While some clients aren’t capable of performing the necessary rehabilitation tasks, others want to finish the rehab early.

Scott Chandler, a farrier in Ocala, Fla., recently worked with a laminitic horse that was doing very well, until the client became impatient.

“The vet and I had talked to the lady about not turning the horse out yet,” he says. “Things were looking good but the horse needed more time. She moved her horse to a different place with a nice turnout area where the ground was a little softer, so she turned the horse out. It had been turned out for about a week when the vet and I went back to radiograph the horse, and we’d lost ground.”

People often think that just because the horse seems to be doing better and is sound at a walk, they don’t have to keep following the vet or farrier’s instructions.

“Owners may get over eager to start using the horse again, or turn it out again,” Chandler says. “They don’t wait until they have the final OK from the farrier and vet, who are working together to try to get these horses back on track. The owner thinks that just because the horse is doing better, it’s healed.”

Be specific about the necessary time to heal, as well as the possible consequences.

It’s important to be specific about the amount of time that a horse will need to heal. Scott Chandler often relates the recovery time that a horse needs to that of a human athlete.

“Soft tissue injuries take a long time,” he says. “I tell people it takes a year for the horse to grow a complete new hoof capsule and hopefully become sound again.”

Clients often don’t realize how much of a setback it is when they lose ground, not to mention how difficult it might be to regain that progress.

“We have the same problem with horses that get suspensory branch tears,” Chandler says. “We shoe the horse with an asymmetrical shoe to help support the foot as it heals. In about 6 months the horse is doing pretty well, so the owner starts turning it out or tries to start the horse back to work.”

Chandler tries to relate the horse’s injury to those of human athletes.

“I tell people that they need to remember that this horse is an athlete,” he says. “If a baseball player, football or basketball player has a soft-tissue tear, how long does it take for that to heal? Some may heal and in a year they might be OK. Some may never come back, especially if they keep stressing it too much.

“The injured horse may or may not ever be a top athlete again,” Chandler says. “This isn’t what they want to hear. They want to hear that after a layoff the horse will be able to go back to showing and competing again. Look how long it takes a professional human athlete to come back from a soft-tissue tear and these people have the best of the best doctors at their fingertips.”

Read more about the client's role in a rehab plan by clicking here.