Tips on Reintroducing Turn Out for stall rested horses

[ImJumpin]

Title says it all-- what are some methods you've found to be successful and unsuccessful when reintroducing turnout to a horse that has been on stall rest. Ace/Rompun will not work in this situation-- tried that on Saturday, horse all shuffley and dopy until the second the lead was removed-- blew right through the stuff like he was on nothing! Will be asking teh vet for other Rx suggestions, but wondered what other things I could try in addition. Obviously, small area. Feed outside? No horses around? Old standby type horse around? Anything else?

[Go Fish]

What was the dosage on the drugs?

I've found it helpful to feed hay (and make sure they eat it all) prior to turn out. Gut action seems to calm them down a bit. I also put up a small round pen with panels to turn them out in. Rounded sides instead of corners seems to slow them down some.

Take away all grain.

[DianneEJ]

I have got this one! I purchased 4 12ft portable fence panels and blocked off a little corner at a time of a smaller paddock. Eventually we just left one of the panels open after a few weeks and he walked on out and never had any trouble readjusting! It works:) You may be able to borrow a few panels if you don't want to buy any.

[Fharoah]

An injection of reserpine of fluphenazine might help. For my stall rest gelding I didn't turn him out until we were walking 30 minutes undersaddle, he was just more level headed by then.

[Evalee Hunter]

1. Small pen, for example, five round pen panels plus a gate. Set this up in an area of lush grass, if possible. Pen needs to be very small & it needs to be SOLID (strong), not electric tape, for example. Do not go any larger than 5 - 6 round pen panels.

2. Ace should do just fine. We use 6 tablets dissolved in water & shot into the mouth about 1 - 2 hours before turnout. I think 1-1/2 hours is ideal with most horses. Do not expect oral ace to work quickly. Give the horse a flake of hay after administration & disappear. If the barn is quiet & the lights are off, so much the better.

The horse will "blow through" the ace to the extent (usually) of bucking or kicking but they cannot run around in a pen pretty much the size of a stall. After a few minutes they will settle, the adrenalin will be gone, the ace is back kicked in & they will have a peaceful time enjoying the sun & fresh air & grass. After a few days, increase the size of the pen by one panel or by opening up the pen & attaching it to a wooden fence. Keep increasing the size every few days. You probably will not need ace after a few days.

We do layups/rehabs. We have started many racing-fit TBs on turnout in the above manner & all have done fine

[Lori B]

I am about to start to reintroduce my mare to turnout also. I can't do the portable panels thing, she is boarded, and our options are to put her in a small paddock adjoining the larger turnout fields or the big field with her pasture mates. The small paddocks are probably 35 x 35 feet in size? We were going to ace her, and put another horse in the next small paddock to hers, so that she doesn't feel alone. While it would be ideal for her to have a smaller space initially, farm has used this before for other re-introductions, and it has worked ok. After a few days in the little paddock, w/ ace, we would then put her with the herd again in the big field, watching closely to make sure she doesn't go bananas.

Can't. Wait. For. Turnout. Need horse to be sane again.

[touchstone-]

I'm going through this right now with my guy, and we're basically doing all of the above--ace, tiny paddock, hay, and quiet buddies on either side. We've also been turning him out after one of his daily hand walks. So far, <<<fingers crossed>>> so good. If your horse tolerates them, you might also want to consider earplugs for the first few times out.

My vet recommends starting with a paddock no bigger than 20'x20', so there's no way they can run.

It's frustrating how much personalities come into play in this situation. My sister's horse was absolutely *perfect* on small paddock turnout with no drugs and very little special treatment. This one definitely needs a more careful approach--even if his paddock is the size of a stall, he'll find a way to leap up and down repeatedly when he's fresh.

IME, horse seem to be more mellow about the whole turnout routine once they've seen the outside world a few times. It's just those first few days where they're super silly.

[Penthilisea]

Round pen next to normal turnout field with calm horses in for a few days till one day instead of in the round pen you go the extra few feet to the normal field. Round pen can even be IN the field if that works. Obviously some horses will be fine going right out, but I just worked with a friend to turnout a yearling WB filly post ocd surgery 6 week stall rest, she was VERY wound up for weeks!

[asterix]

This is probably personality dependent, but you can also try "highly supervised" turnout -- I did this with my gelding, who is very well -mannered (as in, someone trained him to listen to the person very attentively :D -- good thing, as he is 17.2!). I took him out (ACED!!!) to the paddock, which was in no way too tiny for blow ups (like Lori B, I board, no way to do the panel thing). I kept him ON the lead/chain over his nose, but let him wander around and graze.

The next day, I did the same for a while.

The next day, I unclipped the lead, but kept the halter on, and stayed within an arm's length of him, clipping lead back on if he looked at all perky.

Etc.

I should note that this did NOT prevent a blow up, but I think it probably delayed it. He didn't really blow up until about a week in when someone turned a horse out in the field next door -- HIS field. Horse ran off like a nut into the distance (it's a 70 acre field, there really is an "off in the distance"). My horse blew his stack.
Can't really blame him.

I would certainly try and find a very boring place to turn him out.

[Equilibrium]

I just had to do this last week after my 3yo filly was in for 3 weeks. I thought she'd be a lunatic, but she surprised me. I put her on the equiciser for 1/2 hour (she was on it for 3 days leading up to turnout), then put her in a pen with her sister. She had one little buck and then saw the hay pile so basically she was done as she had food.

Getting her back on grass was more difficult as it had really started getting lush on her time off. So only a couple hours here and there until she gets going properly again.

Terri

[RiverBendPol]

I put mine into a 12x12 electric tape pen inside the 20x20 electric tape infirmary paddock so if he did blow through the 12x12, he'd at least still be trapped inside a small space. I wore my helmet and gloves to walk him from barn to pen (about 30 yards), he wore the chain over his face. I gave him 2-4 piles of hay so either way he looked, he'd see hay. I also aced him, primarily for the walk from the barn so he wouldn't jump on me or bash me with his head or rip the leash away and gallop down the driveway. It didn't always prevent these actions. He was a different sort of fellow, stall rest was a rodeo, hand grazing was impossible.

[rally]

I spent 6 weeks reintroducing my horse to turnout after 7 months of stall rest. At this point we were up to trotting 30 minutes and cantering 10 minutes a day, bringing him back from a ligament injury. Each horse is different but I found with mine, he had to be ridden before turnout then aced, I used pills and mixed it with sweet feed, I waited an hour and walked him out to his pasture already stocked with hay. I let him eat the hay while on the lead rope and then eventually took lead rope off and left halter on. I am a boarder as well and there was no round pen or easy way to shrink his turnout pasture and I wanted him in a field he knew. I tried turning him out before work and it didn't work, too much energy even with the ace. I always had a bucket of feed by the gate to entice him back to me if needed. We did have some bucking after he rolled and then he was generally quiet. Since I did this in Jan and Feb. I ended up pulling my car up near the pasture so I could keep an eye on him and stay warm. After about 6 weeks of monitored turnout as well as weaning down the ace slowly, he was pretty calm about going out and could go out before work. Since it was winter here, I did make sure the footing was good when he went out, and he stayed in if the snow/mud/slop was too deep, thankfully we had a dry spring. But when he had to stay in for a day or 2, I had to backtrack a little and up the ace for the next time he went out. Good luck

[Lori B]

RiverBendPol, I know what you mean about hand grazing being difficult, or in your case impossible. I've only been at it about 2 months, and mare is on reserpine and ace when we ride her. I can count on 1-3 explosions per hand grazing session, most of the time, particularly if we are without ace. Thanks to excellent suggestions on another thread, I hand graze her with a lunge line and gloves, so that when she blows up, I can get a few feet farther away and don't have those hooves flailing around over my head.

I'm hoping our re-intro to turnout this coming weekend will require less extreme measures, but I'm sure it will still involve some silliness. She wants to badly to go play with her herdmates, she's about to jump out of her skin when she sees them turned out.

[hollyhorse2000]

At the risk of sounding like a nut, can I recommend a flower essence called Run and Play, available from Green Hope Farm? It's supposed to be for animals who, for whatever reason, are unable to run and play. My mare was literally without turnout for a year, went out for a month, was back in for another nine months, and went out again a few months ago. So I know about stall rest. (She was able to be ridden during that time, though, and hand grazed.) Fortunately, she was really good about the whole thing. But I found the flower essence, a few drops in her water every day, made a huge difference. And I don't think it was all in my head.

When reintroducing her to her pasture, I rode her first, hand grazed her for a while and then led her to a small pasture with trusted pasture companion and grazed her in there for a while and then unhooked her. I supervised for a few days, and then all was well. She kicked up her heels a few times, but nothing major. It's also best if the day is not windy, a little bit hot, and is an otherwise quiet day at the farm (not the day the hunt goes through the back woods!)