Shoulder Injury?

[LadyRascasse]

I know this is a real broad spectrum thing to ask about, but all research I have conducted on this points to poor prognosis for horses with shoulder injuries. Does anyone have any success stories for horses who has suffered a shoulder injury? At the moment it is still not full diagnosed but looks like hairline fracture or chips on the bone.

 

[Wagtail]

I know this is a real broad spectrum thing to ask about, but all research I have conducted on this points to poor prognosis for horses with shoulder injuries. Does anyone have any success stories for horses who has suffered a shoulder injury? At the moment it is still not full diagnosed but looks like hairline fracture or chips on the bone.

Yes! My mare suffered a horrific shoulder injury in the field three years go. We don't really know how she did it, but possibly collided with a gate post at full speed or did the splits in the field (it was thawing snow on top of mud). Basically she was 12 weeks before stable enough to travel for full diagnosis. The news was bad. She had several bone fragments in the point of shoulder and a badly ruptured biceps brachii tendon. Vets at Rossdales gave her a guarded prognosis for ever being field sound and a virtually hopeless prognosis for ever being ridden again. It's been a long old slog. I didn't care if I could never ride her again (she was 15 and my horse of a lifetime), I just wanted her to live and not to suffer. She's a real tough cookie and she was field sound after 18 months. I sold her saddle that was my pride and joy and resigned myself to never riding her again. Then this summer, she surprised me by beating all the other horses in a flat out gallop up the field. She had always been fast and could match my ex racer who had won 5 flat races. And I thought, why not? I borrowed a saddle that I knew fitted her well and started to very slowly bring her back into work (with the encouragement of my vet and the vet who had treated her at Rossdales). She felt better than ever. She is trained up to advanced medium level and was easily performing effortless half pass in trot, and walk piroettes. I hadn't started the canter work with her. But sadly she came down with laminitis and is now on box rest again, recovering from that. But her shoulder is A1.

The vet at Rossdales told me that she is always being surprised and that it is often the ones with the worst prognosis which come good in the end. I wish you luck with your horse. Keep us posted.