I am looking for physio exercises to do with my horse as she recovers from a suspensory injury
What have you done as recommended by your vet, body worker?
We did lots of tack walking, 20m circles, walking around the property. Halt-walk transitions were good, but no lateral work of any kind.
I also experimented with long-lining, and we did clicker/target training. Anything to keep him from being so bored.
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It really depends how far along the horse is in the rehab and what treatment she had.
You absolutely need a physio to assess the horse and its rehab needs.
Each month the physio assesses my horse, tells me what to do, and I can call him if in doubt.
We now (10 months in after one major backwards step from overdoing it) use lots of pole work and cavaletti at the high setting for walking over in hand and under saddle.Trot poles both straight and on a curve,IH and US.Lots of stretchy walking, rein back, carrot stretches on a slope, bum tucks torso lifts,lateral work in walk, and on and on.
I would not recommend winging it on internet advice.
It’s a razors edge between adding load and adding too much load, stretching and strengthening without straining.
It’s REALLY HARD, and a time sucking huge commitment, but hey, it might save your horse, so do it right is my take on it.
I’ve also realized what I was asking my horse to do, he was just not fit or strong enough to do and he was running on adrenaline and natural talent, I know better now and will make sure he’s fit and strong and well warmed up and cooled down, and crucially, on a good surface.
I think that’s the case for many suspensory injuries and see a lot of people with horses who have never been fit or strong and are now injured and those people have no grasp of what a horse needs to be to protect it from these injuries.
They need to be trained as athletes and be prepared for the demands we place on them I guess is what i’m trying to say and have learned the hard way. Then there are horses who are conformationally so vulnerable there’s not much you can really do to protect them, those are the really sad cases.
Good luck!
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Are you asking for the suspensory injury itself, or general physio exercises they can do while rehabbing? I.e., for the suspensory (and this depends on the exact nature of the injury, what Tx you’ve done, and where you are in the rehab process), lots of walking on straight lines, eventually working up to walking on trails, stretch walk, then eventually walking over poles (not for the suspensory itself, but good for a change of pace). Lateral work at the walk when allowed.
Other exercises (not suspensory specific): carrot stretches, balancing on Sure Foot pads, Masterson method (while on Sure Foot pads if your horse is into it), more carrot stretches, etc.
But mostly time and a good relaxed, stretchy, marching walk. I did a lot of our hand walking on the trails and got up to ~ 50 minutes. We both enjoyed it tremendously. Once winter set in we started doing more tack walking in the arena, and at that point we had been walking so long it didn’t take long to start adding trot (slowly, 2 min a week). We found Simon Cocozza’s book to be really great - a lot of it seems very, very basic, but when all you have time to walk, walk, walk, it was a nice deep dive into how stretchy your horse can be. When I eventually brought my horse back into “work,” she felt fantastic in the contact. Eventually we got back to FEI level work, and she literally never felt better in the connection. I credit all the walking and stretching (including Cocozza’s work) to really developing the connection in a way we hadn’t done before.
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Walking is therapeutic for me, too. A foreward walk
She is out in a field with easy hills. And in a herd. In 7 weeks she gets to do physio
I will look for Simon’s book. My horse isn’t nearly at the level of your horse. It heartens me to know that your horse was able to do advanced level after the work. And improved.
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Oh l have that book. Core Conditioning for the Horse. I will go find it
I hadn’t checked my library yet
Thanks
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Thanks. No equine physio around. For hundreds of miles. I have a massager that is excellent l have a friend that works at a rehab facility 600 miles away and a great vet. So l appreciate you taking the time to reply
I think l bought her with it but this winter something happened so made it worse. Disunited is apparently an indicator for suspensory ligament issue. She has done that all the time l had her. Interesting she wasn’t as bad as has been a few years ago. And hardly at all for the vet visit
I am looking for comments like yours. This is what you did and this is what l learned. Your reply was great. Thank you for taking the time.
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How long was your horse walk only Feathered_Feet? Was this after surgery ? It might be interesting to compare time lines if you’re comfortable with that but completely understand if not!
I hope you get a good plan and advice from the physio 2manyhorses, it’s fairly different for hind or front and if it’s post op too 
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Happy to share! We did 3.5 months of walking (most of that hand walking since I figured I might as well get the exercise, too), then started with 2 min trotting, adding 2 min per week. This was after neurectomy & fasciotomy surgery in the hind limbs for PSD.
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Can your vet have a remote consult with a familiar physio? I am lucky that I have a great vet who specializes in sport horses - so the rehab program foundation comes from them. Our “local” physio is about 2 hours away but makes trips to our barn once every month or two. My vet and physio do remote consults with each other as required. A lot of what the vet recommends for rehab has a significant crossover with what the physio recommends.
I will ask my vet. I will have to do the physio, though
2 minutes trotting was it slow trot?
That was some serious surgery!
Thanks for the info
Interesting, I don’t typically think about trot in terms of speed - she’s a dressage horse so has a working trot, medium, collected, and extended trot. Of those, it was a working trot. Not to fast, not too much power (indeed, I needed to be able to stop the beast after my timer went off), but not what I would call slow. Maybe easy, relaxed trot is a better word for it. Like an older horse might trot up to the fence for dinner.
But certainly never hurts to start slower.
Suspensory rehab veteran here… Initially, I was told to make the horse just go forward at the trot. Because 2 minutes of trotting you’re not going to get a horse to go round and through if they’ve been in a stall as their body is weak. Once you’re going for a bit, you can start to ask for a more proper engaged trot. Then once doing for awhile, you can start slowing the trot for a few steps to where they almost break to a walk then back to a working trot to aid muscle development.
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She (Marigold) is turned out with the herd. I think l found the spot yesterday. (Clipped legs). My massage person has me putting heat on her back/loins so l tie her to a post with a dark wool blanket on her loin area. It absorbs the heat from the sun. Temps are dropping soon so will use the heating pad
Massage person also wants heat on her gaskins. Haven’t figured out yet how to wrap them.
She rests her good leg so is putting a strain on the gaskins and loin area.
My friend that works at a rehab barn she said to tape ( kinesiology tape) so joint. It worked a charm on my knees.
They also use k tape on strained suspensory ligaments. It is a lot of tape. I don’t feel comfortable doing it. Not sure if it just won’t help or if l will make it worse. The taping the vet does at her barn is extensive
She is on just field rest until April 30. On field rest because has been out all along. It was her behaviour that clued me in that something was wrong. (Resisting picking up good foot for farrier which was not like her). Keeping her in a stall would have been a nightmare. She would not have been happy and neither would the companion horse (found this out a couple years ago when had an injured horse on stall rest. Even my go to likes being in a stall horse refused to do it)
After April 30 l do physio with her. I am preparing by asking you all. I am so appreciative of you for taking the time to give me your experiences. And the out come
It is Marigold’s left hind with the suspensory ligament injury
