torn check ligament- what shall i do?

[chrisheath11]

my 20 year old warmblood who i have been eventing this year has recently torn a check ligament after tripping down a rabbit hole out hacking. im totally gutted for him, the vet has advised me that as it is quite a bad tear (about50% of it is torn) that he will need at least 6 months without being ridden for it to heal, most of that box rest.
he is not lame, but the area around the ligament and his tendon is very swollen.
He is quite a character, and i know he will hate box rest as he loves is work. what i cant decide on is wether to bring him back into work when he has recovered, and attempt to event him again, or to leave it to very gentle hacking and schooling, or even retire him to the field. The vet says there is about a 50% chance he will get back to competition fitness, but i want to do whats right for him. can anyone help me?
Much appreciated

 

[JanetGeorge]

Far too soon to say what you should do for the future. Will depend on how well it heals - and he should be scanned in 6-8 weeks to check on progress.

Although older horses take longer, I shouldn't think he will need total box rest for anywhere near 6 months (and it wouldn't be good for him.) I had a very nice 4 year old do his badly (in the field!) He had total box rest for 8 weeks - then scanned which showed BIG improvement so we started walking him in hand daily. That continued for another 8-10 weeks before we were able to start ridden walking.

He made a full recovery.

 

[ALO]

I had a horse who injured his (he was 18 at the time). He was on box rest for 3 or 4 weeks before he was scanned again, we then built exercise back up again slowly. He is fine now, he is just a leisure horse though that only really hacks with occasional jumping session. It has always been slightly thickened and I am carefull about ground that he's worked on.
Vet at the time said sometimes its better the more damaged they are as they heal better than a slight tear.
Fingers crossed yours makes a full recovery.

 

[maxygirl]

Just had my boy (also 18) scanned this morning with a suspected tendon injury but found out he is in the same boat and it's actually his check ligament. He did it 5 weeks ago and because he's so bad in the stable (I think he worries he might be missing out!) I kept him pretty much turned out from the start. Vet today said ideally with a tear as big (his is 60-70% damaged) as his he should've been kept in for 4-6weeks and cold hosed regularly as this would has brought the swelling down faster but considering he's been turned out he said there is still no reason why he wouldn't make a full recovery.

He said with a tear as bad as his I should still be able to start bringing him back into very gentle work by mid August and start to work him properly from Christmas time. If your horse has had the box rest and not such a bad tear then I don't see why he won't make a full recovery given time. My vet said that all it takes is a bit of time and TLC! He also told me that it's not unusual for some young competition horses with conformation issues to have their check ligaments cut by the vet to help them - so it can't be that essential for competition horses!

Unfortunately my horse has a history of tendon damage in the same leg so although the vet said I could still hunt and XC him once he's recovered it would be risky as the check ligament is the tendons insurance policy and prevents the tendon from overstretching - so my boy has already cashed in on his insurance (in every sense!). Basically he said it was a choice between how long I want to keep him around for and how much I want to do with him. So I think he's gonna be happy hacker from now on with the occassional XC if he's good!

Hope all goes well with your horses recovery!