Lame horse

[nomini]

Alisha went lame in my lesson on sunday. We were lunging and she was doing her usual silly stuff of flying round on the lunge for the first 10 mins or so. She settled down and started to lunge really nicely so we popped her over a small (6 inches) cross pole which she gave a lot of room over! Jumped her three or four times and she started to look a little bit bridle lame...so instructor got me to change the rein and trot her round on lunge, she looked completely 100% sound so popped her over the fence a couple of times on right rein. I was going to get on but instructor got me to trot her up in a straight line and she was definately lame so we got her untacked etc. Went to take her out to the field and the poor horse could hardly walk. It's now 5 days after she did it, and she is still very slightly lame. She has had one day of turnout this week (probably a mistake) and the rest she has been on 24/7 box rest.

Am I doing the right thing by keeping her in? There is very slight heat just below fetlock on the left fore (the one she is lame on) and no swelling at all. Am reluctant to give her bute as don't want to mask the lameness. She is 95% better from sunday.

Should I keep her in for another couple of days? She is the sort of horse that likes to charge around the field so very reluctant to put her out until she is 100% sound as don't want the lameness to get worse.

Sorry about the long post, just want to make sure I am doing the right thing! Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[Caritas]

Im quite careful with lameness as until you know what the problem is keeping her locked up or turning her out could be the wrong thing. I would call the vet and try and get an answer as to what is causing her a problem, good luck!!

 

[Jemayni]

Ooer, that sounds a bit dodgy TBH. I wouldnt turn her out partic because the ground is so hard at the moment, Id be tempted to get a vet in some ways, because it does sound a little odd! (Im not turning my horse out at the moment because of the ground and he is sound!)

 

[Hollyhorse]

If she's shown such an improvement in only 5 days then I would give her a little more time off on box rest and see if a few more days makes her sound again. She could simply have pulled a muscle by jumping so extravagantly. Going out in the field would only exascerbate this if she likes to party! Maybe give yourself a time limit - a set number of days to continue the box rest (won't do any harm as the ground's so hard) and then reassess - if she's still lame, even a little, then call the vet.