Stifle Lameness

[haywards1]

My horse has now been on box rest for 5 weeks having been diagnosed with stifle lameness (it was only ever Very mild- 2/10), due to a sprain of a soft tissue structure of the joint.
He is due to go out into restricted grazing after 6 weeks.

Does anyone have any experience of this?
How long was it before you brought them back in to work?
Did you use physio/ chiro?
Any other info gratefully received.

 

[JLav]

Yes, one that I ride had damage to the cruciate ligament that was found on arthroscopy.

He had 8 weeks in the box and then 3 months walking under saddle and a gradual build up to include trotting and then canter.

He was not turned out until he was back into full work so ended up staying in for nearly 6 months. We felt the risk of him slipping or turning suddenly whilst out was too great as it could have easily put us back to square one.

Maybe we were over cautious but the injury did not have a great prognosis for a return to full soundness (he is an Advanced medium dresage horse) but he has come sound and remained so for over 21/2 years now.

The vet said we probably could have bought him back into work quicker than we did but we were happy to take a little longer to give him every chance of making a sustainable recovery.