Today we are going to share with you the experience of one of our users, Juliette. Thanks to regular use of the Seaver strap guard and a watchful eye, has managed to anticipate a possible tendon injury.

A black spot for any rider, especially in sport, tendonitis is often synonymous with a long period of convalescence and rehabilitation. Unless it is too serious and stops a horse's career for good.

Recognised as one of the the most common injuries in equestrian sports, we will explain, through the experience of a user, how it is possible to Suspecting the injury before the real symptoms (lameness, hot and painful engorgement) symptoms occur. Please note that in the case you are about to discover, it was a fatigue injury. Unfortunately, Seaver cannot yet anticipate all types of injuries or the contexts in which they occur. Your sling (or strap guard) will be useful in support the veterinarian's protocol for rehabilitation and identify possible post-traumatic pain.

1. First of all, what is tendinitis in horses?

First of all, let us remember that tendons are fiber structures playing a acting as a shock absorber between muscles and bones. Poorly vascularized and not very extensible. . .they are seen as one of the weak links in the locomotor system of horses.

As with us, tendonitis is a partial or total rupture of collagen fibres of the tendon. Tendonitis is often detected at a stage that requires rest, which can range from 3 to 15 months depending on the pathology. A engorgementThe tendon will be more or less warm, with tenderness on palpation as well as a lameness tendonitis is characterized by a tendonitis that is more likely to occur on soft ground. The veterinarian makes his diagnosis with the help of a clinical examination and an ultrasound scan. The sporting career therefore depends on the severity of the injury and the tissue affected. But also and above all on the respect of the recommended care and rehabilitation.

The problem with such an injury is that it can recur... The scar tissue is not the original tissue. Although it is stronger, it is even less elastic and the transition zone between these two tissues is fragile. It is therefore important to avoid this possible risk of re-injury as much as possible. It is therefore important to regular follow-up and care after efforts.

2. What are the main causes of tendinitis and how can we try to prevent it?

To date, no miracle cure unfortunately. However, there are some important factors to consider that may help you to find a cure. help mitigate the risk :

• Certainly the most important one: the evolutionary ground of the horse. It should be neither too hard nor too soft (deep) with regular maintenance.
• L’food is not to be neglected also. An overweight horse will have its tendons under constant strain. Even more so during work, which will make the tissues more fragile.
• Defects of balance by conformation problem or a shoe (or trimming) not adapted to the horse's physique and/or activity.
• The duplication of effort with little or no care given to facilitate recovery.

You should also know that there are 3 types of origin of tendon injuries:

• Fatigue injuries Fatigue injuries: occur in horses with intense strain on the tendon. Often linked to an activity that is not adapted to its capacity to absorb the effort. Recovery is mainly by resting.
• Degenerative lesions Degenerative lesions: they are mostly found in adult or elderly subjects. The degeneration of the tissues cannot be stopped and healing is difficult. Rest is also prescribed in this case but for a different purpose: to relieve and not to regenerate.
• Defects of the legs: Induced by a bad conformation, the horse has a certain physical asymmetry. Induced by a bad conformation, the horse presents a certain physical asymmetry. This imposes an overload on a limb causing chronic tendonitis.

With regular use and careful attention to the data collected and the general condition of your horse, Seaver technology can help you to Anticipate the so-called "fatigue" lesions. For the other two types of lesions, your sensor accompanies you in the detection of inappropriate efforts and/or pain of your horse.

3. The case of Juliette and her mare

Juliette is the owner of an 8-year-old sport mare who competes in 1m30-1m35 show jumping classes. She acquired her when she was 3 years old. Juliette has always paid particular attention to her her physical condition and well-being. That's why she turned to the Seaver girth guard. It gives her more precise monitoring and understanding of her mare.

The use of the webbing protector dates back to July and it is used for each of the mare's exits...even in tether work. As a result, Juliette has average cardio data, trot symmetry, rebound, …

The data she looks at the most, however, are the cardio and the trot symmetry. For example, here are the symmetry data it provided us after its first month of use : 

               

It can therefore be seen that the the data are regular and constant. It is from 11 August that the questioning of the rider begins. This follows a slight change of balance between the two diagonal bipeds :

Nothing alarming, but this user confided to us that she is very attentive to details. So she decided to do a week in alternating light work on the mountain and rest days in the paddock.

A week later, she asked a professional rider to ride her mare. She wanted to see if the data of the past week was to be taken into consideration or not. And indeed it surely was:

After a long period at walk, the rider decided to take the trot. But the mare decided to canter to the right. Juliette immediately saw that something was wrong with her mare's reaction to the start. She asked the rider to change back to walk and stay on that. The graph above shows a cardio peak corresponding to the moment of taking up the canter.

Once back at the stables, the mare is checked by Juliette and her rider who no pain, no lumps, no lameness (on hard and soft ground). The working mare was as usual very "warlike".

The rider continued to work the mare on the following days in a very light manner. Still no signs of a possible pathology appeared. These are the data from the symmetry at the trot as well as the cardio showing at first high values in the right canter and then on the next day's high figures in trot and very high in canter that were the alarm signal to call the veterinarian for a control:

Juliette made it clear that when the vet called, her mare showed no sign of tendinous lesion: no lameness, no engorgement, no pain to the touch, a mare unchanged in her behaviour. While waiting for the arrival of the veterinarian, not in hand and grass grazing were on the program, with as care the simple laying of resting strips to the forelegs (suspicion of the injury on the right foreleg to the views of previous data).

On the day of the vet's visit, horror: on removing the bands, the right foreleg is very engorged and painful. The vet arrived a few minutes later and found that there was no lameness on hard or soft ground, only what Juliette had already noticed when she took off the strips.

After many minutes of searching for the cause, which seems to be a tendon injury, the diagnosis is made: a micro-lesion of the right anterior suspensory muscle. The vet recommends 3 weeks of walking with rest bands on the forelegs, accompanied by an anti-inflammatory herbal lotion. A progressive resumption of work afterwards with a control ultrasound after the convalescence at walking pace. The vet is not worried, he does not really talk about real tendonitis given the early stage of detectionHe was pleasantly surprised.

Although we all prefer to have a healthy horse, Juliette was delighted with this diagnosis because without Seaver, she would have continued to work her mare normally, with efforts that would certainly have pushed her to a deeper injury and therefore with a minimum of 3 months off work followed by a period of rehabilitation. Since then, the mare has returned to work and the rapid management of this early stage of the injury reduces the risk of a new injury.

Thanks to this user feedback, theregular use of your Seaver product can indeed help you to prevent certain types of injuries which we wish to avoid and which are unfortunately very common in sport horses.

Do not hesitate to send us your feedback on the use of your Seaver ☺.

See you soon, 

the Seaver team

1. http://equipeda. info/tendinite.html