Preventing Suspensory Ligament Indury

[floradora09]

In the last week, three horses that I know have all suffered Suspensory Ligament damage, some more severe than others. My friends pony got it after competing bigger than usual, but she shall hopefully be hacked and maybe jumped in the future, her instructors eventer did his in- aged only 10, now permanently retired, and now another livery's horse has it, who may possibly be ridden in the autumn. I know that it's probably just chance that all of these occured at the same time, but I wondered if there was anything I could do to help prevent Bramble, my 19 yr old NF pony damaging his?

Thanks,

xxx

 

[Halfstep]

You can never completely prevent injuries. But good management practices make such injuries less likely. Most important is conditioning - this is why you do weeks of walk work on hard ground when bringing a horse back into work. Be careful about the surfaces you ride on. Too deep or unstable surfaces are thought to contribute to the risk of soft tissue damage, especially suspensory tears. Don't do fast work on rutted, muddy or rock hard ground. Make sure the horse is fit and properly conditioned for whatever work you ask him to do (especially jumping and fast work). Make sure the feet are properly balanced and trimmed/shod regularly to keep them this way.
But you can never legislate against accidents. Unfortunately horses are huge, heavy animals with tiny, spindly legs and no muscle below the knee to help with the strain of holding up such bulk. They are badly designed!

 

[AandK]

thats a tricky one!! some injuries happen when the horse lands akwardly etc so you really cannot prevent them all!
i would say;
ensuring your horse is fit enough for the job in hand,
that any fittening programme brings the horse back into work gradually to condition tendons/ligaments.
use a good warm up/cool down routine, esp when jumping
when competing, only go if the ground is good. too soft and the horse could pull something, too hard and the ground has no give which is not good if it is uneven..

my horse is just coming back from an SL injury (June '08) and the vet said the mos important thing to help prevent reocurrance is to bring him back slowly and to keep the work consistant so the ligament remains elastic enough to cope with work..
i hope that makes sense

 

[floradora09]

Thanks, what I'll probably do is go to the show, see what the ground's like before deciding if I'll enter/ pull out! =D