Recovering from broken ankle - how long before you could ride without pain?

[Bogie]

On January 20th my horse fell on the ice and I broke my left ankle (fibula), fractured my right knee and broke my left collarbone. All the bones have healed well but I’m still getting a lot of pain in my ankle, probably from soft tissue damage. I’ve just started riding again and after 15 minutes my ankle really hurts. It gets better if I drop my stirrup and rotate my ankle, which I do every 10 minutes or so. I’ve tried with/without a brace and each is uncomfortable in its own way. I haven’t tried a compression sleeve yet, so that’s next.

I’m doing a lot of PT and my therapist says I’m healing well, but it’s frustrating to have so much discomfort. I’m not willing to ride without stirrups right now because I have so much muscle wastage from being non weight bearing, so I’m just riding for a half hour, mostly at a walk, and hoping to build up slowly to more.

For those of you who injured your ankle, any thoughts on how long it took to be pain free?

[Magicboy]

Sorry to say that soft tissue damage takes lots longer than a broken bone to heal. My experience has been about 8 months to get to discomfort not real pain

[Bogie]

Yeah, I was afraid the answer would be something like that. At least once I get more secure in the saddle riding without stirrups will probably not be a problem. But foxhunting? That will take awhile.

[just_shoot_me]

Try ktaping your ankle. Check youtube for videos of how to do it. I’ve ktape my ankle for support and am currently ktaping a foot for plantar fasciitis.

[Magicboy]

I wouldn’t go cross country for a while.

[Jealoushe]

I went through a bad leg break May 2015. Broke it in 4 places, dislocated my foot to the point it was hanging off. I was in a cast and non weight bearing until about August. In August I started doing yoga and swimming. By the end of the month I was riding with pain. Each ride got a bit easier and easier. The wider horses were for me were the most painful.

I found yoga, back on track brace, and swimming really moved my healing along. I was able to be out eventing in September although it was still painful.

Im almost 2 years after and have full range of motion again. Eventing Training level again, and only pain very rarely with a mistep from the plates in my leg.

Also wanted to add that good stirrups - Lorenzinis were a game changer for me.

[Bogie]

@just shoot me

Try ktaping your ankle. Check youtube for videos of how to do it. I’ve ktape my ankle for support and am currently ktaping a foot for plantar fasciitis.

Yes, I’ve used KT tape in the past and think it might work better than the braces which add a lot of bulk and change the way my boots fit.

@Jealoushe

I went through a bad leg break May 2015. Broke it in 4 places, dislocated my foot to the point it was hanging off. I was in a cast and non weight bearing until about August. In August I started doing yoga and swimming. By the end of the month I was riding with pain. Each ride got a bit easier and easier. The wider horses were for me were the most painful.

I found yoga, back on track brace, and swimming really moved my healing along. I was able to be out eventing in September although it was still painful.

Im almost 2 years after and have full range of motion again. Eventing Training level again, and only pain very rarely with a mistep from the plates in my leg.

Also wanted to add that good stirrups - Lorenzinis were a game changer for me.

OMG! That’s quite a recovery. My breaks, thankfully were minor but many. I was just cleared to start swimming last week (former masters swimmer, so I was really excited about that) and am able to swim mostly pain free. I’m building up the distances slowly and also have full repertoire of PT exercises to do in the pool. I think the work in the water is definitely helping.

Because I think my knee fracture was caused when my right foot didn’t come out of the stirrup in time, I’ve promised my husband that I will ride only in safety stirrups. I had my first ride yesterday in the Acavallo Arena stirrup. It also has a wide footbed that I think will help. I also ordered some to try from the Netherlands which are fairly new to the market.

[imaginique]

I broke my ankle last year on June 1st and I was riding again in October without pain. Walking was a different story. That soft tissue injury took FOREVER to heal. But it didn’t bother me riding.

[2ndyrgal]

Broke tib/fib and my ankle was in, wait for it 27 little pieces. Major surgery. Non weight bearing for 6 weeks. In bed for the first two. Recast to stretch Achilles tendon every ten days so I could eventually return to heels down at some point. Can’t wear any heels over 2 inches. Ride without pain? Hell, I can’t even walk without pain, but eventually, you get used to the scar tissue being pulled loose when you roll you ankle on something or land hard. How long? Surgery was…1992. Returned to work after 8 weeks, hot walking and riding. Scar looks good though, you can hardly see it now.

[Bogie]

@2ndyrgal

Broke tib/fib and my ankle was in, wait for it 27 little pieces. Major surgery. Non weight bearing for 6 weeks. In bed for the first two. Recast to stretch Achilles tendon every ten days so I could eventually return to heels down at some point. Can’t wear any heels over 2 inches. Ride without pain? Hell, I can’t even walk without pain, but eventually, you get used to the scar tissue being pulled loose when you roll you ankle on something or land hard. How long? Surgery was…1992. Returned to work after 8 weeks, hot walking and riding. Scar looks good though, you can hardly see it now.

Ouch! I feel very lucky to have had only one fracture in the ankle. I, too was non weight bearing (because of the knee, for 7 weeks). I’m incredibly impressed you could return to work after 8 weeks. At 8 weeks I was cleared to walk but had so much muscle wastage and so much pain that it was a joke to think of going anywhere without a crutch or a cane.

[PNWjumper]

I broke my ankle and fibula in a fall with a horse after a jump maybe 10 years ago. I started riding the day my cast came off. I rode without stirrups for close to 6 weeks. There was a fair amount of pain with stirrups for the first few weeks of riding with them again. Then it was mostly just pain when walking. My PT was super impressed with how quickly I gained range of motion back in my ankle, but I credit that all to the time spent riding with sitrrups. I was back in the show ring at 12 weeks post-break in the 1.30m jumpers. At that point riding was fine, but landing from bigger jumps would absolutely KILL once every 10 or so jumps. My guess is that jumping and wrenching my ankle like that probably broke up the scar tissue a lot quicker than anything else I could have done.

As far as how long it took for pain to go away - I don’t think I was able to walk and ride normally again (without the little jolts and pains) until close to a year.

[Roo]

So sorry about your ankle, Bogie. I fractured and sprained my ankle on December 18th, last year. It was absolutely excruciating. I started physical therapy along with RICE (rest, ice, compression, elevation) right away. By the first week of March, I was back to riding with stirrups and showing. Looking back on it, that seems fast but when I was living with pain and unable to put my foot in a stirrup, it seemed like forever. I rode without stirrups during that time and developed the world’s sorest crotch.

My ankle healed quickly and I was able to walk and drive without pain after about 5 weeks. I wasn’t however, making any progress with being able to ride with stirrups and the physical therapists didn’t seem to get what I needed to achieve. Finally I switched to a physical therapist who was also an equestrian and it made a huge difference. She worked me on her Redcord system, a series if slings and pulleys that can specifically target small areas. After four sessions, I was able to ride with stirrups with my heel down and my ankle flexed. It felt like a miracle.

[allons-y]

Mine always took about a year. As I said before, its always best if you break the right one so the mounting block is not a problem, lol. My last right ankle fracture and sprain took 3 years and multiple therapies and injections. The Drs could not explain why the pain was so severe and long lasting. And I have a very high pain tolerance in the first place.

I have fractured, torn, sprained, avulsed things in bilateral feet and ankles over the years. I have multiple shoe orthotics, ankle tapes and wraps, splints and support devices. I pick and choose on a daily basis. Some nights I wrap snuggly with an Ace wrap and that eases the constant ache so I can sleep.

As I type this, six years later, that ankle is aching, a 2 on the pain scale. It simply always hurts to some degree now. The fact that my job is nursing probably carries much of the blame.

Good luck to you.

[Rondar]

I fractured the tip of my fibula and split some ankle tendons (peroneus longus and brevis) a year ago, after a blow by a hoof to my malleolus, followed a week later by a fall over a jump. After no improvement in 7+ months of conservative treatment (like many active horsepeople I’m not very good at resting) I had surgery to remove bone chips, repair the tendon splits, and debride other scarred ligaments, etc. on Feb. 1. Now 4+ months later I can walk comfortably and ride at the walk and canter, but can’t do much trotting. I’m trying MDC wide tread stirrups, but still having pain in the malleolus area and foot. It may not help that I am 70. Please let me know if anyone knows an orthopedist or a physical therapist in the southeastern PA or Philly area who is an equestrian, and can identify the precise stresses on my ankle and perhaps figure out how to alleviate them or speed the healing of the problem area. I’m also interested in looking into the Redcord system, especially if I can find an equestrian practitioner.

[Bogie]

Just an update – I have been able to walk/trot on horse back for 30-45 minutes without much pain. It’s the landing on the dismount that I have to be careful about. I wish my horses were smaller! KT tape seems to help the most as it gives support without adding bulk. Wearing a brace with my boots resulted in some bruising as my foot and ankle are still swollen.

Of course, I’m not a great patient. I’ve been in San Francisco this week helping my daughter move and have walked more that I should My ankle is pretty angry at me now. Next week I’ll have to take at easy. Unfortunately the injury caused me to aggravate a previous problem with my post tib tendon and now I have to rehab that as well. It sucks getting injured when older (57) as I feel my recovery time is just so much longer. However, compared to how I was a month or two ago, everything is much better so I probably should stop whining.

[Cowgirl]

Have you had an MRI to see what’s going on with the soft tissue? I had a tib fib in 2015 and battled pain and lack of mobility for two years. I went to see a podiatrist and she sent me for an MRI. It turned out my peroneals were badly ruptured and I needed surgery to remove the tendons and replace with a donor tendon. This wasn’t identified during the bone surgery because it was all done in an emergency and there was so much swelling. It’s been about 6.5 months since that surgery and while my ankle is more stable, I still have lots of pain. I doubt I will ever be at the same level of activity that I was at before.

[thebiggrey]

I had a horse fall on me a few years ago which broke my ankle in a few places. It was the end of show season for me and we didn’t have an indoor, so by the time I was out of the cast the ground was frozen so I couldn’t ride anyways. I’m young and a seasoned pro with broken bones, so they didn’t offer me PT, just cut the cast off and gave me a brace. I was stiff that next summer, and had to do exactly the same as you mentioned, take it out and stretch it every so often. Probably took a year for it to be nearly back to normal, but I had a lot of time off/in school, so I wasn’t aggravating it as much. Eight years later, it’s my less-strong leg, and it flares up a lot- hurts to even walk, and emits awful popping sounds daily. My chiropractor was horrified I did no PT, but has told me that balancing on one of those halved exercise balls can really help loosen everything up and strengthen the ankle. I used to lengthen my stirrups a lot too to help with the pain, which might work if you’re comfortable with that. I sympathise with you, and hope you start feeling better soon!