Navicular and jumping

[helencharlie]

To update everybody who has been following my Tb Charlie's story with his navicular. The vets spoke to my farrier who said that they wanted his toes to be shortened and that his heels need greater support. They have now also said that his soles are to thin to be able to continue barefoot. Charlie now has straight bar shoes on and is currently sound.

My farrier has asked me if I am going to carry on jumping and I said that I don't know if we should. I was talking to another friend last night (very knowledgably) about this and they said that they evented their horse with navicular. So what are peoples views and jumping horses with navicular. Should I continue or keep ourselves on the ground with dressage?

 

[Lucky Lady]

My ex racehorse had navicular and other joint problems and after putting him on a nitric oxide product, he is performing out of his skin, happy and sound! So if you are giving him something to support this condition and hes happy and sound, then see how he goes but not on firm ground.

 

[applecart14]

To update everybody who has been following my Tb Charlie's story with his navicular. The vets spoke to my farrier who said that they wanted his toes to be shortened and that his heels need greater support. They have now also said that his soles are to thin to be able to continue barefoot. Charlie now has straight bar shoes on and is currently sound.

My farrier has asked me if I am going to carry on jumping and I said that I don't know if we should. I was talking to another friend last night (very knowledgably) about this and they said that they evented their horse with navicular. So what are peoples views and jumping horses with navicular. Should I continue or keep ourselves on the ground with dressage?

You can have stuff that is like a gel that hardens and provides shock absorbing qualities. The farrier can apply it when he next shoes. When the horse has his new shoes on, the farrier places the horses foot on some polystyrene, tapes it to the foot with a little gap at the heel, lifts the foot up and puts something that looks like the contraption you use to seal baths (bath sealant) and squirts it between the foot and the polystyrene. After a minute the gel that is applied hardens enough not to fall out of the foot cavity (although always stay soft to absorb concussive forces) and the polystyrene can be removed from the foot.

Only problem I found with it was it didn't last very long with my horse as he had a very annoying problem of scraping his front feet on the ground and if it was over shingle or loose pebbles the gel would soon get torn away. And its not cheap either, think it was an extra £20 per shoeing session for two feet, think you could get at least two applications i.e. four feet out of each tube. As you don't HAVE to be a farrier to apply it, (or at least I wouldn't have thought so as it involves no nails) it would probably be a lot cheaper if you bought the stuff and did it yourself! Found link - Equipak its called. But unless they have changed the product since 2007 it does breakdown and is not impervious to debris, or at least it did with me!!

http://www.blfarriersupplies.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=89

Here is a link from H&H about using it - http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=179693

 

[PolarSkye]

Great to hear about your boy's progress .

Kali has navicular in both fronts, wears egg bar shoes and is sound as a pound - no gel yet, no pain relief. He jumps (jumped a 1.05, three striding double giving it just one stride in the school yesterday preparing for our next ODE ), but we are VERY careful about the surfaces he goes on and he does NO roadwork. If we find that we struggle to find venues with good enough ground this year, we will just take him out to do SJ and DR on a surface.

P

 

[helencharlie]

Thank you for your replies. Charlie had just learnt how to bascule properly over the jumps as a technique instead of racing at them, when all the navicular returned again. At this moment in time he is completely sound, so I am planning on building his fitness up again slowly and returning him to a carefully managed work program. I am very lucky as we have a venue near by which has a martin Collins surface on it, so if we do jump we will be using that venue only, as other surfaces around here are dodgy.

 

[TwoStroke]

Thin soles would worry me a little, particularly if they didn't improve barefoot; have you tried improving his feet through diet? If so, I'd probably want to test for metabolic conditions which could be contributing.

Also bear in mind that his heels will have less support now he has shoes on, and the shock absorption of the back of the foot will be reduced, so I probably wouldn't jump just yet if it were me.

 

[KatB]

I wouldn't have a problem as long as the horse is sound. Equipak as mentioned can be helpful, but also look at using pads and magic cushion, as it's cheaper than equipak and helps them grow a massive amount of foot, so will help his soles thicken too. I also found it a lot grippier than equipak. Has your horse actually been diagnosed with navicular through xrays, or is it heel pain being interpreted as navicular?

 

[helencharlie]

KatB yes he has been diagnosed with navicular by xray with changes to the navicluar bone itself in the right foot. What are magic cushions and how do they work? This sounds very interesting.

 

[KatB]

Magic cushion is like a fibre based gel which gets packed into the foot, and then gets a pad added over the top, and then the shoe nailed on as normal. It is that good at absorbing concussion my farrier says he has had thin soled eventers be able to canter over gravel without a sore step with it on. They use it a lot in America to take bruising out of the feet after 3 day events etc, but it can stay on for a whole shoeing cycle. My mare loved it, and is in bar shoes at the moment for an imbalance, but I am pretty sure she will be back in this when she returns to normal shoes as it improved her heels more than anything else has! Search the forum, as I did a post on it

 

[maggiesmum]

Current thinking is that x-rays alone are not enough for a diagnosis, soft tissue damage rather than changes to the navicular bone tends to be the cause of lameness in most cases.

Echo two stroke though, I'd be looking at the diet and possible metabolic issues if the thin soles didnt resolve barefoot.

 

[lachlanandmarcus]

The other thing is how the farrier has been trimming: my girl only developed thicker soles and concavity once I moved from very traditional farrier to a really good trimmer and also got them to come often (4 to 5 weeks) so she could really monitor and trim gradually.

Amazing progress in 12 months, and pony is now landing heel first and rock crunching.

I can't see how shoeing a navicular pony will help it long term, since it's shoeing that stops the navicular being in the right position/angle in the first place, but hey ho....