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 Veteran
Posts: 175
 
| My big gelding has recovered from a soft tissue injury in his front foot. He has been on stall rest for a year this February. Sunday I pulled him out and he looked nice and sound! The bad news is he was koo koo for coconuts! Can anyone recommend my next move? He's generally pretty quiet on the ground and he hand walked ok... How do I carefully get him up to riding speed without risking my life lol... rest assured I'm not in a big hurry, it's taken this long don't want to blow it now. |
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 I Chore in Chucks
Posts: 2882
 
Location: MD | http://horseandrider.com/article/barrel_horse_layoff_111209 |
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The Advice Guru
Posts: 6419
 
| I start out by ponying mine, so they can act like nuts while I maintain some control |
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Expert
Posts: 2685
| Idk your set up but I always start by turning mine out in my arena (cutting arena- big round pen lol). I'll turn them loose and let them do whatever and if they aren't getting enough exercise I'll encourage with a lungewhip and if they are heck I go clean stalls while they do their thang. I do this a week or so before riding. I'm a chicken. Ponying is a good idea too. I just haven't been able to since I have had 1 rideable horse lol |
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Meanest Teacher!!!
Posts: 8552
Location: sunny california | swimming might be good depending on the injury. it wars them out and it not weight bearing |
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  Northern Chocolate Queen
Posts: 16576
Location: ND | I would pony him for quit a while, starting with real short rides & gradually building up. NO WAY would I turn him out to play if he's been stalled with limited activity that long. He'll likely get way to wound up & risk injury. |
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 Owner of a ratting catting machine
Posts: 2258
| Swimming or aquatread. |
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 I"m Jealous!
Posts: 1737
Location: Benton City, WA | Since your horse is just coming off stall rest and an injury please DONT just turn him loose to run around like a fool. He would be likely to injure something- either reinjure the foot or something new since everything has weakened.
Coming off stall rest you need to start with light walking for 20-30 minutes and then some jogging in straight lines, either pony him or in hand if he's too crazy to get on yet. |
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 Money Eating Baggage Owner
Posts: 9586
Location: Phoenix | Has he had ANY walking in the past year? Even if he has, I would hand walk for a good 2 weeks or so. I would not just turn him out. If I did, it would be in a round pen where he can't get going too fast. You don't want to reinjure himself. Swimming sounds like a great idea if it's in your area. |
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Member
Posts: 36
| Get yourself some ACE and hand walk, then pony. I rehab horses and mine stay in a 12x 36 pen for a month and are hand walked or ponied twice a day, then it goes to 24x 36. For another. month or two. Never just turn them out fresh in a big area, a round pen is too big, and help them out with ACE, horses that get out of stall rest are self destructive 99% of the time. You don't want that year to go to waster. ETO. These horses have usually already been hand walked for a few months.
Edited by TightJointsPlus 2015-01-17 10:25 PM
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 618
| My daughter mare had a foot injury last year. In a stall for 9 months. We started rehab process by hand walking for 15 minutes/2 weeks. She still stayed in stall. Next saddle and riding 20 minutes just walking/ one week. Added 5 minutes of trotting next week and kept building on it over next few weeks. We never just turned her out until after we started leggings her back up. |
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 Cute Little Imp
Posts: 2747
Location: N Texas | Mine was on stall rest for nine months before I could start riding him again. During that nine months, I would hand walk him several times a week. When it came to actual riding, I started out in a round pen. After a few rides, I knew I could trust him out in the open, so we started riding in the pasture. Started out VERY slow, mostly walking with a little trotting, and worked my way up. I didn't turn him out in the pasture for several weeks after we started back riding.
Definitely don't just turn him out until you've ridden him quite a bit and he's in better condition. When you do turn him out, I would ride him for a while first, to take the edge off and burn some of his excess energy. |
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Cute Little Imp
Posts: 2747
Location: N Texas | Here's an article that gives a ton of great info about bringing one back from injuries:
http://www.atlantaequine.com/pages/client_lib_tendonlig.html#backto...
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 Veteran
Posts: 212
| I have a chart that is very specific depending on degree of injury and was given to me a couple of months ago by my vet. If you want to give me your email I can send it to you |
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Expert
Posts: 2531
Location: WI | I ace'd mine for a good couple weeks - both for hand walking and walking in the saddle. You can also try reserpine, which is a longer acting sedative - it didn't work as good as Ace for mine though. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 612
| I would be very careful about turning the horse out in a large area. Your horse will have the opportunity to play too hard without you being able to control him. My horse was only on stall rest for 6 months but when I brought him back, I ponied him for about a week and then started riding him. For the first month, we only walked and trotted.
Edited by JAG18 2015-01-20 3:54 PM
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Expert
Posts: 1599
| JAG18 - 2015-01-20 3:52 PM I am not trying to disagree with other advice, but I would be very careful about turning the horse out in a large area. Your horse will have the opportunity to play too hard without you being able to control him. My horse was only on stall rest for 6 months but when I brought him back, I ponied him for about a week and then started riding him. For the first month, we only walked and trotted.
Agreed. Get some ace from your vet and definitely invest in swimming, it's really not that expensive. Our local places charge $35/swim |
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 IMA No Hair Style Gal
Posts: 2594
| I would check into swimming as well. I feel your pain, my horse was on stall rest for about four months when all was said and done.
Trying to hand walk him was a no go. I got rope burn and he would buck/rear and spook at everything.
I ended up just riding him. I walked for about an hour the first week. Lets just say I was pretty up tight about riding him, but I survived.
It got me over being a bit on the nervous side. I figured if I could ride a fresh horse, I was good. |
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 Expert
Posts: 1482
Location: on my horse | Been there done that! STILL have the rope burn scars to prove it  |
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 Night Chat Leader
Posts: 13150
Location: Home....Smiling M Farms | If you have a round pen, you could lunge him on the line for a few minutes a day. That way he can move out like he's naturally supposed to, but if you feel he might over do it, you have the ability to back him off.
I agree that turning him out in a big pen would just be counterproductive. He could reinjure himself running around like a goon. I'm also not a huge fan of ponying one that is super fresh though, mainly because if he gets squirely, he could also hurt the horse you're on. Ponying would be a good idea once his brain is back in the middle. |
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