Young promising horse but.. WWYD?

[webble]

There's a difference between coming back from a jog or workout feeling generally sore/tired and your joints becoming painful and inflamed though? And there's a difference between exercise that supports us/makes us stronger and exercise which puts force on joints which can't stand up to it.

I don't know enough to have an opinion really OP but think I would be cautious so either rest her for extended period of time then see if she could come back gradually to the job you want her to do, or look for a loan home that can give her a job more in line with what she can do now.

Yup. I used to run, did a few halfs and was training for a marathon. I got to the point where I couldnt stand up when I woke up my left foot and hip said no and so I stopped running a few years ago. I do other low impact sports well and happily. I tried running again last month and after a few days was back to being lame

 

[Peglo]

I’ve had surgery on my knee (not completely successfully) but I still have a very active lifestyle. I can no longer play netball but I run and I’m decently quick. On occasion when I push it, it swells and sorry to say it is almost always sore with it.
I look fit, I get good times running but neither means I’m not in pain, which I often am. Doing too much sitting is almost the worst thing for it but I can also push it too far.

I would never put my horse through what I do to myself though. I really feel for you though having such a super horse and not being able to do as you planned.

 

[ihatework]

I gave Bute Tuesday, Wednesday late evening my vet asked for a video of her on the lunge trotting 2 circles either rein. In his opinion the Bute would have worn off by then. She had been out 24/7. At first she didn’t want to move, very backwards, ears back, stuffy, not tracking up on either rein. She didn’t look lame though.

I walked her around for a bit, then did the same again and held a lunge whip to encourage her forward. Definitely an improvement and she moved nicely on both reins, her right rein (right hock is the operated hock) was actually lifting and coming through really nicely. Tracking up evenly. The small area of filling in the hock she had, had gone by wednesday.

I’m wondering if she wasn’t’ lame on it, but in fact stiff all over after the event and myself only looking at that right hind instantly assumed it was her joint.

We’ve questioned a muscle condition before only because her muscle enzymes are always higher than they should be. She is on vitamin E, magnesium and a mug of pea protein a day due to this. (I did run out of pea protein on Sunday, so she hasn’t had any for 4 days, maybe a related factor not sure) She’s been forward and keen until now, but maybe it was all too much on the weekend. I then gave her 3 days off, which maybe didn’t help if it is muscle related.

Anyway, waiting for my vet to get back to me. Just wanted to blurt my thinking.

I wouldn’t expect a horse to be crabby that far after an event. Could be hock, could be muscles, could be combo, could be something else.

It’s really difficult to comment accurately on this because on a compromised horse there is a very fine line on how best to manage them. In my mind there is no doubt that for some horses, both physically and mentally, they are better off doing stuff - yet for other horses this is the wrong call.

What you need is a good vet, a good physio and a fairly balanced friend to bounce things off. The internet forum is not your friend here.

I am in no doubt that your horse, I’m afraid to say, doesn’t sound like they will stand up to long term eventing. But until you play around with management you might not know for sure. You might well be able to fine tune things short term, but longer term perhaps cutting your investment loss now (emotional & financial) might end up being better for you and the horse?

ETA: but what I would definitely want to know is what level of modified workload does keep her physically ok and mentally happy, so I'd invest a little time this summer in working that out, if you are considering finding her another person - this will optimise your chance of finding her the right longer term home.

 

[khalswitz]

The thing about vets is that many of them view horses as livestock and not pets. They treat horses who are working animals with a job to do, and as long as they are doing that job without evident distress then that's considered ok. Just think how many horses fail vettings. The majority of horses who fail the vet are doing the job already. Ie a vet declares them NOT FIT for the job they are currently doing. Ignoring bad vettings (which are definitely a thing!), this trigges some owners into changing their management. Others roll their eyes at the vet and carry on as normal. However none of those owners would have stopped riding before the vetting. Because - dodgy dealers aside - no-one agrees to a vetting they think will fail, or puts a horse that not fit for the work it is being advertised for up for sale.

I have often been struck by the mismatch between vet advice in a buying/selling situation and vet advice on a horse you want to keep riding. When I talk to vets I deliberately try and balance it up - I ask vetting vets to be pragmatic, not picky, and I ask treating vets 'would you pass the horse as fit for the work - even if only after treatment'.

I am not saying one approach is better than the other - I just like to be aware of the different 'bars' vets set for different questions in different contexts to help me weigh up options.

This is a great point. When I bought my 16 year old mare, she failed her vetting. But I had a long chat with the vet after. She’d failed on a heart murmur, uneven muscling over hips, and flexions on hinds - but I wanted her for happy hacking, which she was currently doing, and he suggested that at her age, low level continued movement as she most likely develops arthritis at some point is probably the best thing for her. He suggested that whilst he would have to fail her, he reckoned that she could end up suiting me well. I bought her.

For low level, non-competitive work and age-related complaints (not injuries) I reckon the same is good for horses as it is for me - keeping moving and active. What you can’t expect is them to be athletes.

I used to play a lot of sport, football and running and swimming as well as a lot of long days riding and aside from a few specific days when there was an incident like a fall or a bad tackle, I never needed painkillers or rest afterwards.

I now have a buggered ankle and it swells and aches after exercise, and to be honest it makes me grumpy and apprehensive about running even though I know it’s good for me and I know a lot of strategies to deal with it. There’s no way I’d inflict that on an animal who doesn’t understand it.

It sounds like you need to decide if you want to compete this horse or have a happy, healthy horse. The two sound rather contradictory.

Completely agree. I never hurt when I was trialling with the national side in sport as a teenager, or playing 4 sports a week at uni plus riding horses. And if I did hurt, I’d have taken time off because my physios and coaches would have been concerned I cause an injury.

Nowadays I exercise despite hurting, because I know it’s the best thing for me. But how do we definitely know it’s the best thing for the horse? Not many conditions causing lameness in a young horse are improved by exercise.

 

[Cortez]

For low level, non-competitive work and age-related complaints (not injuries) I reckon the same is good for horses as it is for me - keeping moving and active. What you can’t expect is them to be athletes.

This is a very wise observation.