Ive seen a good few being done and have ridden some. All were done for navicular and all returned to their jobs successfully ( although some shouldnt have done
)! A lot of people think that 'de-nerving' results in the horse loosing all feeling in his lower limb or foot but this is not true! Depending on which nerve is cut feeling is lost in a certain area, its not as drastic as is made out! The after problems happen when the horse injures himself in the numbed area and obviously doesnt feel it so cant tell us! Normally the nerve is cut in two places and the middle section removed to lessen the possibility of re joining. Its not a difficult op and all that Ive seen done were under a local and the recovery was like that of any normal stitch wound! I would have it done to my boy if needed-wouldnt think twice about it! Mairi.
PS, dont know about now but FISE rules didnt allow you to compete at certain levels if the horse had been done-dont know about the JC!
One had navicular, worked fantastically, so well that the horse (has been sold several times & owned by incompetent people
) was hunting and competing in ODE's before the owner realised it had had the op (not good, but shows it works!)
The other has acute arthritus (but is only 5); worked great on one leg, but had to have it done twice on the other, he is still in the recovery period so unsure as to whether it has worked.
We bougfht one that had been de nerved - NEVER AGAIN!!!!
Yes he returned to work, but in the end it was awful.
Imagine going out to your horses field one day to find his whole foot had flipped up and he was galloping around on his fetlock....as he was de nerved he obv couldnt feel anything so was just galloping round like normal. Not a plesant sight