What would you do???

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tasel

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It turns out that my horse who incurred a tendon injury whilst schooling over a year ago may never ever come sound again. She is not dead lame, she just won't be able to do her job as a riding horse 100%. She is only 5 years old, and I am absolutely heart-broken by this. She is pretty much a horsey soulmate of mine (OH even jokes that at the time I bought her, we had matching hair colour) and I have owned her since she was 2.5 years old. But at the same time, I have already cried way too many tears for her... ever since her injury, we went through a rollercoaster ride of emotions. The vets found it difficult to diagnose her, so it went from a 'minor' injury with a few days on the paddock to kdiagnostic keyhole surgery to find out what on earth was wrong. Then months of boxrest, after which even more rest followed.

She could be a fantastic broodmare - great German Warmblood bloodlines with famous names via both, sire and dam. She was a premium foal and is a very pretty mare straight out of 'Black Beauty'. But I do not have a paddock myself where she could just be a field ornament. If I did, this wouldn't even be an issue - I would breed her myself.

I have absolutely no idea how to go on about this. Would it be possible for her to be sold as a broodmare? Could one put clauses into the contract that stops people from selling her on (first right of refusal, etc.)? Plus, who would be buying broodmares in the first place?

I am really devastated by this, and hope someone can help... particularly those who have had something similar happen to them.
 
Could you look into the possibility of loaning her out to a stud? Sounds like that might be a good solution - she ends up in safe hands, they cover costs and get the foals, you know she's alright. Not sure if that's a common situation, but it sounds like it would make sense.
 
My friend recently loaned his quarter horse out to a stud as due to injury she became unrideable but is very well bred. The stud are now her carers and take full responsibility for her, but he is still legally the owner so can end the arrangement if he ever wanted to bring her back home.

It seems to be the best solution all round so may be worth looking into.

Good luck.
 
Please PLEASE do not breed. I am totally against breeding horses with soft tissue injuries sustained without an obvious factor (eg. kicked etc) as the more we do it the more we are asking for the offspring to have soft tissue injuries. If her legs aren't strong enough to stand up to the work required (a t 5yrs old too!), why would an offsprings be any better? I have a retired horse sitting in a field, with a ligament injury too. He's a gelding though. What would you do if she was a gelding?
It might be worth investigating loaning her as an embryo transfer mare (so she doesn't produce the foals genes but carries it for another mare) or possibly the blood bank?
I'm hesitant to suggest loaning as a companion due to the whole possibility of selling particularly as she is a young mare. I would also say you never know-with a few years out she might come back in sound enough to hack?
 
Thanks guys - I will look into that option. Anyone who knows Warmblood studfarms who might be interested (mare has dressage lines from dam, showjumping lines from sire), let me know.
 
Twemlows Stud will take mares over 16.2hh and under 10 years old to be recipient mares for embryo transfer. This way they do not pass on their own genes, but carry a foal for mares whose owners wish to breed, but don't want their mare to take time out from work. Headley Britannia had her foals through Twemlows.
My mare, who can't be ridden at the moment, went to them, and is hopefully carrying a foal as we speak. May be worth talking to them?
Good luck, whatever you decide :)
 
SusieT said:
Please PLEASE do not breed. I am totally against breeding horses with soft tissue injuries sustained without an obvious factor (eg. kicked etc) as the more we do it the more we are asking for the offspring to have soft tissue injuries. If her legs aren't strong enough to stand up to the work required (a t 5yrs old too!), why would an offsprings be any better? I have a retired horse sitting in a field, with a ligament injury too. He's a gelding though. What would you do if she was a gelding?
It might be worth investigating loaning her as an embryo transfer mare (so she doesn't produce the foals genes but carries it for another mare) or possibly the blood bank?
I'm hesitant to suggest loaning as a companion due to the whole possibility of selling particularly as she is a young mare. I would also say you never know-with a few years out she might come back in sound enough to hack?
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Susie - it wasn't without an obvious factor. She injured herself... and the problem wasn't that she just did her tendons (loads of horses do!) but the actual location of the injury - it's like one in a million chance that this area of the tendon would have been injured, and it was a fairly unlikely injury in the first place... but hell, people do win the lottery, right?

I doubt her injury had anything to do with her breeding either - her sire's breeding is made out of pretty impressive names and so does the dam's. If all those horses had not been bred, we wouldn't have some of the high-flying horses ridden by the professionals around these days.
 
Could you loan her out as a hack or light work? You could stipulate that she has to stay on that yard so you can keep an eye on her?
To be honest i don't think that if you sell you can have any sort of contract with the purchaser. You could tell them that you would like first refusal if they sell her but once she's sold she belongs to someone else and they can do what they like with her :(
If she has fantastic breeding etc then I'm sure a stud farm would snap your hand off but be prepared to sell her for allot less then you think she's worth.
Could you do things like In Hand Showing with her?
 
how was it injured then? I presume at 5 she wasn't in very intensive work...
Your breeding to pass on traits, unsoundness is not a trait I would wish to pass on...
Loads of horses do their tendons yes, but how can you know she hasn't got an inherent weakness in her tendons to cause them breaking down (both of them or one of them?) She could of course have perfectly good legs and it was simply a freak occurance, but with the market as it is , flooded with perfectly sound nice horses, why breed anyway?
You askwed what i would do-I am lucky enough to have my own land and so retire my unsoundee's, and I;m a strong advocate of not breeding unsound mares. My aimis not to offend but to point out the negatives :)
 
SusieT said:
how was it injured then? I presume at 5 she wasn't in very intensive work...
Your breeding to pass on traits, unsoundness is not a trait I would wish to pass on...
Loads of horses do their tendons yes, but how can you know she hasn't got an inherent weakness in her tendons to cause them breaking down (both of them or one of them?) She could of course have perfectly good legs and it was simply a freak occurance, but with the market as it is , flooded with perfectly sound nice horses, why breed anyway?
You askwed what i would do-I am lucky enough to have my own land and so retire my unsoundee's, and I;m a strong advocate of not breeding unsound mares. My aimis not to offend but to point out the negatives :)
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Susie, with horses, sometimes you don't know what stupid things they do - I am very sure it was a freak occurance given her tendency to try getting around any obstacles (well, that was what she was bred to do - but I didn't think her to be quite so imaginative) plus the fact that she was completely sound the day before. I blame myself because I sent her away for schooling, and probably to the wrong place. Just a few weeks ago, I heard of a horse having been put to sleep that week because it injured its back falling over lungeing. It was only 4 years old... so yes, freak accidents happen.

And yes, I have asked the vets about this - they are pretty sure she did not have it from birth, and in fact, the surgery report noted that despite her having a deep split in her tendons, it was associated with minimal prolapsed tendon fibres... meaning her tendons were actually strong rather than weak. In retrospect, I wished they were weak as you say simply because it would have been diagnosed much earlier rather than her being able to "hide" it before the vets finally decided on keyhole surgery, saving us the rollercoaster ride of emotions.

I am not lucky enough to have my own land, so I can't keep her as a field ornament... otherwise, as said in my first post, that would have been my decision. When I bought her as a youngster, I thought I'd be riding her for quite some time before she was too old or before she became unridable. Maybe by that time, I would have had my field. No one really buys a horse thinking it will go unsound within the first 2.5 years of ownership - and even if so, not in such a way that it may become unridable. I've seen horses who have injured themselves, so that one could see the bone, etc. and yet they became ridable again - but whatever happened to my mare, it was unfortunate she didn't injure her tendon just a few centimetres further away from its tragic location, if yes, she would be fine now (as said, it's where the laceration was rather than the laceration itself that is the problem).

I know she is quite happy just standing in a field not doing anything but eating. She will even trot and canter around without any sign of lameness. It's only when she starts being worked. I can fully understand that as I have injured ligaments before - and my arm will never be 100% to me though others would not see a difference unless they looked twice. Only, I am not a horse...

I know you mean well, but not all unsound horses are unsound due to their genes. I know plenty more who are made unsound once alive rather than during the time they were embryos.
 
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how lame is she?

I'm not a fan of keeping horses in the field that are noticably lame. I don't think it's fair and would prefer PTS. And certainly if they were slightly lame especially with soft tissue damage the extra weight of the foal will only make it worse and I don't think it would be fair.

I know it's a horrid thought. My friend had a mare with Bone Spavins, but she was only lame under saddle so she's gone off to be a mummy. But before she came sound in the field (she wasn't at first) they were thinking PTS.
 
SusieT said:
how was it injured then? I presume at 5 she wasn't in very intensive work...
Your breeding to pass on traits, unsoundness is not a trait I would wish to pass on...
Loads of horses do their tendons yes, but how can you know she hasn't got an inherent weakness in her tendons to cause them breaking down (both of them or one of them?) She could of course have perfectly good legs and it was simply a freak occurance, but with the market as it is , flooded with perfectly sound nice horses, why breed anyway?
You askwed what i would do-I am lucky enough to have my own land and so retire my unsoundee's, and I;m a strong advocate of not breeding unsound mares. My aimis not to offend but to point out the negatives :)
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i think SusieT is being a bit rude here... whilst what she's saying is relatively valid (we should all encourage responsible breeding...) the OP has already stated that the lameness isn't something that'd be hereditary. so there's no need to keep on at her. :mad:

OP - good luck with whatever you choose to do. i hope your mare is okay. :)
 
A lot of cold therapy, bubble booting, ice packs and cold hosing x 3 times a day for at least a month plus, bandages 24/7 and box rest, then turn out with not too much running around. She should come sound, time does heal and cold therapy works well for most injuries horses sustain. Give her a chance unless you have another one to take her place straight away.
 
Galaxy23 - she is certainly not lame in the field at all. She has an impressive trot running about - that's why we became more optimistic! Also, the tendon is not a weight-bearing as far as I know... I did a search on this forum and some others seem to have injured that tendon in their horse, but came sound... it's just that my mare injured that tendon as its origin, which is always slow/difficult to heal aparently. If only she injured herself a few centimetres further, we'd be fine.
 
skolliecrubycben - I have already given her 18 months to heal, and no I have no other horse in sight. In fact, I kept on asking OH that IF I gave her away... would I find another horse I have that connection with (he tries telling me that I have two dogs, and I love them both in different ways... so it would be the same with horses).

We had boxrest, a lot of rest, and so forth... and I was relatively optimistic until the vet came out this week and had a fairly negative view of what her chances were to be 100% ridable. I may just decide to do what you say, but the vet has warned that if we turned her out for a year, and she's still the same... what would we do? A lot of emotions have gone on with regards to my mare over the past 18 months... and just when we thought things were looking up, this happens. Stupidly enough in those 18 months, so much more (unhorsey things) happened to us that was difficult to stomach, and we thought this year would be better... starting with my horse, but it wasn't meant to be, it seems. I may still just send out her surgery report to other vets and see what their prognosis would be.
 
tasel said:
skolliecrubycben - I have already given her 18 months to heal, and no I have no other horse in sight. In fact, I kept on asking OH that IF I gave her away... would I find another horse I have that connection with (he tries telling me that I have two dogs, and I love them both in different ways... so it would be the same with horses).

We had boxrest, a lot of rest, and so forth... and I was relatively optimistic until the vet came out this week and had a fairly negative view of what her chances were to be 100% ridable. I may just decide to do what you say, but the vet has warned that if we turned her out for a year, and she's still the same... what would we do? A lot of emotions have gone on with regards to my mare over the past 18 months... and just when we thought things were looking up, this happens. Stupidly enough in those 18 months, so much more (unhorsey things) happened to us that was difficult to stomach, and we thought this year would be better... starting with my horse, but it wasn't meant to be, it seems. I may still just send out her surgery report to other vets and see what their prognosis would be.
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please remember that vets often give you the worst case scenario (well, mine does... or at least i hope he does... ). it might be worth sitting down with him and asking for the best case scenario to give you some hope?

good luck! x
 
clipcloppop said:
please remember that vets often give you the worst case scenario (well, mine does... or at least i hope he does... ). it might be worth sitting down with him and asking for the best case scenario to give you some hope?

good luck! x
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Thanks clipcloppop - the problem is the location of the injury is a "rarely documented" injury and the prognosis is uncertain. I was hoping for a good scenario... but they couldn't tell me anything about that either because they knew of no such injury!!! And here I was thinking that tendon laceration = tendon laceration... no, if your horse gets injured at the origin of the tendon, it's more rare apparently, and they won't know what the prognosis is! It annoyed me a little, to say the least... and this is quite a big equine clinic not a small one. I may contact a few places in the US (assuming bigger country = more horses = more injuries... and there may be some documented cases).
 
tasel said:
Thanks clipcloppop - the problem is the location of the injury is a "rarely documented" injury and the prognosis is uncertain. I was hoping for a good scenario... but they couldn't tell me anything about that either because they knew of no such injury!!! And here I was thinking that tendon laceration = tendon laceration... no, if your horse gets injured at the origin of the tendon, it's more rare apparently, and they won't know what the prognosis is! It annoyed me a little, to say the least... and this is quite a big equine clinic not a small one. I may contact a few places in the US (assuming bigger country = more horses = more injuries... and there may be some documented cases).
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my horse is currently recovering from a broken leg. it was broken in a place that my vet had never seen and wasn't entirely sure how to treat it etc. so he contacted an expert for me and asked them.

i wonder if you could get hold of anyone at Rossdales? do you think vets take phone calls asking advice? they may be able to speak to your vet? is your horse insured? if so, could the vet ask someone (eg at rossdales) and add the time/whatever the charge is to your bill?

try asking, there's no harm in it. also, ask on here if anyone's had experience of it. xx
 
I have now done hours of research, and it seems that a horse with the injury mine has only has a 6-18% prognosis of coming 100% sound again. I'm absolutely devastated...
 
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