slight navicular change?
ok so I have like 3 questions open right now, but I’m getting my first horse and there’s a lot to ask. I’ve been searching to by a horse every day for at least 5 months. I finally found an incredible horse, I’m completley in love with him and want to buy him, but he happens to be the only horse I looked at with something wrong with him. He has slight navicular change in his front legs. The man says that it only bothers him after long trail rides (over 2 hours) and he just gives him Bute and he’s fine. Also if he stands for long time he gets stiff. Judging from that, how many years do you think I would have on him? They said 10 or more. He’s 10 now.
thnx
“Navicular changes” are part of wear and tear / ageing, and happen to a heck of a lot of horses. If you were to xray the feet of all 10 year olds in work, the vast majority would have changes to the navicular structure.
The only person who can answer your questions is your vet. Have the horse vetted – he can go into detail about the particular changes this horse is going through, and what sort of workload the horse will be able to cope with.
My mother had an excellent saying: “you’re going to encounter plenty of problems – why bother buying problems in?” I’d be reluctant to buy a horse who had been diagnosed with navicular, but it does depend on what you intend to do with the horse and how his condition is.
