The vet surgeon who worked on my mare is at Fairfield Equine in CT, which is one of the places that developed the fasciotomy. They do so many that they have a sheet with their standard rehab program.
Keep in mind that my mareās condition was not as extreme as your horseās.
Anyway: the program is based on controlled exercise. We started with 3 5 minute hand walks per day, starting the day after surgery, for 2 weeks, then 3 10 minute walks, and then adding 5 minutes per walk each week. At some point (25 minutes???) the walks were dropped to two per day. I walked her in her standing wraps for the first 6 weeks or so.
Both the vet surgeon and the local vet prefer that I walk her on hard ground rather than in one of the arenas with āfooting.ā My BO isnāt the greatest about maintaining footing, and it develops deep spots. (You probably know that in the UK, riding horses on paved roads is part of their fitness-building regimen, to strengthen their tendons.)
Two months in, as I said above, my local vet recommended a small turnout (made from 6 stock panels) in place of one of the daily hand walks, so the mare could move about more freely than she could in her stall. She spent the first day turned out eating every last bit of grass in the pen, and the second day rolling. (She is small enough to roll in her stall, but rarely does.) Turnout isnāt standard Fairfield practice, and the surgeon there was a bit worried, but with Ace and enough supervision, itās been very good for her, and quite a relief for me as I only have to go to the barn once per day.
Hand grazing is a really important part of working with the bored, squirrely mare. I also used a chain over her nose after discovering just how scary a big spook could be. (Sheād back up, rear straight up and start to spin, and then come down barely putting weight on her injured leg.) The chain didnāt stop the spooks, but it kept them more manageable. She was looking for things to spook at, I think just because she was so bored. (I am not using the chain anymore, after realizing just how dependent I was getting on it; the mare is a dominant one, and without the chain she was pushing me around. Weāve spent a lot of time working on basic respect recently. She is better on the ground when sheās being ridden regularly.)
Issues besides spooking: she HATED her standing wraps and keeping them on her wasnāt easy. I was very happy to ditch them at 8 weeks. She also tended to kick the stall walls with her bad leg, though she does not do that anymore.
Things I was careful about: I tried not to back her up at all, kept her walks on level ground for about 6 weeks (not easy since much of the place where I board has gentle slopes), and whenever possible did not turn her in a tight circle. Iām not so worried about these things now, but I donāt back her up more than a few steps, and only if sheās behaving badly. I also have not trailered her since the surgery.
I also used a NibbleNet with small holes for her hay when she was mostly confined to her stall, just to give her more time doing something (eating). She tends to hoover her food, and is also one of those horses who will spend time sifting through her bedding to eat every last scrap of hay and grain. Her grain ration is now less than a quart a day, of Sentinel Performance LS, in two feedings, and a cup of hay stretcher at night feeding, mostly so she doesnāt kick down the barn because other horses are being fed and she isnāt! :lol:
(And hydrotherapy would probably be great, but I donāt have access to it. At the very least she probably wouldnāt be as FAT as she is now.)
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