Bringing a horse back into work after a tendon injury.....advice?

[skychick]

Following on from my earlier post about putting my horse out on loan.

I have the possibility to loan a horse belonging to someone who works at my yard.
She is not offering her to anyone else so i dont have to rush a decision or anything.
I am loaning my horse out after basically 4 and a bit months of hell. I am not selling him as he is very quirky.

A girl who works on my yars has very kindly offered me her horse on loan. He horse is a 16.1 15 year old mare. She has not been worked for 2 years as she has had a foal (her second foal). Im not worried about bringing a horse back into work, im happy to take it steady etc. And even more so in this case as the horse is quite a bit bigger than i am used to. Max height i normally ride is 15.1!!
She was a very successful eventer at novice level. But had a tendon injury so she had her first foal. She was then brought back to work and to galloping and full competition fitness after that. She then injured the tendon out in the field again and so had another foal and 2 years off.

All i want to do is hack, a bit of schooling and a bit of jumping etc and maybe an odd local show. The owner thinks she will be fine for this, so i was wondering if anyone had any advice about how would be best to bring her back into work?
If we find she is not up to work then she can go back out in the field and have another foal. so there is no pressure on me for this loan so i am very lucky.
Thanks in advance

 

[ladyt25]

I have not had any personal experience of this as such but we do have an ex TB who broke down many years ago and was eventually retired from racing even though they sorted the tendons. He does have the most unbelievable bowed tendons and maney scars as, after breaking down st some point later on he ran off attached to a 5 bar gate and did more damage to his legs!

We have him on permanent loan (he was going to be PTS 7 years ago as his owner had no where for him to go) and prior to us having him his owner showjumped and XC'd him with no reoccurrence of tendon problems. His tendons have hardened up a great deal since we've had him and he's turned out 24 / 7 as well.

My suggestion to you would be to have the mare turned out as much as possible (24/7 ideally) as I am a firm believe this does help with old leg injuries like these. Riding wise, I would start with road work, firstly at walk and working up to introducing trotting and lengthening the periods of this (over a few weeks). I would avoid schooling on a surface at all, certainly to start with. If you feel you need to school then I would suggest using a good grass arena for this as if nice and firm then this puts less strain on the tendons.

Certainly, don't rush upping the workload if she's been out of work for a long time, take things slowly and see how she goes. There is no reason though why she won't be ok to do the work you say you intend to do.

 

[skychick]

I think this is what the owner is thinking.

She knows im not going to over work or over stress the horse and at least at the end of the day, if it turns out she is not suitable for work then she can be a broodmare again.
She had had 2 great foals and has good bloodlines.

Its actually a very nice scenario, the owner has had the horse for 8 years, and knows her well, she knows my riding and also she knows the awfull time i had with my current horse (she rode him for me once and even she struggled to stay on him! and she has got a seat like superglue!!)
So she has offered me the mare, as although she is forward going, she is enough to keep you interested....but doesnt buck, rear etc.
And there is no pressure to rush a decision.....so now all i need to do is to decide if i can drag my self away from 15 handers and onto a 16.1 hh!!!!

I have to admit.....the slow process of bringing her back into work will actually be nice....as after the last 4 months of rodeo riding....a nice slow paced hack will be a refreshing change :-D

 

[siennamum]

Sounds wonderful, best of luck.

 

[skychick]

Sounds wonderful, best of luck.

Thank you ever so much siennamum, i really hope that it does work out and that i can bring her slowly back into work and do some nice hacking and hopefully next year the odd local show. It would be nice for me as the horse is known by lots of people and also she would be based at the yard that the owner works at and she knows that i will treat her like a queen.

Also....i wont look so silly using the yard mounting block that nearly reaches the top of my 14.2hh horses back if i do have this horse on loan as she is 16.1!!