American show jumper McLain Ward’s long-time partner Sapphire, a 16-year-old Belgian warmblood mare, strained her right front check ligament while training in Florida last week and will miss the remainder of the 2011 show season.

According to Duncan Peters, DVM, MS, co-director of the Sport Horse Program at Hagyard Equine Medical Institute in Lexington, Ky., check ligament injuries aren’t overly common.

“The check ligament is a portion of the deep digital flexor tendon apparatus, and injury usually occurs with overloading of those structures with a bad step,” he explained. “Therapy (if the ligament is just sprained) is usually cold therapy, non-steroidal anti-inflammatories, poultice, and bandages.”

He added that if the ligament is torn, treatment is typically more aggressive and can include platelet-rich plasma or stem cell treatment in addition to the aforementioned therapy