move; do not force exercise to test soundness, and do not turn out onto grass to see whether things improve. Offer water within reach and note what the horse has eaten in the past two days. This is general information, not a treatment plan: laminitis management belongs to your vet, who may also involve your farrier, and outcomes are far better when that call happens at the pottery-stride stage rather than after a day of hoping.
A written note of when each sign appeared, what the grazing changed and what the pulse felt like gives the attending vet a running start, and in KinsLe the Pet Passport holds those dated episode notes and risk reminders for the animal in one file.