The Relentless Pursuit of Excellence

Once adequate repair has been established via ultrasonographic examination, your horse is ready to return to a controlled and consistent work program.  As with any injury, the waning of pain is just the beginning of a long lived functional repair.  The repair must mature and gain strength; this takes time and work.  I would suggest that we start with the following program:

	Stage 1	Stage 2	Stage 3
Week 1	walk 10 min	nothing	nothing
Week 2	walk 10 min	trot 2 min, walk 2 min, trot 2 min	walk 10 min
Week 3	walk 10 min	2x (trot 5 min, walk 2 min)	walk 10 min
Week 4	walk 10 min	3x (trot 5 min, walk 2 min)	walk 10 min
Week 5	walk 10 min	4x (trot 5 min, walk 2 min)	walk 10 min
Week 6	walk 10 min	5x (trot 5 min, walk 2 min)	walk 10 min

 

The prescribed work should be performed every other day.  Gait asymmetry may reoccur in 30% of horses in this program.  If this occurs, please contact the office (248 628 5843) for instructions.  Most horses can continue work.  At the end of this program, the horse should be re-evaluated by ultrasound to determine when full work and turn out can be considered. 

If the horse is too difficult to ride safely, please contact the office for further instructions. Do not turn the horse out!