Paint it Lucky
Well-Known Member
My horse injured himself last year, pulling his suspensory ligment. The vet advised box and then field rest followed by a gradual return to work. This we did, he spent the winter and most of this year living in a field so he could mooch about gently and his leg healed well, he is now back in full work (though not too strenuous as I am always paranoid that his leg might go again). From the field he was staying perfectly sound and managing long 2-3 hour hacks with a fair bit of cantering on good going.
I recently moved him to a new yard with more facilities. One of the yard rules is that the horses have to be stabled for several hours each day so as to preserve the grazing. I am worried because when I go to see him after he's been in for several hours (~10) his front legs are often quite swollen, eg. his windgalls have filled up. He has always had windgalls but wandering round the field seems to keep them down, but after he's been in the ones on his front legs particularly are very big and hard (his backs aren't so bad). His injury was to one of his front legs so I don't know if it is related, could the standing in be impeding the circulation to it? He is sometimes quite stiff aswell when I get him out of the stable which he never was when in the field 24/7. When he comes in in the mornings after being out all night his windgalls have gone back down again.
So basically I am wondering if he needs to be out all the time to keep the circulation going into his legs. I have been being very carefull to walk him for ages when I get on him to warm him up and he is not lame when I do this. But last week I loose schooled him after seeing him walk stiffly out of his stable and he was abit lame infront. I haven't ridden him since, I am thinking of giving him a few weeks off to see if he comes right and then calling the vet if not. This is probably a very wafflely post sorry! Does anyone have experience of this sort of thing? Do you think it is his old injury flairing up or could it be something else?
I recently moved him to a new yard with more facilities. One of the yard rules is that the horses have to be stabled for several hours each day so as to preserve the grazing. I am worried because when I go to see him after he's been in for several hours (~10) his front legs are often quite swollen, eg. his windgalls have filled up. He has always had windgalls but wandering round the field seems to keep them down, but after he's been in the ones on his front legs particularly are very big and hard (his backs aren't so bad). His injury was to one of his front legs so I don't know if it is related, could the standing in be impeding the circulation to it? He is sometimes quite stiff aswell when I get him out of the stable which he never was when in the field 24/7. When he comes in in the mornings after being out all night his windgalls have gone back down again.
So basically I am wondering if he needs to be out all the time to keep the circulation going into his legs. I have been being very carefull to walk him for ages when I get on him to warm him up and he is not lame when I do this. But last week I loose schooled him after seeing him walk stiffly out of his stable and he was abit lame infront. I haven't ridden him since, I am thinking of giving him a few weeks off to see if he comes right and then calling the vet if not. This is probably a very wafflely post sorry! Does anyone have experience of this sort of thing? Do you think it is his old injury flairing up or could it be something else?
