What causes tendon injuries in horses?
Tendons connect muscle to bone and are vital to the functioning of a horse’s joints. Therefore, their injury can affect a horse’s soundness and performance level. To protect your horse ensure its avoidance from horse tendon injury causes:
- Trauma – improper land, fall or slip can cause excessive tendon pull that can create damages.
- Overworking or over-exercising – too many fast and uneven activities can create stress that might be beyond tendon capability. Thereby, they get constantly weakened and don’t receive the necessary support in the time leading to injuries.
- Improper foot balance – imbalance caused by things like improperly treated hoof can weaken tendons to the point it causes injury.
- Unsuitable training conditions – uneven ground, incorrectly constructed and placed exercise attributes can create instability. It can lead to trauma and improper load to tendons. Thereby, tendons get weakened and exposed to injury risk.
- Strains – arise when tendons get exposed to the stress that is outside their capability.
Horse tendon injury needs to be treated in the right way and with patience. The mildest tendon injury recovery can take between 9-12 months. A more severe injury can take a much longer time. Moreover, as a horse gets older recovery process tends to extend. Treatments might include anti-inflammatory drugs, physical therapy, surgery, and neurectomy. As well as more advanced treatments like Stem Cell Therapy.