Sacroiliac injury - reintroducing canter

[BBP]

I just wondered at what stage you did this, for those of you with horses with this sort of injury (I know they are all different).

How much trot work were you doing first? Why trot before canter? Does canter increase stress on the sacroiliac region? We're you working the horse into a contact properly before you brought in canter?

Just interested really, not back at the vets for a check up for another 2 weeks so pondering it all.

He has been trotting nicely, but the other day took off in canter after he took a fright at something and then started bucking, he hasn't done that for ages and I wondered if he was just being a bit of a toad and feeling fresh or if something hurt. Perhaps the canter movement stressed it too much. He has been running around the field doing sliding stops so that's bound not to help!

 

[HashRouge]

With sacroiliac injuries it is important to build up as much (correct) muscle as possible. The reason for trot before canter is, I suppose, because you always start slowly and build up. Lots of trot work in a correct outline should help to strengthen the trot and prepare the horse for canter. I also understand that canter tends to be the hardest gait for horses with sacroiliac injuries and it is certainly where the injury often becomes obvious (becoming disunited, bunny hopping in canter etc). I read a very interesting article that said that horses simply aren't designed to canter for long periods of time. In the wild, they would travel distances at walk/ trot/ jog whereas canter would generally only be used for short periods of time, whether as a flight response or when playing. The article suggested that this could explain how common sacroiliac injuries are in modern horses, as they are expected to canter far more than they are designed to and this causes strain to the sacroiliac area.

The bucking may just have been a sign of high spirits, especially if it came after a fright. With the sacroiliac injuries I have seen, bucking can be a sign of pain and often precedes or follows the horse becoming disunited in canter. But I wouldn't worry too much at present, especially if the horse is in high spirits. I would recommend sticking firmly to the rehab programme suggested by the vet and definitely think it is better to introduce canter later rather than sooner.

 

[BBP]

Thanks for the reply. I am certainly sticking to vets orders (pony has other ideas!) we have built up our walking over 5 weeks and then added trot a few minutes each week. They said not to worry at this stage about working him in an outline, he is quite tricky to get to relax over his top line in trot, he tends to put his head in the air and get tense/hollow. Im not riding him well enough to counteract it so I'm going to recruit my instructor again even for walk work stuff. (When I ride with no bridle just a rope around the neck he is a different picture, generally much more relaxed posture, so it must be my hands/contact.)

After the next vet check we are hoping to add polework and get him more engaged. It makes sense that the canter is a more challenging movement for that joint but I'd seen on other forums people saying their vets recommended canter before trot and wondered why this might be.

 

[kinnygirl1]

Don't know if it will help.. But my vet recommended 10 mins twice a week in Equiami whilst my horse was on his S I rehab plan. I think the idea was to help build the pelvic muscle correctly to support the joint. I don't really use gadgets normally but did it as wanted to follow vets advice to letter.

Sorry ETA this was before we progressed to cantering.

 

[paddi22]

one of mine has si, and i did months of raised poles to get him to stretch and use his back. its much easier to establish a good trot over poles and then try and keep it after them. I used an elastic bungee sometimes on mine. The carl hester elastic reins are great for horses who are tricky with contact. Also would riding in bitless help the horse relax more?

 

[BBP]

Thank you for the replies. He is very good bitless so I'm going that route until I can sort my riding out, in fact today he did his entire 40min session with no bridle at all and he was great, really soft and stretchy over his back. I just don't achieve any lateral flexion that way. But it is a good way of seeing how straight he is without my hands interfering.

 

[CIJ]

Once my mare was sound in trot and level behind again I then introduced canter. She struggled in canter as it did hurt a bit but I was told I had to ride her through the bucking to improve the muscle tone around the SI. She is a big horse and I was not big or strong enough to ride her through it so my instructor rode her until the bucks became smaller and less frequent.