Tenoscopy- what to do?

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King Leo

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We bought my daughter’s first horse 10 months ago. 15 year old NF mare. She passed a vetting.
6 months in and she was looking lame back right hind and some swelling present. Full lameness work up done by Vet and diagnosed tendon sheath inflammation.
We chose to try steroid injection and for around 6 weeks afterwards she was looking good and then slowly working on a gentle walking rehab program, put in place by the Vet. Once we began a little trot the swelling returned and she was clearly uncomfortable. She is currently on Bute and field rest.
Vet has now said a tenoscopy for both hinds is the only way forward or they don’t believe she will be sound enough to return to work (hacking, occasional clinics and fun rides)
The cost of the tenoscopy, with all associated costs factored in, will be more than we paid for her. She is not insured.
My daughter is devastated, she saved for 5 years and worked helping at numerous yards before we went ahead with first horse purchase.
My heart says to try to the tenoscopy, my head says we are crazy to spend more than we paid for the horse on this with no guarantee she will ever come right. From what I have read the prognosis is quite guarded.
If we don’t go ahead and / or she doesn’t get back to being ridden, what do we do then? I can’t afford to pay for a horse my daughter can’t ride and then pay for her to ride another! For my daughter riding is her escape and therapy away from bullying at school and other issues.
I am so conflicted and upset, I don’t think I am able to think rationally about what decision to make. If we decided not to go ahead I have no idea what we would then do with our lovely horse.
Please can anyone offer some words of advice, experiences or even just some kind words!!
Thank you for reading.
 
Maybe explain this to your daughter and let her decide.
I’d wanted a pony for years and saved up, worked at stables etc. When my parents finally agreed, I chose one which was ill and stables were going to have her put down. They said I could have any pony from the stables but I would not change my mind. I loved caring for her.
 
Do you know anyone who is good at biomechanics who can take a good look at her posture. Different surgery but vets pushed to operate on my littlest cob except I knew enough about posture & movement to know the core issue was not her hind legs - problems there were the symptoms not the root cause. Surgery would not have helped.

Do you know what caused the inflamed tendon?
 
SEL said:
Do you know anyone who is good at biomechanics who can take a good look at her posture. Different surgery but vets pushed to operate on my littlest cob except I knew enough about posture & movement to know the core issue was not her hind legs - problems there were the symptoms not the root cause. Surgery would not have helped.

Do you know what caused the inflamed tendon?
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Thanks for your reply. We don’t know what caused the inflamed tendon. That’s a very interesting point you make about posture and movement. I have some issues with my back related to posture and the way I walk, so I completely understand that for our horse something that could have an effect on movement could in turn affect her tendons.
Question is, where do I find a horse biomechanics expert? Is this something some vets would know about? We have a very good physio who sees our horse but she has never mentioned anything about our horses movement. However, someone did once mention to me that she looked to track wide. I wasn’t really sure what she meant though!
 
I had a horse that had a tendon sheath injury and was operated on, I personally don't think she was every 100 percent free of pain.
However she was a tricky mare and rehab was not easy, she was a jumper and after wards seemed to of lost her zest for it and would stop now and then.
Rehab was long, stable rest, walking, then confined field ( this was a mare that even sedated in a tiny paddock went into air throwing shapes)

What I would say is a good farrier, combined with a vet visit. to have at look at her movement, ie how her hoof is landing to the floor, how the structure of her leg is

Ie too straight through the knee combined with previous hoof work that's putting her on her heels would affect everything.


It doesn't have to be a lost cause, but I do think a bit of money now would be money well invested. Coming up to winter a easier time for most horses isn't a bad thing, however I'd definitely say keep her out of deep mud and equally to much standing in.
 
I would agree with everything said above. I have found many vets have a generic rehab program that is time based and linear but does not address the biomechanical causes of the injury, as SEL said. Many vets dont seem to even see the subtle postural weaknesses (they can’t know everything, given the vast vast amounts that they do need to know). So for that I turn to my instructor. I can pm you her name if you like, she offers online postural assessments and lessons. You wouldn’t think she could do much in an online video lesson but she has an extremely good eye. Your daughter could learn so much from something like that, which would stand her in good stead with future horses. I currently have two young girls coming to spend time with my horses and they are loving learning about correct groundwork and posture. I think they will be far better horsewomen than I am.

I’d also think about the time elapsed, and how long it takes as a human to fully recover from a tendon or ligament injury. It isn’t usually a quick process and it flares and eases.

I fully agree with talking to your daughter. When I was 14 my pony ‘bowed a tendon’, and I learned so much about caring for the less than perfect horse, managing legs and ground and soundness. Doing anything else never really occurred to us as a family. I don’t remember quite how long it took but I know during my A-levels we were back to hacking and schooling. She didn’t go back to jumping but she was well into her 20s so we decided that wasn’t important for her. We had her til she was 39 and I never ever regretted having her instead of something else. I will say I was lucky enough that someone at the same yard let me ride their Arab horse at around that time, so I could still ride, so it might be that you could find a horse to ride, plenty of people need a bit of help keeping theirs fit.
 
BBP2 said:
I would agree with everything said above. I have found many vets have a generic rehab program that is time based and linear but does not address the biomechanical causes of the injury, as SEL said. Many vets dont seem to even see the subtle postural weaknesses (they can’t know everything, given the vast vast amounts that they do need to know). So for that I turn to my instructor. I can pm you her name if you like, she offers online postural assessments and lessons. You wouldn’t think she could do much in an online video lesson but she has an extremely good eye. Your daughter could learn so much from something like that, which would stand her in good stead with future horses. I currently have two young girls coming to spend time with my horses and they are loving learning about correct groundwork and posture. I think they will be far better horsewomen than I am.

I’d also think about the time elapsed, and how long it takes as a human to fully recover from a tendon or ligament injury. It isn’t usually a quick process and it flares and eases.

I fully agree with talking to your daughter. When I was 14 my pony ‘bowed a tendon’, and I learned so much about caring for the less than perfect horse, managing legs and ground and soundness. Doing anything else never really occurred to us as a family. I don’t remember quite how long it took but I know during my A-levels we were back to hacking and schooling. She didn’t go back to jumping but she was well into her 20s so we decided that wasn’t important for her. We had her til she was 39 and I never ever regretted having her instead of something else. I will say I was lucky enough that someone at the same yard let me ride their Arab horse at around that time, so I could still ride, so it might be that you could find a horse to ride, plenty of people need a bit of help keeping theirs fit.
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Thank you very much for your reply. Yes please, I would be grateful if you could send me the name / contact details for your instructor for online postural assessment. That sounds like a great idea.
I have spoken with my daughter, she loves her mare with all her heart and is just devastated that all her plans and dreams of what they would do together won't come to fruition. Maybe we could find someone who would let her ride their horse, but after many previous years of doing that we took the leap to buy her her own and its just a shame it hasn't worked out. As other have said though, that's horses!
 
Horses are our greatest source of strength but also our greatest weakness when they aren't right and we just want to do whatever we can to help them x

I totally sympathise with your daughter - when I brought Baggs, I had all these dreams of hunter trials, endless hacking with friends and schooling to a decent level in dressage.

However the first year and a half was spent fixings various issues that came to head, having the vet on speed dial and pretty much maxing out a credit card and insurance. It was a long, hard slog and at times I longed for something that I could ride and achieve all my goals with. I'd be the girl in the stable yard cold hosing/feeding medication/on a rehab programme whilst everyone else was out hacking, competing and achieving their goals for the season. There were times where I questioned if I was doing the right thing, there were times where I wished that I didn't have to go through the umpteenth rehab programme and there were times when I wished I never had gotten into horses because the heart ache of seeing my best friend in pain/struggling was too much to bear x

But in a round about way, it turned out to be the best thing possible for my horse knowledge - I can spot a subtle lameness from a mile off, I know his resting breathing rate and heart rate off to a T, I know every lump and bump on his body, I know how to help him when the weather gets colder and his joints get a bit stiff. Most of all I can tell when he is even minorly off by a miniscule amount. I learned so much about being careful on the types of ground I ride him on, the weather that I ride in, how long I ride for, how to do that little bit of extra maintenance that makes all the world of difference to him

I would have a chat to your daughter and see if anyone you know would like someone to help exercise their horse. I'd also turn your lovely mare away for the winter (watch out for deep mud/slipping ground) and reassess her come the spring/summer. Tenoscopy has a guarded prognosis in my limited knowledge of it, so it is something that I would have a chat to your vet about and go from there x
 
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