Musculoskeletal Injuries

The musculoskeletal system includes the bones, cartilage, tendons, ligaments, and muscles that structurally support the body and enable physical movement. Since most horses have either recreational or professional athletic careers, musculoskeletal soundness is very important to horse owners. Whether your focus is elite equine athletes or backyard pleasure horses, musculoskeletal injuries are common and potentially very serious. In fact, they are a major source of debilitating pain, financial loss, and loss of performance.

The best way to make a correct diagnosis of muscle injury is to understand the history of the problem. We need to determine whether there was a history of a fall or other trauma, the duration of clinical signs, the presence of swelling, and whether lameness or poor performance has been documented.

Based on this background information, our vets can start programs to rehabilitate the horse based based on three goals: improving flexibility and muscle condition, strengthening, and return to full activity.