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Rad Dork
Posts: 5218
 
Location: Oklahoma | Long story short... horse has been off for six months. Was given the okay to start legging him back up and putting him back to work on Monday.
I'm taking him tomorrow to a rehab facility (aquatred, hot walker, salt water chamber) to stay for two weeks. He will be on the aquatred six days a week. If the weather stays like it has been and nothing can dry out then I'll leave him there even longer, but I do want to be able to get him back under saddle ASAP.
Where can I expect him to be at after 13 days on the aquatred? He certainly doesn't have any excess weight that needs to come off, he just needs to be legged up but I don't want to push him too hard too fast and risk re injury. |
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 Texas Taco
Posts: 7499
 
Location: Bandera, TX | Great question! My horse has been off for a year and I'm hoping to have the vet clear her next week... I've been thinking about aquatred too. |
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The Advice Guru
Posts: 6419
| You won't get the bone density on the aqua tread, according to my vet the incidence of bony injuries ex breaking a leg are substantially higher with horses on aqua treadmills versus horses that are actually rode. |
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Exactly what my vet said. I sent my mare to get legged up after being off for a year. The center ended up stretching both of the mares stifles, and inflamed a old injury in her front leg. Plus since she was in a box stall for so long due to a bad bone concussion. When they went to go start swimming her she drop so much weight, she could not put it on because she was burning more calories then what she was Being feed. She's going to be a momma this year, so maybe this time off will help. Next time I'm bringing her back I'm riding her.  |
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| I've been in this scenario before. Basically aquatred is really bad for ligament injuries and no it doesn't work the same muscles as we do when we run barrels, nor does it mimick hitting the ground as we would running (aka bone density) my vet told me to do a month of walking, a month adding trotting to the walking, and a month later adding loping...then from there I could go on the aquatred. I think aquatred is really great for getting that extra edge on a horse that is already fairly fit. You have to be very careful if they aren't in shape. |
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  Playing the Waiting Game
Posts: 2304
| We used aqua mostly for lung capacity.. NOT legging up... For the race horses going a longer distance it helped get the lungs stronger... We used the track to get the muscle and bones ready... AND the mental ready. |
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Rad Dork
Posts: 5218
Location: Oklahoma | Wow, thank you all for the info. My vet and a few other vets that I've talked to about it seemed to think it's a great idea for my gelding. This is honestly the first I'm hearing anything negative about it in regards to helping bring my gelding back. |
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