dilema... what do you think i should do?

only_me

only_me

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ok, so my horse has been on 3 weeks box rest due to swelling around hock, took him to the top vet near us to get scanned and see what was going on.
he has only been out of the stable and walked across to the hose where i have been cold hosing for 15-20mins once or twice a day. he has been cut right down to once scoop of his feed, with a scoop of sugar beet to put weight on as he is a poor doer and no matter how much he eats he always looks poor. he has also had 1/2 scoop of chaff in his feed morn and night.

so took him to vets tonight, and *tried* to trot him up. trotted up nice and sound down the lane - then turn round and trot back up, and then he bucked and squealed and tried to take off!! so try to stop, then continue trotting where he makes a beeline for the field and me still on the end of the rope!! so vet tells us to try the other road, and we trot off, with me trying to control the beast
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so eventually we agree that this is not working so vet gets lunge rope and lunges him on the gravel, where he bucks and rears and kicks out whilst going round. the good part is that he does all this sound, and vet feels that he has no reason to scan.
so i have been given the go ahead to start working him again, hacking and then flatwork with jumping next week.

this is my dilema - vet says to avoid circles for a few days, which means that i probably cant lunge, and yet he is incredibly fresh and full of himself (plus he is 16.2hh and im 5f6!!) so will be fresh out hacking on the road (the only hacking we have but they are country roads) and that could be interesting - he has a vertical buck. so what do i do? cant let him out in the field as he will tear around and mess about, which could affect his hock. what do you think??

help please!!
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Personally I think jumping next week is very soon. I would take a steady approach to rehabilitation. I'd probably get a physio out to check how his muscles and back are.
I'd then do schooling using the whole arena, no small circles and no lateral/more demanding work. It's difficult to say without knowing the exact circumstances/your horse, but personally I think I would avoid jumping until he can manage more complex work on the flat (circles, lateral work). Maybe this will take 3 weeks or so?
 
Can you go out for a quiet walk with another horse? For a reasonable length of time.
Why not give him a feed balancer, like Top Spec or Baileys Lo Cal with some chaff and a bit of SBP and cut out his "normal" feed.
This will give him vits and mins, and yeast to disgest the forage yet no extra energy.
 
ah, well it was an infection around the hock, and has had complete rest but the day before he went lame he had just won his event, so is pretty fit and back/muscles fine as have them done once a month or so anyhoos.
hes at PN level anyway so not very demanding work, and we are to only avoid small circles for a week. i will be keeping a close eye on his hock area anyway, and stop the flatwork if it swells up again.
jumping would be at the end of next week though, ie. next sat/sun. it would be pretty basic jumping though!


think i could lunge him on a big circle?
 
If it was an infection rather than any soft tissue damage then you may well be able to make more rapid progress.
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You know him best so trust your instincts. I'd probably get on and hack out at a brisk forward trot until he settled. Schooling may be an option but unless your school is huge it will probably still be quite twisty. You could try and give him a shot of an on the day calmer if this works for him?
 
i dont normally use calmer, as he is *usually* a dopey twit anyhoos
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will ask yard to see if anyone has any
if he goes in the arena he will gallop around and scream/squeal and buck his brains out!
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gahh its catch 22!!
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