Navicular

DGIN - how's you horse getting on? It's be interesting to know, esp as rupertsmum took the barefoot route suggested by so many and her horses is totally fixed.
 
brucea said:
P.S. I used to be a strong traditional minded shoeing enthusiast, and then I fell in with a real bad crowd
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Me too.lol. My boy was diagnosed with navicular, turned out 6 months later after an MRI that he had a lateral collateral strain to his near fore. He is now at Rockley Farm and doing really well, he is on their blog under Bailey W. We had tried every shoe under the sun and nothing worked, he was sound on a straight line but was short striding and lame on a circle. It was my last option after 18 months of trying everything, IRAP, tildren and so on. I would recommend going barefoot I was at my wits end and now it looks as though he is going to be alright, fingers crossed.x
 
brucea said:
P.S. I used to be a strong traditional minded shoeing enthusiast, and then I fell in with a real bad crowd
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Lainey123 said:
Me too.lol. My boy was diagnosed with navicular, turned out 6 months later after an MRI that he had a lateral collateral strain to his near fore. He is now at Rockley Farm and doing really well, he is on their blog under Bailey W. We had tried every shoe under the sun and nothing worked, he was sound on a straight line but was short striding and lame on a circle. It was my last option after 18 months of trying everything, IRAP, tildren and so on. I would recommend going barefoot I was at my wits end and now it looks as though he is going to be alright, fingers crossed.x
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Well clearly both of you have come under the influence of some sinister barefoot cult ;)
 
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criso said:
Well clearly both of you have come under the influence of some sinister barefoot cult ;)
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OH! Can we please have a "Sinister Barefoot Cult" membership? :) I feel the need to add to my siggy...


BTW, just finished a 6-day trek across the Highlands...riding 6--8 hours a day...8 of 10 horses were barefoot. Boots were used some of the time.
 
Dammit you're not going to go telling everyone that we use eye of toad and toe of newt with the brewer's yeast to get them sound, are you? That's supposed to be a secret between cult members :D
 
My horse first went lame in May/June 2009 and was finally diagnoised with Navicular in Jan 2010.

I have tried absolutely everything (several steriod injections, Tildren, Naviculex, egg bar shoes) and he is still very lame. He deteriorated rapidly a couple of months ago but seems to have stabalised now however he is still lame and is on 1 bute a day and devils relief to keep him comfortable.

I am yet to find anything successful but have researched the final option for me which is going barefoot. He is going down to Rockley Farm in the next month and I hope the work they do there will help him.
 
My vet has actually referred to me as a 'witch', but in the same breath he also encouraged me and I quote 'I don't know what you are doing, but keep on doing it because it obviously works.'

So I did, and it does :-)

But the only cauldron I possess is the one I make the weekly casserole in :-)
 
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Luciejjkk said:
I am yet to find anything successful but have researched the final option for me which is going barefoot. He is going down to Rockley Farm in the next month and I hope the work they do there will help him.
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Good luck with that - Frankie loved being down there and he is going from strength to strength since he's been back.
 
Hi, sorry I haven't been on her in ages!!

Ginger is still out in the field but is now 99% SOUND! There is the odd stride going downhill that you can feel it but nothing really. I have been walk, trotting and cantering in the school and he is really comfortable :-) I am very pleased with the farrier he has been great. I am going to leave ginger out over winter to have some time off, I have taken his back shoes off and he has now got normal shoes on the front, farrier said that he doesn’t need heart bars on anymore and also with him not being ridden he doesn’t need the extra support anyway. The vets have still never 100% found out that its Navicular but if it is (he showed all the normal signs) he has made great progress. I hope others out there do too! I think its personal preference whether you go barefoot or for the shoes, in my case the shoes seem to have done the job :-) I hope when I bring him into work in Jan Feb time he is still coping as well :-)
 
I also got some more pictures of his feet so you can all see the difference. Im sorry they are muddy again, he's in the field so there is no hope

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So pleased for you ! My horse was diagnosed with navicular syndrome earlier this year and she too is sound and now hacking 7/8 miles without problem in all gaits. My vet and farrier worked together at each shoeing with wonderful results.
 
Hello,

I trotted ginger up the other day to check that he was sound in his 'normal' shoes and he wasnt :-( same leg he was short on before all the heart bars, rang the farrier and he said if you are definatly not doing anything with him then we will take his fronts off too, so now ginger has no shoes on and is barefoot in the field with his friends for the winter! I wasnt going to ride him over the winter anyway as he needs some good time off!

He is a bit foot sore atm as he has always has shoes on but improving day by day, i have given him some bute too to help him through it. I will just leave him out now untill Jan/Feb time untill i decide if he is sound enought to get shoes (heartbars) on again for him to start work as he was sound with heart bars on, he must still need that extra support, or i may keep him barefoot??

Anyway he is happy out in the field, he has a shelter and a big bale of haylage - what more could he want!

I'll just have to see how he goes!
 
DGIN said:
what more could he want!
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A trim which is perfectly suited to his problems as frequently as he needs to keep him moving in a way which will heal his injuries. For a horse I know, a six week trim did not keep her sound and a two week trim looks as if it is doing the trick nicely. Other horses need longer intervals. Some need to be allowed to grow deviations in the hoof wall to support problems higher in the leg and some have heels that shoot forwards or outwards if they grow too long.

A barefoot cure for navicular is not just to remove the shoes and chuck them in a field, I'm afraid. He'd probably also benefit from staying in regular work. If you are simply laying him off for the winter prior to putting shoes back on, fair enough. But if you want the barefoot to produce the cure that it can for his syndrome, it may take a bit more input which plenty of people on here can advise you about.
 
I will ensure that ginger feet get trimmed as often as they need it, I have been working closely with the farrier to ensure that we are doing the best for ginger and I will keep on doing that as he means everything to me. I do realise that I can’t just leave him in the field for the winter, I am still feeding him and checking him daily. He is happy. I am not going to ride him at all over the winter as he deserves some time out to just chill. Why do you think that he would benefit being kept in work? I still dont understand Navicular as there are so many different answers :-)
 
DGIN said:
I will ensure that ginger feet get trimmed as often as they need it, I have been working closely with the farrier to ensure that we are doing the best for ginger and I will keep on doing that as he means everything to me. I do realise that I can’t just leave him in the field for the winter, I am still feeding him and checking him daily. He is happy. I am not going to ride him at all over the winter as he deserves some time out to just chill. Why do you think that he would benefit being kept in work? I still dont understand Navicular as there are so many different answers :-)
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Work tends to make their feet grow more quickly and a certain amount of stress, in the good sense of that word, results in a stronger repair of soft tissue injuries (which is why tendon injuries are now worked at walk as soon as possible). In addition, if your horse's syndrome is, as is shown by MRI scans to be the usual case, actually a soft tissue injury (usually DDFT, sometimes impar or collateral ligaments) then controlled work would benefit, since it will not only cause a stronger repair but prevent adhesions that can cause more trouble than the original injury. Nic Barker used a great expression on her blog the other week "rest the injury, not the horse". Having said all that, if it suits you over the winter to rough him off completely, then he'll probably do fine if his feet are kept balanced and his mineral and vitamin levels kept up. Hopefully, you'll have a much sounder horse in the spring. Then watch for the spring grass. If you bring him back into work in spring and he goes unsound, don't immediately blame the old injuries, it could be a reaction to too much spring grass, which can be felt very early in a barefoot horse as "footiness".

Good luck with this, I hope he comes sound for you.
 
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