Rehabilitating a horse from a long term injury success stories please!

Chloe_GHE

Chloe_GHE

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I would like to hear if possible from people who have rehabilitated a horse from a long term injury something along the lines of a broken/fractured leg or a chipped bone or some other injury which resulted in 6 months or more box rest and heavy bandaging.

Jack is progressing really well now that he is in regular work, but it has taken quite a long time to get his body and feet sorted as a result of 8 months box rest and heavy bandaging of his near fore he bore alot of weight on his off hind which had gone quite a funny shape, and he needed lots of physio to ease his stiff compensating muscles.

So have you brought a horse back from injury?...

How long did it take, and did they ever get back competing at the same level there were at before the injury?...

I'm interested to know as he seems to be making an improvement each week atm but I don't know if at one point this may plateau and/or if it is a realistic aim to event him eventuallly.....
 
My grandad had a successful racehorse that got a hairline fracture on the gallops he opted to give him a chance as the vet was very optimistic
he was in a cast for quite a while (sorry can't remember how long) but i remember that blue drums were placed in his stable to provent him from stable walking/trying to kill himself
He went back to p2p but moved down from the opens and became a schoolmasters for first-timers including most the local pc kids and a local farrier and did rather well

I know his daytoday workload changed but i think that was also due to old age he was also put on a calcium sup that he got from the vet
 
No heavy bandaging but our big mare ruptured a peronius tertius and had seven months box rest. She had previously competed to Novice before we bought her but since her injury she has taken my daughter round her first BE as well as representing both the local PC and RC at dressage, Horse Trials and SJ, all within 8 months!
 
[not sure if these are related to what you are asking? sorry if not
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my mum's old horse years ago fractured his near fore leg on the cannon bone. he had an op to remove a piece of bone (it was about 2 inches long!). he had 4 months box rest, turnout for a while...and then 6 weeks leading out in walk, then he could be ridden in walk for 6 weeks, then trot for 1 month, then introduce cantering and finally schooling jumping. he wasnt a competition horse...but did hunt...and he was fine to do that for years after his leg injury...up until the age of 20 when he had to be pts for old age.

not bone...BUT another success story, my TB gelding ruptued his peronius tertius ligament in Feb this year, really badly, so his hock and stifle just werent connected anymore...his leg kindof 'hung'. he had 3 months box rest, 3 months turnout (very small paddock to start with and gradually increased in time). then 2 weeks leading in walk, 5 weeks riding in walk, 6 weeks trotting and then cantering, finally schooling...and after 3/4months of work he has just started jumping again and is (so far *fingers crossed*) completley sound, and i aim to take him to a small clear round sj (like 50cm lol, and i will do it in trot) at the end of this month
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our pony has had awful problems with his angular ligament, we bought him when everyone else had written him off.he spent nearly 12 months box rest and then nearly another 12 months getting back to competition fitness, but he competed sucsessfully at the home pony international this year at the grand old age of 17
 
My show pony (bay fancy pants, on right hand side of sig!) suffered a shoulder injury, then a severe tendon injury one after the other, and must've been in a box for 7 months. He had 2 opps, because the first failed, and I had to bandage him all the time with stable bandages, apart from when he had his dressing after the opps.

We brought him back slowly, and he's once again competing successfully in dressage, qualifying for PC Open Dengie dressage (equivalent to Novice/Elem.) and could do well showing once more, if it weren't for his pot belly!

He's made a full recovery, I've been jumping him 2ft6-9, and never had any soundness issues since (apart from typical fatty-pony-is-footy-because-he-has-stuffed-his-face-and-nearly-got-laminitis) and fingers crossed, it shouldn't affect him again.
 
My mare fractured her hind fetlock joint and broke her splint bone last September, freak accident in the box whilst with a foal at foot. She underwent a major op to reset the joint, had a plaster put on and spent 3 weeks at the vets. She came home, and with two instructions - look after her and wean the foal! She went back about 2 weeks later for a second GA (without the foal) and had a new plaster put on and she was sent home for box rest.

The plaster came off in about November and then went in to a Robert Jones bandage, for 4 weeks. After that normal supportive bandaging and she had her first nibble of grass out in the field on Christmas Day. She was then on restricted turn out till about February when I decided she may as well go out with her best friend!

I sat on her for the first time in July, shoes went on in August and shes now in work and has been since.

In regards to soundness, shes as good as she will get, shes 18 now so a bit stiff anyway, but we can have a play in the school etc, and she is quite happy. Not ventured over a fence yet, not sure I really want to, I was lucky to take her home at all so want to enjoy her and make sure she has a happy semi retirement!! Who knows how sound she would be, having been a little bit younger etc, i find it difficult to differentiate between looking a bit stiff and anything related specifically to the joint these days!

Best of luck with yours! The hard work is worth it in the end!
 
DS - Chipped hock, he was an Open Team Chaser (lead horse) and horse behind landed on him over a wall I think it was. Would have been 16 or 17 I think at the time

Had 4 months (I think) off - steroid injections into joint, think was washed out, then back in work, just walking to begin with, taken to the beach alternate days to paddle, then allowed to trot, still doing work on the beach as well as hacking in straight lines at home. Returned to full fitness and won the team chase championships after injury

Same horse (DS) then damaged front tendon following year - had stem cell treatment and a year off work, box rest initially then out in the field. I brought him back into work, spent the first fortnight walking, starting off with just ten mins and building up gradually, then trot, straight lines on the flat, after two months of this were allowed in the school to do some lateral work, then allowed to canter following a successful scan approx 3 months later, and returned to team chasing that Spring. This time he led the intermediate team, mainly because of logistics, but only ran a couple of times, did a few then in the autum season but has now retired for general riding club activities - he is 20 in Jan.

Another open team chaser had a sacroiliac injury about four summers ago, he took a while to come right - lots of shockwave treatment (it truly is fantastic), again lots of roadwork coming back into work, did all the trot in a light seat for first month. He was an interesting one to bring back as he would feel very pottery if you trotted in the first 15mins. However he is now 20, and hasn't missed a season of Open team chasing and being regularly placed if not winning every week. He hasn't looked back since injury and before starting team chasing five (?) years ago he evented to 3* - NZ TBs are very tough!

I seem to have made a bit of a speciality of bringing injured horses back into work, possibly because friends of mine team chase and husband is an equine vet !

So, in my experience, horses have come back from potentially career shortening injuries to full strength still able to gallop and jump (5' hedges!)season after season whilst not in the first flush of youth.

Good luck with yours
 
About a month after buying him, my eventer suffered a star fracture of the ulna, possible as a result of a stray bullet. Took 2 weeks before the vet finally confirmed it was fractured - the first vet had me walking him and turning him out to avoid gangrene, as he was convinced it wasn't broken. Got second opinion, 19 x-rays later the fracture was found. He was then box-rested, bandaged up over his knees to try to stop him lying down, on very deep shavings beds. He was on 4 months box rest and actually I was allowed to ride him 5 months after the initial injury.

He returned to doing novice eventing, he had significant muscle wasteage on the injured shoulder but walk work was a joke, he just galloped off everywhere
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. But he stil qualified for PC champs and was a dressage star.

Also - this was 20 years ago
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My mare had a slab fracture in her hock and was diagnosed with DJD and is now doing BE Intro and hopefully moving up to PN, she was off for about 4 years in total but has come back better than before.
 
I had one who fractured his ulna , and had what seemed like forever off. but he came back fine, the biggest problem was muscle wastage on the shoulder but he built it back up over time. he came back as good as before. he is still going strong, teaching people to jump! he must be about 20 now.
 
Trooper is now semi-retired but her sustained a kick to his left femur in the field whiich resulted in a fracture. He was very poorly for a while and suffered massive swellings and odemas as a result of the impact - he literally had a rugby ball under his tummy.

He was box-rested for 5 months before being turned out in a small pen for another 6 weeks.

I was then given the all clear to bring him back into work. I spent several weeks walking up as many hills as possible and then progressed to trotting up hill on a soft surface - i.e gallops (it was quite hairy as he wanted to gallop but I was really strict with him
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Eventually I began to introduce short burst of canter work again on a surface before dropping back to trot work on the roads and only ever up hill - this was because I was told the bone needed to condition and needed impact and concussion to re-build strength.

8 months after returning we returned to competition, and as a little tester we entered Warlingham 2 day and finished 3rd
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Trooper remained sound for another 3 years and worked at Advanced quite happily until I retired him after finding changes in his neck and spine.

He is still sound and very happy hacking with his loanee where he has been for the last 5 years - now aged 23.
 
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