NAVICULAR diagnosed this week :(

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abailey

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Hi,
My 7yo has been diagnosed with having early stages of Navicular Syndrome (via x rays, bone pitting visable). Shocked but coming to terms with it :(

I'm looking for experiences of barefoot rehabilitation for Navicular horses....good or bad. I am hoping to send her up to Rockley Farm as soon as they have a place for her and will intend to keep a log of her progress on here. As there are very few 'after' x rays for horses that have 'recovered' going barefoot, I'm hoping (and praying she may be one of them) to have x rays done at the 'after' stage.

Please post all your Navicular experiences .

Many, many thanks x
 
:( Rubbish news :( Good news is most seems to make an full recovery barefoot, so fingers crossed!

Put Navicular into the search and you'll get loads of results!
 
Sorry to hear that! Navicular is still a dreaded word *hugs*.

The good news is that Rockley has a high success rate, and Nic is super helpful. You'll get tonnes of support from the BT if you want it - check out the phoenixhorse forum, there are tonnes of navicular rehabs on there :).
 
Your xrays mean almost nothing. It is widely recognised that if you xray a hundred sound horses something like half of them will have the changes you describe.

Research has shown that almost all horses with "navicular" diagnosed from xrays actually have soft tissue injuries which are not that difficult to cure in about 80% of cases. Rockley Farm has now done well over 50 horses and not one of them failed to improve to the point that it stayed in work, most of them go back to everything the owner was doing when the horse was sound, and one jumped at Hickstead this last weekend.

Do not despair. It is great news that you are going for a barefoot rehab before conventional medical treatment.

Myown personal experience is that I took on a horse with bad xrays who had been remedially shod, and had adequan, tildren and HLA and was still lame. He had been lame for a long time. Within 12 weeks he was out competing at dressage and at 13 weeks he went round a farm ride and popped a couple of tiny fences, with boots on. In the two years since he has not had a lame day, never need boots, has hunted (jumping 40 fences in the process), won an elementary dressage and won classes at his National breed show.

There is a great prognosis for your horse, keep your pecker up!
 
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abailey - I took my horse to Rockley on Sunday. I was very impressed and he seems to have settled in straight away. I'm sure he'll enjoy meeting Milly :)
 
abailey said:
Hi,
My 7yo has been diagnosed with having early stages of Navicular Syndrome (via x rays, bone pitting visable). Shocked but coming to terms with it :(

I'm looking for experiences of barefoot rehabilitation for Navicular horses....good or bad. I am hoping to send her up to Rockley Farm as soon as they have a place for her and will intend to keep a log of her progress on here. As there are very few 'after' x rays for horses that have 'recovered' going barefoot, I'm hoping (and praying she may be one of them) to have x rays done at the 'after' stage.

Please post all your Navicular experiences .

Many, many thanks x
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Navicular? So what :D?

Navicular ain't nothing nowadays :p

There are a bunch of horses from HHO at least who have come right. From the top of my head, here's a couple of them.....

http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=514495&highlight=navicular

and a few months later
http://rockleyfarm.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/dom-strides-out.html

http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=360998&highlight=navicular+ginger

and now
http://rockleyfarm.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/3-of-best.html

This is my friend's horse, now sounds and competing dressage since 2010.

http://www.progressivehorse.co.uk/html/shoko.html
 
abailey, my horse went to Rockley last year. He had already had a year of "conventional treatment" - remedial farriery, tildren, adequan, steroid injections etc etc before going there. If I had my time over I would have sent him straight there as the first port of call!

He has a diagnosis of a bony spur above the navicular bursa, some ringbone & arthritis. Rockley was his last chance, he's now being ridden 6 days a week in all gaits, schooling for 2 of those days.

It isn't easy, we have had ups & downs most especially during the grass growing season but Nic has been there for us throughout everything.

I cannot recommend Rockley highly enough. Be ready to forget everything you know & let your horse guide you. One of the things I have found most difficult is not to interfere with what Solar is trying to do - everytime I manage that he benefits :)

Navicular really isn't an issue for us anymore - he is the best he's ever been and we couldn't be happier :-D

Good luck for Thursday and look forward to seeing your story on the blog xx
 
Lancelot said:
abailey, my horse went to Rockley last year. He had already had a year of "conventional treatment" - remedial farriery, tildren, adequan, steroid injections etc etc before going there. If I had my time over I would have sent him straight there as the first port of call!

He has a diagnosis of a bony spur above the navicular bursa, some ringbone & arthritis. Rockley was his last chance, he's now being ridden 6 days a week in all gaits, schooling for 2 of those days.

It isn't easy, we have had ups & downs most especially during the grass growing season but Nic has been there for us throughout everything.

I cannot recommend Rockley highly enough. Be ready to forget everything you know & let your horse guide you. One of the things I have found most difficult is not to interfere with what Solar is trying to do - everytime I manage that he benefits :)

Navicular really isn't an issue for us anymore - he is the best he's ever been and we couldn't be happier :-D

Good luck for Thursday and look forward to seeing your story on the blog xx
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Great to read this, my horse has the same things as yours and I tried the remedial shoeing, joint injection route which did not work!
He is now barefoot and progressing even though I am doing at home!
I do have Lucy P helping me!
 
I have one who was diagnosed a few months ago with navicular in the form of soft tissue damage in her feet. Her shoes came off immediately and after 2 remedial trims - trimmer, not farrier as I've found even the most b/f supportive farriers to be a little to agressive with their trims - she was markedly better. I'd even go as far as saying she was sound on concrete :) She's now turned out and in foal but is sound when bombing about with the other mares and her feet are changing rapidly. I have no concerns about her coming back into work next year, if I hadn't put her in foal I'm sure I would be back on her now.

Even if you can't get into or afford Rockley it is possible to do it at home with the right work.

Good luck - navicular no longer needs to be the end of the world :)
 
Hi abailey and Loubiepoo, my boy joined your two at Rockley at the weekend, after MRI showed DDFT lesions and Impar ligament damage, as well as arthritis in coffin joints :( so hopefully things can only get better. Fingers crossed :)
 
Hi Victoria I actually only met two of the others liveries at the weekend, the others must have all been out enjoying themselves on the tracks. I met Rocky who apparently my boy has teamed up with - two cheeky boys together, and I think it may have been Milly - a lovely dark bay. It was a glorious day when I was down there but it's back to raining again now, poor Nic she must have webbed feet. :)
 
Scarlett said:
I have one who was diagnosed a few months ago with navicular in the form of soft tissue damage in her feet. Her shoes came off immediately and after 2 remedial trims - trimmer, not farrier as I've found even the most b/f supportive farriers to be a little to agressive with their trims - she was markedly better. I'd even go as far as saying she was sound on concrete :) She's now turned out and in foal but is sound when bombing about with the other mares and her feet are changing rapidly. I have no concerns about her coming back into work next year, if I hadn't put her in foal I'm sure I would be back on her now.

Even if you can't get into or afford Rockley it is possible to do it at home with the right work.

Good luck - navicular no longer needs to be the end of the world :)
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Like this post navicular is no longer the death knell it was when I was in my teens.
I hope all goes well and let us know how he goes on .
 
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