Fittening after box rest

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Erehwemos

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I'm not looking for advice as I am already happy with what I am doing - I'm just interested in people's views as to how you would approach this kind of scenario, mainly due to a surprising comment from someone I spoke to this morning
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If you had a horse who had been totally out of work and mainly on box rest for three months with two separate (concurrent!) injuries, what would your approach to bringing that horse back into work be? Bear in mind that the horse is unlikely to be ridden more than twice/three times a week.

Would you start with road work, would you start in the school, or otherwise? What pace would you be working at, and how quickly would you progress?

Thankies!
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I would start with walking on the road for 20 mins personally.

Then up the intensity a week at a time adding in short periods of trot and so on. I wouldn't want to be working on circles until basic fitness had been established and the horse had a chance to harden it's legs.

Probably going to get shot down now
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Either long reining in the school or walking out hacking for a week or so building up to normal work over the next few weeks with plenty of turnout in the meantime.
Preferably the hacking
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Road work in walk, walk and yet more work in straight lines only for at least 3 weeks, then gradually add a bit of trot and take it from there. Walking is boring but it is the best thing.
 
Good good, you guys pretty much are thinking along the same lines as me then! I was talking to someone (very horsey knowledgeable) this morning about Elz, and when I said that I wont be doing anything except walking on the roads for the next 2/3 weeks the person was shocked, which surprised me somewhat. He asked me why I wasnt just going to start schooling her...so I pointed out that I needed to harden her legs first before starting anything intensive. I kinda thought that it was common sense....at least I know it was one of the main things drummed into me from my earliest years!
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Well as my boy is now coming back into work after 4 months off on box rest with an inflammed (not damaged but he is a ponce) suspensory, we are now allowed to hand walk/long rein and the vet recommended walking on a hard surface for as long as possible, and riding on a hard surface before we start trotting. I am from the school of road work and this goes along with what I would have done anyway.
 
I do think the road work is triply important if the horse has been rested on a rubber floor. That's the only downside to rubber mats I think is that a box rested horse never gets to stand on anything hard while it's in.
 
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Good good, you guys pretty much are thinking along the same lines as me then! I was talking to someone (very horsey knowledgeable) this morning about Elz, and when I said that I wont be doing anything except walking on the roads for the next 2/3 weeks the person was shocked, which surprised me somewhat. He asked me why I wasnt just going to start schooling her...so I pointed out that I needed to harden her legs first before starting anything intensive. I kinda thought that it was common sense....at least I know it was one of the main things drummed into me from my earliest years!
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I agree that you shouldn't go straight ahead and school but I was told by my vet to start my girls walk work on the softest of surfaces for a good couple of weeks before doing any road work. (this is after 10 months off from a tear in her ddft) Not saying that this is the case for every horse, just what was recomended for my girl.
 
Just goes to show how different advice can be. My girl has a tear in her DDFT and has started walking in hand 3 times per day around the stable block, increasing weekly before I am allowed on her. Vet then says it will be lots and lots of walking, then introduce trot work well down the line. Schooling is definitely out for the forseeable future as we need to harden her legs and strengthen everything that has been redundant for some considerable time.
 
I would agree with the roadwork approach and I'd start as with a totally unfit horse, so about 20 minutes.

My mare had a few months off over last winter although she kept herself fairly fit (or so I thought) hooning around the field. Being mainly TB as well and a lively girl I pushed on a little too quickly with the walk work - I started going out for about 45 minutes in the first week as she was too fresh and joggy all the way home on a shorter hack - but this was actually detrimental and she ended up with hamstrings strained through fatigue and needed the physio
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So for future reference, I'd follow an old fashioned fittening regime, starting with road work and following it to the letter!
 
Having been in this situation myself a few years ago (mare on 3 months box rest) - my course of action was to pay someone to walk her every day for 6 weeks (it was winter, I was in work in the week) - until she could start trotting etc. Once she was fully fit and signed off by the vet, said jockey continued to ride her twice a week in the school, whilst I continued with the hacking work.
 
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