Pony with tendon injury - experiences?

[QueenT]

Hi all,

Just had the vet out... Our New Forest hunter pony was for sale and vetting and flex test showed very mild lameness to left forelimb. He said we couldn't have known. Today he was out again to figure out what is wrong - it turns out she has an injury to the Lateral Digital Extensor Tendon (always bad news...). It has some scarring at a specific location, so an older injury. Recommended treatment is rest for 3-6 months and after that prognosis is good-to-reserved ("60-75%").

Do you have any experince with this type of injury? Worst/best case scenarios?

Buyers are professional horse people, so no panick, but of course she cannot be sold now. They might still keep in touch and wait and see how recovery goes. If they back out, which I honestly expect, we would have a 14 year-old inactive pony with a big questionmark on soundness which nobody at our yard is small enough to ride.

So - the elephant in the room - would you consider putting her down at a certain point? I am worried that the only people who would buy her, are people who would not look after her...

Thanks!

 

[be positive]

I would expect her to be able to come back to light work if not full competition work, if she were mine I would give her the time off with a view to finding a loan home later on if she is not going to be up to doing more, another option would be to see if the buyers will take her on now to do the rest/ rehab and buy at a much reduced price at a later date or even consider gifting her now if they are up for it.

I would certainly give her every chance as she has obviously been coping while carrying an injury and would not be considering pts unless she will not be sound enough for light hacking. I don't think that the only people who would take her on are going to fail to care for her if you are careful about where she goes, plenty of much loved ponies have suffered from injury, laminitis etc yet still do a job for their owners.