OCD and coming back into work

J

Jack1997

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Hi, my thoroughbred X has recently come home from the vets following treatment for OCD in his stifle (Cortisone Steroid injection), i was wondering if anyone else has has experience with this and what they thought? also any tips for bringing him back into work? Prior to this we were training for BE so he was fit.

Thanks
 
First thing I am wondering is did you get a back to work plan from your vet? If not, why don't you phone them for a guideline of what is the best way to start work?

I would suggest lots of walk at the start for a couple of weeks, just to build up some strength over the back before you start anything more strenuous.
 
well i got a brief "walk for first week, trot for second and introduce canter in the third", but i wanted a more in depth plan. this is his 3rd week back in work though i have mostly walked and done a few bursts of trot
 
Ok, I would suggest if you have been doing mainly walking over the past couple of weeks then it wouldn't do any harm to incorporate some trot work. If you have any hills close by it may well be worth doing some slow walk work up and down them to help strengthen his hind end.

For me its all about strengthening the areas around the location of the injury to try and avoid the injury re-occuring again.

For example if my horse was coming into work -

Week One - Lots of walking, for up to 30 mins per session, encouraging to stretch into the contact.
Week two - Walking, increasing up to 40 mins per session, encouraging to stretch but also encouraging to walk purposefully, maybe with a couple of 5 minute bursts of trot towards the end of the session.
Week three - Walking using hillwork, trot slowly up some hills. Any flat work sessions I did I would be slowly increasing the amount of trot you do.
Week four - Trotting, hillwork, stretching maybe some pole work.

At this point I would then probably ask the vet to take another look at my horse,as a guide to make sure the vet thinks the horse is still sound and comfortable before commencing with any harder work.
 
ok thanks a lot for your advice. Ive been doing mostly hacking bringing him back into work, like 4 days hack, to two days working in the school. The vet is due back out tomorrow so i will wait to see what she says, thanks again x
 
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