Ridecamp: Re: [RC] [Guest] hock problems/surgery?

Our world champion green working hunter gelding had hock
problems when we bought him at the age of 4 for my
daughters next show horse. He would get very sore and at
times could barely walk (one of the reasons we got a great
deal on him,another was he had just had colic surgery). He
had been a stalled up "show pony" all his life and his
previous owners injected his hocks as at the time it was
the "in vogue" thing to do to show horses whether they
needed it or not. We kept him outside 24/7 which helped and
also fed him a daily joint supplement. We opted not to do
the surgery and did not inject his hocks as we were told
that would lengthen his fuseing process. When he was really
sore we gave him bute for the pain. On his good days we
would continue with his training and show him, on his bad
days we just helped ease his pain and basically let him
alone to roam the pasture. It took three years for his
hocks to fuse, after which he never took a stiff or lame
step. When he turned 8 we campaigned him pretty hard and
competed alot in working hunter as well as jumping
classes.(hard on hocks)My daughter would show him in just
about very class offered both youth and open divisions.  He
worked long and hard on show days and during the big
circuits would do this for 3 to 4 days straight all during
which stayed sound the entire time. I know this is not
endurance riding but my point is he worked equally as hard
as an endurance horse would and stayed sound after the
hocks fused.
 What helped me to decide not to do the surgery was I had
been told by several vets that if the surgery didn't work
(which many times it dosn't) then he would always be stiff
and /or lame. It's a waiting game letting nature take it's
course but to me it seemed the odds were more in our favor.
I was also told you have to keep these horse working while
the hocks are fusing as the irritation helps speed up the
process. Just turning them out to pasture dosn't help the
healing process.
  We went through this quite a few years back so I don't
know what advances have been made and what the current
thinking is. Just wanted to give you a succes story to
consider.

Regards,
Penny


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