gobarefoot

Trimming a Chronically Foundered Cadaver hoof

Download trimming_a_foundered_cadaver.pdf

Equine Podiatry Students - Australia

Twenty one students  have enrolled in the inaugural Diploma of Equine Podio-Therapy, being run by The College of Traditional Medicine, based in Melbourne.

The first block of study - anatomy and physiology - was held at Merrijig  - at Chris Dunlop's trail ride outfit -   in the Victorian High Country. The venue was chosen because of the availability of  the trail riding horses and the associated lodge facilities including accommodation and a seminar room (complete with log fire).

The Diploma is one of two courses being run in Australia by government recognised Registered Training Providors. It has  attracted students from around Australia - ranging from school leavers to professional trimmers. There was a wait list for places. I was fortunate enough to enrol early, and get into the course.

It includes a requirement for 20 documented case studies, and more than a dozen written assignments on anatomy and physiology and on the distal limb.

The other course is the Certificate III in Agriculture (hoofcare) which is about to enrol its third intake of students in June. The first students from this course are completing their studies now. Two  have already graduated.

The introduction of both these courses is expected to take equine podiatry to the next level in Australia where the main impediment to more widespread adoption of the practice of barefooting horses is that there are not enough experienced and knowledgeable trimmers to meet demand.

By the time three intakes have graduated from the Tasmanian course, and the Diploma students complete their studies, there should be around 75 qualified trimmers in Australia.

Both courses have the support of the Australian Hoof Care Association, the peak body for professional trimmers in Australia.

• At the top of this post is a pic of the Diploma students and teachers, with Prof Robert Bowker from the University of Michigan's Equine Hoof Lab, at the conclusion of the first anatomy and physiology lectures.

• Above right is a pic of me with Prof Bowker after we'd deconstructed a cadaver leg.

 

Barefoot Showing...Little River Sahna & Jaime Slipais win at Newcombe

I like to post about the success of my clients. This cutey pictured is Little River Sahna, a 12 year old pally stockhorse who  took out a swag of ribbons at the Newcombe show on March  16th, 2008.

She and rookie showie Jaime Slipais won Champion in the  novice ridden class, 1st in the novice ridden 14hh – 15hh, came 2nd in the open led 14hh – 15hh class and also second in the rider class 12 – 15 years. Not a bad effort for their first time out together.

Sahna is owned by Sara Mitchell, who has a predilection for palaminos. Her other horse  - Jack -  is also a pally. Both are barefoot. Go Jaime and Sahna!
 

Dr Bowker's Australian Lectures

The second public lecture Dr Robert Bowker gave in Australia was at the University of Melbourne Vet Faculty on April 1st and 2nd. Organised by the Australian Hoof Care Association, it drew a cross section of around 35 trimmers, body workers, farriers, vet students and university academics.  The seminar involved lectures and an explanation of his latest research along with half a day of hands on dissection of cadaver legs from a variety of perspectives (whole, sagital and 'poker chip sections')

The take home messages included his conclusion that the load bearing position of the navicular bone in a horse with a broken pastern axis was such that it was 'crunched' into p2 and p3, and that the blood supply thru the impar ligament was significantly reduced in such circumstances. He demonstrated that long toed horses (which  he found to be very common in the domestic equine population) were all forced into this problematic load bearing on the navicular bone, and were therefore pre-disposed to navicular syndrome.  He also demonstrated that there were significant differences in the robustness of the digital cushions and the lateral cartileges of such horses.

After his Melbourne lecture he delivered three days of lectures in anatomy and physiology for the inaugural intake of students enrolled in the Diploma of Equine Podio-Therapy (thru The College of Traditional  Medicine - based in Melbourne) at Merrijig in the Victorian High Country.

The Diploma course attracted 21 students (it was over subscribed with a wait list) including trimmers from Western Australia, Queensland, NSW and Victoria.

Dr Bowker is pictured at right, explaining the difference between a 'good' and a 'bad' foot while Diploma student Martin Godwin looks on.

The professor flew out of Australia on Monday 7th of April for New Zealand and a two day seminar in Christchurch before returning home to Detroit.

Bob Bowker Blows away Australian Barefooters

This is a very quick post as I'm in the midst of the 'Bowker' tour downunder.  Dr Bowker has just completed a two day seminar at Cobargo, NSW, at the property of Chrisann and Mike Ware. There were approx 35 registrations with a couple of barefoot trimmers flying in from Western Australia and one from Darwin. There were two vets and a couple of farriers. It was wall to wall information. I've not yet digested it. Some of us felt vindicated in some of the techniques we've been using. We felt that the research Dr Bowker documented supported our approach. But he also had some research which had us all doing head spins. I'll do a proper report on it after I emerge from this week's two day seminar at Melbourne Uni Vet Fac, and from the first five days of the Diploma of Equine Podio-Therapy, at which Dr Bowker is delivering the anatomy lectures.

Here's a photo of Dr Bowker in Australia at the seminar yesterday
during the dissection segment. How lucky are we?

Ruby likes her new boots.....

Thanks to Nicole Church who sent me this photo of her horse Ruby, trying on her new Epics this week.

Earlier this year Ruby was reluctant to move and had been for some time. So Nicole finally pulled the shoes and called me to do a barefoot trim. We ran the horse out pre trim bare, post trim bare, and then post trim booted in front. The mare moved much better in the BARES which I lent to Nicole, so she ordered a set of boots for the horse herself. She chose EPICS because they are a bit easier to get on and off than the bares.

This photo was taken the day the EPICS arrived, and shows Ruby exhibiting the flehmen response...which I guess is the equine version of a swoon. Quite appropriate given the improvement in her way of going with the boots on.

Hopefully over time Ruby won't need the boots so much. She'll be able to strengthen up the hind part of her hoof while having the foot protected. But for now, she loves them. And Nicole loves riding her in them. This is what she wrote the first day she tried my loan pair of BARES.

"I am absolutely astounded at how much difference the boots made - unbelievable!  I waited til Glenn
got home after you left and we took Rube down to the arena and I hopped on.  Could feel a difference the instant I started walking, much bigger striding and nice feeling!  Then trotting- fantastic!  This horse who has recently been shuffling round, constantly having to be reminded to keep going, was just zooming round the arena and felt really happy to be going and I didn't have to remind her to go once!"

Deconstruction of traditional Farriery/Veterinary approach to Hoof Distortion

Here is an article from Fran Jurga's excellent HOOF BLOG. Its about the current AMERICAN FARRIERS' CONVENTION being held in KENTUCKY, USA.

I've taken the opportunity to deconstruct the traditional approach. Thanks to Fran for her report of the opening session. Perhaps next time the AFA might consider presenting an alternative barefoot approach in parallel with its traditional offerings....

Anyway, here is my commentary on Fran's report.  I've sent them to Fran also.

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Dr Scott Morrison of Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, KY was the AFA convention's first speaker.

Predictors of a low turnout at this year's AFA Convention could not have been more wrong, if attendance at the convention's first lecture this morning is an indicator of how many people are here.

Kentucky is coated in snow/ice and I know some people were not able to get here, but many hundreds braved the elements!

I attended the kickoff lecture this morning, wedged into a crowded lecture hall. I was privileged to sit next to Blaine Chapman of Lubbock, Texas, son of the late-great heart bar expert farrier, Burney Chapman. Blaine's running commentary at a low whisper was approving as Dr Morrison sprinted through a 90-minute narrated slide show of interesting cases from the Podiatry Clinic at Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital here in Lexington,Kentucky.

Cases that drew the most comments and questions were the ones where he showed correction of negative palmar angles with roller motion shoes (what can the shoes provide that a simple trim cannot?) and his preference for the use of hoof casts on hoof wall avulsion and heel bulb injuries.

Much of the wall/bulb injury lecture really was based on the encouragement of new growth, what Dr Morrison calls the foot's ability to "epithelialize" (if you understand that maximizing the ability to expand and contract, and using frog pressure and release you will increase circulation to the foot, then you ‘get’ the concept of maximizing growth. More circulation equates with more growth. A shoe impairs expansion and contraction of the hoof capsule and therefore impairs growth vis a vis that of an unshod hoof.) (generate new epithelial tissue, as in skin; epithelial simply means cells that form the outer lining of an organ or body structure. Endothelium is the inner lining.).

He recommended using tissue-friendly antiseptics, rather than iodine "...and not kerosene" he added with a chuckle.

Inventing another verb, Morrison said he "domes" the foot surface of his foot casts. Under the casting padding on the wall is povidene creme or a similar antiseptic, covered with gauze, with carpet felt under the sole. He also "domed" a wet leather pad before shoeing, inserted hoof packing from a gun, so the pad bubbled outward, forming a domed ground surface.
Barefoot trimmers are using domed pads [www.easycareinc.com] in boots but DON’T cast the hoof.

While some criticize the use of casts, Morrison saw no problem with leaving them on, and was confident in the healthy growth that he would find what it was removed. He said that if the coronary band is not under pressure from weightbearing, the growth will be more rapid. (This is correct according to Dr Robert Bowker’s research. Which is one of the reasons why he argues that horses should NOT be peripherally loaded. Any shoe peripherally loads the hoof as it is nailed to the wall)

A big hit was his slide of a racehorse with an interference injury: the front shoe was imbedded in the coronet of the hind foot. Also food for thought: he showed a severely neglected miniature horse with grossly overgrown hooves.After a cleanup trim, the horse required extension shoes to stand because the collateral ligaments of the coffin joint (and probably the fetlock joint as well), had been so stretched by the deformity. (Barefoot trimmers call in a chiropractor or body worker to do adjustments so that a horse which has been so muscularly and skeletally stressed can be assisted to regain a normal posture. This is particularly the case when the horse -  having had high heels trimmed, continues to walk on its toes. Instead of wedging and thus keeping the DDF contracted, they get the body adjusted so the horse can ‘let down’. And of course this is in boots and pads to minimize discomfort.) 

At the end of the lecture, a line formed to ask questions.

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It would be very interesting at a future conference to have a well-regarded barefoot trimmer give a presentation in parallel with a conventional farriery/veterinary approach.  It would have been GREAT to see how somebody such as Cindy Sullivan, or Pete Ramey or Jaime Jackson would have approached the same or similar cases.
- Rebecca Scott (www.gobarefoot.typepad.com  & www.gobarefoot.com.au)

 

Now here's a good idea......

Washington Thoroughbred Owners Back Rescue Farms
by: The Blood-Horse Staff
February 21 2008, Article # 11374

Beginning with the 2008 season, horse owners at Emerald Downs can make contributions to accredited Thoroughbred rescue, retirement and rehabilitation facilities through a voluntary $1 per start minimum contribution from their horsemen's bookkeeper accounts.

All contributions to "The Prodigious Fund" will be dispersed at the end of each racing year to approved organizations. Emerald Downs will match every dollar raised by contributing owners.

For the 2008 racing year Emerald Downs has designated two charities to receive the proceeds: Second Chance Ranch of Elma, Wash., and Chez Cheveaux of Monroe, Wash.

The Prodigious Fund is named in honor of the former racehorse that finished his career at Emerald Downs in 2007 as a 10-year-old. He raced 52 times, several of his starts coming in graded stakes races from Emerald Downs to Del Mar, including two appearances in the Longacres Mile (gr. III). He ended his career in a $3,500 claiming event.

Susie Sourwine, vice president of marketing at Emerald Downs, has been the driving force behind The Prodigious Fund. "We've had an amazing early response in pledges from our horsemen here," she said.

"Horses like Prodigious, who have raced past their ability to participate in a second career, others who need to be rescued from extremely neglectful situations often one or two owners removed from their racetrack career, and those others just needing an expert hand to redirect them into a successful second career deserve the financial support of the industry."

To be eligible to receive funds organizations must be a registered 501C-3 charity with a proven track record in the field for at least one year. Charities should be Thoroughbred exclusive or dominant in their efforts.

This story was originally published on www.BloodHorse.com.

What trimming a hoof does to the heart.....

This is a poem/reflection supplied by equine therapist Chrisann Ware. Its

anonymous which is a bit of a shame. But Chris thinks that also contributes to

the power of  it...ie that it was written by an ordinary woman.

I'm not sure that women who trim horses ARE ordinary women, mind. But certainly there's a growing number of them out there....hurray! And let's not forget the extraordinary MEN who are also out there trimming their own horses.

Anyway, here's the poem/reflection for a bit of light ent.

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My horses are barefoot. I trim my own horse's hooves:

It seems such a simple statement, but said to other women who do the same, it initiates long discussions of a journey shared, it lights a  spark of recognition, of knowledge gained, of traditional roles left  far behind, of struggles overcome and of empowerment.

I trim my own horses' hooves;

I work in the summer sun and winter cold. I gladly sacrifice precious time that could be spent riding to spend it bent over, my  hands working tools designed for manly hands, my face pressed close  against a warm and shiny chestnut flank.

I trim and the world retreats for a while as I am engrossed in this  special chore.

I trim my own horses' hooves;

I watch the hooves transform under my stewardship, I am guided by  shape and texture and slowly they return to the hoof form of their ancestors, I revel in this accomplishment.

I trim my own horses' hooves;

To utter this simple statement pleases me more than I can say; I have stepped back in time and learned a craft that has till now been  denied me. I have learned how to move the tools over the hard hoof,  learned how to make the steel rasp bite deep and slide effortlessly;  learned how to drive the sharp knife safely, learned how to read  the hoof terrain and follow closely its instructions, and watched  with satisfaction as a shower of dead hoof falls across my boots.

I trim my own horses' hooves;

Because I do, I am at one with my horses. I read the changing  seasons in the architecture of their hooves. I know secret things  about my horses that I would have never discovered any other way. I  have learned patience and strength and to trust my intuition.

And when the job is done I lean happily on the pasture gate and watch  my horses move once more as they did when they were young, knowing in my heart that I have done something very special for them. Repaid a great debt.

I trim my own horses' hooves .......... it's such simple way to thank them for the joy they bring to me.

Trimming to Save Founder Ponies from the Knackery

This is one of my favourite photos. Click on it to enlarge the image. This pony ended up at the knackery because it had foundered. But the legs were saved by Tasmanian trimmer, former farrier, Jeremy Ford, who saw it as an opportunity to show the students on last year's Cert III Agriculture (Hoof Care) course what a difference proper trimming could do for a foundered pony.

What we have here are actually two different front feet (from the same pony). The foot on the right shows the founder, and you can see how the poor pony is pretty much walking on the tip of his rotated pedal bone. But the hoof which has been trimmed, shows that by dropping the heels, the pedal bone - though still at an acute angle (but this is a dead horse, remember) is closer to ground parallel.

However - had this pony been lucky enough to have had the benefit of the trims before it was euthanased, it would still have needed a hellava lot of help to recover.

In my experience a horse like this is so metabolically compromised that it needs a multi disciplinary approach to rehab.

First up it needs its feet trimmed and then it needs to be padded and possibly booted...so it can move about. Movement is critical. Once the acute stage (inflammation) of the laminitis has passed it will need to be hand walked daily.

I have found that when I take the heels down in badly neglected horses, they will often continue to walk on their toes until the tendons and ligaments let down. So I recommend owners of such ponies or horses get a good chiropractor or body worker in to help with this.

And a foundered horse needs plenty of feed but it must be low calorie and high fibre. Speedibeet (soaked) is excellent. Hay should be soaked for ten minutes  and the soaking water thrown out. The soaking will leech out some of the sugars, and therefore the horse will be ingesting a lower calorie hay. A good quality mineral or vitamin supplement, such as HYGAIN SPORTHORSE is also recommended.

The students on the CERT III course at Burnie TAFE also got to trim a live acutely foundered pony. I'll see if I can get permission to publish the before and after photos here. Its a much happier ending.

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