Update on Lari

[RachelFerd]

It's always interesting with these types of horse and I wonder if an element is that they are "held together" by consistent and good enough work or a specific type of work and then it all sort of falls apart when one wheel falls off. I subscribe to Piggy March tv and she was talking about her (about to go 3* ex racer) she mentioned how he'd have close vertibrae, a locking stifle and other issues and that you have to sort of work around them whilst still keeping them strong and able to do a job. Equally when she talks about Vanir Kamir she says she cannot spend too much time working her "up" as she gets sore very easily.

I do wonder if Lari fell apart a bit when you ran in to saddle issues or when he was purchased and his work load changed. Maybe he was a ticking time bomb or maybe whatever his old owner was doing work wise just happened to keep him together. I know you did lots of rehab with him that was unsuccessful but I'd certainly chat to old owners and see how he was managed with them incase it throws up anything helpful.

I look at Boggle and wonder if he would be in such good nick if he wasn't kept so fit and so lean. It becomes apparent with racehorses too when they leave training and it all comes crashing down a bit.

I'm with you on this - I think a lot of horses can have a range of little niggly issues, but if you can gently keep them working correctly, using themselves well, not allowing them to get fat and building up the correct muscle, you can make them so much stronger and sounder over time. But it only takes a tiny change in that set up and then it all starts to collapse.

When I brought my main horse back into work after he'd had just over a year turned away in a field post surgery and given time for a soft tissue injury to heal, he was not 'sound' when I started riding him again. He was still moving in the compensatory ways that he had used for the last year. But with 6 weeks of long and low walking work, then a graduated return to everything else, he got stronger and sounder as he went. It was just a case of slowly getting him to the point of being able to move in the correct ways. And this was only possible through getting his head in the right place - lots of turn out and down time, not attempting to rehab from box rest.

 

[Michen]

I'm with you on this - I think a lot of horses can have a range of little niggly issues, but if you can gently keep them working correctly, using themselves well, not allowing them to get fat and building up the correct muscle, you can make them so much stronger and sounder over time. But it only takes a tiny change in that set up and then it all starts to collapse.

When I brought my main horse back into work after he'd had just over a year turned away in a field post surgery and given time for a soft tissue injury to heal, he was not 'sound' when I started riding him again. He was still moving in the compensatory ways that he had used for the last year. But with 6 weeks of long and low walking work, then a graduated return to everything else, he got stronger and sounder as he went. It was just a case of slowly getting him to the point of being able to move in the correct ways. And this was only possible through getting his head in the right place - lots of turn out and down time, not attempting to rehab from box rest.

Yes I also had a young horse with a very very minor soft tissue injury that was also not sound until he'd done a fair bit of walking and also trotting despite a healed lesion.

 

[milliepops]

Highly dependent of the nature of the niggle, obv. i have also ridden sound a horse that came out of surgery NQR and it was the right thing to do for her, undoubtedly. I have had others that i've been able to ride sound in a session but it didn't improve the underlying issue in any longer term sense. soft tissue probs might be more receptive to this, i've seen bony things only go one way.