Hi everybody, just looking to get some opinions and some ideas on exercises for one of my horses. About a year and a half ago my childhood horse got himself in a pasture accident and ended up with a pretty gnarly splint bone fracture. Ended up at a veterinary hospital for a week after undergoing splint bone removal surgery. Surgery was successful, he did his time on stall rest and made a full recovery. He has been seen my vet and while she said he was sound to ride there wasn’t much discussion about exercise. I just thought to use common sense and take it slow, which I really haven’t ridden him much since hs accident, maybe a handful of times. He runs around the pasture and plays with his pasture mates and he’s sound and comfortable. When riding I noticed he’s sound walk, trot, and right lead canter, but seems short strided and cautious on the left lead canter (fracture was left hind). I just wanted to ask, are there any good exercises that might help me strengthen that leg again? He’s 19, if I can’t ride him as much anymore it’s ok, but if there’s a way to get him fit again and make his life better I’d like to do that for him 
When my mare was coming back from her LH splint fracture, I wasn’t advised to do (or not do) anything specific under saddle. She was “out” for about 2 months due to the surgery and recovery before she was cleared. From there, I took about 3 months to get her fitted back up to normal W/T/C. (She wasn’t cantering until month 3.) If I had been a jumper, she would have started jumping again at that point. Jec Ballou has some great conditioning exercises for horses if you need somewhere to start.
ETA: If this was a year and a half ago, it sounds more like you’re going to be dealing with a general conditioning issue than anything particularly related to the splint.
Brought my mare back from a fractured lateral splint this summer (fractured in December, took until July for the fracture to heal enough that we were fully clear). We took a good 8 weeks of rehab slowly increasing the duration and intensity (using the Equestrian Canada protocol they put out during covid). I do have to watch her fractured side because initially she was very tight (from loafing around for months on end and already unhappy SI) which caused some bunny hops and she wanted to swing in even more than she did before - of course it’s my weak leg so that’s fun. Gentle lateral work has been great for getting to her utilize the fractured leg.
if he’s good on right lead canter, then your left canter concern most likely has nothing to do with the splint bone removal. The left hind carries all the horse’s weight of impact in right lead canter making the right lead problematic with left hind issues. While in left lead canter the left hind is sharing the load with the paired right front leg, so issues are more likely to be in right hind or left front.
If this is an ongoing issue it’s worth having a lameness check done.
^^^^^Agreed.
