Anyone with experience with a DDFT injury in front leg and jumping

[BRadic5]

Let me preference this with I know all injuries are unique and different

My horse had a pasture accident where he went mildly lame after canter for a few days then was sound. 3 weeks later he was dead lame. Turns out he had a core lesion in his ddft. He is also slightly pigeon toed in that leg as well.

I did prp and shockwave and so far vet is happy with how it’s healed. Said 4-6 months before coming back to work. It’s 3 months now and he’s sound (will be following vets orders and rescanning him in a month to confirm he can start coming back). I won’t do anything a vet doesn’t approve of.

Currently my plan is to retire him from jumping and do dressage. However he loves jumping and so do I. Has anyone brought a horse back from a ddft tear into jumping? Did you do anything to make sure it was healed well enough and could hold up? Ie MRI and/or rehab?

I do have another one I jump and will do it whatever is best for my broken guy.

[NancyM]

Tendons usually heal up fully and are sound for jumping (hunters or jumpers), IME. Maybe not so much for 3DE though. The ones I’ve had have been injured racing, or in race training. And have been sound long term in the hunters and jumper divisions, including the bigger divisions. There’s always exceptions I guess, I haven’t had one that has re occurred though. I haven’t had many scanned to know if it was deep or superficial, I suspect usually superficial, or one was maybe both. DDFT is more serious than the superficial one though.
The one that was maybe both… it could have been called “terminal” when fresh. It was scary bad. But he healed up fine, I sold him as a jumper prospect and he became a medal horse later I heard. But I jumped him over some quite big stuff while trying to sell him without any issues. He would literally jump ANYTHING. Coming into a bounce, he’d be thinking “oxer???”. I’d be saying, “Nooooo, bounce”. Coming into a one stride, he’d be thinking, “bounce???” and I’d be saying “Nooooo, one stride”. The tendon just got tighter and tighter. My vet at the time said that we should apply for funds to study the use of “jumping” as a therapy for healing and strengthening tendons ROTFLMAO!!! That’s how freaky it was.
In fact, it’s not far off thinking really… if you read “The Bowed Tendon Book” by Tom Ivors, about healing up bowed tendons using exercise as a tool to direct healing- it’s an old book now- the use of exercise early on in the healing process is explored. Leaving them to heal up while standing in a stall has proven to not be as successful. A horse who had a bowed tendon earlier in life also won the Grand National steeplechase. Aldoniti I think it was.
Exercise is the key to making the tendon heal.

[BRadic5]

Thanks for sharing! I do agree that getting them moving is super important

[blondewithchrome]

Yes, I have had one rehab back to jumping (3’) from a DDFT but it was a 24 month rehab. Slow and steady.

I have one now off for a DDFT and something mystery in the other foot (because, horses) and we are on month 3 of rest and not looking good yet so kudos to you for getting it healing so fast! These things take time, time, time. I also feel strongly about active rehab so mine is on 24/7 turnout with a 30 year old. They never run or buck so I know he’s just ambling around staying moving. I fully anticipate he will take 12+ months to be back to work and won’t be doing the job he was doing before (110m jumper but he’s in his 20s so I won’t ask that of him! 2’ would be amazing!)

Good luck OP!

[BRadic5]

Thanks for the positivity! Also super happy you feel that way about turnout because I’m just moving him to pasture board now he’s sound and I was worried it could hinder the progress, however I feel the same way moving is the best thing for them (if they can) also to help strengthen everything.

[luvmyhackney]

Yes, I’ve rehabbed one, took a year of rehab. He can jump and does little stuff with zero issues, 2’6" max, but he’s also a 12.2 pony.

I only did turnout, small turnout to a larger one, and didn’t bother with stall rest. He’s still sound at 23 y/o.

The hardest thing was keeping him from loosing his topline and feeding enough for healing but not getting fat on reduced work.

[liola101]

I have had a few horses with this type of injury. IME this kind of tear in particular requires a LONG time to heal. Obviously it is dependent on the horse but the deep digital is a very sensitive structure and I feel more prone to re-injury that a lot of other injuries. Even though your horse is already sound, my advice would be to give the horse a year off and bring him back into work very slowly from there and see how it goes.

I would make sure the horse has appropriate therapeutic shoeing to help support the leg. For this type of injury I believe corrective shoeing is integral to the horse’s recovery.

I have one horse who tore both front deep digitals and has been living in bar shoes with pads indefinitely. He is completely comfortable in this set up. I did give him about 2 years off before bringing him back into work. I then brought him back into jumping after about 6 months of flatwork. I completely babied him through this whole process and stayed very disciplined not to push him too much too quickly before he was ready. He eventually came back to show on the A circuit for some time and retired for reasons unrelated to the deep digital injuries. He is sound today and in light work.