If a horse isn't sound in trot, should she ridden at all?

[ChestnutConvert]

My girl has OA in all fetlocks, one worse than the others and another one even worse than that. She will never be level on her hind again, is on Bute and turmeric as medicating the joint with different drugs didn't work on that one.
I was told to keep riding her as long as she isn't too bad, she will tell me when she has had enough and we only ever hack at the most 2 or 3 times a week. She can be a bit wonky but is still very eager to go out and happy in doing so.

 

[conniegirl]

i have a horse with a locking stifle and it is not lame, it is sound, sometimes it does not lock at all, it works perfectly through the warm up, and show no signs of lameness when cold in the warm up or when ridden, if it showed any subtle discomfort i would not ride it until i was certain it was not suffering or established it was not suffering from something else.

in ops case the horse is uncomfortable, if i wanted to enhance the horses life i would try working on a surface to give it something to look forward to, even walking around, or take it for walks in hand,.

the added weight of a rider is not going to help a horse that is not right.

but i would not do any of the above until i knew exactly what is going on with the horse in case it makes it worse.

lameness is the signal to find out what is wrong before whatever is wrong gets worse

Technically any time his stifle locks he is lame, normaly with locking stifle the fitter they are the less it locks! so yes yours may be sound currently but if he were totaly unfit I bet it would lock up a lot more.
Mine has locking stifle and we decided to go down the fitness route rather than the surgery route.

 

[supsup]

If lameness=pain, then a horse that is sound in walk isn't likely to experience any significant pain while walking. If the horse remains sound in walk after being hacked in walk, then I would think that is acceptable. I agree, it would be very nice to get a vet's opinion on whether walk work is likely to improve/harm/not change the situation, but I'm guessing if the horse's injury is 13 months old and has not improved with long-term rest over that period, even a vet with expensive diagnostic equipment might not be able to provide a definitive diagnosis on whether any damage seen is likely to respond to walk work one way or the other.