Has anyone ever had a horse break their face? Filly ran into a pipe fence and broke the front. Vet reconstructed it and put a plate in. He said airways are clear. Anyone ever had this before? Did the horse ever have breathing issues down the road with competing? Thank you!

I had a friend whose yearling did this same thing.  They didn't put a plate in, but they did clean it up and I believe did some bone grafting.  It was such a crazy thing and looked terrible when he did it. It healed up very well and he is now 3 or 4 and doesn't seem to affect him at all. 

I also had a friend whose finished horse broke half his face. It was reconstruced and he lost one of his eyes, and cosmetically wasn't perfect, but after he was healed, he went back to competition like normal. Never had any issues from the injury, aside from adjusting to being blind in one eye. They still won lots together, it didn't slow him down one bit.

I'd think if the airway is clear and you doctor it accordingly, filly will be just fine :) 

Tell her to please not run into anymore sharp objects!! lol 

Best of luck in her healing.

Yep. Sidekick tried to duck under a top rail at a dead run, never saw the cable, hit it, flipped around on the ground like a fish out of water and caved his nose. It was a bad wreck. He was a severe cribber. I think his cribbing popped his caved in nose back out though. He had a couple of lumps after that on his nose but no damage....

Until about 7 years later when he started showing neurological signs. Finally figured out that he developed injured related wobblers because of that wreck. Took another 4 years for it to do him in completely.

I'd highly recommend x-raying the neck too and if you see fractures, start injecting. You don't want to go through what I did. Trust me on that.

Hitting a pipe fence as a young horse was what caused Rare Form to have that dished face. 

Yes, surgery was done to clean bone fragments out of sinus cavity. Lasered everyday and then went to a custom magnetic fly mask. 
yes, breathing was affected for a while with the swelling in the sinus area. The horse made a full recovery and scar is barely noticeable now. 

I bought a gelding years ago that had a "dent" in his face.  When I researched his past, found out he'd run into the outside rail in a race on the track & smashed his face in.  Supposedly they "popped it out" with a rubber mallet back then.  (I realized many years later that he had a vision issue w/his right eye so doubt he ever saw that rail).  He was fine until he got in his early 20's & then arthritis set in to his face.  My horses' bodyworker worked on his face often since it bothered him a lot.  He ended up with other issues as well & I put him down at age 24 I think it was.