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<font color=green>Emerald Angel<br><font color=mag
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REYKJAVIK (Reuters) - Barnaby, an English horse who lost one of his legs, has been fitted with an artificial limb and is now enjoying a life of leisure, an Icelandic prosthetics expert said on Friday.
Artificial limbs are frequently made for people who have lost a limb but it's rare for an animal to benefit from the latest in prosthetics technology.
The 12-year-old horse had the lower part of his right foreleg amputated about a year ago after a muscular disease led to an infection, Toby Carlsson, a senior technical executive at Iceland prosthetics maker Ossur hf., told Reuters.
Barnaby's owner, Jan Munns, did not want him put down.
"Why should I? You wouldn't have your children slaughtered just because they have a bad leg," she told Iceland Channel 2 television.
A temporary new limb of wood and leather did not work, so Munns turned to an English clinic, Dorset Orthopedic Company, that produces artificial limbs for amputees.
The clinic made the limb but called on Ossur to provide an artificial joint and hoof, and it was fitted four weeks ago.
Carlsson, technical director for Ossur Europe, said the high-performance appendage was made from carbon fiber using technology normally employed in products for people, but made to horse specifications -- able to bear greater weight and impact.
"He's no longer ridden, but apart from that he's a perfectly happy horse," said Carlsson, a Swede living in England.
"He's outside, he's running and jumping and having a perfectly good time -- he's a horse of leisure."
Ossur is the world's second biggest maker of prosthetics -- artificial limbs and the joints and sockets that make them work -- and its "flex-foot" allows athletes who have lost limbs to take part in events like the Paralympic Games.
Artificial limbs are frequently made for people who have lost a limb but it's rare for an animal to benefit from the latest in prosthetics technology.
The 12-year-old horse had the lower part of his right foreleg amputated about a year ago after a muscular disease led to an infection, Toby Carlsson, a senior technical executive at Iceland prosthetics maker Ossur hf., told Reuters.
Barnaby's owner, Jan Munns, did not want him put down.
"Why should I? You wouldn't have your children slaughtered just because they have a bad leg," she told Iceland Channel 2 television.
A temporary new limb of wood and leather did not work, so Munns turned to an English clinic, Dorset Orthopedic Company, that produces artificial limbs for amputees.
The clinic made the limb but called on Ossur to provide an artificial joint and hoof, and it was fitted four weeks ago.
Carlsson, technical director for Ossur Europe, said the high-performance appendage was made from carbon fiber using technology normally employed in products for people, but made to horse specifications -- able to bear greater weight and impact.
"He's no longer ridden, but apart from that he's a perfectly happy horse," said Carlsson, a Swede living in England.
"He's outside, he's running and jumping and having a perfectly good time -- he's a horse of leisure."
Ossur is the world's second biggest maker of prosthetics -- artificial limbs and the joints and sockets that make them work -- and its "flex-foot" allows athletes who have lost limbs to take part in events like the Paralympic Games.
