Coping with Stall Rest

[NaturalSelection]

Hermes is our lively a vibrant 4yo WB gelding, just started undersaddle last year. Probable suspensory issue from field injury last September, hasn’t resolved. Going to fancy vet for thorough diagnostics next week to get treatment plan and long term prognosis. Hermes has been on drylot rest, but our drylot is quite large and the horses play a lot (daily games of ‘stallion’ and ‘racehorse’. I am bracing for the 6-?? month stall rest recommendation.

We’re on a hobby farm, (2) 12x24 run-in sheds in an L-configuration in the drylot, four horses that live together, no stalls. Drylot opens to several big grassy pastures from May-October. We eventually plan to build stalls (primarily for emergency situations or seriously bad weather) and could move that project to the top of the list, but we don’t really like to keep horses in stalls.

I have a lot of concerns about putting Hermes on stall rest. He’s so social, I’m afraid the isolation will be excruciating. Do I rotate horses every 12hrs and keep one horse in with him as a buddy? Do I set-up a ‘field stall’ outside or in one of the sheds or will horses moving around and away from (our to pasture) him drive him crazy? Do I take him to a boarding facility with a more active barn so he has some entertainment?

I’m interested in COTH wisdom on best tactics to endure months of stall rest. Methods and experience specific to small herd hobby farms would be fantastic.
Thanks!
Katie.

[Fin01]

I think it’s awesome that you’re so willing to do what it takes to keep his mind while you’re healing his body. So rare these days.

Of the options you present, I’d choose boarding at an active layup barn, one that does this as part of their regular routine, so long as you completely trust the staff and management to do the right thing by your horse. In other words, they won’t just let him spin in his stall and collect your check. So lots of references, preferably from your friends first, then professionals in the area.

Oh, and better living through chemistry. I’ve found 5 or 6 ace tabs, depending upon horse’s size, helps take the edge off as others start to get turned out around him.

You might be successful with your 12 hr neighbor swap and a grass ‘lay up’ stall, along with that ace, but only you know your hors and how he’ll tolerate this. It’s certainly worth a try before you send him off to board somewhere. I wouldn’t just put a small pen up in the middle of a field because that might upset him more… I’d put up 2 ‘field’ stalls and keep a buddy next to him. Round pen panels are great for this.

Best of luck to you. Keep us posted on what you decide.

[Libby2563]

I also have a small farm with 3-4 equines at any given time and it makes stall rest tough, but layup barns are $1200+ a month around here and I do prefer to do the care myself anyway. I’ve done the “rotating buddies” thing and it has worked well even with a horse who was very attached to one of the buddies. The second buddy was new to the barn so they weren’t bonded at all, but maybe it helped that she was a cute mare! :lol: He stayed surprisingly calm with his rotating buddies. I’d give that a try before you escalate to a layup barn.

I also think that that it is very good for their mental health if they can have free access to a small run off the stall, with the vet’s approval. I use a 15’x30’ stonedust run. They are much much happier and healthier than when locked in a 12’x12’ stall.

I also have a 16’x16’ portable corral that I can put in the grass for some outside time but some of them can get too amped up in there, especially if they go down for a roll and hit the corral pipe with a shoe. One of them bent a panel trying to buck once so I don’t use that unless I think they’ll stay calm.

Of course handwalking as directed and as much handgrazing as you can tolerate will help too.

Good luck! I hope your guy has a good prognosis.

[bathsheba8542]

I had to keep my youngster on stall rest twice (once as a 2 year old (2 months), then as a 5 year old (surgery, then recovery, 4 months).

What saved us was a tiny medical paddock (15x15) that he went out in twice a day, first thing in am, and came in for lunch, then out for a few hours in the afternoon. That routine was very acceptable to him and I started right away so he wasn’t coming out of a stall after being inside for weeks. I also rotated his buddy in the paddock near to him, and had my two donkeys for company in the barn when his pal was out. His buddy is his baby sitter, so he was called in to service and did just fine on a dry lot with hay, next to the patient.

I absolutely used reserpine, ace, and the Amazing Graze to keep him occupied when he was inside for the mid part of the day. He’s a super easy keeper so he got fat, but from my perspective, that was not the time to try to withhold any hay if it kept him quiet. We did not hand graze, as he was too distractable and untrustworthy for that as a youngster.

My friend had to put her horse on stall rest and called in the pros to build her a small medical paddock that was actually 4 small paddocks linked together, that were on grass and she could open/shut gates to expand/contract the area. It worked really well for her and her horse in recovery.

[Edre]

I had a horse on 6 months of strict stall rest + handwalking (not even a medicinal paddock), before we could transition to a rehab paddock + handwalking, then rehab paddock + tack walking/slowly reintroducing work under saddle. He was in his mid teens, but a high energy guy that thrived with work and a schedule.

While he was strictly stall bound, he was getting hand walked for two hours a day (minimum). Rope halter was our best friend, along with leather gloves and a very long cotton lead line. I was very lucky that we didn’t need to do much “better living via chemistry” but we absolutely had ace on hand for the days that I could just look at what was happening and see that I could stack our odds in our favor for a quiet, uneventful day by acing ahead of time. Better an ounce of prevention than a pound of REGRET afterwards. Hopefully your guy will not be so extreme a rehab case as to require this.

Once we were able, we started with a tiny area we could panel off. It started essentially the size of a double stall and then gradually increased. I have seen others use panels that they would change the location of on grass. Mine had a little bit of scrub to graze at but we also put out a hay net to keep him occupied. Highly food motivated is a blessing in this case. When we started turnout we would sedate him prior, and then leave him out and right when it was set to wear off, bring him in. Gradually increase until he was out the whole day (plus his hand walks, and then tack walks/rides under saddle as they increased).

Hanging toys with food were good fun for mine. He also loved milk jugs/cat litter cartons to bang around and destroy. While he was on stall rest and kept inside, he did fine when there weren’t other horses in but he did have a stall that overlooked the arena. We were at a medium sized boarding barn so there was always “activity” that he could spectate. All in all, he was very good natured throughout the entire affair. It made something that otherwise would have been potentially impossible seem very doable. I was very lucky.

My primary suggestion is know your horse. Don’t be a hero and try to rough it through the days things just aren’t working, especially when it comes to things like handwalking or tack walking. If the environment isn’t conducive, call it quits and try again another time. Finding new reserves of humor helps a ton, too.

Fingers crossed for you!

[MsM]

I had a long layup and rehab with my boy. Keeping him in a stall was not an option since all horses were turned out all day at the boarding stable. There was also no way he would tolerate being in alone.
The stable was good enough to create a small paddock - soon dubbed"the Velociraptor Paddock" with well charged electric fence.
I did use various calming chemicals (vet didn’t want to use ace long term and he was resistant to reserpine).
I think being out and in his routine helped reduce frustration and blow ups. And I found he didn’t want to play with actual toys - he played with everything else!

[MDKCongo]

My horse just got off 8 weeks of stall rest. He was strictly stall bound besides walking to the wash stall for most of it. The last couple weeks, I started hand grazing him. Things that really helped him through it were a treat ball, which he never stopped playing with, the hand grazing and grooming but I could only groom him before he became dangerous. He really enjoyed seeing me all the time. He typically didn’t have other horses in the barn with him, although he is a pretty chill guy, some days he did go crazy. I didn’t give my horse any calmers as I didn’t think it was correct because all it is doing is pushing aside a mental problem, which is completely understandable why a horse would be acting up.
If a horse needs stall rest, I would say do everything you can to limit the horses movement, so I’d make a stall if you can and do the buddy thing. If it is a serious injury to the suspensory, I really would not want my horse fooling around in any way. My horse was in for a large splint which first involved the suspensory, and I would have gone into shock if I saw my horse doing anything besides walking peacefully. While a layup barn may seem great, I think there will be a big impact on him from the change in his environment combined with stall rest.
One thing I do now that really helps me communicate everything with my vet and my horses owner and coaches/barn managers is keeping what I call my horses “injury journal.” I literally write everything down, day, date, the injury, his change in personality, work ethic, etc.

[IPEsq]

It is so not fun doing stall rest at that age with an active playful horse. With your setup and the likely type of injury, I think it would be hard to do this at home.

I called the Furlong Soundness Center some months ago when I thought it would be likely I would be dealing with extensive time off for my guy again, even if he was possibly paddock sound (and no longer a 4yo). I lost him a few days after his MRI to colic so I never got through making a decision–I was on the phone with his sports vet discussing the MRI results when the barn called me with the emergency. But I was surprised that their prices were quite reasonable. Especially compared to having him go to our only real rehab place left locally–the equine hospital with no outside time available. For me, it would have been quite a haul to ship him, and he was quite attached to me, but I think a place like that would have done better for his mental state than what I could provide here, having gone through layups before. I wish I had the facility to do it myself but I don’t, and the boarding barn has limitations.

Of course with a young horse you want to set him up for the best healing so you have a good prognosis. Depending on the exam and the timeline, I would consider sending him somewhere specializing in this kind of care. For my guy, when he was younger, he did do better at a quieter facility than the main boarding barn, and I moved him temporarily to a rehab barn that no longer exists to start his controlled exercise. But the quieter facility also was full of quiet horses who were also largely restricted in their play time, which is one thing you don’t have but a layup facility will. There was a small area where my guy went with all the medical paddocks. The larger turnouts were on the other side of the barn and so not observed by the restricted horses. Restricted horses still had company with each other and behaved pretty well. Weather permitting, having a very tailored outdoor experience is really good for their mental state. Most boarding barns can’t do that, and even though you can make a medical paddock, his buddies are still getting to do as they please.

[the_sandiest_shoes]

I’m doing stall rest with limited hand-walking on a coming 6 year old mare. It’s not been easy - we did this for 6 weeks and now I learn that the original diagnosis was wrong, and we actually have to do this for another 3.5 months. Ooof. It’s pedal osteitis from incorrect shoeing that bruised her RF coffin bone - she can’t have too much walking even at this point, as the bone really needs to be super low impact to heal right.

So far we don’t need calming meds, other than Quiessence supplement. She’s in a 12 x 12 stall that connects to a tiny paddock, so she has some room to walk around. Her backyard paddock looks onto the turn-out paddocks and the forest/hills behind the farm, so she has lots to see all day. She spends a lot of her time sunbathing outside watching things go by. She has her buddies next door in the stalls too. I try to handwalk her later at night, when the farm is the most quiet - it makes her less likely to try to bolt or jump around. Might need to step up the calming stuff as time goes on but this works for now. I definitely use a rope halter and gloves. If it gets near the territory of dangerous, I get her back to the stall and try again another time. Sometimes she’s just too wound up.

Handgrazing and getting her to do bending exercises for treats/ giving her long grooming sessions with all the scratches she likes helps too.

[NaturalSelection]

Thank you for sharing all of your experiences! We went to the fancy lameness vet clinic yesterday. The vet thinks ‘sticky stifles’ (not full stifle locking, but similar) and prescribed hill walking and trotting for physical therapy; no need for stall rest or turnout restrictions. I was fearing a suspensory issue with a long rehab.

I will keep all the good recommendations for coping with stall rest in my back pocket since it’s bound to come up at some point.