What do you do if your horse needs box rest?

benson21

benson21

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And you are on grass livery? Seems a silly question, but have always wondered! Also, there are lots on here that say their horse hates staying in, so again, if it needs box rest, what do you do????
 
Make a stable-sized, or somewhat larger, enclosure, preferably with natural shelter, using electric fencing.
 
My daughter's previous horse hated being stabled - box walked, sweated up etc. Even with company he was a nightmare. After he was involved in a RTA he had to be on box rest and we were dreading it, however he was a star in the stable for the entire duration of his box rest. As soon as he was back out in the paddock he reverted to being a nightmare in the stable if we had to bring him in!
 
A lot of yards that offer grass livery have stables for emergency use but if they don't the main options are:

Convert a field shelter to a stable - easily done
Temporary move to livery yard with stables
Make a stable sized pen on a yard or non grass area - it usually doesn't matter if there is no roof! I've had friends do this.

Molly not keen on being stabled, but is on box rest (but we have stables anyway). So far we are ok without sedation, but if necessary she'll be sedated. At the end of the day when there is no other option they just have to lump it - for one pony at our yard last year he had to be sedated for weeks and they also had to nail a piece of wood halfway accross his door to stop him jumping out (but so he could still see out). it wasn't ideal but it had to be done.

I'm not a fan of box rest for all things - but in our case she's had surgery and it is imperative.
 
I can borrow a stable at a friends next door, in the short term. Or theres a yard a couple of minutes walk away that I can rent a box on, and I have done in the past.

I take my horses to friends' yards now and again and leave them in a box, possibly overnight, so they get used to going in a stable and me leaving them and knowing I will come back again.
I have one that wouldnt take long term box rest, she was in her teens when I got her and had never been inside, and shes a complete stress head in a stable. Despite me trying to get her to accept being stabled shes just not up for it, shes never going to cope with long term box rest so if something bad happened to her and there was no alternative to a long box rest I think she would be PTS.
 
I put it in its stable, if it tits around I just let it get on with it. They get used to it. Its about routine and not giving in everytime they play up. At the end of the day if it needs box rest it needs it, like it or not
 
My pony is currently doing 'box rest' for mild bout of lami in a little paddock next to his herd which is now after all the rain a mud paddock. He is happy in there and goes about his day pottering around searching for pony nuts and his herd take turns at sleeping next to the fence so he hasn't got stressed at all. He simply does not do box rest as I discovered last time it was attempted and over 2 days spent nearly 8 hours sat in with him:rolleyes:
 
badgermyers said:
I put it in its stable, if it tits around I just let it get on with it. They get used to it. Its about routine and not giving in everytime they play up. At the end of the day if it needs box rest it needs it, like it or not
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My horse gave itself stress induced laminitis by forcing on box rest. Not sure your logic necessarily holds true. Vet conceded after it would have been much better NOT to try the box rest after she was clearly very stressed!
 
I ensure that all my horses will tolerate box rest I consider it my job as their owner that they are prepared for this if it happens to them.
 
benson21 said:
And you are on grass livery? If there is no stable available at all, take it to a yard that offers emergency livery Seems a silly question, but have always wondered! Also, there are lots on here that say their horse hates staying in, so again, if it needs box rest, what do you do????
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If it needs box rest, it needs box rest. Put it in a stable, stress is the lesser evil than unresolved pain or illness. Plus, as said above, distress is normally short lived, the horses get used to the routine of staying in and they deal with it.
 
The people without them near us either have a few emergency stables or rent one short term from somewhere that does. I prefer out rather than in, so if possible I'd go for a tiny outdoor pen. Mines 23 & after doing 12months box rest a few years ago isn't keen on her stable except for cold winter nights. If she had to do a short spell she'd tolerate it. But anything needing a long period I wouldn't ask her to tolerate, I'd either give it a shot turned away or pts depending what was wrong.
 
One of mine really stresses in the stable usually but whenever he's been sick or injured enough to need box rest he's dealt with it really well. I could tell when he felt better because he started getting stressy again
 
Weirdly mine stresses much, much more in an individual pen - that makes her frantic and dangerous, she loves being out 24/7 but only in her herd.

Box rest she doesn't like at all but she doesn't display any vices - she is very fed up with being in but she is tolerating it at the moment - but we have at least 7 weeks to go :(

I'm much more worried about after that when she can start to go out in a small pen as I think she'll need to be heavily sedated for it :( I am rather hoping in a perverse sort of way that vet will let me ride her from the stable and graze inhand to start with them go straight for herd turnout and skip the outdoor pen, even if it means slightly longer in
overall.

It shows how diferent they all are!

I also think that they pick up on us and their surroundings, when Molly had to have box rest before I was besides myself with worry about how she was feeling and she was far stressier and I spent most of the time in tears.

She is on a different yard now, with a view of the whole yard and I am very relaxed about the box rest, and so is she on the whole. She does call etc when I am there and has started nipping, but when I am off the yard she is very quiet and relaxed. I do think I used to inadvertently make her worse by being so worked up about it myself!

Its a tough call because in our case her injury has excellent prognosis (splint fracture) so there was never any question of pts as an option - but equally a min of 8 weeks strict box rest (she doesn't leave her stable) is a requirement.

For something like a tendon/ligament I'd be more inclined to field rest in the herd for longer rather than box rest for a long period.
 
Goldenstar said:
I ensure that all my horses will tolerate box rest I consider it my job as their owner that they are prepared for this if it happens to them.
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Not so easy with a 2 yo that has been living out with the herd it's whole life!

BH would stay in his box more or less forever I think the big dope. He loves his stable :)
 
jesstickle said:
Not so easy with a 2 yo that has been living out with the herd it's whole life!

BH would stay in his box more or less forever I think the big dope. He loves his stable :)
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Well you see if I had bred the two year old it have learnt about stables already and if I bought it I would have got it in stable training staight way I just won't tolerate horses that don't do stables.
 
Goldenstar said:
Well you see if I had bred the two year old it have learnt about stables already and if I bought it I would have got it in stable training staight way I just won't tolerate horses that don't do stables.
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And I just don't do stabling youngsters as I think it is bad for their physical development.

Horses for courses eh?
 
Goldenstar said:
I ensure that all my horses will tolerate box rest I consider it my job as their owner that they are prepared for this if it happens to them.
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Out of interest how exactly do you do that because I would love to 'box rest proof' mine?

I had to keep a post OCD operation horse on box rest for 9 months and it was a complete nightmare. He only got more and more wound up and he had times when he went utterly loopy in the box and did himself even more harm (once he pulled muscles from bucking so hard!).

If I can possibly avoid it I don't box rest, e.g. Freddy had a mild injury to a tendon and he had 2 months of field rest instead (with frequent scans to keep on top of the healing progress). He was very chilled in the field and came back to work without any issues. I do think that if he had been box rested there would have been a much greater chance of complications.

If field rest is not an option I would try to cope with a pen in the field and if that wasn't an option I would send the horse to a rehab yard as the change of scenery helps some cope with the change in routine.
 
badgermyers said:
Sorry to hear your horse got ill but I have never had this or known anyone with this issue.
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No, it's unusual but not impossible. Which is why I thought it was worth a mention :)

Usually I would just let them tough it out too but just thought I'd let people know that it can backfire. If you're unlucky. Which I am :)
 
I would be wary about box rest after losing a horse due to complications due to being in. Being in is a good remedy for some (most?) horses, but some mentally, and physically cannot take it :(

Mine was box rested on a combination of being in at night, and in a small, sheltered paddock in the day, worked far better this way imho, and unless a horse had to be cross tied, this is how I would do it again.
 
I have and would make a small flat area within his paddock using electric fencing. I had to do this last year when he had a spell of lameness and I didnt want him racing round his entire paddock. Hes an odd horse in that hes not attached to any other horse in particular but if he is in, even with another horse, if he can still see others in the field he panics, I assume he thinks hes being left behind when he can see the others moving. The paddock I made him had some natural shelter and was about 4 stables worth, I moved it each day so he had enough grass per day to keep him busy.
 
jesstickle said:
And I just don't do stabling youngsters as I think it is bad for their physical development.

Horses for courses eh?
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It is not bad for youngsters physical development to be brought in for short periods to learn want its all about so that when disaster strikes you don't have a horse whose physical development has been spoiled by a bout of laminitis.
 
Goldenstar said:
It is not bad for youngsters physical development to be brought in for short periods to learn want its all about so that when disaster strikes you don't have a horse whose physical development has been spoiled by a bout of laminitis.
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The horse would happily stand in for an hour or two. What it wouldn't do was stand in 24/7 for months. You can't really prepare them for box rest unless you practise having them in a lot (something I would not be happy to do with a two year old) so either they cope or they don't. Mine didn't.
 
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