Equine Rehabilitation/Layup Center-have you used? Thoughts?

[mountainhorse]

I am in the works of creating one, and am curious to ‘poll’ the COTH crowds on opinions, thoughts, “wish they had ____”, I hated ____, etc.

How many of you have utilized a rehab/layup center for your horses?

What was the reason for using them? What was the injury?

What are your thoughts after using them?

Anything you would have done differently or asked for they didn’t offer, etc?

What were your reasons for choosing the center you chose instead of others?

Anything really stand out to you as a horse owner (or trainer? Specify which you are/were, please!) positive or negative?

Thanks, I appreciate it COTH.

Thanks!

[Right_on_Target]

Broodmare had a pasture injury that was diagnosed as a DDF injury by one and “arthritis” by another. This was before we bred her, and we wanted her comfortable and sound prior to breeding.

We did stall rest, and then sent her to a rehab place after. I was expecting her to do the water treadmill there, but she’d thrown such a fit loading in the trailer for the rehoming that she want from pretty sound to dead lame. So they did more stall rest and then eventually the Equicizer, and then full turnout. She never did do the treadmill. We also did Irap on her.

I thought it was useful and I’d do it again if needed.

I had actually planned to take my (sound) racehorse there for water treadmilling after her winter layup, but they were full up this year with other turf horses whose owners and trainers who reserved a spot before I did. I’ll consider doing it next year because it seems to be a great way to get the horse ready to go back to work.

If you had a water treadmill it would be great to market it to racehorse trainers. The winter is so unpredictable and the horses barely get out when the track is frozen, so it is a great way to get a jump on things and be ready to race as soon as the turf courses open up.

I picked this place because it had the water treadmill, which I thought sounded good. I would choose it again for any layup or for bringing a horse back into work after a winter off. It was also recommended by my eventing trainer.

I liked that the owners have tons of racehorse experience. I’ve seen a lot of show people wrap horses and it makes me cringe. Most racehorse people are extremely competent at leg issues, wrapping, and handling difficult horses. It made me confident in the care. Also, I like that the owners did the bulk of the work, so they saw my horse daily instead of depending on a random barn worker to monitor my horse’s progress.

I really appreciated a number of things the barn did. Besides taking good care of our mare, they shipped our newly sound mare to the stallion to get bred a few times, which I really appreciated as it saved me a hike with the trailer. And when it was time to move our pregnant mare to PA to foal out (PA bred), I got there early to make the mare look pretty and they’d already pulled her mane and made her beautiful.

[Peggy]

How many of you have utilized a rehab/layup center for your horses? For the last one yes. Have done several on my own.

What was the reason for using them? What was the injury? Vet could not diagnose injury so we elected to send the horse away for a year to see if he would get better.

What are your thoughts after using them? Why did I ever try to do this on my own?

Anything you would have done differently or asked for they didn’t offer, etc? For this particular horse, no. It was a fairly basic setup–no Eurociser, treadmill, etc. But the care was great and they had a great vet who was ultimately able to fix my horse.

What were your reasons for choosing the center you chose instead of others? Vet didn’t want him just thrown out in a big field, but wanted him in paddocks of increasing size. She also wanted him to remain shod. I picked this place b/c I had been there and knew that they had the paddocks. I had also met the manager who would be dealing with my horse and trusted him. Ultimately once the horse became sound, I elected to keep him there and have the manager start him back. Horse was barely started under saddle when he was injured and I wanted him to have the best possible start back. There was also a cost issue. Since I didn’t need anything fancy, I didn’t need a fancy place. Nor did the horse need to go to the place with the topiary and corresponding cost.

Anything really stand out to you as a horse owner (or trainer? Specify which you are/were, please!) positive or negative? In the end, the biggest standout was the manager/caretaker. Aside from being an excellent horseman, he was great about communicating with me (not talking daily videos or anything, but as needed) and helping me to help my horse.

[horsepoor]

I’ve used two. Pegasus is state of the art, probably one of the best rehab places in the country, and has a corresponding price structure. But was worth every penny. The other was a smaller place that was set up for stall rest or small paddocks, handwalking, and aquatred. Price was way more manageable!

What was the reason for using them? What was the injury?
Pegasus was for a large, young warmblood following OCD stifle surgery. Stall rest and handwalking and eurocizer – once he got to the point of small paddock turnout, he came home.

Other place was a very exuberant warmblood on extended layup for bilateral bowed tendons. They did the handwalking and stall rest and moved him into work on the aquatred. Once he was ready to advance to ridden rehab, he moved back to my trainer for that. I also took another horse there to get some treatments that I wasn’t able to do myself, for a short period (two weeks). It was a great, affordable resource but no longer doing this work.

What are your thoughts after using them?
Short-term, even at the high cost, it is worth it. Some of mine, I’m fine with doing the rehab myself, but the young, big, and dumb need to go to someone else as I just can’t physically do it anymore. I’d rather pay the rehab place than the ER.

Anything you would have done differently or asked for they didn’t offer, etc?Pegasus was great - no complaint there and they do earn the fees they charge. The other place had some issues, like maybe not enough bedding for my taste and communication wasn’t always that great, but for the price, I was happy.

What were your reasons for choosing the center you chose instead of others?
Both were highly recommended by my super lameness vet. And Pegasus…well, it is just stands above all others, and was close to where my horse had surgery and the surgeon did rounds at Pegasus so it worked out great. There really aren’t that many such facilities to choose from in my area.

Anything really stand out to you as a horse owner (or trainer? Specify which you are/were, please!) positive or negative?
Both places were far enough away for me to not be able to visit often. Pegasus was great about keeping me informed on a regular basis of what was happening, any problems or even just sending me funny pictures of my horse wearing his dinner as a hat. They kept meticulous records so any little fever, or a bit less enthusiastic eating, etc. was all noted and available for the vet and me if anything came up later. I could call either place to check in, of course, but getting regular updates from Pegasus really put me at ease.

[UlysMom]

My family used Farrell Jones Layup Center in Hemet, CA for our TB’s that became injured at the track. The ones that needed time and special attention/equipment/handling/expertise went there. The facility was always well run and organized, they had everything needed onsite to address whatever issues they were dealing with, and the staff were always attentive and professional. We lived close enough to drive out regularly to check on our horses and I was always impressed with the staff at all levels.

The reason the horses were sent there? Their reputation in the industry. And they just know what they are doing and they do it well. There was no way one of our horses would progress better at our home with our limited abilities and time than they would in the hands of professionals that do this day in and day out. Their primary goal is to get these horses back to 100% for whatever discipline they came from.

Disclaimer: this was many years ago, so I can’t speak to the facility now, but if horses worth many, many more 0’s than ours were are still being sent there, I’m thinking they do a wonderful job. I might have a pic of one of our horses getting their “spa” treatment there. Let me see if I can find it.