SDFT lesion

[Clozer1999]

Hiya,

I'm new on here, finding it very interesting to read peoples experiences on SDFT injury's and would love to read some more as I am currently rehabbing a 30% lesion in my mare left fore.

I've had my mare since June 2025 and in October (end) I came back from holiday and she went nuts when I turned her loose and managed to hit her own leg.
She had stem cell injection in November and we are currently on 25 minutes of walking in hand (2x a week ridden). 10 minutes cold hosing afterwards.

Has anyone experienced some warmth during this stage?

I only would like her to be able to do dressage, but would like to go up the levels with her and was wondering how realistic this is.
My vet doesn't want to really go into this, as nothing is guaranteed.

Would love to hear experiences with horses with this injury and if the had a sport career afterwards and to what level were you able to compete at?
Good and bad, to keep it real (hoping more for success story as this whole thing is stressing me out hahaha)

 

[Lamehorses]

Look up chiropractor carol mclelland on Facebook, several success stories. Her indiba machine seems to work magic. If not in her catchment try finding someone who does indiba.
She fixed my friends horse back to full normal life.

 

[Hallo2012]

mine struck in to his SDFT in the lorry and we turned him away for a full year before starting rehab.

the more time you can give it the better.

he was competing at elem and training adv med at the time, we have started again at prelim and he is about ready to go back to novices but is training medium at home and that leg is fine.

 

[Clozer1999]

mine struck in to his SDFT in the lorry and we turned him away for a full year before starting rehab.

the more time you can give it the better.

he was competing at elem and training adv med at the time, we have started again at prelim and he is about ready to go back to novices but is training medium at home and that leg is fine.

In the lorry must have been so stressful, but glad to here you are back at it with him!

Our horse go 24/7 around April time so that will be easier to give her time. Just worried about the first time turn her out as I doubt she will behave

 

[Hallo2012]

In the lorry must have been so stressful, but glad to here you are back at it with him!

Our horse go 24/7 around April time so that will be easier to give her time. Just worried about the first time turn her out as I doubt she will behave

if she hasn't been going out then sedate her initially.

mine was never box rested so never ran around.

 

[Clozer1999]

if she hasn't been going out then sedate her initially.

mine was never box rested so never ran around.

Mine hasn't been on complete box rest thankfully and has had a small paddock, but that definitely a good idea thank you.
My vet is coming for another rescan at the end of March so will ask him then as well.

Leaving her in the paddock while the rest go into the field seems like a worse idea

 

[Clozer1999]

Not sure if anybody is interested, but I am showing the rehab (sort of) on Instagram if anyone wants to follow along.
Its a lonely process, if anyone else is doing so, I would love to follow as well

 

[Clozer1999]

Just an update as I would also like to look back on this later on, or for anybody that is interested.

She had her follow up can last Friday 16 weeks post stem cells and there is not really any lesion present anymore and is all filled in with the tissue and there is some structure forming with long strands.
We can start progressing more with the walking. Instead of adding 5 minutes every two weeks we can double it to 10 minutes every two weeks and more riding/tack walking. We were on 2x a week so will progress up to 4/5 times a week.

When it comes to the field, my vet thinks that putting her on the field will have less risks than leaving her alone in the winter paddocks (which I could have guessed haha). Before she goes on the field for at least the first week I will walk her for 45 minutes beforehand and put her out 20 minutes later than the rest of the horses as they will have settled more (hopefully), lastly just to make sure she has hard tendon boots, not the rubber ones as this doesn't offer enough protection (which are the ones I have as was worried about overheating haha, the more you learn).