My horse is in for a long road to recovery - fractured his splint bone which caused a tear in the suspensory (ugh!). He had surgery and were looking at a lots of stall rest!
Any tips on helping keep a horse who loves having a job sane during stall rest? We got him a lick it, which seems to help some, any other suggestions?
I got the Shires Ball Feeder Horse Toy when mine was on stall rest. I would fill it with hay pellets, less sugar for the horse not moving or working, twice a day. She loved it and you could hear her pushing it around.
We had the boredom breaker by lickit which was also good, but I ended up refilling with Uncle Jimmys products because they tended to last longer.
Also you can try teaching you’re horse a few tricks. Nodding or shaking their head being the ones I did. Good luck.
The ball feeders are great if your horse is food motivated enough to use them (some are not).
+1 to the tricks suggestion, if the horse is sane enough to focus. On peak stall rest my guy was so hyper that he turned into a little bit of a (friendly) monster and got so over-stimulated that he couldn’t focus well :rolleyes:
The other thing that was a lifesaver was - once he was stable enough - getting him a small pen so he could spend time outside and see other horses. Not the same as full turnout, obviously, but he seemed mentally much happier just breathing fresh air and being able to look around.
Also - and I say this as someone who really doesn’t like drugs except when absolutely necessary - don’t be afraid of drugs. Drugs are your friend.
Good luck!
Also a big fan of a small layup outside once your horse is stable enough for that. My guy has been on stall rest since May. He’s been easing back to work since September, very slowly.
We eased him into a medical layup paddock not much bigger than his stall starting in August (starting at an hour at a time, with Ace). He’s now spending about 8 hours a day out there and is much happier.
I did what @painthunter did. One of my horses cut his lower pastern, requiring a number of stitches and stall rest for well over a month. My barn setup doesn’t have access to a run, so I built a 20’X20’ “paddock” for him in the grass using short T-posts and hot wire. He was much happier getting outside where he could see his two bothers and the 20’X20’ size kept him from moving around much.
To start, make sure he still has a job. Figure out what he can do. If he is hand walking, make that his job. Marching walk forward, halt, walk slow, march, etc. If he can’t hand walk yet, or not enough, teach him some tricks, or learn equine massage, or stretching, or something so that he had a period of focused attention from you every day. Spend time grooming outside of his stall (assuming he’s allowed to walk to your grooming stall). Practice braiding. Literally anything to occupy his mind. Get him a small hole hay net so his meals take much longer to eat.
And use drugs liberally if needed. Don’t risk a major set-back because he’s playing during hand walking time. Some horses need drugs the whole time. Others need drugs for the first few weeks, then settle into the new pattern fine. I had one that needed nothing until he was back under saddle. He needed drugs for the first 3 weeks he was allowed to trot under saddle, but no other time during rehab.
Build a 12 x 12 outdoor stall so your horse can go to “turnout” with the rest of the horses if that is something that he needs.
Suggestions similar to above. When one of mine was, first recoveing from colic surgery, and then several years later a bowed tendon, we created an outdoor “stall” using 4 round pen panels right in the pasture. He could graze and see his buddy. Sometimes they would nuzzle or play “bitey face” through the panels. Went a long way to keeping him sane and relaxed yet avoid the dangers of running around. He could graze on the grass as the stall was right in the pasture. Every few days we’d move a few panels to give him a new grazng spot.
Mine was allowed to hand walk fairly early on so we did that religiously every day. The first week or so was “fun.” A chain shank over the nose dispelled most notions of shenanigans. I did have him on Quitex for a few weeks and that helped too. Just mellowed him out nicely. When hand walking, I mixed the routine up quit a bit - walk, halt, diagonal line, vary the pace of the walk, whatever we could within the bounds of what was OK for his rehab; no tight turns or circles for quite a while, but frequently changing direction across the diagonal gives you something to do. Often my DH would come a ong on these “walks” which was a nice time to just talk for a bit at the end of the day and gave me the added security of having another body near by in case of mishaps (which thank goodness never really happened in a big way).
Carrot stretches, again within the bounds of safe mobility. Things to keep him mentally occupied as if he were in ridden work. I didn’t do any trick training as this guy is quite a joker already and rather oral, so didn’t need to egged on.
He really also enjoyed the extra attention of a thorough grooming and scritichng his favorite spots.
A slow feed hay net with one inch holes is your (and his) friend. Does make the hay go further and keeps himbusy longer. Mine is an air fern who needs his weight contolled, so we now use one all the time and he actually seems to like it. Tosses it in his feed bin, spins it around now and then and plays with it a bit too.
It was frustrating at the time, but I kept trying to remember “this too shall pass” and it did; fortunately all for the good in the end. He’s 24 now and still going strong. He loves having a job.
