Why has my horse become so accident prone??!

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Starbucks

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Think it's just a bought of bad look the poor fella has been having.. but having never previously had anything wrong with him (in 6 years) in the last 6 months he's:

Damaged his check ligament
Donked his head and had to have stitches
Last week - got beaten by friend in field and lame for a few days + cuts and grazes
Last night - has got his shoe caught in the wire in the field and cut all his back legs. :( All superficial but he looks a right state bless him and is all sore after just getting over his beating last week.

Arrrgggg!!! Anyone else had sensible horse turned super accident prone?
 
Wow thats painful and yes my boy has!! Not one incident all winter (had him a yr and 1/2) and now he has had:
Abcess
Some condition that caused his diaghphram to collapse with a calcium inbalance
Back treated
A kick which required stiches and 4X lots of IM antibiotics to sort
And just yesterday got abseloutley battered in new field as someone decided to put the mares next to the geldings for the first time... in spring with riggy geldings (mine being one of them) :(. Sound so hopefully just brusing and swelling and cuts but one of his legs and opposite hock doesnt look good!!
Thats 9 weeks off in a row so far (got 3 days riding between two kicks walks out on hacks).....
 
God you have had a bad run of look!!

TBH I think the beating and the foot in wire have both because of mares next door. Mares seem to be everywhere on our yard though so not sure what to do!! YO has said we can have a nice big field for Badger, Caffrey (one who beet him up) and Danny (nice non trouble causer!) and I'm not sure weather to try them altogether again as they won't be directly next door to mares (but they are just over the lane), or rotate and have Badger out in the day and Caff out at night... Hmmm.
 
That's nothing to worry about, my daughter would love to have had your troubles, our mare is much more accident prone than yours - in the three years we have had her we have had the following:

First year
July - first week of owning - kicked in the field and damaged her hock - six weeks box rest, another four weeks gentle grazing then two weeks to bring back into work.

First year
December - kicked again in field, long gash to same leg as hock injury - another four weeks off work and then two weeks bringing back into work

Second year
May - lameness - initially diagnosed as navicular - 12 weeks box rest, four weeks hand grazing, four weeks bringing back into work

Second year
November - daughter has motorbike accident - requires knee operation in December - not allowed to ride for a further 4 - 6 months

Third year
October - kicked in field - badly fractured splint bone (five fractures) box rest for 4 months, hand grazing for two weeks, partial turnout for 2 weeks, now slowly being brought back into work

Aaah the joy of horse ownership...........

Fingers crossed for an uneventful rest of the year
 
Starbucks - I feel your pain. I've owned Ellie for eleven years, and the only problem we had up until 2009 was a nosebleed in the stable. Then it began...

March 2009: Both front splints thrown whilst fooling around in the field.

Beginning of September 2009: Kicked to b*ggery in the field by a big bully mare. Thought she'd broken her hock; luckily turned out to be more superficial, and although she had to have a couple of months off, she came right again.

End of October 2009: Moved yards to have individual turnout, only for the silly mare to put her leg through the fence and come in with a massive triangular gash. Vet stapled it; it then got infected. Vet removed it - more time off!!!

April 2010: We were hit by a concrete lorry whilst out hacking. Ellie went down on the road and her hocks were bashed by the wheels - she was struggling to her feet as he drove off. Big grazes and a slight cap on her near hind (same leg that was injured when she was kicked). More time off.

March 2011: Somehow managed to re-open the scar tissue of the triangular gash from last year, presumably by putting leg through the fence again! Irony is that it has now healed much neater than before, lol!

All this, after 9 years of nothing...:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:
 
Touch wood I havnt had tendons etc...However I have had......
1..barbed wire cuts :( (lesson learnt hard way)
2..ran into field gate and split neck open within millimetres of windpipe :( ...very lucky he wasnt hospitalised
3..2 wks after splitting neck open,he ripped his back leg open...Knob!!
4..walloped head on a fence and fractured his skull,ended up with sinusitus etc!
5..living out one summer managed to slice into his elbow,requiring 15 stitches!

Love my beastie :)
 
I feel your pain! My horse was an 'always sound cob' then in the last 18 months we have had..

1. Cartilage damage in the fetlock joint from the cannon bone somehow banging into the long pastern, this required keyhole surgery 2 months box rest followed by in-hand walking, ridden walking then turnout.

2. While on rehab turnout managed to hairline fracture her navicular bone. Tildren drip 4 weeks box rest then field/ridden work.

3. 4 weeks later in the field kicked in the knee, perforates joint, has to have an operation to remove bone fragments and a week of IV anti-biotics.

4. In february is diagnosed with cushings and develops laminitis even though on a restricted diet!

Grrrr made me want to give up! At least he should heal and be fine my mare is now pretty much retired! good luck xx
 
My horse is a local legend.

He's coming back from his 9th career-threatening injury:

highlights:

3 suspensory strains in two different legs
punctured foot from clip on shoe that fractured coffin bone, needed to be removed
DDF tendon strain
Proximal sesmoidial ligament strain
Ringbone
Navicular lesions/ possible fracture from kicking the stall

I'm forgetting one.

Oh yeah, horrible reaction to a shot one time.

Yes, he is sound, and has made a FULL recovery from each one. That's why he is called the Comeback Kid around here.

He's remarkably resilient for such a fragile horse. Any one of those might have ended his career or his life, but he's gone on to win multiple regional championships and was nationally ranked a couple years back.

We are staging a comeback again right now, going pretty well :)

I'd just retire him . . . but he mostly hurts himself when out of work , goofing around bored in the pasture. He's safer and happier in work.
 
I wonder if it's similar to humans?
Theory ONE - I've this friend whose daughter is an exceptional ballerina. Whilst very young, she was fantastic but during her teens, her body was undergoing so much change that it badly effected her balance and she got lots of injuries as a result. She's now back to being super fantastic again. Did your horse have some growth/development I wonder? It wouldn't take much to affect balance and then it's easy to get injured and appear accident prone.
Theory TWO - He's just a numpty.
 
That is the reality of livery yards. Large numbers of shod horses kept together, lots of fencing between them which horses can't help but try to kill themselves with, horses coming and going, etc. It sounds like you have got good yard staff who are prepared to rearrange things to settle the problems though, which is the main thing.
 
If I posted about my mare I would be here till Christmas.
Between the 3 of mine last year, the vet was out every month. I even suggested to him that I arrange for my salary to be paid direct into his account as the visits were so regluar. All of them pure accidents. Even the foal managed to get 2 visits in before he was 6 months old!
Thank God for insurance and mine have been angels despite all my claims!!
 
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