A suspensory ligament injury or in more technical terms the proximal suspensory ligament disease (PSD) is an extremely common injury in performance horses. The Horse magazine has a good article giving an overview of what Dr. Sue Dyson, head of Clinical Orthopaedics at the Animal Health Trust in Newmarket, England, presented at an AAEP focus group in Colorado. The article, Proximal Suspensory Ligament Disease of the Forelimb goes over the diagnosis, the complications, and the treatment for this injury; however it does not go through any prevention steps. Now I was not at this meeting so I do not know if it was discussed or not but in my opinion this would be an important topic and some research would be great on this subject.

Here are some of the horse sense steps that you can take to prevent the suspensory ligament injury -

– this goes a long way in prevention, proper balance of the horse’s hoof not only improves most movement and over better health of the hoof but will cause les strain on the ligaments and tendons when the horse moves. A good farrier that understands hoof balance and horse movement can easily help in prevention of suspensory ligament damage. Low heels and long toe, a long wall on one side, a flare, high heels and short toe all are imbalances that can cause more strain on ligaments and tendons.

– proper footing for the horse is a must in preventing injury. Deep sand or uneven arena surfaces are definitely causes of strain and injury. My opinion here is also that you should train the horse on, what you show the horse on. Even though the rubberized surfaces are great and are very cushy for your horse it also does not allow your horse to condition up to the arena surfaces that they will be showing on.

– overtraining is a big problem in the show world and it is the cause for many chronic injuries of the suspensory ligament. Your horse needs to rest, working 7 days a week, or heavily training for three consecutive days will not improve your horse, more likely it will break your horse down. Other conditioning tips would be to actually stretch your horse on a regular basis. Stretching just prior to going into an event is not going to prevent injuries however stretching on a consistent regular basis will. I recommend stretching your horse everyday, but then I do realize the time commitment and some people can not accomodate so, you need to stretch your horse before or after every ride and if you do it prior to riding warm the horse up first.

One specific stretch for the suspensory ligament and flexor tendons is to take a small flat board about 3/8 to 5/8 inch in thickness and place it so that the horses toe is just on the edge of that board. Next go over to the opposite front leg and pick it up. Hold this position for 15 to 30 seconds to stretch out the flexor tendons. To give you a visual – think of stretching out your calf by placing your toe on the riser of a stair and sinking down. I will post a picture soon.