Bringing a horse back into work after months off.

[sarahann1]

I’m curious to know what others approaches are when bringing a horse who’s been on box rest for 4+ months, with another 3 months on field rest, back into work?

My mares been off after a procedure to sort septic pedal osteitis. She’s sound now, her hoof has grown in nicely and she’s coping very well with being walked in had for 20mins at a time so far.

 

[j1ffy]

It must be great to know that she's back to work!

What does your vet say? I know when my horse was coming back from an op to have some bone chips removed from his fetlocks, my vet advised on how (and how quickly) to build up the work again. Once he had a good foundation in walk and trot and the vet had signed him off, I progressed to a fairly standard fitness plan.

 

[sarahann1]

It must be great to know that she's back to work!

What does your vet say? I know when my horse was coming back from an op to have some bone chips removed from his fetlocks, my vet advised on how (and how quickly) to build up the work again. Once he had a good foundation in walk and trot and the vet had signed him off, I progressed to a fairly standard fitness plan.

It’s great, especially with the weather taking a turn for the better.

The vets have been a bit vague to be honest, I’ve had slightly conflicting advice from the vet school and my usual vets. I think I’ll need to have another chat with my usual vets. I really don’t want to push her too far too quickly.

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

My old mare had the same procedure some years ago I started hand walking for a few weeks then did short road hacks slowly increasing over a few weeks, I then started a bit of schooling with short burst of trot, the main concern we had was where the hole in her foot was could still feel soft so is prone to bruising and getting sore.

We did initially have heart bars on with a surgical plate to protect the area for the first month of exercise but then vet and farrier said the foot would be okay with a normal shoe, I did continue to put iodine on it everyday for quite sometime afterwards.

It was actually March when she was allowed turnout and be ridden and we were lucky it was fairly dry underfoot which helped.

 

[sarahann1]

My old mare had the same procedure some years ago I started hand walking for a few weeks then did short road hacks slowly increasing over a few weeks, I then started a bit of schooling with short burst of trot, the main concern we had was where the hole in her foot was could still feel soft so is prone to bruising and getting sore.

We did initially have heart bars on with a surgical plate to protect the area for the first month of exercise but then vet and farrier said the foot would be okay with a normal shoe, I did continue to put iodine on it everyday for quite sometime afterwards.

It was actually March when she was allowed turnout and be ridden and we were lucky it was fairly dry underfoot which helped.

That’s really helpful, thanks! She’s definitely got a bit of bruising coming down atm so I’m being super cautious. She’s getting Stockholm tar on every morning before she goes out and idodine every evening when she comes in.