Good evening everyone,

 As the subject states, I have a question regarding soundness. I recently purchased a finished mare and was preparing to enter her next weekend. I turned her out for a little bit while I did stalls and all. I brought her up and noticed her left hind a little puffy above the ankle. She was 100% sound. I did cold hosing and poultice. I took her to the vet this morning and she looked amazing. Flexed sound and all. He was reluctant to do an ultrasound because of how sound she is. We did X-rays-everything looks great. Did an ultrasound and it revealed a strain/bruise along the suspensory branch. He recommended 4 weeks off, do some laser treatments and recheck in 30 days. I'm at the Ughh feeling. I haven't run since 2019 and I was really looking forward to going again. (Kinda feeling selfish now)

Two questions here-Has anyone dealt with something similar? Is there anything I can do to prevent this in the future? I did do a FULL PPE. X-rays and all. 

(Hugs) No advice. Sometimes life sucks.

Horses get hurt. Not a matter of "if" but of "when".

Sorry, that stinks! But good thing you noticed it instead of going to make a run. Could have been worse then when a longer recovery time. Sounds like it's smaller and you caught it early.

I would add PEMF treatments to your list!

Happens to all of them at one point or another! I think our sport is tough on them, and the best thing you can do to keep them sound is ensure you are always working on their fitness. It is much more difficult to hurt a fit horse than unfit. So take a look at your conditioning program and see what else you can be doing. 
Good for you for catching that :D 

Thanks so much! I'm going to look into PEMF therapy as well. Do y'all think this area would be more suspectable to injury in the future? Sorry if that sounds dumb.

I've rehabbed a lot of soft tissue injuries, primarily suspensory issues. I used a laser up until a couple years ago . Now I use my MagnaWave machines (PEMF) . They've done a great job, healing quicker and with better fiber formation/alignment. 
side note, I very rarely see a suspensory injury (even a tear) that the horse flexes positive or is lame. They might not push off as hard in the caudle phase of the stride but it's usually very hard to noticed. 
As far as prevention, if it's on a hind foot, heel extensions help support the boney column. 
"Barrel horse" and "sound" don't really go together ....the struggle is real  ;-)

DITTO

How to keep a horse guaranteed sound....   Don't buy a horse.  

Sorry, not much for it but cussing and whining to those who understand. 

Thank you so much Liana D! Good to know about not usually showing signs of lameness. One of my girlfriend's does Magna Wave. I'll reach out to her. My vet mentioned heel extensions as well for a little more support. Question, how many times a week for Magna Wave? Thank you guys so much! Seriously! I wanted to cry-it's nice to have those that understand!

Twice per week with a full body session on one of those times, focus on the injury area both times. 

Of course, old injuries always have potential to be re-injured.

My horse Red had a pretty bad injury to his DDFT in his front foot (above the ankle). Took about 2 years to heal, but boy, some PEMF sessions at the end of that really sped up the healing. I wish I would have done them sooner. Vet didn't think I would be able to barrel race again on him (neither did I) but he's made a full 100% recovery and hasn't taken a lame step. He has scar tissue and actually has an external buldge you can see, but he's sound and loving life. The chance is always there he could re-injure it but I guess I'm choosing to take the chance because that's better than him being a pasture ornament. 

Part of that experience is what lead me to believe in the PEMF so much. I have my own system now so he gets it regularly (once a week for sure, I try for 2-3 times a week).

For an acute injury, yes, you're usually looking at tring to do it about 3 times a week if possible. Make sure your friend knows how to use the MagnaWave. You can do harm if it's not used correctly and a person isn't properly educated.