Feeling poorly about Mare being out of work due to an injury

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I’m so sorry. Been there. :confused: Some injuries I’ve rehabbed have been cleared for under saddle walking - can you ask your vet about that? Also, maybe ask about walking over poles, that helps with core strength. You can also teach her to long line! You can even do lateral work (per vets ok) in long lines - leg yield, half pass, shoulder in, etc.

You said it’s wintery there, but do you have access to a trailer? Can you take her to new places for hand walks or to other indoor arenas? Even if you go with a barn mate, that will be more fun than the same arena over and over.

Good luck, and it’ll be over before you know it :heart:

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Is this injury related to her getting stuck between the wall and the round bale at the last place?

BTDT and currently doing that. It’s not easy, especially when the barn goes from fun to another source of stress. You have my sympathy!

Is this the 3 year old? If so, maybe think about all this groundwork and bonding time as banking skills and preventing further wear and tear on a baby horse rather than missing out on riding time. Buying a baby (you’ve had her a year? Or am I mistaken?) as a first horse is certainly the slow way around - even though stock horses get started early, the work you can do with such a young one isn’t much. But it stinks that you can’t even walk around on her bareback at this point in time.

A soft tissue injury this young plus all the barn shenanigans is a tough start for both of y’all. I hope you’re over the hump soon and can get back in the saddle!

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I’m fourteen months into my horse’s stifle injury rehab. We were supposed to have gone for the all clear recheck two weeks ago, but he tangled with a fence, got a raging case of mud fever, cellulitis… He’s lame, but with too many potential causes to determine how the stifle is doing. I’m waiting for things to. resolve before booking the stifle recheck.

I feel for you. I don’t know what your horse’s injury is but I always felt better once we got the go ahead to tack walk.

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sent

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Youngsters are resilient - as long as you’ve removed the cause of the injury (vs it being genetic/inherent) you should be on a good track. Good luck!

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I am sorry you feel this way, but you are half way through!

Let’s look at it from another angle. It is dark, cold, wintery and no fun right now and honestly you may not have been getting much riding time in regardless.

So the bright side is, come spring, she will be nearing the end of her rehab and you can back her and get back on track with her training.

Without knowing the extent of her injury there is so much you can do to prep her to be backed. Long lining, expose her to tack, start bitting her, work on voice commands, put the saddle on her, etc to prepare for backing.

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Depending on the injury (and sometimes not, if it’s a safety thing - some are far safer under saddle than in hand) I prefer to tack walk instead of hand walking when it’s a nice flat surface such as an indoor. Many months of my mare’s rehab from foundering were done tack walking once she was fully comfy in boots. It made us both way happier and me way, way safer as she’s far more likely to pull a kite impersonation on the lead than under saddle.

Either way, carry on. If the injury is something that can be recovered from, you will 100% be thankful for every moment you had to spend on rehab once she’s back to normal.

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My then four year old (the one who’s 25 now) hooked his foot over a high tensile wire fence and pulled the wire strand off three fence posts. He had a very nasty, deep wound that looked like he’d tried to rip his heel bulb off. It took months to heal, and I took many more months carefully conditioning him back to work because I didn’t know how much any tendons and ligaments were affected.

I had bought him as a ten day old foal, with the intention of having him as my main horse for the next 25 years. Whenever he got injured I’d keep reminding myself “I’ve got time.” It did help a great deal.

While I don’t have that kind of time anymore, I don’t have any big goals either. We’ve done all kinds of things, and any remaining time I do have with him is precious. I just want to enjoy his company doing what he loves to do (go explore trails).

You’ve got time. Enjoy the journey. :slightly_smiling_face:

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I didn’t get any imaging done at the time, and he’s never been lame because of it since he healed up. It left a scar that gets rubbed by hoof boots if I don’t protect it, but that’s it.

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I think I’d probably regard this as the universe’s way to allow me to give her the winter to grow mentally and physically while I did work on her ground manners, socialization and all the things that make for a really enjoyable riding horse that don’t involve riding.

Go to your new home with that horse. The barn staff will love her and she will be much more trainable under saddle!

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