Bradley's Navicular Story
Hi everyone! Today's post is going to be about Bradley's Navicular story. This was a very hard post for me to write and I cried when I wrote this because this was a very dark and scary time in my life. Anyways lets get on with the post. Please enjoy! It all started when I was ten years old. I had just gotten my first horse and felt like the luckiest little girl in the world. My dreams had suddenly become a reality.
( Such a pretty boy :D )
For the first two years he was completely fine. But every once in a while he would stumble. We didn't think anything of it at the time. Then about two years after I got him we went to our first show. So far the show was going great and we had placed really well in our flat classes. Then all of a sudden while warming him up for our jumping class I noticed that he felt a little off so I told my mom. She agreed with me and thought he looked a little off so we ended up not doing our class. We gave Bradley a few weeks off to recover. But he was still lame so we called the vet out. Our suspicions had been confirmed. Bradley had been diagnosed with navicular syndrome. And if that wasn't bad enough it was severe navicular.
We tried lots of different methods to get him sound such as joint injections, bute, and special shoes but nothing was working. We tried various methods for about a year with no luck so we thought we were going to have to put him down. When I heard this I cried my heart out. Why did I have to loose my best friend? Why did this have to happen to my sweet baby boy? Why did I have to say goodbye way to early? Then suddenly he made a miraculous recovery and was sound! I was so happy! After he was sound I was able to start riding him again. Since he was no longer able to jump we decided to switch over to dressage. So far we have been doing dressage for about two years now and have loved every moment of it. Last summer I even took him to our first dressage show and we placed second! Having a horse with navicular has taught me lots of valuable life lessons such as being grateful for what you have, and never loosing hope. Thank you for reading this post. I hope you enjoyed! :)
( Such a pretty boy :D )
For the first two years he was completely fine. But every once in a while he would stumble. We didn't think anything of it at the time. Then about two years after I got him we went to our first show. So far the show was going great and we had placed really well in our flat classes. Then all of a sudden while warming him up for our jumping class I noticed that he felt a little off so I told my mom. She agreed with me and thought he looked a little off so we ended up not doing our class. We gave Bradley a few weeks off to recover. But he was still lame so we called the vet out. Our suspicions had been confirmed. Bradley had been diagnosed with navicular syndrome. And if that wasn't bad enough it was severe navicular.
We tried lots of different methods to get him sound such as joint injections, bute, and special shoes but nothing was working. We tried various methods for about a year with no luck so we thought we were going to have to put him down. When I heard this I cried my heart out. Why did I have to loose my best friend? Why did this have to happen to my sweet baby boy? Why did I have to say goodbye way to early? Then suddenly he made a miraculous recovery and was sound! I was so happy! After he was sound I was able to start riding him again. Since he was no longer able to jump we decided to switch over to dressage. So far we have been doing dressage for about two years now and have loved every moment of it. Last summer I even took him to our first dressage show and we placed second! Having a horse with navicular has taught me lots of valuable life lessons such as being grateful for what you have, and never loosing hope. Thank you for reading this post. I hope you enjoyed! :)
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