stall rest

Question
Can you define "stall rest"  We just put our horse to a farm to rest after a long year of racing. we put her at rest on Feb 4th, She will be put out to pasture each day, will this forstall the bone lose you spoke of.


Answer
John,

The term "stall rest" is generally used to mean that the horse is confined to the stall, period.  Often after a fracture or other major injury, the horse needs to be strictly confined for a period of time, and this is when most bone loss occurs.  In a horse who has been actively at the races for a year, and is now allowed out in the pasture, bone loss shouldn't be an issue.
However, in a young horse, who is still remodeling bone in response to training, any reduction in the amount of stress to the bone will result in loss of the new bone density, so for instance, a horse who is in early training and still remodeling the cannon bones would need additional training time after time off, even if that time off involves pasture exercise or jogging, since the pasture time isn't enough stress to maintain or continue the bone remodeling.

Stephanie Frost
www.AlchemyBloodstock.com