Maybe your horse careened across his pasture before losing his footing and taking a spill. Or perhaps he fell over a jump during training or competition. However it happened, your horse has fractured a bone in his neck.

Until recently, few attempts have been made to surgically repair these injuries. However, French veterinarians recently tested a surgical procedure on three horses that sustained fractured vertebrae in falls. All three horses exhibited neck stiffness, pain, and some degree of ataxia (incoordination), making them good candidates for the procedure.

Essentially, Rossignol and colleagues used a locking compression plate to repair fractured cervical vertebrae and even fuse two fractured vertebrae and an intervertebral disc in one case. Locking compression plates offer stability, which helps improve bone healing, he said. “The locking implants use screws, which lock into the bone, and a plate with a threaded head,” making these implants strong, Rossignol said.

Following surgery, all three horses successfully returned to their respective careers as a show jumper, a low-level dressage horse, and a flat racehorse