Can you do aff dressage on a horse that has been denerved?

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BMA

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Not my horse - he's just a hunter.

I know you cannot race horses that have been denerved (well i think that's the case) but what about affiliated dressage.

And...if you can't do affiliated dressage on a horse that is stuffed full bute how is it fair that you can compete on something that has been denerved.

Apologies if I have this totally wrong...just a curious
 
Have to say I was shocked when I was told its common practice with some top dressage professionals to de-nerve their top horses.

In my opinion if a horse has been de-nerved it should be banned from any affiliated competitions.....but thats just my opinion:rolleyes:
 
Dobby - From wh at I can tell from google is basically cutting a nerve. Presumibibily for lameness problems. Seems to be used for things like navicular.
Someone correct me if I am wrong.
 
Stops a lame horse from feeling pain - cut the nerve so the don't feel it and look sound.

very contraversial!
 
My thinking was...

How can it be wrong to bute a horse up and compete it but its ok to have an operation to cut the nerve...both are masking a problem.

Some people have horses denerved and have them for 20 years but I personally think that you shouldn't be able to compete in affiliated competition, I'm not against the operation or people riding them?

What about BE and BSJA
 
I believe that you are not supposed to, in that you are improving the way to horse goes, cosmetically. But you can't tell they have had it done so it is not really a rule they can enforce.
 
I can only assume it's because you can't tell once it's been done. (May be totally wrong there)
I have a question, pain would indicate a problem, yes? So if a horse unwittingly carries on working on an injury, will it one day just 'go' and leave the horse crippled, or, because it can't feel anything will it stay sound? I'm sure I haven't worded it correctly, but what I'm trying to get at is, most of the time, with an injury a person or horse would stop working before it got there. (Because it hurts) So will a de-nerved horse carry on until it breaks down entirely? (in theory, if the injury being covered is bad enough to cause this)

I don't really know in what instances de-nerving would be used? Suspensory ligament damage? Navicular? Arthritis?

J&C
 
it's commonly done these days for suspensory injuries and i know of horses competing at top level BD who've had it done. I think it might be not allowed under FEI rules, but BD dont have a rule against it.
 
It can also be done for severe navicular as a last resort. My friend's horse had navicular and she talked about denerving with the vet. In the end though, the vet said it's not a nice thing to do because it would result in the horse tripping all the time and being extra-ordinarily prone to injuries like puncture wounds (due to not feeling pain) so the horse was PTS with dignity.
 
Echo the above. As far as I know it's a common treatment for suspensory ligaments, it doesn't mask the problem, it eliminates it so there is not question of unfair advantage in my mind. I think you are allowed to compete BD but not FEI.
 
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