It is best to keep the terminology in clear for better understanding of all articles related to Navicular problems in horses. The various terminologies that people are using will show their perceptions of it and also their confusions; hence the incorrect wording will cause misconception, which will inevitably lead to wider spread of this problem. This can be seen in present time when most articles published on this issue call the lameness associated with navicular bone to be “common” in horses. During the sixties (my first ten years with horses) I must have been in contact with over one thousand horses in various equine industries and breeds in Europe. This time period also included two years of horseman school. I was involved with many types of horses, draft, carriage, racing, jumping, dressage, “high school” dressage etc. In this period of time I was also associated with more than a hundred professional horsemen. During this time I have never once heard the word navicular nor have I heard about a lameness that was associated with it. The two years of horseman school included a basic education in the veterinary department and there was no mention of navicular problems either; hence it was not common in horses in those days. Over the span of the first ten years of my horse life I have encountered a very small amount of lame horses all together. It was only in the later part of the seventies that I came across for the first time with this problem, but on lesser occasions than in this day and age. As the time progressed so did my encounters with this form of lameness. It is therefore very obvious that this lameness is caused by the way we use, train, breed and raise horses, which is then consistent with the obvious and very apparent decadence of horsemanship world wide, associated with the entire social decay.
First and for most is the fact that the lameness and pain associated with navicular bone is neither a disease nor a syndrome, but it is an injury to the animal caused by systematic (methodical) abuse. Therefore the proper term in most cases is and should be the “injury” to the Navicular bone and to the deep flexor tendon in the vicinity of the Navicular bone. This proper terminology will then send us in proper direction, which is the prevention of this injury. Shortly said, if you have purchased a horse that was sound and it suffered this injury while working, you are solely responsible for it, because of submitting the animal to abuse.
In today’s age most horses in the advanced countries are abused and as more countries are becoming more advanced, so grows the horse-abuse with it, because there are less and less people that are true horsemen and people that understand the nature as it is. The incorrect terminology also shows the incompetence of majority of veterinarians who failed to be first and foremost horsemen, and who are failing to understand and perceive the nature and the truth within. Most of all, the majority of people today find the truth in nature unacceptable, thus the lameness in horses is spreading more and more, which of course will be very profitable for the veterinarians, drug sales, farriery, magazines, literature, various “voodoo fixer-uppers” etc.
In conclusion see below dictionary terminology and if you perceive the lameness as an injury, specifically the term: “an act that injures someone” and “any physical damage “ you are more likely on the right track to better understanding of this lameness.
There are cases, when the lameness associated with navicular is not caused by the abuse of the horse (a young horse that never worked), but there are few of those. These should be called the navicular syndrome, which again will send us in the proper direction, but different from the previous one. This reflects mainly on the upbringing of the young stock and the breeding of horses in this day and age.
Noun: syndrome
1. a complex of concurrent things
2. a symptom or pattern of symptoms indicative of some disease
Noun: disease
1. an impairment of health or a condition of abnormal functioning
Noun: injury
1. any physical damage
2. an accident that results in physical damage or hurt
3. a casualty to military personnel resulting from combat
4. an act that injures someone
Noun: bursa
1. a small fluid-filled sac located between movable parts of the body esp joints
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