Competing after injury..

[anna22]

So sadly whilst teaching my youngster to jump on the lunge last summer, he got a tad "fresh" and basically bombed around like a loon and manage to find a really deep spot in the arena and so damage his suspensory ligament in his LF.
Off we tootled to vets, nice mid-body suspensory injury. 4 weeks box rest and restricted turn out (since november) and I am looking to being him back into work end of march when I start my new job.

Question: has anyone had an eventer who had a past suspensory problem? Or has anyone got one back out eventing after a suspensory injury (forelimb body injury)??

I need to be realistic and sadly cannot afford either money or time-wise to keep a horse who is never going to do what I want. He's a fab little black tb gelding who retired sound from racing as was too slow, 110% hack alone or in company (my 9yo very novice step daughter rides him out for me!), so I am willing to persist because he's a lovely person. But I do need to be realistic

Here's hoping for some positive stories!! But all welcome

 

[jam14]

Dont have an eventer and our lad shows mainly but he recovered fully from this and still goes on the gallops sometimes with no repercussions from the injury.

 

[Hoof_Prints]

Not a suspensory, but I have a horse that had a nasty DDFT tear in a very unusual (untreatable) place. She went under general for an op that was unsuccessful due to the extent of the scar tissue. Vet prognosis was that she'd never jump and would be good for light hacking, I was told that reinjury of this area was more likely than any other ligament or tendon issues. She xcs over 90cm up to 2 hrs and hunts over hedges and deep ground, she also hacks all day with a lot of gallops. She's not had a lame day since and she really does get some wear on her legs! So hopefully if she can come right, so can yours it took a good year though to get her jumping again and I took it very slowly. Box rest did her no good and neither did remedial shoes, she does everything barefoot (I know, barefoot brigade! but i'm not ). Chucked her out for a few months with no shoes and brought her back in sound!

Sorry its not a suspensory injury, but its a positive story

 

[loopiesteff]

My horse events and has had both hind suspensories go in his younger eventing days.

I was told he'd only be able to jump 2ft 3-2ft 6 max and not very frequently... He's jumping 1m+ easy and sometimes 3 times a week, dressages to Elementary, and is eventing at 90, to move up to 100 later in the year.

 

[anna22]

Thanks for the positives guys As he is only rising 6 I am happy to give him all the time he needs. He will have had virtually 5 months off completely with restricted turn out by the end of march ( i did hack a little a couple of months ago but he went lame for no reason on the roads in a straight line (never was lame on the hard before) so I think it was shoe related as cleared up within a week of new shoes! Fingers crossed XXX) , I plan to hack for a few months and then introduce schooling at the end of the summer. Or my other alternative is to turn out barefoot in the spring and leave him until late summer/autumn.
Hoof-Prints - how long did you just hack for? And how soon after the injury did you start riding again??

 

[Hoof_Prints]

Hoof-Prints - how long did you just hack for? And how soon after the injury did you start riding again??

She had 10 weeks off, 7 weeks was box rest as advised by the vet with 5 minutes in hand walking every day, unfortunately that never materialised as it was the middle of that very cold winter when it hit -13 C and she kept rearing and charging off on the icy concrete at 100mph then round the field... loaded up on bute with raised bar shoes on I got so fed up that I just left her out one day and never brought her back in ! She charged round and round until she got it out her system and settled down. I started riding at week 10, with 5 minutes walking around the field (I didn't have a school at this yard) . I did this for a week, then I increased it to 10mins with a bit of trot for another week, then on the third week we went for a mini hack up the road. I think it was about 5 weeks in to ridden work that we went on a 20min hack in walk with little bits of trot. I didn't just hack really, I did little bits of schooling and hacking at the same time and just gradually built it up as I felt necessary. By 10 weeks ridden work I'd done a little canter. I did quite a lot of gentle lunging too, and then stuck an equi ami on her to build her strength up after about 3 months. By 6 months she was schooling nicely on the flat for 1/2 hour sessions and at 10 months I introduced a small cross pole, at 11 1/2 months I took her out competing over 65cm. at 18months post injury she was out on the xc course for 2 hours over 80- 90cm! she's only 14.2hh so its relatively big . I was very surprised how well she did, to be honest I had to stop listening to the vet as he kept telling me to bute her up for every unaffiliated show and to put shoes on her. I moved her to a yard with a school 6 months post op so I could keep her working during bad weather.
Here she is out doing xc 18 months later

and competing at 95cm !

She was 7 when she injured herself I think, time absolutely flew by and its a distant memory now- never even crosses my mind when I work her.

 

[Arniebear]

I dont have a positive story but im in the same boat! My 5 yr old is recovering from a tendon injury and like you im worried if he will cope with eventing when he finally comes back into work (in about 6 months time!) so best of luck and ill be keeping my eye out for any of your posts to see how things are going

 

[georgiegirl]

I have a couple of experiences....

years ago my jumping pony did her suspensory travelling in the trailer on the way to a show (she was 18 at the time) and came out hopping lame. She has the best part of a year off and then was brought back into work - she went on to become a mounted games pony and hunted twice a week with another little girl once I had outgrown her well into her late twenties without any trouble from it again. This was about 17 years ago when we didnt have half the treatment and diagnostic things we have today...

I am currently going through it with my horse who had hind suspensory trouble at the beginning of last year. Its been a long old road but we have just started cantering again and she feels fantastic. The vets are very confident she will be back eventing again for the second half of this season all being well (yay!)

good luck x

 

[LucyLee]

My horse tore a tendon 2 years ago. The tear was only 4mm square, but we decided that time was the best healer and gave her a whole year off. She was supposed to be on box rest but she doesn't cope well with being shut in for long periods, so the vet said to put her in a small paddock. She kept jumping out over the 4ft post and rail onto our lawn, so we just decided to leave her in the big field where she was happy. After the year off, I spent about 8 weeks walking on roads with her before even trotting. She was slowly built up and was soon competing out over novice tracks without any problems, and will hopefully be moving up to Intermediate soon!
The main thing is to be super picky about what ground you run on, too wet or too hard can cause strains or concussions, and the way I look at it, I would rather loose my BE entry money than risk ruining my horse! I also invested in Premier Equines cold boots which I put on after the xc to help cool down the tendons and I use 'like ice' afterwards.
But from my experience, the horse can come back fine as long as they are given enough time to recover and build back up.
Good luck with your horse, I'm sure given enough time they will come back better than ever...mine did!

 

[anna22]

Thanks everyone. I have decided today I am probably going to leave him another couple of months at least and let time do it's thing. Then when it warms up a bit (if ever!!!) in the summer I'll probably just do road work for a few months then school on our school in the winter when its nice and firm.
I'll keep you all updated, thanks for the replies!