They still jump barbed wire fences hunting in the UK and I had a Belgian vet tell me that they “like the horse who are a little neuro because they move and jump better.” They also cull their breeding rejects in western European countries by sending them to slaughter. I don’t know that I’d hold Europe up as a shining beacon of animal welfare.
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I had my Appaloosa nerved with a low neurectomy in both front legs during the early 1980’s. It was a common procedure for navicular. I had it done at a equine hospital affiliated with a local racetrack. I worked great and I rode and jumped him for years after and then donated him to a senior citizen trail riding home. I believe he passed away at 26. The nerving caused him no problems or at least none that I was aware of. Different times had different protocols and therapies.I know people use Osphos and Tildren along with corrective shoeing today. A veterinarian would be the best to discuss about appropriate therapies.
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Wow, how nice to be validated. I was blown away that the diclofenac worked so well, and was so cheap, and wasn’t later pulled off the market, lol.
I haven’t used Tramadol, but will keep it in mind, we might have the same physiology, lol.
Thank you for posting this. I have been following this thread just out of boredom and curiosity. But your experience with sidebone got my attention. My forever horse has, as you describe, honking sidebone on one side. He has been out on lease the last couple years and it started giving him some trouble this fall. He is getting this winter off along with Arthramid injections, then coming home to me in the spring with the expectation that he will return to full work. But its good to have this info in my back pocket in case I ever need it. I would spend obscene amounts of money on this horse to keep him happy and I have started worrying myself in to a tizzy about his sidebone.
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I know on this forum we are big on “there are worse things in life than death.”
But is death (because a horse who is in 24/7 unmanageable pain should be euthed) better than a neurectomy to continue an easy life with a kid?
I personally don’t think so. I think it balances the need of the human (kid safe horse) with the needs of the horse (pain-free, well cared for).
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Yep. This thread has actually shocked me a bit, and I’m actually a bit disappointed. Doesn’t entirely shock me coming from the US though, so there’s that.
Not my horse(s) so not my choice(s), but this conversation starkly contrasts those I’ve had whilst living in on the content (Europe) and the UK.
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And I run on gabapentin, meloxicam and tramacet. They make the difference between me being functional and enjoying what I do, or being mostly non-functional and hating life.
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I don’t think anyone said “you should put your horse down now” as it’s the only other choice. I actually said:
A horse whose pain is not controlled by daily painkillers is in a lot of pain. IIWM, I’d be retiring him with a view to euthanasia if you can’t get the pain under control - not patching him up more so you can ride. But: your post doesn’t mention what your vet says?
As I said above, I myself asked a vet for a neurectomy on my old horse, was turned down and given alternate pain control (equioxx, bute) that kept him galloping around for years - retired in pasture. So I’ve been down this road. There are options but if you cannot keep a horse pain free then yes - I think everyone agreed euthanasia is better than a life in pain.
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Hah! I’ve lived half my life in the UK and half in the USA. I can tell you this from my direct experience that when I moved to the USA the level of animal care was shocking to me.
People are not jumping barbed wire fences all over the UK - a tiny percentage of UK hunters would ever consider risking their horses like that, and there’s always a way around a wire fence.
One Belgian vet saying “they like horses a little neuro” is so bonkers I can’t begin, and this can only be an expression of exasperation with the state of breeding or just one loony person’s statement, not “The General Status of Vet Opinion in the EU” - I’d love to see any kind of proof that breeders are really into breeding neuro horses on purpose. Perhaps what he meant was “WB breeders are going for exaggerated movement and as we’re finding, that can mean they have verging-on-neuro symptoms” - that is certainly something that’s being more and more talked about.
And lastly, yes - breeding stock must be culled if it’s producing incorrect babies. But culling means removing from your breeding program, not necessarily slaughtering. It can mean retiring, rehoming or even euthanasia, but not always as most people think, a truck to the slaughter house. (But even so, have you seen the legislation around how humanely horses that are sent for slaughter in the EU must be treated? In the US it’s appalling by comparison… and non-culled horses here stand in a field and starve to death as we see painfully often. )
By the way if you think culling doesn’t happen in the USA, please see slaughter stats. AQHA horses have been the majority of slaughtered animals in the US (or actually slaughtered in Mexico or Canada, wherever they end up) In this article alone we see US breeders also practice culling: “Bob perpetuated the stallion’s best qualities through careful line breeding, relentless testing and selection and rigorous culling.”
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Sorry if this has been mentioned- but what about a navicular bursa injection? They seem to be quite a bit more effective for heel pain as compared to coffin joint injections.
Shoes and pads also sound appropriate despite what kind of riding this horse is doing. If he’s carrying your daughter, that’s reason enough.
Please keep us posted! I will read all responses at night when I have a 
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Oh don’t get me wrong, I think animal- and horse-keeping in many parts of the US is horrific and am not in any way defending them by saying Europe is also bad. And agree 150% with you on the slaughter perspective. But just because one country is worse than the other doesn’t make the less bad one ok.
ps I wish that Belgian vet was a one-off or a little loony, but he’s an exceptional sporthorse vet used by a lot of the big showjumping barns over there. Maybe something was lost in translation a bit but his english was truly excellent…
wow - that’s really, really sad to hear 
This is extremely true. The procedure is much much more common than most people think.
I’ve talked about this before on this forum but didn’t bring it up in this thread, but in 2017 Storm had a major injury to his pastern and nerved himself. Amazingly it cut nothing important except for the nerve running to his right front foot (an an ARTERY. But luckily my vet got there in time to stop him from bleeding out.) My vet told me, don’t worry about it, he probably won’t even notice, and likely the nerves will grow back together. A month after that injury he was competing again. Zero issues. Jumping, fast turns, galloping through Hitchcock woods, being turned out in a very hilly pasture; no issues. My experience from that has really changed the way I look at the procedure.
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So… not to throw a wrench into things for you, but it is entirely possible that my old horse’s sidebone was not actually the issue, but instead it was one of the ligaments in the foot that there was no way to image back in the 90s prior to MRI. Sidebones actually very rarely cause issues, but without being able to see other structures in the foot, they took a lot of blame. Just something to consider.
All good points. He had a couple shoeing jobs that appeared to be pushing his foot outside, putting more strain on his sidebone. This has been corrected and his feet are in better alignment. So it’s possible that the problem has solved itself. He is my one-in-a-million, so I instantly began to catastrophize the situation. I’m likely making a mountain out of a molehill. But perhaps there are options in the event that the gnarly knot decides to be more of a problem in the future.
I have a 18 year old mare( i adore) who has off/ on lameness due to sidebone as well. She came back sound after diagnosis ( Dec 2019) with the Winter off and I rode her all the next year.
Last Winter she was mildly off( only at the trot) and I gave her this whole past year off as I was recovering from a broken ankle and starting my youngster and with a drought the ground was like concrete.
Just slowly starting her back this month and so far she is sound. I wonder about the chemical option???
I’ll share a success story, after donning my flame suit… My retiree had a standing neurectomy in fall of 2021. He was 25 and overall healthy but increasingly struggled with having his front feet shod. Over about six months he went from standing with the lead rope looped over his neck during shoeing to being shod in a stall so he could lean on the wall, and even that was a struggle for all involved. He also started pulling shoes like crazy because he couldn’t stand up long enough for my farrier to get good nails in. We tried Bute, Previcox, Robaxin, etc. We tried him barefoot for a few months but he was very very gimpy. ETA that we also tried a variety of weird and different shoeing setups including Natural Balance shoes/pads, composite shoes, etc. I was starting to think I’d have to put him down for everyone’s safety, even though he toodled around happily the rest of the time.
I started to consider a standing neurectomy after my farrier mentioned how successful it had been for another client’s older horse with similar issues. Three vets were involved in this decision and they were all supportive. My sports med vet did PD blocks one day while the farrier was here, and he stood completely relaxed with the lead rope looped over his neck again! I emailed a surgeon I’ve known forever, who saved this horse’s life when he was 12, and he said he’d be happy to do it but had just moved out of state. He referred me to the surgeon who ended up doing the procedure, at a major vet hospital. It’s not an incredibly rare procedure…just not talked about that much. I think doing it standing is less common, but the only way I would do it at his age.
He was at the clinic for less than 5 hours and only required normal wound care. I removed the stitches myself in a few weeks. He can be shod comfortably again and hasn’t pulled a single shoe since (knock on wood). It may not last forever, but he doesn’t have forever anyway, and it seemed like a better option than putting down a horse because he struggled for half an hour every 4-5 weeks. Obviously if he were 10 years younger and still a performance horse I would have approached things differently, but for him it has been a good solution.
Here’s the fat fuzzball in all his glory:
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Personally I think mine is a ways off from any of these options, but again, I catastrophize when it comes to my favorite red beast. This horse never has flexed or jogged “clean”; he has worked hard and played harder his whole life. Lots of wear and tear, mostly his doing. But rides sound. He’s the epitome of the kind of horse someone could miss out on if they place too much focus on a PPE. He’s always been perfectly sound to ride and jump, until this past fall. It does seem that most of his soreness was from an unbalanced shoe job that shoved too much foot towards the sidebone. Balanced shoeing more often and a little better preventative maintenance will likely go a long ways. But I’ll probably take myself down an internet rabbit hole on chemical options, because why not?
How does a horse not jog “clean” which I am taking to mean sound, but then is perfectly sound under saddle?
Not being snarky, I’ve just never dealt with that, personally. I’ve seen some horses to move so great on the lunge, but really shine under saddle. They weren’t lame though, just put in more effort when asked to by the rider vs being allowed to shlep around on the lunge.
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As in PPE type jog on a tight circle on hard ground.
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