| Personally, I would pay little attention to such crass generalizations. It
is practically impossible to raise a horse from foaling to an age suitable
for riding without it sustaining *some* sort of soft tissue injury. So,
to rule out *all* horses that have ever had a soft tissue injury would
eliminate all horses or at least all horses owned by people who were
honest enough to tell you about the prior injury!
I would say it depends on the type and severity of the injury. Wounds
are soft tissue injuries but I would overlook them unless the scar
tissue interferred with the way of going. Strained ligaments etc might
be a concern if they were severe.
But even then, an injury doesn't necessarily mean future unsoundness. You
mentioned a severe ankle injury. I too had a severe ankle sprain while
in college. It was so bad that the college infirmary doctor thought it
was broken and sent me to the nearest hospital to have it set. The
doctors in the emergency room took X-rays and then said "We have some
bad news for you. Your ankle isn't broken. It's severely sprained. It
will probably bother you for the rest of your life. You won't be able
to walk on it without crutches for 3 to 6 weeks."
I hated the crutches and started walking (OK, limping) on it within 3
days. It has not bothered me since then and that injury happened 30
years ago!
In general, I think I would to have my vet go over a horse I was
intereseted in buying and evaluate the injury and how debilitating it
might be.
In the particular case you mentioned, I think I would pass. A nerve
block in the heel just tells the vet that there is something wrong in
the area served by the nerve. There are too many debilitating foot
problems to take a chance on misdiagnosis. If the horse had recovered
from the injury and been sound for a year or two, that would be
different but I would pass on a horse just coming back from such an
injury.
Just one man's opinion,
John
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| I thought I'd let you know about my experience with soft tissue
injuries. I have a 12 year old mare whom I bought from a riding school
a year ago, I'd known her for 5 years as I had looked after her in my
spare time. Whilst at the riding school, she had no problems that I
knew of (and I would have known if she had!). When I bought her I did
not have her vetted, mainly because if there was something wrong with
her I'd rather have found out afterwards (regardless of later costs) as
I would have obviously changed my mind!
After 3 months of hacking she went lame, for no apparent reason and on
the way back home from a ride. I rested her for 3 days as it was not a
severe lameness and then called the vet on the 4th day. He nerve
blocked her fetlock/hoof area and she was still lame but better, he
then gave two more nerve blocks further up her leg, just below the
knee. This covered all signs of lameness which concerned the vet as it
suggested that there was a problem in both her fetlock and lower leg.
With that he told me to rest her a further week. He came out the
following week and diagnosed a check ligament strain (not severe), by
that time the area around the check ligament had swollen to form a soft
bump just smaller than an egg. She then had a weeks course of laser
treatment followed by three months off work, and a further three months
being worked in gradually.
For the past couple of months she has been fine, both on the flat and
jumping. Three days ago I took part in a cross country competition and
low and behold, she went lame!! Same leg, same movement, same signs!!!
The ground was very, very muddy and would have most definately put
strain on all of the legs, unfortunately she only had brushing boots
on, not bandages.
I called the vet out last night, he did not nerve block this time as it
was easy to detect the problem, but gave me some ointment to lightly
blister the affected area. He said he didn't want to be taking my
money off me for laser treatment as he felt the injury was not bad
enough to require it as it is costly. Well, you know what we're like
with our little darlings, I said to give whatever treatment he thought
appropriate at whatever cost (thank god for insurance!!). The vet
thought that the strain was a little further down the leg this time,
more likely to be a tendon or the top of the suspensory ligament. So, we're
now back to 6 weeks rest, with the vet coming out next week to check
how she's going. He wasn't unduly worried but did point out that she
has a weekness in that area. When he looked at her first injury
earlier in the year he suspected that this may have stemmed from when she
was younger, in which case it would always be a problem and I would
have to bear it in mind in the future.
Just from my experience, I would say always be cautious with soft
tissue injuries (meaning sprains/twists/pulling etc of
tendons/ligaments). Fortunately, when she is fully recovered, I can
still show jump her but will have to think twice about
cross country/drag hunting, it all depends on the ground and most
definately with full support from bandages/boots etc.
I'd be interested to see what you do and how it goes, please keep me
posted and good luck.
Liz
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| How often do you ride ?
ie. do you hack or are you in serious training ?
I'm thinking of two scenarios.
I) All the warnings we get about carpel tunnel, if we exercise
and strengthen our forearms our muscles do the work, if the muscle
gets tired the tendons do the work....and can be damaged.
II) Serious (human) amateur and professional athletes also can
pull or damage a tendon, ligament whatever...I assume they are
muscled up but have a lack of flexability.
Bill
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