How are we rehabbing Milan to get her back into our lesson program?
About a year and a half ago, Milan, our beautiful palomino paint mare, came up lame. I quit riding and using her in our program. One of the things with Milan is that her right front foot turns in toward her left front leg. She also has been very tight in her shoulders and back. We needed to start rehab and get Milan back to work. However, we first needed to figure our what was wrong with her.
Vet came out for routine vaccines, discovered something new!
Earlier this summer, the vet was out to do routine vaccines on all the horses at the barn. When he got to Milan, he noticed that she wasn’t locking her knee on the right front. It wasn’t stable for her to stand on and it was a struggle to get her to put her full weight on the front leg.
He did a lameness exam and she wasn’t really sore in her hoof but she wasn’t putting her full weight on that foot. The doctor checked her angles and decided he wanted them to be improved. Working with our farrier, we decided to out front shoes on her last spring. With this new discovery, we decided to also put pads on her. When the farrier pulled her shoes and trimmed her feet, he discovered some severe bruising on the bottom of her right front foot, near her frog and connected to her suspensory ligament. Our vet determinded that Milan’s suspensory ligament was super tight and the reason she wasn’t locking her right knee was due to the tightness of said ligament.
How are we rehabbing Milan?
I put Milan back to work on the lunge line, working her over ground poles at the trot. We work in the round pen at the walk, trot and lope as well as some short rides in the arena. I started riding her bareback mostly at the walk and trot. I will now be moving to working her in a passeo system in the round pen to help with rebuilding her hindend muscles.
Milan is also one of the reasons I have decided to pursue equine massage therapy. I am taking an awesome course called Midwest Natural Healing for Animals, The Amassage Method that teaches all about rehabbing horses.
Do you have a horse that needs to be rehabbed? Give me a call at (408)607*9491 to discuss our program or check us out on Facebook at SL Barrel Horses
