Rehab Progam HELP

[RedMareDontCare]

My mare is finally progressing in her rehab after breaking her coffin bone early 2021, and holy has it been an absolute nightmare. To be totally honest, we never thought that she’d ever be more than pasture sound if that due to the fracture leaving some permanent damage, and I’m now at a bit of a loss at how I should be progressing. *Note that my vets have encouraged me to bring her back into as much work as she’s comfortable with (with no jumping obviously).

We finally made it to 60 min of walking under saddle, and so I’ve introduced a bit of trot. So far I’ve been doing 6 long sides (40-60 meters) in each direction. She’s been doing this for a week. My question is, what now? How should I be increasing the trot? When is she ok to start turning? When Should I start cantering? Etc.

Additionally, I’ve started to hack her out and we only have roads for hacking around me. There is some permanent damage to the joint due to the fracture, so should she be walking on the roads at all, or is it damaging? I’ve heard mixed reviews. She’s totally happy to do it, I’m just a worrier.

Thanks in advance everyone, any info/advice is welcomed and appreciated

[Texarkana]

You have been very diligent about this.

I would start increasing the trot by adding the turns for continuous passes around the whole ring. Do your long sides, then add one pass around the whole ring. If she tolerates that well, then start adding more trot work. If she has no problem with that, I would start treating her like a regular unfit horse coming back into work in terms of the canter and other flatwork.

Typically with our racehorses we would have had them on the equicizer 30 days or so, then tack walking the shedrow, then back to jogging, then galloping. We also would have been walking them to and from the track on asphalt, so I think she will probably tolerate a walking road hack.

Horses can come back from these things incredibly well, but you are wise to be mindful of concussion.

[Displaced_Yankee]

I have created a 60-day back to work program using my vet’s resources, the Pony Club C manual and Susan Harris’ “Grooming to Win” book. I keep it in an Excel spreadsheet so that I can track which day I do what (my horse gets 3.5 months off annually). I highly recommend starting with those resources (ask your vet for a 60 or 90 day back to work schedule)

Each day includes walk time (warm up, cool down, between sets), trot sets and canter sets. In the beginning, all figures are big and loopy. By day 60, I am usually trotting 10 meter circles and cantering 20 meter circles (think training level dressage).

Definitely consult your vet RE: roads. If I can recall, there is a conditioning technique that entails walking or hand walking on paved roads. I think it is an older UK thing? But it does not come up on a quick Google.

Good luck! It sounds like you are very fortunate to have saddle time with your mare. Enjoy it!

[TWH_Girl]

Interested in following your horses rehab. Pretty amazing recovery that you are riding again! Very curious re what treatment your horse had for the fractured coffin bone. Is horse in shoes and pads? My gelding has some slight pedal osteitis and we’ve managed with Natural Balance shoes, Equioxx and Osphos. He definitely prefers softer footing. I don’t ride him on roads much but when I do we limit it to walking only.

[RedMareDontCare]

She was on stall rest for a year in just a plain egg-bar with quarter clips. When we started walking after the year of rest we switched her to a straight-bar with a leather pad and packing, with the quarter clips and a toe clip for maximum stability. She’s not on any medications atm. We had her on Previcox for a bit while experimenting with different shoes, but it was hurting her stomach and she’s just as sound without it!

It’s quite literally a miracle that she’s running and leaping about the way she is as the X-rays from that foot are still rather ugly (I can post them if you’re interested). I’m just grateful for every day!