Ridecamp: [RC] Re:Hocks & Surgery

I have to agree with Penny and her Hunter . I had an Appy reiner who I found had two bad hocks at age 3 . The Vet said he had never seen anything so bad in his life ( he was an older man who had been a Track Vet at Del Mar ) he and another Vet consulted recommended surgery or putting him down . I turned him out for 9 months and started working him again not as a reining horse but as a dressage horse . In about 14 months I had him x-rayed again and his hocks had fused - again the Vet had never seen anything like it . I have used common sense with this horse, long slow warm-ups , a good horseshoer , as few drugs as possible , a large turn out . I showed him for 10 years through second level when he started having trouble again at 14 . I have retired him and he is happy and comfortable at age 18 . I no longer shoe him but keep him in a one acre turnout with my retired Arab show horse ( age 27 ) . Nothing was ever lost by being conservative 

Valerie