Bandit's Navicular Saga

New year, new show season! The first show on Feb. 20 was rained out (in sunny So Cal) and moved to March 6. Bandit and I are trying to get ready for the new year and had some issues reappear. Here is what "navicular changes" looks like on it's way to becoming full blown navicular syndrome.

June 3, 2009 - Bandit comes up lame in left front foot for the first time, had the barn's vet do a lameness exam, xrays and injection in coffin joint

June 24, 2009 - Bandit still having problems, took him to a vet that I've used before, he does lameness exam, xray's left foot, recommends 4 months rest, diagnosis was possible lesion causing pain

Nov. 2009 - Bandit was sound after being in a pasture for 5 months where he managed to cut his foot twice in that time (requiring other vet visits), went for a follow up to June vet visit, xrays again, prescribed isoxsuprine, diagnosis was "navicular changes"

Dec. 2009 - I don't remember this one since the trainer took him but he got an injection in the foot/Bursa from same vet. Don't think he was lame, probably just following someone's recommendation.

Sept. 2010 - Bandit was lame again, got a recommendation to go to a new vet for a new procedure - chemical neurectomy using immodium. Had lameness exam, both feet blocked, and injections in both feet. This had the possibility of lasting six months or more, and could be redone when necessary. This seemed to work fine and was the treatment plan for the future. Quit the isoxsuprine since it didn't seem to be helping.



February 2011 - Bandit starting becoming lame after pivoting to the left. He did it once with me, and a couple more times with the trainer. I was surpised to get a recommendation to take him to a new vet for another new treatment - Tildren. He got a lameness exam, xrays, bursa injections in both feet and Tildren injection on left front. The xrays showed severe navicular in the left front (where the dark spots are in the square) and mild in the right. The bursa injections will lubricate the bursa to prevent bone to bone friction. These have to be redone every 6 months to a year. The Tildren takes away the bone pain. He said Bandit has been in pain for awhile. He also said he wished he saw the horse a couple of years ago. Bandit has been in treatment since he first showed symptoms of a problem. It's very odd that all four vets had different ideas on what to do and when. Maybe that's just the nature of navicular problems.

Its hard to believe I have a nine year old show horse (my first one) that wouldn't pass a vet check if I were to ever think about selling him. This is after I spent a bunch of money trying to take care of him and following every recommendation from people more experienced than me. There is a good chance this will work but no one can say for sure if it will or how long it might last. If it doesn't work, Bandit's show career will be over. I don't want to denerve him.

Maybe now that we fixed the pain, we'll have a successful show season. That would be nice since it might be the last one.

We started out great.....

We went to an open show today. There were only four people in the riding classes. There were a few more halter horses but not many. It was windy but otherwise a nice day. We entered a couple of halter classes as a requirement of high point. The day started out great. We got a first in Halter - color and Performance Halter out of four. We got first of four in showmanship too. The judge loved Bandit. Then we got ready for the western classes. The trainer warmed Bandit up and then I got on. He was loping really nice. He didn't give me a problem at all while we loped around the arena during the break. The classes were moving really fast since there were only two horses in the English. Trail was supposed to be the first class after English. I was the only one signed up for it so I agreed to cancel so they didn't have to set it all up. Then we had a western pleasure class. We were doing well until we messed up a lope transition. So we got second place out of 4. Then we had western equitation. We did some rail work, which was okay, and then the judge had us do a pattern. We have been practicing this at home and doing pretty good so I was happy to have a pattern to practice. I even went first. I trotted up to the first cone, started to lope a circle and Bandit just freaked out, tossed his head, bent to the inside and was really hard to control. I went back to where I started and tried again and got the same result. He wasn't going to cooperate so I quit the class. The next class was country pleasure. He still had an attitude; I had to two hand him and we got fourth again. We had one more chance to redeem ourselves with the Jack Benny class. We did okay but still got second of two. The judge told me later she was surprised to see him do that in horsemanship, that he looked so kind and calm. I said I was surprised too. But he's done this before; just not lately. It's hard to predict. My trainer rode him in the arena when we were all done. She schooled him in the area where he first acted up. He was being really bad for her too. She thinks the buzz coming from the speakers was causing Bandit to act up. Of course, no other horse had a problem with it. The good news is we still won the daily high point. I don't think any else signed up for it in the adult division. We are going to try another small show next Sunday. I hope it goes better. I'm starting to think it's not me, but Bandit who has a problem in the show pen. That would not be good because I can't really do anything if that's the case. Bummer....

Pinto Show - TMM

Too Much Mud. It's been beautiful and sunny all week. The only day rain was predicted was today. The last Pinto show of the year was today, rain or shine and it was not looking good. I drove the 40 minutes to the show, through clear skies, light sprinkles, and the closer I got to the show, more and more rain. All of us were hoping it would just be a light rain that we could wait out. But there we were, at 6:45 am, in the dark, with rain pouring down. The parking area is muddy, clay soil. We were afraid to get stuck in the mud so we moved the truck and trailer out. It was slippin and sliding but it got out okay. The grounds were a mess, except for the arenas. Bandit doesn't do well in muddy footing as I found out at the Apple Valley show two years ago. That's where he first went lame, after I showed him in an arena that had some really muddy sections. I didn't really want to stay and show, even though I thought we would do well (I usually think that until we actually show :). There were plenty of reasons not to stay:

1. It was too risky to Bandit, given our experience in Apple Valley
2. If we stayed and showed, the classes would probably be small and there wouldn't be very many Pinto or PAC points
3. We aren't in the running for any year end awards
4. We planned to go to a small, open show in two weeks

We decided to leave rather than wait it out. Of course the rain did clear up a couple of hours later, but that's okay. The grounds were so wet that we didn't think they would dry out soon enough to avoid a muddy mess.

Here are the muddy tracks the horse trailer left:


Bandit did really well in practice yesterday and last weekend. He's such a good boy!

Temecula Paint Show

This weeekend was the 2nd of two Paint shows each year in Temecula. It's the only big Paint show near me. I haven't shown there since June 09 when Bandit first got hurt. This weekend it was 95 degrees and super humid. We camped out in my trainer's trailer for the weekend. Our best showing was 4th place and we had some no calls. This show has alot of really experienced riders so I don't feel too bad. It's the first time we tried horsemanship at this show. Bandit was really good and loped off nice. They had a great trail pattern. It was roomy and flowed really well. Again Bandit loped off soft and nice. I misjudged the final lope over and Bandit was off stride but we did well up to that point. We've had so many problems with this in the past. It's amazing to have completed patterns without any major problems. It makes the show alot more fun. Here's how we did with two judges:

Showmanship Novice 5 and 6 of 9
Showmanship Amateur 6 of 7 of 9
Trail Novice 4 and 6 of 9
Trail Senior no call of 14
Western Pleasure Novice no call of 12
Western Pleasure Amateur 6 and 6 of 7
Western Horsemanship Novice 7 and 7 of 8

The next show is a Pinto show at the end of the month. I'm sure we'll do better at that one.

All Western Open Horse Show

After two weeks and several hundred dollars, Bandit looks like he never had a problem. He was sound and did well today. Here's how we did in our classes:

Showmanship Amateur 1 of 5 (PAC point, yay)
Showmanship Open 3 of 3
Advanced showmanship 3 of 3
Horsemanship Amateur no call of 8
Horsemanship Open 4 of 6
Trail Amateur no call of 7
Trail Open 3 of 6
Country pleasure no call of 22 (buckle class,only placed 1-5th instead of 7th, bummer)
Western pleasure amateur no call of 6
Western pleasure open 3 of 6

The judge gave me advice to use more implusion for the lope. He complimented our jog and downward transition, but didn't like our lope. Of course, my trainer has told me this from time to time, but I didn't realize it was such a problem. Even worse, I don't know how to fix it. I've been working on this for three years and can't do it properly. My friends and trainer tell us we did well, but it doesn't feel like it. It feels like I'm trying to play basketball with people who are 6 feet tall but I'm only 4 feet tall. It just can't be done with what we have. I'm not sure why I can't be happy with just being able to show Bandit and get a very occasional first place, but I'm not. I think I'm the only one that gets one PAC point per show. Even a first timer got more points then me today. It's so depressing. I felt like crying more than once at the show today. That doesn't seem like fun to me. It's fun to practice on the weekends. But were not practicing correctly so it's not effective. I practice nearly every weekend, get grief from my husband for not being home, and still can't manage to do well. Is it really worth it? It doesn't seem like it but I have a hard time giving it up.