Sidebones - Gigantic! Ridden career?

[asterid]

Hi, my 6 year old cob who has exceptionally low mileage has massive sidebones that fractured. She is lame front right. She was diagnosed in April and has been off work since then. MRI yesterday showed no ligament damage.

She was to be my show horse. The vet isnt very optimistic and I agree she has very severe sidebones. (She is 6 years old).

I plan to give her another 6 months off.

Just wondered if anyone has had a young horse with catastrophic sidebones that has gone on to do some sort of ridden work?

Thanks

 

[SEL]

Sadly it was fracturing a sidebone after being chased by a riggy gelding that meant permanent retirement for my little draft. He managed without Bute until he took a nasty tumble in the field and has been on it ever since. 17 now and on borrowed time ?

Time off, shoes off and see how he goes would be my recommendation.

 

[spacefaer]

Yes - we have a big Irish draught with massive sidebone in both front feet. His have fractured too, as the top of the growth got to the top of the available space.
He is sound with a talented farrier, who maintains as perfect foot balance as possible. He has leather pads in the summer and never spends time without shoes.
To keep sound enough to work, his foot balance has to be maintained as consistent as possible. When he was barefoot, he self trimmed which didn't keep the consistency and he was lame. He's much sounder when he's in work now.

When his front feet are sore, it puts pressure on his (fairly straight) hocks. He's had joint injections into his fronts this summer for the first time and that's helped his hocks a lot.

He has had sidebone since he was 5 or younger and is now 8 and in full work. The only compromise I make is not trotting on the roads, which is no great hardship!

 

[asmp]

Mine has large sidebones but he isn’t young. I was told by my back lady that if he had been young he could have been treated with some laser treatment (?).

The vet and I decided to take off his shoes and he now wears boots when hacking to give some suspension that he now doesn’t have in his hooves. He is happier when the ground is soft and I do trot him gently for short periods on the road as he seems happy and I think it’s better than trotting on uneven surfaces. We also noticed that he was unhappy when the farrier was banging in the nails when he was shod, which the farrier put down to the sidebones.