Increasing ridden work following tendon surgery

[dressage_diva]

My 18year old gelding has tendon surgery (including stem cell therapy) at the beginning of this year on his off-fore DDFT. Surgery went well, he was on box-rest for about 8 weeks, then started going on the walker for the next 4 weeks, then started turnout. I was then advised to start introducing ridden work (2 weeks ago) and we're currently doing 10 minutes of walk three times a week in the school.

Vet has told me to take it slowly with him, do lots of walk work and stick to the school for the moment (good wax surface) with a view to introducing hacking at a later stage. They've told me to play the rehab by ear and take things slowly and that no single programme is ideal for every horse, so just do what I think is right and call them if I have any questions!

I'm thinking of aiming to gradually introduce the length and frequency of the ridden walk work over the next 3 months, getting up to a good hour (maybe longer?), before introducing any trot work. Due to previous suspensory injuries behind (and his age) I'm not expecting him to ever come back into any hard work (prior to the tendon injury he was just hacking for an hour several times a week). I don't plan to do any lunge work with him because of his hind legs (vets recommended we stick to hacking/simple schooling).

I'd be really interested on hearing what rehab programmes others have followed with their own horses following tendon surgery. Originally I was told he'd be off work for 6-12months following the surgery (I appreciate they always give the worse case scenario!) but it's been only 4 months and I'm already riding him. Given I was told the surgery only had a 50% success rate, we've already made massive progress! I've had him since he was four, and he has a home with me forever, so I'd rather take time over the initial rehab than risk re-injuring him again.

 

[YasandCrystal]

Our mare had tendon surgery on a tear in her right hind tendon (would need to look up the tendon name). She was supposed to have 4 weeks box rest and then start 5 mins walking in hand (in place of foot flexes as she was so precious about her leg).
The 4 weeks turned to 6.5 weeks because she got an infection at the incision site.

I did 2 weeks of daily walking in hand and then started ridden work in a sand manege - 5 minutes a day week 1 then 10 minutes a day week 2 and so forth until we got to 20 minutes a day and vet suggested I could hack her out on the roads. I continued with this increasing by 5 minutes per week and when we got to a week of an hour a day I had to introduce 5 minutes of trot daily in very short bursts. Again I had to increase the trot work by a few minutes each week until we got to 20 minutes a day in her 1 hour exercise regime of short bursts of trot. She had her surgery on 27th July 2012 and she was rescanned late December 2012 and the vet was amazed at her progress and great new repair growth in the tendon (they had to cut away more than expected during surgery).
I must say I stuck to the exercise regime exactly and missed just 1 day in the whole set of months regime (through poor weather and illness). I also used a micro therapy unit on the leg twice day for 3 months and I am sure this assisted the healing.
We went out in mid February and did a dressage test introducing canter and haven't looked back since. We intend to start some low jumping with her shortly. She is 20 years old.

 

[dressage_diva]

I did 2 weeks of daily walking in hand and then started ridden work in a sand manege...We intend to start some low jumping with her shortly. She is 20 years old.

Thanks YasandCrystal - so it sounds like you did 12 weeks of ridden walk work before introducing the trot work, which sounds like what I was aiming for (3 months). Unfortunately my boy's tendon damage was in the foot and was only visible on an MRI (we originally thought it was pedal bone/collateral ligament issue), so we can't really re-scan later down the line to see how he's progressing as insurance wouldn't cover another MRI!

Glad to hear your mare is doing well