Quietanne-Hope it’s another better day for you.
o2gallop-stallions in the spring may make rehab interesting. I gather he’s an integrated soul, used to a mixed barn, and minding his manners.
Day 2 of undersaddle went even better. I guess it’s a case of “Oh, this is what we’re doing”. With any luck that mindset will prevail. Reserpine is still our friend.
Very glad day two of under saddle went even better! Warmer weather has got to help with all of this rehab!
He definitely has impeccable manners. He has been stalled between mares several times at horse shows and people don’t even know he is a stud horse until they see him standing in the aisleway. Luckily only geldings at the barn right now, but I still don’t trust him with an open window when no one is around to keep an eye out :eek:
Glad to hear Parker’s surgery went well and he is doing well on continued stall rest.
Quietann- omg I hope your hand is better!!! That is so scary!
An update on my boy- I’ve been dealing with some RH swelling that I am attributing to that hock sore. We’ve got the sore under control thanks to the Cashel Boomer Hock Sock- it has worked phenomenally well. However, the edema has remained and my fabulous surgeon came out yesterday and looked at him. He seemed quite happy with the way they are healing and wants us to try sweating that leg. He also wants me to get on him and walk him since he needs to be moving around more and he was RETARDED when we tried to turn him out.
My BO drugged him and he was head on the ground when she took him out. As soon as she took him off the lead he totally blew through the ace, rolled right beside the fence and got himself cast, then got up and bucked and trotted around a little bit and wouldn’t let her catch him.
So since the legs seem to be doing well I am going to be getting on him today and walking. I’m so very excited 
We think his hocks may still be bothering him so we have also discussed doing the alcohol fusing of them since the changes are so significant. We are going to give it 30 days of walking under tack and then re-xray and ultrasound and go from there.
My hand is MUCH better and I’ve been on Feronia twice over the weekend, just cooling her out. I enlisted the help of the Fearless Teen, who had her for a few months in 2008 and took her to eventing camp, to do her serious riding this weekend. Yesterday, they did a dressage clinic with Ruth Hogan Poulsen; I was so unhappy when I got bit and could not ride in the clinic. I told Ruth Feronia’s limitations beforehand, and while it was a bit more work than Feronia’s had in a while, she was fine afterwards. I cold-hosed her hind legs and gave her Bute just to help out but her suspensories were tight and not warm after the ride.
So here she is with the FT: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7dpKpq3ORI and with me at the end of the clinic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prAmstkgWmI. The little Icey, Perla, is a jill-of-all-trades; she foxhunts, drives, is an awesome trail horse, does dressage, jumps, you name it. (She and Feronia get along really well… but that doesn’t mean Feronia is perfect … See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c306aXO8gt8
I’m happy to hear others’ horses are mostly doing well…
She looks great Quietann! That is so good that she’s able to be doing a clinic. Sorry you weren’t the one that got to ride her, but glad your hand is feeling better.
Samantha, that is exciting you get to ride! Please let us know how it goes! You are a little over a month out, right? FYI, Jazz is handwalking and doing well. He should start going under saddle at the end of this month if all goes well. This year has not been kind to me 
Amy
Hi guys, a little bit of an update on Venture. We have been cantering for a few days! I am really excited, we are also up to 1 hour trail rides, with about 20 minutes of trot in the middle (interval training still–not a straight 20 min). I know I have been taking it REALLY slow (I add 1 minute of trot per week), but so far no setbacks. He was a little cranky for right lead canter depart, don’t know if he is expecting it to hurt, or if his hocks are still bothering him. He is getting his hocks injected on Thurs. Its been 9 months since surgery (as of June 1).
Hope all is well on everyone else’s recovery front!!
Wow Dbamford that is great news!!! I’m glad to hear he is doing so well
An update on Echo- he has been doing spectacularly walking under tack. I go out to the barn in the mornings before work and hand walk him for 15-20 minutes and then after work I ride him until he seems to be tiring and then I stop. My vet told me once we worked up to 20-25 minutes of walking 4-5x a week that we can try to add 5 mins of trot. Echo has been gaining stamina and strength very quickly and at 25 minutes now he is still power walking so hard it hurts my hips lol 
I think he is feeling good! Since I have been walking him under tack the hock sore and swelling in the RH has all but disappeared.
So on Sunday we decided to try to trot him and see how he did… if he wasn’t OK we would just give it some more time before trying again. Well, he was awesome. VERY well behaved and was forward and happy. He was tracking up and moving surprisingly well considering he does have fairly significant hock arthritis and has been coped up for 60 days. I absolutely cannot believe we have started trotting this soon. I will only probably add a couple of minutes of trot maybe twice per week and just continue walking 5 days a week.
I also was able to try turning him out again yesterday and it went perfectly. There was no getting cast this time (idiot) and he was so quiet and well behaved he was actually out for the whole 3 hours we were doing barn chores. He literally just ambled around grazing and snuffling the dirt. There was maybe 2 big bucks somewhere in there but I think that may have been horseflies or something. He will be getting about 30 minutes of turn out in the mornings so I don’t have to go up there anymore YAY!!! That is going to save me SOOO much in gas money.
Here is a picture of him in turnout:
http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r222/ssilver3722/Echo/turnout4.jpg
He is wearing boots in case he tried to get cast again lol … I don’t intend on him going out in boots though.
Hey guys… looking for some help! Does anyone have their horses one a joint supplement that you feel really helps? I’m looking for something fairly inexpensive and plan to start Adequan once Echo is back in work, but just don’t see any point in spending all that money when he is still on stall rest with limited turnout/exercise…
Thanks!
You are all doing so well that I am green with envy.
Back in the last week of April, there was a meltdown of dramatic proportions. The next few days were very quiet, things seemed settled so two weeks later DR started walking under saddle.
Ten days later, we had our ultrasound. My suspicions were correct, some scar tissue had been torn, it was termed a “setback” :sigh:. However it was healing. But under saddle walking was to continue, as was small paddock turnout.
So that’s where we are. I plan on an ultrasound towards the end of July, and then plan from there. This hot weather is helping to keep things quiet. The one cold snap we had brought out an unwanted tendency to piaffe. Bless a calm, cool DR (designated rider).
So forgive me my envy.
Carry on!
Oh I’m sorry to hear your horse had a setback, Vicarious. That sucks It’s so hard when they get explosive like that.
I’m with you on the heat though- that definitely helps limit the craziness!
I just wanted to share some photos with you guys of us trotting. These are stills from a video so they aren’t great quality.
http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r222/ssilver3722/Echo/trot7.jpg
http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r222/ssilver3722/Echo/trot5.jpg
http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r222/ssilver3722/Echo/trot1.jpg
Please excuse my horrible position!
Vicarious, sorry for your setback, luckily it seems you stll are making forward progress, things are so touch and go at the point you are at, I felt like I was holding my breath for months.
Samantha, on the supplement front. I am giving supplements to Venture, but whether or not it helps might be in my head. I use SmartFlex Repair Pellets, and think he is doing very well on them. I don’t consider supplements to be a primary way of managing him though, kind of an added expensive bonus.
Venture just got his hocks injected yesterday, he gets a week of pasture time now. The vet is really please with how his leg looks and how he is doing now nine months post surgery.
Vicarious, I’m so sorry to hear that you’ve had a setback. Yes, hotter weather will help keep your horse quieter. My vet said that one of the reasons Feronia’s rehab has been so rocky is that I started riding her again at the start of a very cold, snowy winter. My current goal is to go into the coming winter with her as fit as possible.
I also use SmartFlex Repair for her. It’s expensive, but I think it helps. My vet is a fan of the Smartpak in-house supplement line. She was on SmartFlex 2 before all this started, and is on SmartCalm and SmartE. (Vet recommends SmartE for horses that do not get much grazing.)
As for the mare herself: she’s in “almost” full work now. Not 100% there, but it’s good to be where we are. I’m discovering a few limits, e.g. trail rides on hilly and rocky unmaintained roads are more than she can cope with right now. My dressage instructor hopped on her earlier this week for the first time, and said it was hard to not keep asking for more, because the horse wants to do different things. Called her a “little sportscar” which she is. She would have been a wicked good eventer if she didn’t have the conformation/history she does.
It’s almost a month later and we are now starting the second week of trots. Since we haven’t any long stretches of solid flat footing we trot where it’s good, then walk to the next stretch. Then trot, and walk.
Finally got brave enough to watch trot in arena. YES!!!
Let’s hope we can maintain progress.
Hope the rest of you are progressing well.
Vicarious, that is great news!
Maresy is coming along; she’s not 100% sound and I am not sure she ever will be, but so many people at the barn have said how great she looks under saddle… “there’s your fancy dressage pony!” one said today. She’s not quite a pony, but she is small. She also gave me about 2 minutes of that amazing “hot off the leg” dressage horse feeling today; she’s been kind of lazy since the weather got hot, but today all of a sudden I was like, “eep, there is a LOT OF HORSE here.”
I am currently considering moving her to a barn with great turnout (1 acre paddocks on hilly terrain, and honest full day turnout.) I am so on the fence because I have a great vet and great teachers who would not be able to come to the new place, but turnout is not too good at the current barn and there are a lot of new horses, so there’s even less right now.
Can I play?
Not quite the same thing, but one of mine did his check ligament on March 17th (St. Patrick’s Day :rolleyes: ). He has had three sessions of shockwave therapy and three ultrasounds to check healing.
I have been handwalking him since the end of May - interesting as he is a bit electric, but we’re getting there. Unfortunately there seemed to be a major setback when he scooted out of his stable past me last Sunday and took off around his paddock, bucking and galloping like a crazy thing! :eek:
Vet came out on Tuesday to see how much damage had been
done, but miraculously he was ok and progress is still on track!
I can gradually start riding him (on the flat obviously) on Oct 1st and will carry on slowly from there.
I am adding cider vinegar to his feed at the moment to help with the joints and he wears back on track pads which definitely seem to be complimenting the shockwave.
Welcome to the clan Napoles. It amazes me that they can go buck wild during recovery sometimes and nothing ‘bad’ happens, but a single misstep can set us back at other times. Check ligaments are no fun, my horse Venture’s mother was a high level jumper in her day in the 90s and she injured a check ligament right before the National finals and had to sit out for a year. She came back though, best of luck!!
Venture is now cantering, I am thinking of putting him back in a ring for some work finally. I have been so paranoid of circle work and footing. We even grew the Stadium ring in grass to get rid of the deeper footing. I can’t believe its been 11 months since surgery!
Napoles, I hope the shock wave and time off does the trick for your guy. I also started using Smart Flex Repair on Venture last year and it has, in my opinion, really helped us.
Quietanne, I have switched Venture to 24 hr turnout recently and I think it has really helped him turn a corner. He seems more comfortable, and his conditioning work has improved. I lunged him the other day just to see if I could still see any hesitation on that left hind, and I noticed a slight hesitiation at the start but once he started moving out he looked 100%–time will tell. I think more turnout if great, if your horse does not go crazy on it, Venture has always been relatively quiet out…but he did tweak himself last year which set us on the surgery path!
[QUOTE=dbamford;5713202]
Welcome to the clan Napoles. It amazes me that they can go buck wild during recovery sometimes and nothing ‘bad’ happens, but a single misstep can set us back at other times. Check ligaments are no fun, my horse Venture’s mother was a high level jumper in her day in the 90s and she injured a check ligament right before the National finals and had to sit out for a year. She came back though, best of luck!!
Venture is now cantering, I am thinking of putting him back in a ring for some work finally. I have been so paranoid of circle work and footing. We even grew the Stadium ring in grass to get rid of the deeper footing. I can’t believe its been 11 months since surgery!
Napoles, I hope the shock wave and time off does the trick for your guy. I also started using Smart Flex Repair on Venture last year and it has, in my opinion, really helped us.[/QUOTE]
Thanks a million. Fingers tightly crossed that the recovery continues - I won’t be out competing him again until next year, but the vet is confident he will make a full recovery so I just have to be patient.
It must be a great feeling to have your boy back cantering now. They all sound like forward steps in his recovery so great to hear.
Sending lots of healing vibes to all the other recuperating members on here too!
Quietanne, I think going the dressage route could be very productive for your mare. Done with strong attention to the “classical” progression, it can be strengthening and straightening. Which can be helpful with soundness issues.
Your area should have a number of dressage instructors. Although I know you are happy with those you have. Are you a NEDA member? I think a full day, or even as we do overnight, turnout is wonderful in situations such as yours. So you may be scrambling for a new instructor, vet, and probably farrier. I don’t envy you that.
Dbamford, :sigh: I wish I were where you are. I am losing the availability of my DR for the next month or so, and will be scrambling to keep a forward rehab progression. Substitute DR’s are not always easily found.
But congratulations to you and Venture. Carry on!!
Napoles, welcome to the breath-holder club. Electricity is not your friend. If you have read the posts here from the beginning, you will realize that most of us are into " better living and safer recovery through chemistry". I too, am subject to high voltage “electric storms”. Outbursts are unpredictable and frequently dramatic, and to be avoided at all costs. The last one set me back probably 4-6 weeks. Next US will tell a lot. Wish I had one in my back pocket, 
I’d wear it out.
For you though, it is the endless trudge of the hand walk. Enjoy your togetherness time.:D:
[QUOTE=vicarious;5713469]
Napoles, welcome to the breath-holder club. Electricity is not your friend. If you have read the posts here from the beginning, you will realize that most of us are into " better living and safer recovery through chemistry". [/QUOTE]
:lol: I love this - I actually need to go and get some chemical calm mood enhancers - I WAS saving that for the first ride/ first tunrout, but might be good to have it on hand.
OUch! Sorry to hear that you had a set back. If only we could explain the importance of staying nice and quiet and steady to them.
[QUOTE=vicarious;5713469]
For you though, it is the endless trudge of the hand walk. Enjoy your togetherness time.:D:[/QUOTE]
Endless trudge is right - or in my case practically jogging to keep up with him! 
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