Advise needed please ref my horse who has navicular

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runnerbean

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I have a warmblood who is only 11 and he has just been diagnosed with navicular in both fronts.. He has never been lame, he just tripped a lot, a bar shoe stopped the tripping and I thought all problems had been solved, however.. he fell during a dressage training session and i decided to send him to the vets for a day where they diagnosed navic. I'm struggling with wether or not to ride him still. The vet has prescribed Danilon, he refused to take bute.. and has said he can do light work only.. but what is light work exactly.. and given that he also has athritis in his hocks, that have thankfully nearly fused, I'm unsure about what I can still do with him.. my vet isn't very forth coming or chatty and I find her difficult to ask questions.. besides I thought talking with other people in the same or similar position would be better, as you've been there so to speak. I'm pretty down right now and would dearly love to still ride him, what are your opinions please.
 
If you feel happy riding him and he isnt lame to ride then I would continue riding him. I had a old polo pony that had navicular in both his front feet and he had on plastic shoes which were fantastic for him. You have to find for yourself and your horse what works best for you. As regards to what is light work I used to ride my horse at least three times aweek for aleast 1 hour to 2 hours each ride. He used to find hard ground quite hard work on his feet even just out in the field, so I used to just take each day as I found him and decide from there. Good luck !
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This sounds similar to my horse, he was diagnosed with navicular the same as yours, also has spavins in both hocks, had all the treatment you could possibly think of but no change. He is now at Rockley Farm undergoing hoof rehab, have a look at the website and email Nic Barker, she is really helpful. My horse has only been there a month so early days but im hopeful he will come sound.
www.rockleyfarm.co.uk
 
If your horse is currently sound then there is no reason why you cant ride him. He will probably have lame days and the amount of work you can do will be a trial and error thing.

Some horses come sound by going barefoot, others dont. Some horses respond to bar shoes others dont. Other options include wide webbed shoes with equipack, easy walkers and obviously barefoot or bar shoes.
 
Please do have a think about trying the barefoot route. Official research is still very much in the early stages (hard to get funding for research projects that won't result in a new wonder drug or piece of equipment) but certainly the results we've seen - both here and in the US - have been extremely encouraging. Much of the thinking behind the stages of navicular syndrome is changing as we learn more about what is going on inside the foot. Suffice to say that navicular or navicular syndrome as it's better termed does not occur in wild horses... it's purely a condition of domesticated horses, so the closer you can return the horse to it's natural way of going the better the chance of avoiding or curing navicular syndrome
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If he's sound and seems comfortable I think riding will help him. My old endurance Arab was diagnosed 6 years ago at age 14 with bi-lateral navicular, and although he had to stop competing he was still hacking out until about 6 months ago. I had to be careful on hard surfaces, and he was very slow downhill, but otherwise seemed to have no problems.

BTW, if my horse was diagnosed now, I would definitely try the barefoot route, but it wasn't really an option 6 years ago.
 
My friend has an arab, think he is about 20, he was diagnosed with navicular about 4 years ago. She paid a fortune to the vets and different farriers for every type of shoe under the sun. She felt she had nothing left to try so went barefoot. Found a reputable barefoot trimmer, who worked very closely with horse and owner, took a fair while, but the horse came sound. Both owner and horse have never looked back. It does take time, because of the transition period and the need to get the balance absolutely correct, but hopefully should help. Good luck.
 
Barefoot! My beautiful warmblood was diagnosed as having navicular last year, was told to pts.

9 months later, we are hacking, dressaging and showjumping!!! He is on no medication so fingers x.

I will always watch him, and i would never go on hardground. But boy am i glad i still have him.
 
My big girl had navic for years and i found the best thing to do was keep working her. She also as artheritis. When i semi retired her (through my own laziness) i found she went alot worse and thats when we stated having all the problems. Hae you put him on any supplements? I had her on glucosamine which i found great for he and her joints.
Hope this is some help ;)
 
Charlie was diagnosed last May with collapsed heels and low grade changes in the navicular. I was given 2 options heartbar shoes or barefoot. Now Charlie is a typical flat footed Tb who could not keep shoes on his feet were terrible and when losing a shoe he was typically lame within 24 hours. On the advice of one vet and against the advice of a lot of other people (who all claimed to know best) I choose the most natural route that I could. He went barefoot. He has now been barefoot for just under a year, sees the farrier once every 6 weeks for a trim, who says that there is no longer any sign of his problems. He wears hoof boots to be ridden in and he still competes on a regular basis as well. I would never want to see shoes put back on him again.
 
Re Barefoot - if you do go down this route make sure you have a very, very good trimmer.

My mare never had a shoe on in her life but due to poor trimming and major imbalance over two years under an EP she developed navicular WHILST barefoot (and PSD and Sacroiliac problems too)

Trimmer would not listen to reason or advice from my vet..who is pro barefoot. When my girl ended up at Rossdales the Vet there was foaming at the mouth when he saw the state of her feet and put the blame squarely at the trimmers door.
 
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