Don't wait and see.
Because quite simply you don’t know what to treat, manage and approach in the most appropriate and timely correct way. TIMING matters, and your plans, and your schedule doesn't set it. The physiology of the human, the horse, the organism sets this - regardless of your hopes.
Last week, I had a gravity check (yep, it still works!) - a nice-ish landing, but I also caught a stray hoof, and to put it mildy it was rather painful...instantly, with a rapid deformity and swelling 😬🙈
Xrays ✔️ No fractures to bone.
Ultrasound ✔️ is the next step...bone requires rest, but the majority of soft tissue injuries require an active recovery.
The knowledge around the CORRECT active recovery is key, and this depends on the tissue (muscle, tendon, ligament) that has sustained the trauma.
Fortunately for me 🥴 ligaments look great, tendons look satisfactory, and the trauma appears isolated to a rather torn Thenar muscle (muscles located at the base of the thumb).
So what does that information mean?
1. Destruction phase - Immobility approx for the first 4-6 days (inclusive of passive heat + mild vibration and fascia/lymph support to reduce oedema and maintain circulation!) ✔️
By this time, this has passed.
2. Repair and cell proliferation - active recovery day 4-6 onwards... this is why it is vital to have a clear picture of the structural damage, you need to know how and when to do what.
It’s so important to be active, appropriately in recovery in this phase, but only if it is safe.
3. Scar/tissue remodelling and contraction - range mobilisation, proprioceptive recovery ‘grow, mobilise, stretch, strengthen, rinse + repeat....’
So, where to from here? In summary, it will be a couple of very light weeks, then an ongoing progressive return to range, and load normality with therapeutic support for a couple of months. This will involve work!
Again, ‘grow, mobilise, stretch, strengthen, rinse + repeat....’
Now having said all of that - I am a human and have the ability to isolate and communicate sources of pain/discomfort, reflect and communicate my understanding of how the pain/discomfort behaves, and then make decisions based on self protection as I experience feedback from the injured site. This is also my hand, and I can use the other one as a temp solo stand in....
Your horse cannot do that. At best, all it can do is react to the discomfort on a moment by moment basis in dynamic functionality (no easy rest and non weight bear options for horses!) as this reaction then potentially develops into a secondary injury as a result of compensation patterns.
This is why diagnostics, to obtain information that is as quantifiable as possible (imaging, nerve blocking in horses etc) is VITAL for acute, or chronic injury identification, response and ideal recovery.
The sad reality is, whilst many owners are busy waiting to see “how things go” over weeks and months, the horses body is doing the best it can to heal in a way that accommodates “best fit” survival, with the situation it is in - not “ideal performance to meet human expectations when required.” Which is everything we expect of them beyond being a feral horse...
If you don’t know where you are, you will not be able to work out how to get where you need to be.
Diagnostics for you injured/lame/unsound/poor performing horse are ESSENTIAL. Just as they are for you, but they not only provide quantitative data, they provide a voice of clarity.
