| 3yr old horse, stifle injury?I bought a 3yr old QH mare in May of this year. Last October, at the Quarter Horse futurity, she was getting out of her stall, and onto cobblestones in the aisle. She tripped and pulled her stifle. She was put into her stall at the barn CONSTANTLY until we bought her in May.
I took her to two shows (spaced a month apart), than took her to my coaches after the second show. I didn't have enough time to prep her enough for the training that she was going to be going through, yet I knew my coach would take good care of her. I went out once a week to rider her and see how she was doing. After two weeks, we brought her home on the Friday, to take her to a show on Sunday. I rode her that Saturday and noticed she was stumbling and feeling funny on her right hind. I got off and noticed that she was lame and picking it up higher than she should. I took my tack off and cold hosed it down.
I gave my coach a call and she was devastated. She didn't know what happened. My mare loaded and unloaded no problem. For what I could see, she didn't do anything funny. The only thing I noticed, was when I went to pick up that foot, she wouldn't let me. She suddenly picked it up and snapped my wrist.
We talked to my coach’s vet, who dealt with her in October. He gave us some blistering medication to rub on it (I don't know what it is called) and told us to put it on every day until it blisters. Every day we went down and walked her for 5minutes. Than worked our way up to 10minutes.
After about two weeks of hand walking, we got our vet out to x-ray her stifle. Everything was fine skeletally. He told us she was growing really fast (she shot up 2inches since we bought her to when she pulled her stifle) and her ligament just kept getting caught over the bone. He told me I could start to lunge her for 20minutes, and to try and keep it at a slow jog, mostly with her right stifle on the inside of the circle.
After a month of doing the hand walks and lunging, also rubbing down with liniment, I started to ride her again. For 2weeks, I jogged her slowly, and did a lot of walking, to build up her trust and confidence again. Than the week after, I started to ask her to extend a bit.
Two weeks ago, we had our chiropractor come in to look at her. Something was still not right. She gave her a good going over, and said her pelvis was out. And the worst thing that could have been done, was for her to be in her stall - we think her pelvis came out when she slipped on the cobblestones - the chiropractor put her pelvis back, and said she wanted to come back in two weeks. She also advised that I walk and jog her over trotting poles.
The October 26th (Monday) she came back out and said she was doing much better.
My mare is still a little off when I ride, but perfect outside.
Have we given her enough time to heal? Is there anything you can suggest?
If you need to know the feed, supplements and turnout she is on, here it is:
Purina (feed)
DMac (supplement)
From 8am-3pm, dry/slightly damp (turnout)
Please let me know if you think that we have handled this right, and please don't tell me I was stupid into throwing her into training so early. Anyone who bought her would have done the same thing.
Thanks in advance,
Myself, Parents, and of course the horse We are in Ontario. So any collages/universities/schools etc. need to be in THAT area Where we are, we get hit hard with snow. I don`t want to just throw her out to paster with her shoes on, and so she forgets about me. The chiro we have is an equine chiro. She has her lisence and everything. Also, we have had two vets deal with her. The one from my coach, and the one who x-rayed her. The one from my coach is an 'old school vet', where as the one who x-rayed her is a 'new school vet'
Asked By: M J - 10/29/2009 |