You’re welcome.
Quite honestly, at this point I’d just about be willing to kill someone if I could sit on him for the walking physio. 
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Getting your steps in! lol
Has this horse had a massage since the initial injury? In your video, I see quite a few areas of tension in the right shoulder. When a horse has an injury in the hind, it can manifest itself in the front in terms of muscle tension since the horse it compensating by trying to get the weight off the affected area. It may be the horse has healed to a good extent, but just needs a muscle reset to start moving normally again.
Hmm, interesting point. I don’t notice the shoulder in the videos. I’ll bring this up when the vet comes on the 30th to do the ultrasound. He partners with a body work/alternative med vet. I’ll see what he thinks. Thank you for suggesting this. It’s not something I realized.
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A motto in our barn is “These horses will be the death of us,” from both the worry and the financial strain when they do something stupid.
Good luck and please keep us posted.
(Our other motto is “Don’t F— it up,” when we’re in a lesson because then we’ll have to do it [eg, transition, flying change, etc] again and can’t move on to something else.)
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NEW UPDATE 3/31–I had a lameness specialist come up today. It took 3 weeks to get him up here. So the injury happened now approx 2 months ago. He has had rest for the last 30 days in the pasture.
Lameness exam–a little hock soreness (he’s overdue for his annual injections), but “unremarkable” lameness exam. Nothing to really be seen. Tried pavement. Tried arena footing. Lunged him. Nothing. He did NOT agree with local vet’s assessment of high suspensory “very mild” strain. He also saw nothing that would indicate it was something within the hoof.
Xrays show the narrowing of his lower hock joint on one side, and a little spur on the opposite stifle, but again, nothing that would be associated with the injury he sustained slipping on the pavement.
His plan: ride him in the arena for 30 minutes every other day for the next month. Large circles, walk/trot/but mostly loping. At the end of the month, he will either be sound and ready for his hock injections, OR any soft tissue injury that may have been there and is not visible today, will rear its head and we can move forward with treatment if it is needed.
So…more waiting, but at least I can ride again. This is now, after todays visit, the $1,000 spook. Ugh.
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But still no ultrasound? Please do an ultrasound. I can think of three horses I’ve known in the past year that have been “sound” until they weren’t, all in similar cases. In fact, I had one a few years ago who was the same way until he flexed lame at a PPE and a subsequent ultrasound discovered a suspensory tear.
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I know. This is what he does though–lameness only. He still said no ultrasound needed and agreed with the two local vets on that. He wanted the rads, but no ultrasound.
And a high suspensory can be masked temporarily by hock injections.
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this sounds…ridiculous. I’m sorry, it just does 
WHY is there such a reluctance on their part to do an ultrasound and 1) find out WHERE the actual injury is, and 2) how severe it is?
MOSTLY LOPING in a softer footing arena for an alleged soft tissue injury after 2 months off? Yikes.
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Sounds like a recipe for creating an injury if there wasn’t one, or turning a strain into a catastrophic tear.
OP if you don’t do an ultrasound, at least put this horse back to work in a sensible manner. Start with walking on firm footing in mostly straight lines, add trot in short intervals in straight lines, and canter later. On good footing and straight lines. I’d do something like walk only for a week or two (start at 20-30 minutes and work to an hour), and then add 2 minutes of trot every 3-5 days until you’re at 10-15 minutes trotting. THEN add a minute or two of canter. That’s assuming the horse was wtc and working for an hour most days before the injury.
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FWIW, a lameness exam and an ultrasound for me cost about $300. And I have a hefty farm call. X-rays, on the other hand, are very expensive IME and I’ve found skipping straight to ultrasound for suspected soft tissue problems to work very well. I just tell the vet to put the machine on the truck.
Good luck OP, do let us know how it all goes - I hope you know we really are rooting for you to have a sound horse. We’ve just all been there (and faced the vet frustrations too!).
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Exactly. I just pulled the receipt for the in-clinic lameness exam I had done at one of the top practices in the country—the ultrasound was $257, and the lameness exam itself was $72.
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Farm call-$123 (its a 2ish hour trip), Lameness workup-$200, Xrays-$400. And a 3 week wait to get him out here because he’s hard to book. (Then $300 from previous vet visits is where I get the $1000 figure)
I hear what you all are saying, but none of the 3 vets who have seen him now agree with an ultrasound. 4 if I count the vet in Ocala I sent videos to, and who has a history with this horse. So IDK.
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That’s why he said not to do them at this point.
This is something I can certainly do, and I’m not opposed to not following his orders, per se. This horse has not been worked very much in the last year. I ride for 20ish minutes, a couple times per week, so I respect your point about modifying the rehab to take into consideration what type of workload he was accustomed to prior to the injury.
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I think a slow return to work, keeping a very close eye on his soundness, and watching for heat/swelling (which would indicate a catastrophic failure of the soft tissue, since you didn’t note anything previously) is a fair plan. You could maybe get a massage for him and see what the bodyworker says about his general condition - they’re not vets but if he’s super sore in the SI/glutes/whatever you can keep that in mind.
If he comes up lame on that leg again I’d be pushing hard for further diagnostics, which it sounds like that vet would be willing to do. Video can be helpful, if you can get it.
Best of luck, and hopefully we are all just worrywarts who have seen too much 
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I’m one of those worrywarts, as well. Hoping this goes smoothly.
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Gosh, even MORE yikes for the last recommendation for mostly cantering in a (soft footing) arena. That’s a recipe for a lovely major injury
1000% agree with fivestride’s suggestion for returning to work. Assume there’s a serious enough tear that rehab needs to be long (months) and slow (lots of walking to start), and on soft-tissue-injury-appropriate footing (firm).
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Final Update, and I’m late to share this. He injured himself in February, saw the vet the next day, and then the lameness vet in March. In lieu of following the vet’s “mostly loping” protocol, I walked him under saddle for 2 weeks, then added in slow collected jogging for the next couple weeks, and then small amounts of loping. Never had any issues. I actually just sold him a couple weeks ago as well and she’s running barrels on him perfectly sound. I think I got lucky.
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