How long should she rest?
 

My palomino twisted her leg fooling around in the pasture, she slipped in some mud and went down.... Long story short, she was badly swollen for a few days, and lame for about 3 weeks...

Now that she's back to her old self, kicking up her heels and feeling good, how long should I give her off to make sure she doesn't hurt or come up lame again?

Anyone?

I seem to remember reading somewhere that they should have at least 1 day for every day they were lame, but I'm not sure if I remembered right... I don't want to put her back to work to quickly....

I haven't had a lame horse in awhile (years actually, since before I had Cougar and I've had him five years... I feel blessed) but a general rule of thumb for when I was working with a clients horse was if they pulled up lame, once they were back to usual on their own free turnout I'll do ground work for a few days, then get back on and do light riding for a week. Obviously it's not set in stone as they are all different. But if they're feeling fresh no harm in putting her on a lunge and seeing how they're moving.

Thanks, maybe Monday I'll lunge her some and see how she's feeling...

I was planning on waiting to ride again until my farrier comes back out, and I think he's coming out on the 1st... That'd give her 3 weeks off riding... I really don't want to rush her, its not like my life is over if I miss a couple weeks trail riding....

We've never had a horse lame for 3 weeks...only the occasional sprained ankle, but we've always given them 5-7 days off after they're walking fine before starting to work them just to be sure they don't re-injure it. As Cougar said, after that you just have to play it by ear to see how fast they come back.

Thanks again...

I haven't decided what part of this was more aggravating, her being lame, or of the 5 vets I called about it, 1 said he'd come out and look at her, and then called back an hour before he was supposed to show up and said he couldn't make it, could I find someone else....