success stories with suspensory ligament injuries?

[throwawayaccount]

Hi all,

I posted a few weeks ago about my confidence crisis and whether or not to pack it in. I'm happy to say I'm now confident riding around the whole school in walk and we even had a group hack on the weekend- and honestly, the kind words from the members on this forum helped reshape my attitude, amongst other things - so, thank you!

My mare is recovering from a suspensory ligament injury, the vet described her injury as being 'healed' but with 'scaffolding' over it, meaning that it is still weak and to be as careful as poss in our rehab journey. during her time off she had 2 lots of PRP treatment which helped massively.

she is now able to start trot work, which my vet advised to do in big circles- however this seems too intensive, as when my friend hopped on to trot her last wednesday (less than a minute on each rein, broken up), my mare appeared uncomfortable. so she had the next 2 days off- front shoes back on the thursday, physio on friday. she also has a full set of magnetic boots at night time which help to stop the filling of her legs.

I was brave enough to try a few strides alone, and she has such an odd trot to sit to- probably doesn't help I'm out of practice either. she's a TB crossed with a french trotter, so might?? have the trotter attributes, in her gait? her conformation is also strange, which probably contributed to the injury in the first place.

i'm going to try trotting again tonight and will get a video, I'm just worried about her future I suppose? I could share the video perhaps if anyone would like to cast an experienced eye over it?

she's meant to be worked every day but with work commitments it's usually 5 days a week.

by april she is meant to canter if she's comfortable enough, then has her review at the end of april- which will determine her riding career for the rest of her life.

I guess I'm posting to just see if anyone has success stories with suspensory ligament injuries?

Thanks xx

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

My horse had a hole in his near side hind suspensory 5 years ago he had prp and 5 months box rest, he came sound the scan showed it had healed and his been fine ever since his 17 now, I do take it easy I don't jump I am careful in deep ground I don't do tons of schooling in constant circles.

How long did your horse have off?

 

[throwawayaccount]

My horse had a hole in his near side hind suspensory 5 years ago he had prp and 5 months box rest, he came sound the scan showed it had healed and his been fine ever since his 17 now, I do take it easy I don't jump I am careful in deep ground I don't do tons of schooling in constant circles.

How long did your horse have off?

thanks for replying, your horse is lucky to have you

she also had a hole in her suspensory ligament but in her front left. I bought her last april, noticed she was lame once I was able to work her, so she was effectively off work from June last year and came back into walk work, start of Feb this year x

 

[be positive]

How much walking has she been doing and for how long has she been back in work? to me is sounds a bit ambitious to be even thinking about cantering in 4-5 weeks when it sounds as if she really has done very little, I would be thinking of 8 weeks walking at least 4 trotting in mainly straight lines with circles gradually being introduced in week 3 before considering cantering and that would in part depend on how well educated she is to start with, if she is green, unbalanced so you are trying to school her at the same time, rather than just rusty, it will probably take far longer to get her strong enough to canter a circle.
I am old school and think hours out hacking to build them up is never time wasted and that many injuries are in part due to horses spending far too much time working in an arena.

 

[HappyHollyDays]

My Connie tweaked a front three years ago (no holes) and had box rest, shockwave treatment and then went away to a cold water hydrotherapy rehab yard for three weeks. Once home we walked miles in straight lines for another month and introduced trot in straight lines very slowly. I suppose in all from start to full fitness with cantering it was about 6 months. Touch wood he has never had a relapse, schools twice a week and is back jumping without any problems.

 

[AnShanDan]

I can't see in your OP which leg had the injury? Forelegs generally do much better than hinds.
I've had one with a foreleg as a 5 yo, she had 5 months box rest with gradually increasing exercise, in hand then all hacking, for up to an hour a day in walk/trot by the time she was turned out again.
That was in 2016 no further issues.

 

[be positive]

thanks for replying, your horse is lucky to have you

she also had a hole in her suspensory ligament but in her front left. I bought her last april, noticed she was lame once I was able to work her, so she was effectively off work from June last year and came back into walk work, start of Feb this year x

That sounds a bit fast to be cracking on in trot, I think to have a review in April is too ambitious unless there is insurance and LOU to consider.
Just to add to my earlier post the last one we rehabbed from a front tendon injury took over 3 months before we cantered, he walked 6 days a week for 8 weeks until doing 2 hours hacking every other day before short trots were introduced, he did no school work other than the odd few minutes once in a while, he went back into racing, stayed sound and retired to a new job as a RC allrounder, the leg remained really good.
The vet who scanned him before he started work said a month walking but we wanted to get it really right so added an extra month to the rehab and I think it was worthwhile. He also remained barefoot until he went back into training which I am sure helped him by having his feet so strong.

 

[Birker2020]

Hi all,

I posted a few weeks ago about my confidence crisis and whether or not to pack it in. I'm happy to say I'm now confident riding around the whole school in walk and we even had a group hack on the weekend- and honestly, the kind words from the members on this forum helped reshape my attitude, amongst other things - so, thank you!

My mare is recovering from a suspensory ligament injury, the vet described her injury as being 'healed' but with 'scaffolding' over it, meaning that it is still weak and to be as careful as poss in our rehab journey. during her time off she had 2 lots of PRP treatment which helped massively.

she is now able to start trot work, which my vet advised to do in big circles- however this seems too intensive, as when my friend hopped on to trot her last wednesday (less than a minute on each rein, broken up), my mare appeared uncomfortable. so she had the next 2 days off- front shoes back on the thursday, physio on friday. she also has a full set of magnetic boots at night time which help to stop the filling of her legs.

I was brave enough to try a few strides alone, and she has such an odd trot to sit to- probably doesn't help I'm out of practice either. she's a TB crossed with a french trotter, so might?? have the trotter attributes, in her gait? her conformation is also strange, which probably contributed to the injury in the first place.

i'm going to try trotting again tonight and will get a video, I'm just worried about her future I suppose? I could share the video perhaps if anyone would like to cast an experienced eye over it?

she's meant to be worked every day but with work commitments it's usually 5 days a week.

by april she is meant to canter if she's comfortable enough, then has her review at the end of april- which will determine her riding career for the rest of her life.

I guess I'm posting to just see if anyone has success stories with suspensory ligament injuries?

Thanks xx

I've had a suspensory branch injury, the best thing you can do is ice as soon as the injury is spotted and keep icing, I iced for weeks after but I probably went over board, I used Ice Vibe, ice cups and cold hosing. You might look at getting some Ice Vibe boots, full details about how they work, etc below.
https://www.uberhorse.co.nz/pages/ice-vibe-user-guide

They have been VERY effective in the rehab of my horse, even the vet said they were very useful.
William Fox-Pitt uses them on his horses.

At this stage in your horses rehab you can use them on the lowest setting without the ice to 'warm up' the tendons and ligaments prior to riding and then use them afterwards as a cooling down (obviously after your normal ridden cooling down). On GS Equestrian the spare ice packs are really cheap too, I've just bought myself some spares.

 

[throwawayaccount]

That sounds a bit fast to be cracking on in trot, I think to have a review in April is too ambitious unless there is insurance and LOU to consider.
Just to add to my earlier post the last one we rehabbed from a front tendon injury took over 3 months before we cantered, he walked 6 days a week for 8 weeks until doing 2 hours hacking every other day before short trots were introduced, he did no school work other than the odd few minutes once in a while, he went back into racing, stayed sound and retired to a new job as a RC allrounder, the leg remained really good.
The vet who scanned him before he started work said a month walking but we wanted to get it really right so added an extra month to the rehab and I think it was worthwhile. He also remained barefoot until he went back into training which I am sure helped him by having his feet so strong.

I was just replying to your other post, but i'll reply here! I think you have hit the nail on the head, it's because her insurance runs out in a few months. she isn't covered for LOU,

re her workload I agree with you, to be honest, and the more I think about it now it is quite an ambitious plan of action from the vets.

I would say that she is schooled but a bit green in parts. my physio also told me to just do straight lines instead of circles after I explained what happened with the trotting.

this is what the vets instructions say:
Start ridden walking, 20 mins daily, increasing by 5 mins each week (6th week being the last week of time increase)
If she is still good after 4 weeks introduce trot at 5 mins per session increasing up to 20 mins trot. ** I haven't done this, last week she was trotted for less than 2 minutes **
At 10 weeks she can introduce canter if still sound.
If worked on arena keep circles big and avoid uneven surfaces.

vet mentioned that at april review we could see if she could start jumping?! although I have said from the start if she is just meant to be a happy hack then that is fine as I value her too much to run her into the ground.

so, technically it was the last week of jan she went to the vets, so from there she was started with walking for 20 minutes a day, each week being increased by 5 mins. although, a lot of our sessions to begin with was just walking inhand due to my confidence and also trying to get her used to having tack on again, making each experience in the school a positive one for her.

hope this makes sense sorry , and thankyou everyone else for your replies so far x

 

[Ceriann]

Mine diagnosed with damage to medial branch hind suspensory and forelimb suspensory issue too (likely due to hind). Two years ago now - took things incredibly slowly, small paddocks after box rest, in hand walking and months of hacking. She’s been sound and clear on every scan since, including one last September. My main advice do everything slower than advised and get her stronger hacking.

 

[conniegirl]

I’ve dealt with 2 suspensory injuries.

1st was an 18yr old connemara who slipped in the showring and put a hole the size of a 2pcoin in a front suspensory (and a hole in the check ligament too for good measure).
Vet tried stem cell (PRP wasn’t available then) but it failed and we were told he would be field sound at best. However we boxrest him for 6 months then gave him a year in the field. We brought him back into work very very slowly but he did come back into full work and back into the show ring. I think we did 3 months of just walk work, building up from 10 mins a day to 2 hrs hacking.

The second is more recent and was ponies hind suspensories, scans showed damage but no significant tears. He had 16 weeks box rest, 5 sessions of shockwave and then very very careful bringing back into work we are now 18 months post injury and you cant tell that he was ever hurt.

It is strange that vet went straight for 5 mins trot. With my latest one we were doing over an hour of walk work before introducing trot and trot started at 100m max increasing by 100m every 2 weeks. We didnt canter for the best part of 6 months after he came back into work

 

[be positive]

That plan is fine in theory and would suit a horse in a pro yard where they can crack on and not miss days through bad weather, rider having a wobble or the other things that end up preventing the full time being done, even then I would want to be doing 60 mins, not always every day, in walk before trotting other than a jog to get into a gateway or something, most of the exercise would be on a firm surface and as straight as possible, by straight I mean not just the route you are taking but making sure the horse is genuinely working evenly, if part of her job is going to be as a hack then take advantage of that and do as much hacking as you can now, plenty of time to get onto jumping once you know she is up to it.

The April review is not really that relevant unless the vet thinks they might need to do more treatment, she will not be insured after then so if she takes longer to get fit but remains sound it should not matter if she has not actually cantered by then, hope that makes sense.

 

[throwawayaccount]

That plan is fine in theory and would suit a horse in a pro yard where they can crack on and not miss days through bad weather, rider having a wobble or the other things that end up preventing the full time being done, even then I would want to be doing 60 mins, not always every day, in walk before trotting other than a jog to get into a gateway or something, most of the exercise would be on a firm surface and as straight as possible, by straight I mean not just the route you are taking but making sure the horse is genuinely working evenly, if part of her job is going to be as a hack then take advantage of that and do as much hacking as you can now, plenty of time to get onto jumping once you know she is up to it.

The April review is not really that relevant unless the vet thinks they might need to do more treatment, she will not be insured after then so if she takes longer to get fit but remains sound it should not matter if she has not actually cantered by then, hope that makes sense.

Thank you so much, that was really helpful and I'll definitely bare in mind everything you have said

 

[milliepops]

That plan is fine in theory and would suit a horse in a pro yard where they can crack on and not miss days through bad weather, rider having a wobble or the other things that end up preventing the full time being done, even then I would want to be doing 60 mins, not always every day, in walk before trotting other than a jog to get into a gateway or something, most of the exercise would be on a firm surface and as straight as possible, by straight I mean not just the route you are taking but making sure the horse is genuinely working evenly, if part of her job is going to be as a hack then take advantage of that and do as much hacking as you can now, plenty of time to get onto jumping once you know she is up to it.

The April review is not really that relevant unless the vet thinks they might need to do more treatment, she will not be insured after then so if she takes longer to get fit but remains sound it should not matter if she has not actually cantered by then, hope that makes sense.

agreed. I've done a fair few soft tissue rehabs and have always built up to an hour of purposeful walking before starting trot, it's one of those things where a slow consistent approach really pays off. you will never wish you went faster but you might end up wishing you went slower if the rehab fails because of an over-ambitious return to work.

last one began trot work in the school under vet agreement as she does not hack willingly. I started out just trotting long sides to avoid the need to do sharp turns.

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

I walked my horse for about 6 weeks before trotting started with 5 minutes slowly increasing then was up to an hour, most of it out hacking definitely no circles in the school, then very short bursts of trot slowing building up until I even thought about canter, my vet wanted my horse back in full work in 6 weeks I ignored that advice and probably took near on 3 months to get back to normal.

I would take it back a step to short walks in straight lines slowly increasing until she is doing an hour.

 

[leflynn]

I have an exracer that I rehabbed, I did all of it out hacking apart from the first couple of walks as he can be a bit lively! I did 6 weeks walk, 4 weeks trot and then got kicked and had the same leg's radius fractured. That was 9 years ago, he is now 15, does novice dressage, will jump 75/80 with me (I'm not that brave) and has been hunted several seasons a couple of times a month so I hope that gives you a bit of positivity. He also did a tendon after the fracture and after that when he was ready to come back into to work I took it unbeliveably slowly just in case

 

[Birker2020]

I was just replying to your other post, but i'll reply here! I think you have hit the nail on the head, it's because her insurance runs out in a few months. she isn't covered for LOU,

re her workload I agree with you, to be honest, and the more I think about it now it is quite an ambitious plan of action from the vets.

I would say that she is schooled but a bit green in parts. my physio also told me to just do straight lines instead of circles after I explained what happened with the trotting.

this is what the vets instructions say:
Start ridden walking, 20 mins daily, increasing by 5 mins each week (6th week being the last week of time increase)
If she is still good after 4 weeks introduce trot at 5 mins per session increasing up to 20 mins trot. ** I haven't done this, last week she was trotted for less than 2 minutes **
At 10 weeks she can introduce canter if still sound.
If worked on arena keep circles big and avoid uneven surfaces.

vet mentioned that at april review we could see if she could start jumping?! although I have said from the start if she is just meant to be a happy hack then that is fine as I value her too much to run her into the ground.

so, technically it was the last week of jan she went to the vets, so from there she was started with walking for 20 minutes a day, each week being increased by 5 mins. although, a lot of our sessions to begin with was just walking inhand due to my confidence and also trying to get her used to having tack on again, making each experience in the school a positive one for her.

hope this makes sense sorry , and thankyou everyone else for your replies so far x

I took it really slowly with mine too, she had two weeks extra on top of each phase of recovery that the vet had given me and I did intensive daily rehab, with continued icing, bandages, pain relief, walking in hand, corrective shoeing, etc, etc.

The only problem was that after a brilliant recovery with the use of PRP and going back to competition jumping after 18 months to 2 years she had a traumatic accident getting the injured leg stuck in a wheelbarrow (I was at work). Her leg came up like a tree trunk and despite copious hosing/ice boots/ice cups and anti anti-inflammatories it went on to develop calcification on the suspensory branch. It could never be determined if this was due to the wheelbarrow or the PRP which can cause this isssue. I still strongly believe it was due to the accident but hey, I guess I will never know the answer to that one.

Eventually the impingement on the branch caused by the calcification made her more and more lame or it was more evident to the extent i was unable to carry on competing her and the branch became unstable for jumping too.

The vet wasn't convinced it was 'actual' lameness, he felt that due to the impingement it was possibly mechanical as it didn't seem to respond to bute. The more forward she was the more in her stride the more evident.
Another thing the vet said was with branch injuries its quite likely that either the opposite or opposite diagonal (can't remember which) will cause problems too which I eventually found to be true.

She was lunged about a fortnight ago for the vet for suspected coffin joint issues and where her stride was uneven and she as always 'lame looking' on the right rein and really evident years previously it was barely noticeable this time round which was very surprising.

 

[sbloom]

To quote Gillian Higgins "the vast majority of injuries [even if they appear to have happened suddenly with an obvious incident] are the result of repetitive strain". SO look to the original cause, and make sure you've tackled it. Hoof balance will be critical, and everything else to ensure she is straight, both statically and biomechanically. I would look to feet and teeth and how she stands/lives to help her static posture, and then rehab in hand, not just basic lunging and then onto fittening, to build topline before putting a rider on.