# Has anyone ridden with a MCL tear?



## DimSum

I just went through a total knee replacement (bad conformation if I was a horse I won't pass the vetting  ) and am a nurse so I've got some experience here. Yes, riding is a no-no until you get cleared to do it. Ligaments take a long time to heal, 8-12 weeks and any unnecessary strain can make the tear even worse. Let it heal correctly, or you can give yourself a lifelong problem and I would not wish anyone to have to go through the 14 surgeries I have had. Once you injure one knee, sometimes you injure the other due to the added strain and get into a vicious circle of hurting one then the other.










This is a pic of the right knee. The MCL (and LCL) keep the knee stable in lateral motion. The MCL is on the side which contacts the horse so just sitting on a horse would put a strain on it due to the curve of the barrel. My MCL was so bad there before my surgery just hanging my leg in a long stirrup was almost unbearable.

Once you are healed though, riding (posting the trot especially) is a great way to help strengthen the muscles which in turn will help keep the joint stable in future. The only reason my knees have lasted this long is the fact I ride and walk a lot doing my job.


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## TerciopeladoCaballo

Oh NO, so I won't be able to do anything with my horse for a matter of months? ARGH. There goes everything we got done the past few months. She was just starting to get a little topline and jump well...
Crud. Crud, crud, crud. I guess the best thing I could do for her is to ask my neighbors if one of them would take her on as a lesson horse? She gets stiff and irritable when not worked for 2+ days, can't imagine what a vacation will do to her.


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## DimSum

Sorry, I know you didn't want to hear that. Well, see what the Drs say about how badly you've torn it, they will give you a better idea-if you haven't been to see them why do you think its the MCL or did I miss something? But there are other things you can do...perhaps groundwork? Cavelettis and lunging?


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## TerciopeladoCaballo

DimSum said:


> Sorry, I know you didn't want to hear that. Well, see what the Drs say about how badly you've torn it, they will give you a better idea-if you haven't been to see them why do you think its the MCL or did I miss something? But there are other things you can do...perhaps groundwork? Cavelettis and lunging?


Just the way it happened and how I it is being, I'm 99% sure it was a ligament issue right after it happened, and afterward, knowing that I've broken bones before but this did not feel like a broken bone, yet it hurt, swelled, and is very instable. I went to get X-rays today to make sure nothing is wrong with the bones involved or that the joint popped out. The x-rays came back good, but they don't really do serious ligament injuries there and only poked and pushed it to see where it hurt precisely. Told me to rest and go get an MRI after a week if it's still causing an issue... 

I don't think I should wait a whole week with a possible sprain to get an MRI... Something's seriously wrong when I can't walk right without my knee buckling on its own. I couldn't walk at all today until I wrapped it to go to the clinic, and then they gave me a brace to wear because I complained I was having trouble walking. Apparently starting to cry when they poked it wasn't enough to tell them I was having severe pain? Ugh, can't get decent health care unless you go to specialists nowadays :-( All the doc said was that I "probably knocked it" or "bruised it" (there's not even any bruising color there, just a little scrape on the front of my knee, not even the side where it's swelling).


What happened exactly is that I was riding bareback on the side of a fence where the posts are out, not the smooth side. Just doing walking exercises near the barn. My mare started losing straightness so I put my leg on to stop her hindquarters swinging out; she leg-yielded toward the fence too much and the post caught my knee. My knee kept going out and behind while she kept going forward, so that my knee went beyond its range of motion and then snapped back after scraping by the post. It wasn't like an impact injury; there's no bruise, no cut, just the top layer of skin rubbed off from where the post made contact.


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## DimSum

(winces in sympathy) get yourself to a good orthopedist ASAP.


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## Kayella

Oh, just reading what happened makes my knee hurt LOL. I tore my ACL in October. Unfortunately, the ACL does not heal itself, so I need to have surgery to get it fixed. :/ I ended up tearing a couple other ligaments, but luckily not my MCL or meniscus. It was probably 3-4 weeks before I could put full pressure on my leg. When I tried to get up after initially tearing it, my knee popped out of place and down I went. Brace and crutches for 2 weeks, then just a full leg brace for another 3-4 weeks. 

It suuuucks. It still does. My knee still threatens to pop out of socket sometimes. It's popped out of place numerous times while I was climbing through a fence, or being pushed by a spooked horse. Horse time is a no-no! My dad forbade me from going in the stalls with them after the horse spooked while I was in there. Definitely no riding. Pretty much, you can only admire your horse from afar. :/ I know it sucks big time. I'm still saving up for surgery. Rest, elevate it, and do some stretches when you can because it will heal stiffly.


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## Poseidon

It was eventually determined that I must have torn my MCL after busting my knee and having it misdiagnosed. I couldn't ride without immediate pain for a few years. It was fine them because I didn't have horses of my own. Now I still have pain most times I ride for a decent amount of time. 

I would NOT. Go near riding until you get an all clear on its healing or it'll be hell.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## TerciopeladoCaballo

I read somewhere online that the pain is supposed to go down after 24hrs, which I thought was BS because of the pain I was in this morning where I literally dragged myself out to the barn to dump feed in my mare's bin and change her to the dry paddock + stall. Then, since being out this morning for the X-rays, I've been in bed with my leg up and iced with a break in between. The swelling didn't go down until 35 hours after the incident (still swollen, but less), and the pain did lessen a lot after 24 hours. When I walked short distances to and from the car and in the house with the brace, my knee snapped once and has buckled/locked about a dozen times but I can walk better. I just took the ice off to get up and eat dinner/go to the bathroom, it's still weak and feeling weird, like a pull on the inside of my knee, when I walk but I can look relatively human as long as I don't rush. Been about 15 mins since the ice was off and the area is getting warmer than normal again.

But... I would think it's probably still a good idea to have the ligament looked at correctly. Sucks to need my family to drive me, they have their hands full with my sibling much worse than me laid up after the car crash.

So it doesn't matter about the pain, but if my knee is still weak I should go to the ortho this weekend? Talked to a friend who worked as a knee surgery assistant and she said I oughta go soon, or I could have loss of function or pain there permanently. Don't wanna take any chances with that!


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## Poseidon

TerciopeladoCaballo said:


> Talked to a friend who worked as a knee surgery assistant and she said I oughta go soon, or I could have loss of function or pain there permanently. Don't wanna take any chances with that!


That's me. I busted my knee and thought I just hurt it, so I wrapped it for a few days. Took it off after the third day and fell down in pain. Went to the ER because it was late evening and was told I sprained it and given a cheap neoprene sleeve and some painkillers and muscle relaxers.

Still killed me constantly for a year and a half and I wore a large brace daily for over 2 years. Went to the doctor several times and was basically looked at as a teenager (I was 16-17 at the time) looking for painkillers. Finally, one doctor who wasn't my normal one looked at it while I was in for bronchitis and figured I torn my MCL or meniscus from where it hurt.

It twists out of place (it's gross) so the torqued position riding puts it in is what causes me pain. I can also predict precipitation, particularly snow, very well though the way it swells. 

I deal with it with different compression sleeves ad iburprofen. I'm 21 now and would love a new knee. :/


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## Kayella

I had swelling for at least a couple weeks. And it didn't bruise at first, but my leg from the knee to my lower calf bruised completely. At one point I though I might have had blood poisoning because I had dark purple lines running down behind my knee. I was really bad off because I tore my ACL completely in half. =.= Which was proven by an MRI. So I think you should get one done. They're expensive(mine was $600 with insurance) but my place let me do payment plans.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## flytobecat

I tore my MCL in my late twenties. I went to a sports Doc and we opted on physically therapy because with surgery there was only a 50/50 chance of improvement. Even with physically therapy, I still had issues. I limped a little for almost 3 years and my knee would go out every now and then. I still have weakness in it and sometimes need the support of a knee brace.
One of the reasons, I was down for so long is that I wouldn't listen to my doctor. I would feel better then do something stupid and injure it again. So please learn from my mistake, let it heal and listen to your Doc.


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## Equusketch

This is a VERY familar injury for me as I have retorn my MCL on 4 different occasions. Usually if the MCL is the "only" problem, time, RICE treatment and a hinged brace will heal it without any surgery. Depending on the extent of the tear you are looking at anywhere from a few weeks to several months before it heals. I actually retore my MCL last year just trying to stay on a bucking horse. I found out later I also had a stress facture which could have been present before the injury as I also tore my ACL previously several years ago and haven't had it fixed yet. Last year's injury did cause a fair amount of swelling and bruising. I still have tenderness along that medial joint line to this day. My knee still buckles from walking, but that's because of the ACL injury. Once in a while I get a sharp pain in my medial compartment when I walk. I am only 32, but I wouldn't doubt if I have some early arthritis going on in that knee from years of my femur and tibia shearing against eachother with every collapse. 

When I was younger after my first couple injuries, I was stupid and kept riding and playing rugby on my knee. I would go to physical therapy early in the morning so I could get to the barn before it got to hot. Last year, I took 3 months off because the weightbearing was an issue with the stress fracture. 

It's been in my experience that riding by itself doesn't bother my knee a whole lot (I do hunter/jumpers), but any kind of unexpected thing like the horse spooking, bucking, tripping, over jumping is what causes it to buckle and I sometimes wind up with more swelling and pain after my lesson as a result. I tried riding in an over the counter hinged brace, but apparently that wasn't enough for me because of what happened last year, so now I ride in a functional brace designed specifically for ACL tears and it's saved my life several times. The downside to that kind of brace is that it is bulky and puts my leg in a weird position, plus it scratched my saddle until I made a few modifications, so it's a trade off. 

I would definately hold off on riding until you get a definitive answer. Make sure your ACL isn't also torn. It sucks, but knee injuries often lead to A LOT of problems long term if you don't treat them right away. I've been dealing with the aftermath of being stupid for the past 10 years and am only now starting to listen to my body. 

Here are a couple pictures of the brace I wear now for riding. There's a picture of the bruising about 4days later and the swelling several hours after the injury before the bruising had a chance to set in.


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