What to do with this horse (rehab of competiton horse)

[Rebels]

Brief back story, horse is rising 7, 16.3 ID x TB . Bought as a rising 4 yr old who had done a fair amount, was extremely talented and on a good producers yard. Decided to take the next year quietly to allow to grow. Fast forward a bit. Horse showing promise, went out eventing last year and in a t BE100, double clear 29.5 dr, everywhere we dressaged judges loved him, great comments etc. Through all this horse was just hard work, didn't like to move forwards freely and kept getting a sore back managed by osteo.
He caught a virus last summer and was turned out for 4 months, on return to work he felt very resistant to move forwards. Vet diagnosed spavin in left hind, gave steroids and advised it was 'best' place and easiest to fuse. Horse still not happy, more steroids, tildren given. Hock now great, back very sore. Vet nerve blocks sacroiliac which improves horse a huge amount. Steroids injected. Horse is amazing for 5 days :-(.
So I now have a horse, no clear idea what's up with sacroiliac, still sore, working well on long lines and being led out but still not muscled over back. Now out of insurance. My options are
A) pay for more steroids and give the vet all my money
B) go with osteopaths opinion that horse is skeletally immature, turn away for a year and risk him coming back still not right
C) get on and ride 'through' it, after all the horse was doing well feeling like this before and does loosen a lot after 25 minutes, use everything possible to keep back comfy
D) have him PTS. He won't event to a decent level and will probably never be able to be sold now so am I wasting my money (sorry to sound cold, I'm trying to make this a business and this is my business head, heart head just wants to run off hugging him)
So not sure what to do. Vet offers more drugs but no firm ideas. Osteopath is fabulous and experienced but not sure even a year will be enough.

 

[Luci07]

2nd opinion from another vet? Could have been a case of too much too young and needing time out. That has worked for a youngster on my yard and she did come good.

I have seen conditions like this, as in, there is no clear diagnosis and it seems to be happening more and more. As this is a business for you, I would have a hard think about how much more money you will put to this horse and a time limit. My choice would be another vet and think about a summer out. Injecting the hocks so young isn't good either as you know.

 

[algeredge]

How awful for you OP, I feel your pain. If only they could talk! In my experience giving horses time off for this kind of thing only creates more problems. Mine had winter off for sarcoids to be removed and it has taken until now for him to be going right again. Vet thought he had a sacro problem too but it turned out to be arthritis in the base of his neck, and he is only 8. Only found it after a bone scan which cost a thousand pounds on the insurance thankfully, but it saved lots of mis diagnosis.
Other than the bone scan, my vet gave him lots of shock wave therapy and I remember him mentioning they had great results with sacro problems using it.
I think it is a bit drastic to PTS but obviously treatment could be very expensive. If you think your horse was showing true potential he may be worth the expense as I am not convinced turning away would be helpful. Sometimes it is good to turn away for strength and maturity reasons but if there is a sacro problem it could just get more fixed?

 

[spacefaer]

A second opinion wouldn't hurt

If he was mine and I had a field I could chuck him in, that's what I would do. For a year or even eighteen months. Sounds like he was working when he should have been growing!

If he has no commercial value to you, then it wouldn't hurt to turn him out and see how he fixes himself. If he comes back in sound, then you can loan/sell to someone for low level competition. If he's not sound, then at least you tried.

 

[ihatework]

SI are tricky to deal with, I've seen a few.

Vets generally say best to keep horse in work as the general idea is to keep muscle support, a bit like humans with lower back pain.

That said I'm not 100% convinced it is always the best thing for all horses. I think you need a clearer idea of what the SI issue is really. It's not uncommon as a secondary issue to primary hocks, so it may just be a case of getting the hocks right and then with temporary steroids & Physio the SI will improve and be performance manageable.

The SI isn't an easy area to image, but you can do an ultrasound, rectally, that may give you some idea if the pain is from the actual bone/joint or if it stems more from sift tissue/ligaments

 

[Jools2345]

if it was my horse i would turn away for a year or so but i am not running a business. your biggest problem is if he came right you would have to be honest about his medical history so he would not be worth anything even if he was going well.

you want to set up a business buying and selling horses the biggest way to make that fail is not being honest when you sell, so you have spent lots of money and then you give him a yr or more off then spend time and money bringing back in to work and he is still worth nothing as a horse that has had major physical issues that meant he could not continue to work as a 4yr old someone may take a risk for a few hundred pounds but they wont pay big bucks for him

 

[oldie48]

I'm so sorry that you have this problem, do you have loss of use on your insurance? If not, looking at it from a business viewpoint, if you can turnaway for a year without it costing you, then I'd do this and see if the problem rights itself but the horse won't be worth much with it's medical history and as you say, probably won't event but might do a job for someone else. Failing that then the "hardnosed" but probably realistic thing to do is pts and move on. This is a really difficult decision and my heart goes out to you.

 

[Rebels]

Thanks, think Im edging towards trying time out in a reasonable field with company to there will be plenty of movement.
Im finding it so hard, my first good horse is retired with an unstable pedal bone fracture but now field sound , the second horse stopped eventing as couldn't keep him sound (bad feet) and since starting to do more dressage has sore hocks so have had to bback off his work. My talented but difficult 6 yr old has decided to be allergic to pollen and the 5yr old ready to sell is lame so has vet today. I should have 6 in work, i have 2 .
No one can tell me what Im doing wrong, if anything Im too cautious with them so getting fed up of it all.
Anyhow, that's enough whinging, best go and wait for the vet to confirm what's up with wonky, wonky and sneezy

 

[Maesfen]

Typically these days, he was asked much too much far too early for him as he won't have finished maturing yet because of the type and height he is; no wonder he's feeling crocked.

Personally, I would turn away completely for at least a year, maybe longer, preferably on a field that has some banks as well as flat bits so that he has to work to move around but before I did that I would have a full body scan done (thermal imaging) which would pinpoint the problems far quicker and efficiently than the stabbing about in the dark the vet is doing atm. Once you have that to study you will know better what your options are.

 

[TarrSteps]

Having worked for a number of breeding/production/sales operations I can say, alas, that it's a numbers game. When you look at how many sport horse foals are born every year and how many reach even a moderate level of competition success you can see how high the attrition rate is.

There is a thread on here about a horse that came from PSI - it may still bring some money but from their point of view it's a write off. One of many.

I know this is no comfort but it's to the idea that you're not necessarily doing anything 'wrong'.

The people I know who have long term success in this area do it by being very, very picky - they may literally look at hundreds of horses a year and pick only a few - and they keep their business hat on at all times, ready to cut their losses. They also expect to have failures and budget for it.

This doesn't mean they aren't good horsemen who love horses, it just means they work hard to keep it about the bottom line. It also doesn't mean they are cruel or dishonest - as someone said, repudiation is everything. But they don't always make the same decisions for 'business horses' that they might make for their 'keepers'.

This is, by the way, the reason I don't do that job for myself, although I do contract out my services. I want to 'fix' everything and I'm drawn to a challenge. These aspects of my personality make me unfit for purpose!

 

[seabsicuit2]

I would probably try for a couple of months doing everything I could to relieve the back/sacro soreness and to build up the back muscles. I would hire a H wave machine or get a physio to h wave him every two weeks ( this is about the only thing that can get anywhere near relieving deep muscle spasm in the back/sacro) and I would do loads of long and low work in straight lines with the addition of 3 x 20 min sessions a week working the horse on the lunge in an equi ami ( not the Pessoa) lunging over raised poles.
I would also check that the feet are well shod with good heel support& obv that the saddle fits well ( maybe try a few others to see that the saddle fits )

If i had the time/energy would try a program like this for at least 6 weeks before calling it a day , if there was some progress after 6 weeks then great I would keep going for another 6 weeks.