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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 325
 
Location: Florida | Hi All !
Looking for positive responses only please ! I had to have my 9 year old mare done - she is still on stall rest ! One more week to go. I would like some positive feedback from those that have experience and have gone back to running your horses ! Thanks in advance !
Edited by GoTreeless 2015-07-18 10:43 AM
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Defense Attorney for The Horse
Location: Claremore, OK | I've ridden a few barrel horses, a jumping horse and a couple different head horses that were nerved. Didn't have any problems and it definitely extended the length of time that they could be used without pain. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1131
| I've never rode one myself, but I've seen more bad than good from it. My friend runs one and he seems to fall down a lot more than other horses. I don't have personal experience with them though.
ETA: That horse could just be really clutsy though. So take it with a grain of salt.
Edited by FlyingHigh1454 2015-07-18 3:06 PM
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 I hate cooking and cleaning
Posts: 3314
Location: Jersey Girl | The horse in my avatar was denerved. I ran her for a year and a half without issue but then retired her due to an unrelated issue. |
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Miracle in the Making
Posts: 4013
| i would not they can/t feel and if they break a foot they don/t know it |
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 Veteran
Posts: 103
Location: Georgia | I had my horse's heels nerves in January. It took him some time (couple of months) to get used to not having the feeling in his heels but came back running better than ever before. He is now off for an unrelated injury. He's an accident waiting to happen. |
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 Expert
Posts: 5293
| My mom ran at the NFR on a horse that was nerved in both front feet. So that's a positive. But same horse was running through the ally (which ended up running through the headers box) and he picked up the score line rope accidentally. They are held in the ground with nails on each end. It wrapped around his leg, and nail went through heel bulb and he wouldn't pull up. Couldn't feel it. Freak accident but can happen. |
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Veteran
Posts: 234
| I ran a horse for years that was nerved and he won a lot more after he was nerved. I wish I had done it sooner. I nerved a second one and he ended up foundering after getting an infection in his foot and I had to put him down. The first horse I kept his feet packed with equithane and I wished I had done it with the second horse. The only reason I didn't is bc the vets and shoers thought it was unnecessary. The second horse, was perhaps a freak deal. He was really radical and fell a lot, but he did that prior to nerving him too. He was better after I nerved him. I wouldn't be scared to nerve one again. The first horse was good for a long time. Its a chance, but if you can't get by on them as they are its something that you have to consider. There are more horses running out there that are nerved than you think. BUT a lot of the success is on who does the surgery. Get a BAD ASS vet to do it and one that does them all the time. |
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Boot Detective
Posts: 1900
| I have ridden a few and seen a bunch that are nerved. One of mine years ago kept straining collateral ligaments and staying gimpy but would ride out of it. After spending a fortune doing injections, shock wave therapy, etc.....I finally agreed with the vet and nerved him. That was the best thing I ever did for that horse and he has ran for another 8-10 years and is still doing great. You do have to be diligent about cleaning their feet out every day since they can't feel something in their foot. I agree that you need to use a very good vet that is very fluent with the surgery.
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 325
Location: Florida | Thanks everybody !! Keep them coming ! I am nervously excited to see how she does after as she was doing so good before - but I could tell there was just "something" there. My vet said he could take my money and do injections - but if it was his horse he would go right to de-nerving her - so hence the surgery...she seems to be doing great - still bandaged of course - but I can tell just hand walking her her "something" is totally gone !
Sad part is I have only had her since December and took a chance on her in a trade - she needed everything !! Her feet were absolutely horrible and my vet said to get her angles right and lets go from there - so here we are after him xraying her in December ....and this is NOT a cheap horse !! I'm glad I was able to help her - she is so full of heart and try and we all know those are qualities that just can't be trained into one !!
She is in pour in pads for this go round of shoeing - done when I brought her home last Monday ....do you all have pads on your horses ??
Edited by GoTreeless 2015-07-19 2:56 PM
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Veteran
Posts: 103
Location: Georgia | My vet doesn't want to put pads on mine. He said I need to be able to keep an eye on his feet. He had pads on a horse that had a bad abscess and they did not know until the pad was pulled off. |
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Location: midwest mama | Back in the old days, they used to nerve the entire foot and those horses had lots of problems because they had little feeling in their whole foot.
Nowadays, though, they usually just cut the nerves in the heel region, so about the back third of the foot has no feeling. It's not perfect, but it's much better than the way they used to do it.
I had one that I ran for years that had been nerved the new way. She had no problems whatsoever and I won a lot on her. She was nerved when I bought her. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 989
| When you nerve a horse, does that make it so they are completely broken down faster than if you didnt nerve them, and let them retire while they could still do .. something.. comfortably?
Reason being, is one vet said that is an option for one of my horses, but he is comfortable trail riding, just not running barrels, I dont want to run barrels having him nerved if he is going to have to be put down or demolishes his hoof in 4 years, compared to 10 of having him as a trail horse.
So, I guess, how much faster or do they deteriorate faster being nerved and ran? |
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Boot Detective
Posts: 1900
| Super important info I left out earlier: Do an MRI on the feet prior to nerving to determine the source of the pain. This is crucial. If the pain is caused by inflammation or something minor that simply causes pain, then de-nerving can be fabulous for horse and owner. One horse that I hate to discuss but will, so this all makes sense, is a young mare I rode for a client and she was becoming an instant rock star. I LOVED this filly!!! She was slightly "off" some days, not a limp, but just felt a little off. I took her to the vet and had her checked out. Xrays confirmed she had cysts on the bottom of her coffin bones. The cysts were rubbing holes in her digital flexor tendon that attaches to the bottom of the coffin bone. We called the owner from the vet clinic and the vet told her she needed a lot of time off and a lot of medical attention to try to stop the cysts from getting bigger and to let the digital flexor heal. The owner agreed and sent a driver to pick up the mare so his own local vet could take care of her. Instead of doing the right thing, they nerved her and continued to run her. Within a short few months, she came out of the arena in Jackson, MS so lame, she had to be put down. They collected the insurance and trashed an exceptional filly. It has been a few years and to say I am still livid is an understatement.
To reply to another poster's comments, nerving one doesn't make them deteriorate faster in my opinion. It gets them relief. If they are in pain every time that foot hits the ground, they start traveling funny to avoid it, and then it snowballs into more compensatory injuries. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 989
| That makes sense. So, if it is a pain issue, then I see the point, but if it is a pain issue from deterioration or something that is going to get worse... then it can do more damage. Thanks. |
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 338
Location: NE TX | I had one a few years ago that the surgery did not work when I nerved him. If I had not gone to a local vet and gone to a surgeon to do it, maybe it would have worked, but it didn't and he got dangerous as he became more and more painful due to the irritated nerves that were in his feet. He was great on a trail ride and would do anything so I sold him as a trail horse ONLY!
As to someones question about putting pads. I have a friend that has pads on her mares feet. Her soles on her feet were getting thin so front shoes were put on along with pads and it has made a world of difference. The mare went from maybe placing in the 3-4D to mid 1D. We always knew she had it in her, but that something was making her turns painful.
Good luck to you and your horse,  Praying that your story turns out better than mine and hopefully as good as my friends story.
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LOOKING TO HEAR POSITIVE RESPONSES FROM THOSE THAT HAVE NERVED FOR NAVICULAR AND RUNNING BARRELS !