Tendon Damage

[BabStar]

My 9 years old ID/TB has just damaged her superficial tendon whilst jumping - I am now walking her out for 15 mins per day and she is off bute - the heat in the tendon is not too bad and there is definitely some definition coming back. I will stick to vets advice to the letter - rest, rest and more rest but nobody I speak to seems able to give me positive hope.

Have any other readers suffered and how long does it take etc. etc.

I do dressage on her mostly, fun riding, hacking and am prepared not to jump her again if advised but dressage is my big ambition and I had hopes for her at unaffiliated level

Any hope

Babstar

[intouch]

If I were u I would beg or borrow (or even buy) a pair of magnotherapy boots and put them on each night, they really do seem to help speed up healing and reduce pain (but be careful not to bring her back into work before she's ready) As you say, rest is the best cure - and patience - it's so disapointing when all your hopes & plans get disrupted, but don't give up, She should recover.

[silly mare]

Hi Babstar - I'm no expert on tendon damage, but took on the loan of a TB with strained tendons in both forelegs (one more badly than the other)in December with a view to buying him this Spring.

He strained his point-to-pointing last April, and after some box rest his owner turned him out 24/7 to recouperate. The vet scanned his leg just before I took him on, and said that although not 100% healed, they were well on the way, and if things were taken slowly he should make a good RC horse.

He advised 10 weeks of walking, building up from 10 mins to 40 mins, and then 10 weeks bringing in a bit of trot work in a similar way.

Unfortunately due to weather conditions, lack of indoor school, and only being able to ride at weekends (due to work commitments) we are a bit behind on our schedule. I have walked him for 10 weeks, and of his own accord he has tried to introduce some jogging, and when being very silly, a lot of prancing and spinning!

He is turned out 24/7, and despite all the dreadful, thick mud he has to walk through, he has been fine. There has been no sign of any lameness, heat or anything. My opinion is that if the prognosis is good from the vet and you take it very slowly, then you may well find everything is OK.

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

[KarlR]

Please just bear in mind that it will take a long time to get them back up to speed - don't rush it.

Most tendon inuries have a good chance of recovery but only if you rest properly and then build up slowly over a period of months.

There are some treatments which can be applied in the first week which claim to help, but the only reliable method is 6-12 months rest working through the "in-hand phase" then "walking 10 minutes", etc.

He will probably always be prone to the injury flaring up again, but with considerate riding he should be quite okay for most exercise - just don't take him XC over 4ft drops on hard ground!! ;)

[silly mare]

Hi Karl - do you speak from experience? If so, I'd be interested to hear all about it. My boy's damage happened in April 2000, and although we've been walking since January this year, the foot and mouth outbreak has put us back a bit. We haven't progressed to any trotting, but I don't think this will do him any harm.

I had imagined that he won't be able to do any jumping in the future, but the vet said he will make a good RC horse if I take it slowly. Just wondered if you had experience of horses recovering from this type of injury and what they went on to do. I know each horse is an individual, but it would be nice to think I might be able to pop him over the odd log out on hacks in the future without too much ill effect. So far he has not had any sign of the injury flaring up, although it is still early days.

Hope to hear from you.

[David]

Hi,
My endurance horse did the same damage and the advice I got was to let him out to walk and do his own thing. It worked like a dream, it took nine months to mend and he missed a whole season but carried on the following one just where he had left off. He is now retired from competition, he is 25 years young, but still rides out about eight hours a week. I do not, I am sorry to say, believe in cooping a horse up in a stable, please let him out in a small paddock, preferably on his own.

Good luck
David

[silly mare]

Hi David - not sure if your message was for me or for BabStar, who started this thread. Don't apologise for the fact that you prefer horses to be out. Jo lives out 24/7, and just comes into his stable to eat his hard feed twice a day! He is also still unshod, as I don't see the point of putting shoes on him for the very small amount of exercise we are doing right now. Prior to me taking him on in December, his owners turned him away for 8 months for his legs to heal, so he has been using them rather than stiffening up in a stable.

Glad to hear your horse did so well after a tendon injury - from what I gather, you continued doing endurance on him. Let's hope Jo continues in the same vein. It's always nice to hear success stories!

[Somethingroyal]

Tendons do take a LONG time to heal, but if you do eveything right, your horse should get back up to par. Just remember to do eveything in tiny baby steps. The walking is good. Keep doing that until the vet check shows that the tendon is healed. Then you probably want to increase walking time ans do some jogging on the lead. Work your way up to working on the long line and eventually saddle work. Make sure you check the lega often, and stop and call your vet at the first sign of heat after the tendon is healed. Leg wraps will help to keep it from moving, and icing the leg will help too.

[fionahogg]

I'd check with your vet before progressing to trotting, silly mare. Tendon injuries need to be given a long time to heal properly otherwise the problem may re-occur.