Could I get a sense check please?

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Annagain

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As you all probably know by now (I've banged on about it enough!) Wiggy is on box rest. We have a couple of weeks left and I'm planning for reintroducing turnout. The vet said he should have quiet turnout on his own for the first 8 weeks but due to several factors the only option for this is to fence off a piece of the winter field that the others are in. I think this would be worse than just turning him back out as if (pretty big if!) the others go galloping about, he'll probably get involved but by going up and down the fence line rather than running around with them which will mean lots of emergency stops and tight turns .

His herd of 4 horses (including him) is really settled and quiet. He's the quietest of the lot. Usually, even if they have a run around, he follows half heartedly behind for a bit then gives up and eats again. He's had a pen in the same field that he goes out into for a few hours every day, weather permitting, and he's continued to groom and play bitey face with them over the fence the whole time. He's also grazed in hand in and around them when I've had time to stand out there with him. He managed to escape the other day (luckily there was only one of his fieldmates out at the time which probably helped keep things calm but I think it would have been fine with the other two as well) and he just wandered over and grazed with him. My friend saw it all happen but he started to run when she went to catch him so she left him and phoned me as she didn't want to be responsible for injuring him again! She watched from a distance and I caught him an hour later with no problems.

Would I be mad to just turn him out with them? The plan at the moment is to make his pen bigger over a few days and then after he's been out for a few hours one day to just take the fence away. I'm 99% sure there'll be no drama with that, it's just whether being with the others and all the interaction that brings - not so much running around but playfighting and maintaining pecking order (he's top dog in the field) - is potentially more damaging than running up and down the fence? I don't want to risk ruining the progress we've made (he had a check up a couple of weeks ago and is sound, it's just a case of consolidating and doing his rehab now) but at the same time I'm not sure the vet's advice is best for our situation. In an ideal world, there'd be a lovely flat, sheltered individual turnout paddock where he could see his friends over the fence but sadly our world is real rather than ideal.
 
Hi, I'm answering this because one of my boys is called Wiggy. He is an older horse now but doesn't really know it. He still enjoys hacking out schooling, jumping (A lot lower that he used to compete at) . Probably about 12 months ago how he had a colic operation, he didn't have anything removed but everything was in the wrong place. He was opened up & re arranged & following that he had box rest, then hand grazing, then into a small paddock & gradually we increased to paddock size until he was back to normal. We stuck did what our vet wanted us to do. Now he is totally healed & it's like nothing has ever happened. He is 26 years old, thinks he's 14 years and is full of life. He is now used by the vets when a similar case is apparent in another owners horse. They can phone us & we'll speak to them & sometimes that will help them with a decision. Sorry we can't help with the cost, as many will know it's a hefty bill.

You pay a hefty bill when ever a vet attends your horse so use their advice. If they say how they want him grazed following some treatment then stick to it. It may be an inconvenience to you but that doesn't matter, treat your animal as the vet has advised.
 
The alternative would be to see if there is a local rehab yard near you that could have him on secure / small individual turn out.

I read too quickly and didn't spot that the vet had said limited space for 2 months.
 
Toby_Zaphod said:
Hi, I'm answering this because one of my boys is called Wiggy. He is an older horse now but doesn't really know it. He still enjoys hacking out schooling, jumping (A lot lower that he used to compete at) . Probably about 12 months ago how he had a colic operation, he didn't have anything removed but everything was in the wrong place. He was opened up & re arranged & following that he had box rest, then hand grazing, then into a small paddock & gradually we increased to paddock size until he was back to normal. We stuck did what our vet wanted us to do. Now he is totally healed & it's like nothing has ever happened. He is 26 years old, thinks he's 14 years and is full of life. He is now used by the vets when a similar case is apparent in another owners horse. They can phone us & we'll speak to them & sometimes that will help them with a decision. Sorry we can't help with the cost, as many will know it's a hefty bill.

You pay a hefty bill when ever a vet attends your horse so use their advice. If they say how they want him grazed following some treatment then stick to it. It may be an inconvenience to you but that doesn't matter, treat your animal as the vet has advised.
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It's not so much that it's an inconvenience, more that I'm not sure it's helpful given our situation. We don't have a suitable paddock, our only option is a fenced off piece of the field and I'm not sure that would keep him any quieter than being back with his friends would. The only extra work that him being in a fenced off piece of the field would bring is having to top up water, which is nothing really.
 
Polos Mum said:
The alternative would be to see if there is a local rehab yard near you that could have him on secure / small individual turn out.

I read too quickly and didn't spot that the vet had said limited space for 2 months.
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It's not limited space he needs but to be kept quiet. We want to reintroduce movement but not have him go mad (which I've never really seen him do!) I think taking him away for 2 months and reintroducing him would be more likely to cause issues than him going out with them early, although I appreciate he may well be in better physical shape to deal with that after the 2 months. I also doubt anywhere will have anything like that in the middle of winter around here.
 
Maybe see what the vet says - it's a tough thing to do, to ask you to keep him quiet for 2 months.
Especially over winter when the mud / snow / frost makes small areas more of a challenge.

I have a small, stable, calm herd - but they have a loony 5 minutes once a week or so !
 
Is there any way you can rearrange how the others are living for these next two months so that he isn't in a small area with them having the potential to move too far from him? Perhaps they could go into a smaller area than normal, with your boy having a pen directly in the middle of where they are, with them having effectively a very wide track around him - so they hhave lots of space and room to move, but never too far from him and so he can't over-extend himself or get anxious or stressed about being left alonne? Probably no practical at this time of year, but worth the thought perhaps? His/their area could always move every couple of weeks?
 
Annagain said:
He's had a pen in the same field that he goes out into for a few hours every day, weather permitting, and he's continued to groom and play bitey face with them over the fence the whole time. He's also grazed in hand in and around them when I've had time to stand out there with him.
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I think that because he is effectively going out with his herd I would go for herd turnout.

Annagain said:
The plan at the moment is to make his pen bigger over a few days and then after he's been out for a few hours one day to just take the fence away.
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After the few hours out I would quietly open up the gate/side of the turnout pen and let him wander out rather than go straight to taking the fence away, Simply taking the fence away might just be a bit too exciting. Providing everything was going well I would take the fence away
 
PurpleSpots said:
Is there any way you can rearrange how the others are living for these next two months so that he isn't in a small area with them having the potential to move too far from him? Perhaps they could go into a smaller area than normal, with your boy having a pen directly in the middle of where they are, with them having effectively a very wide track around him - so they hhave lots of space and room to move, but never too far from him and so he can't over-extend himself or get anxious or stressed about being left alonne? Probably no practical at this time of year, but worth the thought perhaps? His/their area could always move every couple of weeks?
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He already has a small pen (about 3m square) in the field where he has hay and which gets moved every 2 or 3 days as the conditions/grass dictate. He's fine if they go off to the other end of the field but he doesn't have the room to run around like he would have with a bigger fenced off part of the field. He's pretty self sufficient, it's not panicking I'm worried about, more trying to join in the fun - if any fun occurs. He knows he can't at the moment so doesn't try to, with more space he might. I know he definitely could if he's in with them, it's more that I don't think a fenced off area would help prevent it so isn't worth it, if that makes sense? There's also the time of year to consider, any fenced off area is likely to get more churned up and slippery .

YO is happy for us to do whatever's best for him but it has to be inside that field so we have scope for two pairs for a week or two but again I'm not sure it would help enough to be worth it?
 
How fit is he? Normally the vets tend to want them to be cantering fit before reintroduction to herd turnout. I don't know what your land is but at this time of year it can be more slippery so the risks are probably higher now than summer.

When Homey had broken splint bone he was on rehab livery on individual turnout for two months and cantering under saddle before retuning to his herd turn out and it was absolutely fine going back.
 
He'll be up to 40 minutes a day of in-hand walking by the time he goes out. He's then to have 8 weeks in the field with no hand walking before we re-introduce ridden work.

The field is on quite a slope (but well draining land) so there is that risk but again, there's nothing we can do about that and it doesn't change whether it's a fenced off area or not as due to gates and water etc the only way it would work would be to fence down the slope rather than across it.
 
I would consider extending his box rest for a few weeks, making his pen a little bigger each week. If he is coping atm it will allow him a little more time to heal.
 
The one time I did this we had a similar scenario re fields and where to put everyone.

I actually bought a bag of coarse mix and poured it in a line along the ground like feeding sheep and let them pick at it. By the time they had finished the novelty to run had worn off and they just meandered away quietly in dribs and drabs
 
I'd be tempted to extend his paddock so as big as you can make it until your fencing runs out making this design or similar to prevent him from getting any speed up on the long sides.

This is what I did with Lari and it was a great compromise.

It won't kill Wiggy to be on his own for a few weeks longer now you've come this far! You can always move then fencing every couple of days. I just don't want you to set yourself up for heartbreak if he ends up re injuring it.
 

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Annagain said:
The plan at the moment is to make his pen bigger over a few days and then after he's been out for a few hours one day to just take the fence away. I'm 99% sure there'll be no drama with that, it's just whether being with the others and all the interaction that brings - not so much running around but playfighting and maintaining pecking order (he's top dog in the field) - is potentially more damaging than running up and down the fence? I don't want to risk ruining the progress we've made (he had a check up a couple of weeks ago and is sound, it's just a case of consolidating and doing his rehab now) but at the same time I'm not sure the vet's advice is best for our situation. In an ideal world, there'd be a lovely flat, sheltered individual turnout paddock where he could see his friends over the fence but sadly our world is real rather than ideal.
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With your description of the herd and setup that you have available. This seems sensible to me: just increase the size of his existing pen for a while and if all goes well, let him out.
 
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