I acquired my 8-year-old, 16.2hh Oldenburg mare a year ago. She had been professionally but lightly evented up to Novice/1* level and my intention was to event with her.

After trying her and deciding to buy her, she was 5 stage vetted and because of her purchase price I decided to get her scanned and x-rayed as well.

She flew through the 5 stage vetting and her X-rays were clean but the scanning showed some fibre disruption to her front SDFTs, probably caused in the main by poor foot balance in combination with her workload. There was no real clinical sign of this damage at all.

As the mare is a very nice stamp, with a good brain, beautifully bred and has already had a foal, I decided to take her on anyway and spend the required time to see if she could come back into work. If not, the intention was/is to breed from her.

She has been in rehab under vet’s guidance ever since, being scanned every 3 months to assess progress. She has also had the Arc Equine on every day, and I have been keeping in touch with the AE team as to settings/ timings etc at each stage.

Her rehab started with box rest in a stable and then, after the first 3-month scan, she moved into a larger pen, all the while being walked out in hand 3 x a day for 5 minutes. After the 6-month scan, she was allowed to go on the walker every day, building this up over time to 45 mins 2 x a day, and then this walking time was decreased to build in daily turnout as well.

After the 9-month scan, she went into ridden work consisting of hacking on the roads building up from 10 mins in a walk to a full hour with about 10 mins of trot. She was still being turned out daily during this time.

She had her 12-month scan last week, and she has been given the all clear by the vet to crack on bringing her back into full work as a normal horse. The vet said he was “delighted” with the scans. There is a little scar tissue remaining but they have fully healed.

Over the next three months, I will build back up her workload to being in full work. I will be using the Arc Equine daily during that time to help support the reduction of the little bit of remaining scar tissue if possible. After she is back in full work, I will be dropping down to my usual use of the machine as maintenance and after competitions etc.

Fingers crossed we get out next season and can have fun around some BE100’s. The vet’s opinion is that, given how they have healed, and that I have no aspirations to do the level of work that she was in before, the prognosis for long-term soundness from the tendons is good.