Whats the longest you have had a horse on box rest for...

6 mnths recovering from a tendon injury - fiery welsh cob that went from hunting fit, to box rest!

He coped remarkably well, ad lib hay, plenty of stable toys and moved to a stable that overlooked everything that went on.

My vet attributed his recovery to the fact he was so sensible on box rest as the initial prognosis was not good.
 
12 weeks cross tied, 8 weeks normal box rest for a fractured radius. Coped better than I did!! I felt so mean but he was fine as long as he was eating! Leahurst said his love of food probably saved him :)
 
6 weeks. He lives out normally and was surprisingly calm about the whole thing. The problems came when I then had to hand walk. That was impossible so he ended up with a pen in the field
 
11 months. An atypical myopathy, followed by toxic laminitis and his feet more or less fell off.

He coped really well as was so Ill at the start that he couldn't have cared less. By the time he might have cared he was used to it. He didn't leave the stable at all for 6 months. All x-rays, shoeing and treatments were done in there.

We set up a tv for him and he had dvds playing all day. At night a friend stayed in the next stable.

He came back into work after 18 months and hasn't looked back
 
4 months for a broken sesamoid bone for a horse who normally lives out 24/7. Was fine in the box mostly. Always good to handle in there. I did have to add reinforcements to the side (he kicked out half the panneling slats repeatedly) and the door (broke out twice). I gave a LOT of sedaline for the inhand rehab. He got injectable sedative for the first few days of turnout.

Was 2 years ago and there is still the odd hint of seperation anxiety which he never used to have. :(

But he is fit and well when the odds werent that great.
 
Bertolie said:
As title, looking for experiences of long term box rest and how did your horse cope with it?
Click to expand...

11 months due to a broken pedal bone, really struggled at the beginning as she was eventing fit. I am sure it drove me more insane than her. It did feel endless through the worst bits of winter.
 
Following as I'm 3 weeks into my first ever box rest experience with a check ligament tear, and the prospect of many, many more weeks/months to come. I'm hating it, he's less than impressed but OK as long as he's stuffing his face, bang goes all attempts to get the weight off him.
 
I have not had to do box rest more than a few days thank goodness as I feel I would not cope with it. It is good to hear your all positive story's if it ever happened to me I would reread this post.

Britstar what was his favourite DVD!!!!!!!!!!
 
The longest box rest I've done was 8+ weeks in the cross ties with a big shire X mare. She had a # wing of ilium. She adapted very well, we hung her water bucket on one side of the door and her haynet on the other. I jiggled all the turnout so that she could always see other horses, and left the radio on all day.

She wasn't even mine, she was a neighbour's horse who injured herself whilst the neighbour was on holiday, and having very cautiously walked her to mine to stable her immediately post injury, with the vet as outrider, we didn't fancy risking walking her back home even when neighbour came back in case the pelvis went. She came good despite getting laminitis in a hind foot due to having to stand for all that time

My own 7yo homebred loves box rest :D. She had to do 3 weeks recently for suspected laminitis which turned out to be poor foor balance. She was happy as anything.

Good luck, I don't know your circs but there are some heartening stories on this thread.
 
12 weeks for a fractured splint bone. She was probably about 12 at the time? Vet said she could be walked out gently after a few weeks but anything more than round the yard seemed to wind her up - she was better all or nothing. We had a large corner box on the yard and she was moved there during the day with a treat ball
 
A very long time had annular ligament surgery and detatched manica so had to stay in until it reattatched. Wasnt allowed to move so spent the whole time inside couldnt even come out to graze. She has been sound now for about 15 years. She does not like being in a stable for long now though
 
About six months, maybe seven; ex racehorse got mud fever, so was in for that, then did a tendon whilst in. As his leg was almost right he then did the same tendon again. :(
He was a superstar about being in. Because he had been spooked and that was how he'd done the tendon, the vet did give us some sedalin though and he was on Global Herbs TB Calmer until he came sound because we were (and still are) terrified that he wouldn't come sound if he injured the same tendon a third time. Then he was turned out in a tiny paddock for a week or so before being allowed to go back out again.
Mostly a very good boy though as we had only owned him about 3 months :eek: but he loves being stabled; he's weird. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

At one time or another the Shetland and New Forest have been in with laminitis but both hate it. The Shetland becomes an exploding bomb/haute ecole stallion and spends the entire time running laps of his box, and the New Forest gets depressed and stops drinking. Now, if worried about lami, they're put in a dry paddock with soaked hay.
 
Last edited:
My husband's old horse had 7 months box rest for a tendon injury and then in a different year 6 months for laminitis.

He coped very well with both periods of box rest - I found it more stressful than him. In both instances it was strict box rest - he was not allowed to leave his stable. I put him into the biggest stable I have with a good view of the yard. Initially I always kept another horse into keep him company when the others went out but stopped that after a little while as he didn't get stressed when the others went out and was quite happy staying in on his own.

The biggest problem I had was towards the end of his laminitis box rest as he was sound but still on limited rations and was always hungry and would start spinning in his box whenever it was time to feed him. I keep my horses at home so was able to pop out regularly to give him a very, very small amount of hay.

My biggest worry was turning him back out again so I did a period of hand walking on the yard, followed by hand grazing and finally turn out in a small paddock (about 20m x 45m) with the help of Sedalin. I would take a cup of tea and a book out with me and sit outside the fence to keep an eye on him.
 
4 months 3 weeks and 4 days this winter. She had an operation on her ddft. I was handwalking from 4 weeks and then riding from 3 months, which was not fun. She was perfectly happy in the stable, to the point she was a little agoraphobic and when walking she just wanted to go back to her stable. She was moved onto the main yard which is busier and I gave her hay bricks as an extra something to do. She got cuddles from everyone when they walked by and a vigorous groom everyday. She also had a sports massage every month. She lost very little muscle and the vet was amazed at how good she looked
After she then went in a small pen about 2x stable that was increase over about 6 weeks until it was 4x stable. Then a very small field for a couple of months and then a full size field.
 
about 5 months-it wasnt supposed to be that long but it was that really bad winter we had back in 2011 and couldnt turn him out on that sort of ground when trying to rehab stifles. He was a good candidate for box rest tbh, he always had company and I was training up as an equine sports massage therapist so he got lots of attention, plus he had toys, mirrors etc. I'm not sure either pony I have now would cope and would think carefully about it-Natives dont mind coming in for a bit but are generally desperate to get out after a few hours.
 
My 12 year old arab did 5 months box rest for a suspensory injury he actually coped quite well, I was putting him in a very small pen in the field but after about 3 weeks he got too silly rearing and leaping around so knocked that on the head, so was then on box rest although I did manage to rope off the area outside my stables and he had a few hours on there with a haynet most days, its lucky his quite a greedy boy so as long as he has hay he will stay in and is not bothered being on his own either which is handy.

My other horse didn't cope so well with box rest and she ended up chewing a hole in her stable door and that was having sedalin every day!
 
I think in total he was in for around 7-8 weeks (1 week at home, 2 weeks at NEH and then a further 5 weeks back at home) for my (at the time) 4 yo ISH. Only lightly backed beforehand and lunge-fit (if that's even a thing).
Coped well for around 5-6 weeks, but started getting antsy during week 6 and was kicking at the stable door (as you can imagine, for a pedal bone fracture that wasn't helpful). We gave it another week or so and on vet's advice (and with a tube of sedalin) allowed him in to the small paddock.
Then after a couple of days in there he got the hang of breaking out in the big paddock.

By this point it was nearing winter so I said to myself, he'll have the winter off anyway, might as well let him be where he's happiest and less prone to go mental!

It's worked out lovely for us and he's now sound and starting the re-backing process :)
 
hobo said:
I have not had to do box rest more than a few days thank goodness as I feel I would not cope with it. It is good to hear your all positive story's if it ever happened to me I would reread this post.

Britstar what was his favourite DVD!!!!!!!!!!
Click to expand...

Mama Mia - lol. Although he quite liked A Knights Tale too. He had the biggest dvd collection. Mostly bought from charity shops.
 
6month for a tendon injury. Became an absolute nightmare and completely trashed the walls which needed reinforcing ended up turning away as it was causing more damage than good
 
Bruce the Unicorn was on box rest for a year when he did his front suspensories in the field. We brought him back into work in a headcollar bareback.
 
3 months for mine - 1 month strict box rest and 2 months with nighttime turnout on a very small concrete yard. He had a friend in overnight, but not every night.

He went from 24/7 turnout to that, with a recurrent abcess that wouldn't heal and he had to have part of the hoof wall removed. Both his owner and I were worried he wouldn't cope because he is so keen on being outdoors but he had a lot of visitors, ample hay in small hole nets and he sailed through it with only a small increase in spookiness/edginess. When he first went out into a small paddock I thought he would go bonkers, but he just walked over to the hay and started eating. No fuss at all. He is now totally sound and very chilled generally.

The radio and dvds are really good tips - I hope I never have to go through it again, but if I do I hope I remember them!
 
Six months in a field shelter across two field in the winter. No option, horse broke his knees and was on grass livery so we had to put a gate on the field shelter and get on with it. He coped better than I did, it was hard physically, emotionally and financially but he made a full recovery so it was worth it.
 
Thank you for all your replies, it has certainly helped me get my head around things. My mare is just coming up to the start of her 6th week on box rest for laminitis. She has some rotation in her front feet and is on complete box rest. Vet has said due to her size and weight we are looking at another six months minimum box rest with no guarantees that she will come through this.

She is perfectly chilled out in her stable and isn't worried whether she has company or not, although all horses on the yard are in at night anyway.

Sometimes when i think of her being stuck in her stable till at least the end of January i just wonder if its fair to put her through this although she is bright and happy.
 
I used to run a rehab yard. 18 months was the longest I had a livery on box rest for.
Now recovered and a lovely riding horse!
 
Just over a year (laminitis then complications) mare coped really well as she had a lovely nature, also put a window in her stable to look out across the fields intermittent walk outs.
 
Biggest problem I had was others feeding her she was a fat native who was on a special diet to prevent her getting too heavy yet almost everytime I went to her someone had thrown hay into her stable. It was a nightmare. I was going about 5 times a day so it was a lot of hay
 
meleeka said:
6 weeks. He lives out normally and was surprisingly calm about the whole thing. The problems came when I then had to hand walk. That was impossible so he ended up with a pen in the field
Click to expand...

Ditto
I ended up riding him for a ten minute walk up the lane and back, he was better behaved!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top