When do you know to retire your 8 yr old horse with a intense injury history?

[amez712]

I have a beautiful, fancy 8yr unraced TB who looks like a imported warm blood when in shape and going. He has a intense history of injuries: kicked in right hind and broke his splint bone, needed surgery to remove splint bone. Once he recovered from this surgery, he pulled his left front suspensory. A year later from the suspensory injury (and still slowly rehabbing back from it) he had a grade 1 lesion in the medial superficial digital flexor branch and axial and abaxial pastern ligament in the same leg as the supsensory injury.

He is currently on thirty days of stall rest and might be doing some shockwave treatments and corrective shoeing. Do horses actually recover fully from all of these injuries and still have the chance to jump, and return to competition? How realistic are these goals? Should I just start planning on his retirement out to pasture? I feel like it is such a waste because he has no mileage and just bad luck with all of these injuries!

[CHT]

What does your vet say? Are these injuries “bad luck” or is there something about his conformation or health that is making him more prone?

I would consider letting him sit in pasture for a bit, and then bring him back slowly. Nothing you posted makes me think he needs to retire, but maybe you need a break from worrying about him?

Hope 2016 goes better!

[Erika]

While I have nothing to really contribute, if you are looking for others with similar tales of woe check out the postings from a fellow COTHER named ACMEeventing.

Her horse Cottonpickinwabbit certainly seemed to posses a death wish for a period of time. Seriously. As far as I know, that horse has healed up from his calamities and is doing well.

Many jingles and well wishes for your horse to heal up soon.

[pacific_jumper]

I’m sorry that I have nothing positive to add. I have a lovely horse who pulled a front suspensory. Shortly after her thrird shockwave treatment, she reinjured the leg and doesn’t have a very positive prognosis post reinjury. I know shockwave does help in some cases. I also know several horses who have recovered successfully from such injuries, mine just doesn’t happen to be one of them.
It’s not easy to judge how these things will heal, and the outcomes seem to range from career ending to back into full work. All you can do is your very best and follow your vet’s instructions very carefully.
I wish you the very best with your boy. Good luck with recovery, and merry Christmas!

[AKB]

I think some horses are just injury prone. I used to work with an older pediatrician who spoke of children who had what he called the 3 Ps syndrome; “Piss Poor Protoplasm.” These were the kids who were constantly sick with severe illnesses and injuries, despite no known reason for them to get sicker than other kids. These kids did not seem to outgrow the syndrome. I think some horses are also afflicted with the “3Ps” syndrome.

[ACMEeventing]

[QUOTE=Erika;8447775]
While I have nothing to really contribute, if you are looking for others with similar tales of woe check out the postings from a fellow COTHER named ACMEeventing.

Her horse Cottonpickinwabbit certainly seemed to posses a death wish for a period of time. Seriously. As far as I know, that horse has healed up from his calamities and is doing well.

Many jingles and well wishes for your horse to heal up soon.[/QUOTE]

It’s true. For some strange reason Cotton landed on a collision course with life for about 9 months. It was one thing after another. And not little things; HUGE things. Like catastrophic, might never be sound, oh Lordy please just euthanize him things.

A small recap of some of the injuries here, and that’s not even all of it.

Have a realistic talk with your vet. It’s so frustrating and I’m really sorry you’re having to go through so much just trying to make a riding horse out of him. I will say, maximize any possible time with your horse within his rehab limitations to improve your chances.

These horses need their minds stimulated, even if their body needs rest. If all he can do is stand in cross ties then teach him something for 15 min a day while he’s standing. If he can hand walk, work on his ground manners. Teach him tricks. ANYTHING.

That little bit of work is what saved Cotton from himself. It gave him tidbits of accomplishment and helped settle him while he healed. He had a very poor prognosis of ever being sound. We ended last season at Novice and will move up to Training this Spring (unfortunately he had a bad experience with the footing at a down bank and got a leg skinned when it sank at takeoff, that made him question the down banks at the next two events and resulted in stops. I went back to basics and recharged his confidence about that and he feels like a million bucks now!)

Only you can know how much you’re willing and able to put into this horse. Sometimes you end up with a success story, but many times you just end up with a monstrous vet bill and yard art. I wish you the very best. There is no right or wrong here,all you can do is your best and knowing when to say when.

[bornfreenowexpensive]

Yes they can recover and some don’t.

COTH did an indepth story on my horse Muggle and his injuries and recovery. He was sooooooo injury prone as a young horse. I sunk more money into saving that horse from injuries he caused being dumb in his field and he was an A$$ to rehab. But I never cut corners on his rehab. But most of it was proper rehab and him growing up and me/us learning how to manage him. His turn out has to to perfect for him. He can’t have equine friends (plays too hard) but sheep friend are good. You have to bring him in first and as soon as he even looks like he wants in (or he runs and/or jumps out). You can’t give him too much of a vacation etc.

He’s now a solid 3* horse about to contest his first 4* and with a shot at going to Rio for the Brazilian team. Most would have given up on him or not been able to afford his major and unusual surgery (and his second fractured bone–coffin bone first then rib that pressed against his heart) and I can’t even count how many times he was on expensive I.v antibiotics. . I’m glad I didn’t and I’m glad his rider Nilson and now other syndicate members took a chance on him with me. I knew he was this talented as a young horse but honestly was not sure he wouldn’t hurt himself beyond repair before others saw his talent or before I figured out how to manage him.

eta: Most of Muggle’s injuries happened before he had even gone Preliminary. First was Christmas as a three year old. It is really hard to know when to say when…especially for those that you have to manage like a 4* horse LONG before they have shown themselves capable. Muggle’s barn name is Prince for a reason. I share his story just to give a bit of hope. I’ve owned others very accident prone who also did well. And I’ve owned a few who did not recover. It’s horses. You will learn something from him. But only you really can make informed decisions about him. Surround yourself with good advisors and just take things one step at a time.

[frugalannie]

Sometimes the most athletic ones are the ones that get hurt. A boarder bought a gorgeous OTTB gelding and moved him into the barn. Fantastic gaits and real eye candy. As it turned out, we couldn’t keep him sound and he was retired young. He was SO athletic that he would always over do. I was hand grazing him on rehab once and he kicked out at a fly. That kick completely extended his hind leg: no bend in the hock and straight through the stifle. He didn’t hurt himself with that, but that was his attitude with everything: do it to the max.

I’m so glad the time and effort was put in for Muggle because he’s truly special and I look forward to following his career.

Amez712, best of luck with your guy. Whatever you decide, I know it will be after much thought and it will be the right decision.

[BaroquePony]

Horses. Sigh. Everything from complete working over jumps in the field recovery from should have been euthanized for serious tendon injury, on some, to can’t believe this horse didn’t recover from a very simple minor partial sprain on others.

There is a basic set of injuries and rehabs that work with a certain amount of consistency … beyond that follow the vets instructions, look up everything you can related to that … add in extra barn visits to keep your 4 legged child entertained and hover over a crystal ball.

[Hilary]

It does sound like more of a string of bad luck vs. terminal inability to stay sound. Can you turn him out (like 24/7 in a field with other horses) for a several months/year to give those soft tissues time to heal, but with the low-impact movement that keeps him at a low level of fitness? Stall rest is necessary for initial healing, but too much of that and the rest of him will seize up.

I like the idea too of 15 minutes of interaction with the people per day learning something - keeps his manners in tune, and the idea that he has a job. The other issue with letting him be totally feral for a year is that since he never had a job, instilling a work ethic could be difficult.

[LadyB]

My then 8 year old QH was retired due to bone spurs, arthritis and a previous suspensory injury. She came back from the suspensory injury like a champ and continued to event. The bone spurs are what stopped her from being an event horse. She became a barely ridden 8 year old who didn’t do much until 21. We put her down a year and a half ago because her legs couldn’t handle it anymore. From above the knee and up she looked stunning and healthy, but her legs were not.

It depends on what you want to do with your horse and how much you want to ask of them. It wasn’t an easy decision but it was the right one.

[TheHotSensitiveType]

[QUOTE=frugalannie;8448575]
Sometimes the most athletic ones are the ones that get hurt. A boarder bought a gorgeous OTTB gelding and moved him into the barn. Fantastic gaits and real eye candy…[/QUOTE]

A friend has a horse like this. He is an OTTB that is super fancy, but he can’t stay sound long enough to get anywhere with his training. He gets ridden for a bit, and then gets hurt, gets ridden for a bit, and then gets hurt over and over again.

I hope your horse recovers soon OP! I don’t think you need to be planning his retirement yet, as it seems like you two have just had a string of bad luck. However, talk to your vet and see what they have to say. Rehab is not fun… I am currently having to hand jog mine for 30 minutes…

[wildlifer]

[QUOTE=ACMEeventing;8448178]

These horses need their minds stimulated, even if their body needs rest. [/QUOTE]

This is really well said and I totally have one! Wonderful sensible mind, athletic as crap, great conformation, pristine joints even after 3 yrs of solid racing, turf-bred with fantastic bone & all kinds of great blood. Took him from his first show 6 days after I bought him with no real steering in the fall of 2011 to finishing at T in the fall of 2013 - and he doesn’t even start jumping until about 3’. And one of the best trail horses I’ve ridden.

So basically, a unicorn, LOL.

But yes, his biggest talent is “creative way to be juuust sore enough that I don’t have to work.” Yet he is a worker bee, craves a job, asks for assignment as soon as you get on.

I keep telling him if he’d stop what I call his “Pasture X-Games” (running & jumping is way more important than caution, although at least this is NOT true under saddle!!), he could get all the work he wants, ha. He’s done nothing terrible (knock on everything), just pulling some hip/butt muscles, a couple stifle strains, foot bruising before we figured out what pads he needed, popping a minor splint, bruising a vein (yeah, apparently it’s a thing) – dumb little stuff from just existing.

I’m rebuilding him now (work + health issues for me this year) & even just a handwalk to the mailbox (driveway is 0.3 mi one way) counts! If it’s nasty, stretches in the shed. Anything, even 15 minutes, no matter how low impact.

Sometimes I wish you could just turn them off & park them out of harm’s way like a car when you weren’t using them, LOL! Horses remain horses - there certainly aren’t guarantees, but that can go either way & I’ve seen so many come back from astonishing injuries like the Wabbit. The whole time thing is just hard on us humans ( and our invisible wallets).

[netg]

OMG.

My gelding seemed to take joy in injuring himself. As others mentioned, he is extremely athletic and it was about managing his energy to keep him from injuring himself. My vet joked that he missed him if he hadn’t seen him in too long so would do something to demand an emergency visit.

The injuries were all unconnected and in some cases crazy things like a panic attack after a nap in an anthill which resulted sprinting to exhaustion, digging a track into his turnout, and waking me up at 2am hurling his body against the stall wall since running away from the burn didn’t work. At 13, his injuries have become less frequent and he didn’t even require a vet for either of his anthill napping sessions this year, though a few days for the bumps to heal before he could wear a saddle were still necessary. I swear he intentionally goes to sleep watching ants, thinking they will become his friends. He’s been known to nap with other critters, it makes sense. We built a facility specific to managing him to a level he’d be more content, and it seems to help a lot.

My high energy mare has taken over the mantle of self-injury, doing things like getting her face stuck between a fence and the barn and pulling until she literally popped her face…

[amez712]

Thank you for your bit of hope, hopefully I can bring him along in his rehab and figure out a way to manage him there. Maybe he would like a sheep friend!

But thank you

[silverdog]

I feel your pain. I have a nice 8 year old who was constantly injuring himself. Ended up being diagnosed with Kissing Spine and despite having some weird little niggles here and there that no one could explain I went forth with the surgery. He rehabbed well with a few stupid moments on his part along the way and after years of crap dressage scores finally got a low 30 score after 10 weeks of focused dressage training. He’s never going above Prelim (because I won’t be) but I too have to manage him like a 4* horse. Has an elderly pasture mate that doesn’t kick or run and goes to the vet for every little thing. He is an excellent jumper and the dressage ability is definitely there. I am taking my time and keeping my expectations really low. Perhaps training level by the fall…
Good luck and hang in there. With these horses it’s all about management.

[Lord_Helpus]

“They” say that a horse needs to be laid up according to the number of letters in his injury (s-p-l-i-n-t can take 6 months if it is bad, s-u-s-p-e-n-s-o-r-y = 10 months).

Horses are sound months before the soft tissue has healed, so do not be fooled; just because he is not limping does not mean he should go back to work. ESPECIALLY with suspensories.

[wildlifer]

[QUOTE=netg;8449652]
My vet joked that he missed him if he hadn’t seen him in too long so would do something to demand an emergency visit.[/QUOTE]

I’m not sure what it says about horse people, but this makes me feel so much better, it’s not just me, LOL! I also find this thread very reassuring, since I’ve had to pause hillwork due to the 2nd coming of noah’s flood…