Life after broken knees...

Cadfael&Coffee

Cadfael&Coffee

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hi,

i've never had a horse break his knees before, so am trying to figure out the best way to bring him back into work.

i figure, since it's going to take 6 weeks (since he did it) before i can even turn him out, a week or 2 after he finally gets out, i'll start to walk him (hacking) out for about a month, gradually building up the length of time, then see how we go for speed work and schooling after the month.

also how long would you leave it to think about jumping? i figure since he did it in mid- september, if i leave it til March or summat it gives them a good 6 months to heal fully- i don't want to take 4 steps forward and 10 back!!

sorry for long post- just wondering if any of you would do it differently?

the wounds were quite bad, and right down to the joint on one leg :-S

thanks!!
 
Can't help with timing etc. But there is lots of hope your horse will go on to do loads more things in its life. I looked after a horse not long ago which had broken both of its knees whilst out hunting. After a long recovery and metal pins and plates in both legs he is now absolutely sound, and does still do the occasional hunt too :D!

I hope your horse makes a good recovery. Just take everything really slow, theres no need to rush, he'll get there :)
 
Your plan seems fine. I hope he is starting to heal, broken knees are scary.

A few things to bear in mind are:

Future knee protection - i found leather backed knee boots rubbed the scar (my mare had proud flesh as her's was a bad fall), so ones with felt backing were needed for the first year. The combined knee/brushing boots weren't great, and neoprene ones weren't around then (it was 15 years ago!)
Using knee boots for faster work/jumping caused a callus on the back of my mare's leg eventually, so watch out for rubs there.

Aloe vera worked wonders on reducing the scarring once everything had healed. Laser therapy (we had a new agey vet...) didn't work at all. We had the proud flesh cut off after about 6 months, then applied aloe vera. We eventually got some hair growth over the scars after using aloe once/twice a day.

Be very careful with starting circle work as the knees may be stiff. My mare fell a second time and ripped the scar open again because i'd started schooling too soon :(

My mare was in a similar state to yours, within mm of the joint sac, and was back in full work (pony club dressage, rallies, long hacks etc) after less than 6 months. Her jumping wasn't as good afterwards, as I think the landing jarred her knees, but she was great up to 2'6ish.
 
Oh goodness, that sounds horrific! How did he do it, if you don't mind me asking?

I have no experience with horses with broken knees, but have my own experience with a badly broken ankle. Every question you ask is based upon an answer of 'how long is a piece of string'. It will be a case of crossing that bridge when it comes.

I did the whole time scale thing with myself, and I was wearing rose tinted glasses when I did! :o What I thought was a long period, turned out to be a very short period in the grand scheme of things! It took alot longer to reach goals then what I initially appreciated. That is in no way trying to dampen your spiritis by the way! Time is a great healer.

I had to do a tremdous amount of physio work flexing my ankle to try help my joint work. It may be worth talking to your vet and seeing if they can recommend a physio to come out and help you in the recovery of your horse. I imagine your insurance (if you have any) will cover you for this?

Good luck, and sending plenty of healing vibes! xx
 
thank you!!!! i didn't even think about circles, though of course now i do it's obvious!!

will see how the jumping goes, he's 14 or 15 now, so he might not heal as well as i'd like, but we shall see :-) not thinking about that for a while yet anyway.

and he did it cause he was being an arse hacking over to a competition, and as my (long standing arguement with said farrier) farrier left his feet ridiculously long he managed to trip flat on his face and went right down.

i'm not so bothered about the scarring, and i'm not worried about him doing it again- normally he's as sure footed as a mountain goat, so once he's been built up a bit and my farrier is replaced next week i'm mainly worried about his flexibility. , so i don;t think i will look at boots after the first 6 months of work tbh
 
Poor little man! The same thing happened to my friends horse on the road, but he was fortunate not to do any serious damage, just take the skin off his knees. I know you're not looking at boots for anytime soon, but I thought these might be of interest, my friend uses them... (third set of boots down)... http://www.barnstormers.co.uk/acatalog/Westropp_Horse_Boots.html xx :)
 
Quick question you say "broken knees" do you mean he has gone down on them and damaged the skin and soft tissue or do you mean he has actually damaged the bones in his knees. Old skool phrase "broken knees" meant the former!!
 
Allover said:
Quick question you say "broken knees" do you mean he has gone down on them and damaged the skin and soft tissue or do you mean he has actually damaged the bones in his knees. Old skool phrase "broken knees" meant the former!!
Click to expand...


i mean the traditional way- luckily his bone wasn't damaged (that's shown up anyway :-S- he's still on box rest, but looking sound) but he tore all the flesh away so that the joint capsule was completely exposed on one knee and badly scraped the other
 
Poor lad hope he heals soon.

I can also recommend the westropp combined ones, although I would use the traditional style if they actually stayed up on any future horse :rolleyes:

Last horse I tried 2 different styles, almost cutting off his circulation then opted for the westropp ones. :)
 
Hi my horse did exactly the same, he is a simlilar age, he was on box rest for 3 months as it was healing, he had to wear a cast for 4 weeks and it held brillantly in that time, Im bringing him back into work now and have not experienced any stiffness as of yet.
 
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