Advice needed, riding a lame horse

[tabithakat64]

The background: 6 months ago my horse tore a hind DDFT (4cm in length just above the fetlock joint), in February he had his annual ligament cut and he has had two IRAP injections into the tendon since then.

He is unlikely to ever be anything more than a light hack and will never be fully sound. He is sound in walk but 1/10th lame in trot on a straight line and 2/10th's lame on a circle.

After months of building up the walking in hand he is going to be allowed limited turnout in a 15x15m pen.

However my vet wants me to start very light ridden work to help strengthen the tendon before he goes back out in a proper field.

So my options are keep up the walking in-hand and pen turnout for 3 months then turn him out in the field.

or (this is what the vet would prefer) start ridden walking in two weeks to strengthen the tendon, then introduce trot work to see if the tendon holds up before turning him out in the field.

I want to give Fudge the best chance of coping with normal turnout BUT I feel it's wrong to ride a horse that is slightly lame and in discomfort.

What should I do?

Is it ever right to ride a lame horse?

 

[Janah]

If he is sound in walk as you say, then I see no problem in riding him in walk especially as you have the vet's advice to do so. A very slow short trot after several weeks of walking will soon show if he is ready to do so.

Jane

 

[MegaBeast]

Doesn't sound like he's hoping lame, so if he seems comfortable and it's on your vets advice then probably for the best. At least this way you can control the exercise and hopefully strengthen it gradually whereas out in a field, however small he can easily do some handbrake turns and potentially ruin everything

 

[Izzwizz]

Your horse has done the exact same injury my mare did, she was diagnosed last Sept via MRI as its in her hoof - worst possible place of course!! She was on box rest and on 5th Feb I was advised by the vet to start riding her in walk, we had done weeks of in hand walking before that. We started out doing small rides and am now up to an hour. We will do a little trot work in about 2 weeks time and she is at the moment turned out full time on her own in a small paddock. She went out in the field 1 week ago and I found that shes less likely to run about when out full time though it was not a good night for me on her first night out - I hardly slept. However, shes adapted to it really well and so far so good. Riding is correct to strengthen the tendon as that was what I was advised to do, makes sense really as they can do some proper handbrake turns when they want to. ! The difficult bit was riding her whilst on box rest and passing others in fields especially if they ran about. We had some spectacular bucks and boings and I had to be careful where I took her. Vet is back out to check her progress before the end of June and its a time patience thing with tendon injuries.

Good luck and PM me if you want any other help.