Beckie’s Equine Letter
News, Case Studies, Questions & Answers
and a Lesson of the Month in every Issue
Autumn 2006 — Issue 12
News for the Month
I can’t believe it is Autumn already, this year really is going quickly. You may have been wondering why this newsletter has taken a while to arrive, well I’ve had a busy summer. These are just a few of the things I’ve been up to:
In July I was one of three farrier's doing demonstrations at an open day in Kent. This day was open to Farrier's, Vets, Physio’s, Chiropractors and general body workers. Throughout the day I was presented with various lame horses that the vet would work up, the back lady’s would asses, then I would shoe. The assessment process would then start again to see what improvements different styles of shoeing were making. Afterwards I was given groups of farrier's to teach some of the new techniques we learnt in America. This involved putting on Clogs. (shown in my last newsletter.) It was a great day with a real buzz in the air from a lot of very enthusiastic people.
Talking of events, I also did a presentation at Anvil Vets Open Evening in September. The Evening was all about back related problems. The Physio, Jenny Stephenson, was there working up horses. Geoff Dean, the saddler, was fitting saddles. Nikki Brown, one of the vets, was demonstrating their new shockwave machine. And I was talking about how shoeing hind feet really affects skeletal alignment. (A lot of back related issues are due to the pedal bone being at the wrong angle within the hoof capsule.) It was a very successful evening, and once I got over my nerves I became far more relaxed than I thought I would have done. I think having started talking at 7:00pm, the evening came to a close at about 9:30pm.
Many thanks to those of you that came to support me. For those of you that missed out no doubt I will be doing more in the future so I will keep you posted.
I have enclosed Anvil Vets leaflet with the timetable of the talks that are coming up. If any of them interest you do feel welcome to come, you don’t have to be a member of the practice. I hope to be attending all of them so hope to see some of you there.
I had a fun day out recently, I went to work with Nikki Brown one of Anvil’s vets. I got to see some really interesting cases. The most beneficial part of the day for me was seeing a full vetting. This gave me a good chance to look closely at the horses gait. Days out with vets is definitely something I’m going to do on a regular basis.
This year I’m planning on having the Christmas week off work for the first time. I thank you in advance for your co-operation as some people might have to be shuffled around so I get everyone sorted before and after Christmas.
I hope you enjoy reading this Autumn edition. Take care Beckie x
Lesson of the Month
Barefoot Trimming
Future or Fad?
Well as we all know where ever you look at the moment everything seems to be about barefoot trimming. I feel strongly about the subject so wanted to share my views with you.
To start with I want you to understand that I am not against horses going barefoot. On my books I actually have 116 horses that are un-shod. A lot of them get ridden regularly and even compete very well without shoes. I am also a Certified Barefoot Trimmer having completed exams in America earlier this year.
I agree with a lot of things written in the magazines about barefoot trimming, how it is more natural and how the feet can function like nature intended. But, and this is a big BUT, horses aren’t kept in natural environments and are not asked to do natural things. Wild ponies do not do hours of road work, and they don’t get kept in deep bedding and small soft fields which make their feet soft and far from ideal. As a result, we have to adapt our methods to what we are asking horses to do. (On the extra sheet you can see a comparison of the environments of wild and domesticated horses.)
Given the conditions that we ask horses to live in, I believe it is absolutely wrong to say that no horses should have shoes. There are definitely some horses that due to their breeding, environment and intended use, it would be cruel to keep them without shoes.
In a lot of cases it’s not as simple as just taking the horses shoes off and carrying on like normal. It takes some horses a long time to adapt to not having shoes, and some never do. It takes time for their hooves to form a strong callous and for their feet to become tough enough to endure road work and our flinty south downs. Some horses would be fine straight away and others may take months, even years, to get used to it. This period is often called the conditioning period by barefoot trimmers. I believe it is cruel to accept that a horse is just going through the conditioning period if it is still foot sore a month or two down the line. To me this is unacceptable and shoes certainly do have a place in this instance of making horses more comfortable.
What I want people to understand is that to train to be a farrier is at minimum a 4 year 2 month process. With exams every 6 months. This long training gives us experience working on hundreds of different types and breeds of horse, with many different types of feet. We do get taught to shoe in many different ways but the bulk of the training is about how to TRIM horses feet. This training includes trimming for horses to remain barefoot and for horses to be shod.
Although there are some excellent barefoot trimmers around (who have undergone some training), there are also some people with very limited experience calling themselves barefoot specialists. Unfortunately, no training or exams are needed to call yourself a barefoot trimmer. All you need to get started is to buy the tools.
What concerns me is the growing number of organisations professing to have found the perfect way to trim horse’s feet in order for them to go unshod, and each method is different! Just how many ways can there be to trim a hoof to emulate a natural unshod foot?
In as many situations as possible I will encourage the horses to be barefoot. Where this is not possible I tend to shoe to try and mimic the wear pattern of the natural hoof by using Natural Balance shoes. These shoes protect the foot from excessive wear but still enable me to position the shoe with optimum breakover. I feel this is definitely a good way of implementing what a natural hoof is trying to tell us, but also enabling the horse to be used in our un-natural environment.
Case Study
Ann Jones – Boysie
This Case study is about a 22 year old horse called Boysie, owned by Ann Jones. Boysie wasn’t blessed with the best conformation. He is exceptionally pigeon toed (toe in) to the extent it looks like he’s going to trip himself up when he walks. Fortunately for Boysie he still thinks he is a youngster, so when his feet are balanced to the best we can get them he is very gain for a good thunder across the downs.
When I first saw Boysie he had exceptionally long toes which was making it even harder for him to get around as he is quite stiff and doesn’t pick his feet up that high off the ground. He was tripping over continuously, it was actually pretty dangerous to ride.
These two pictures below show how turned in his legs are. I have drawn a centre line where there should be symmetry either side. It shows how twisted his legs are.
These two pictures above are taken of the same foot. The top one is from May 06 and the bottom one is September 06. These pictures are showing the difference in the angle of his whole foot especially the front of the hoof wall. This has been a gradual change over the last four months, with approximately a 10 degree change in the angle of his hoof wall. This shortening of the toe and re-alignment of his foot under the centre of his weight has had a huge knock-on affect to how Boysie now moves.
In the feedback section Ann speaks about the changes that she has noticed in Boysie, so please read on.
Questions and Answers
Q. What does it actually look like if the horses get thrush? My horses feet smell a bit, does this mean they have thrush?
Julia Ansell
A. Thrush does have a distinctive foul odour. And if you closely inspect their frogs you would find a black necrotic discharge, either through the central sulcus of their frog or down either side of the lateral grooves. Remember all horses feet smell to some extent so before you go worrying look closely at the frogs to see if they look healthy or not.
Feedback
This feedback was kindly written by Ann Jones the owner of Boysie shown in my case study.
“There have been a number of changes in Boysie since you have completely changed his feet. I’ll first describe what he was like before you started doing him.
He was terrible at tripping up all the time out on rides, he would almost go down on his knees. He would quite often become lame for no apparent reason, and would lie down quite a lot. When you first got involved with Boysie he was very lame. All the horses had got out of their field and galloped across Lancing College football fields, which didn’t go down very well with the collage! Unfortunately for Boysie he came back very lame, and remained lame for months. What he did I don’t know. No amount of rest was helping. It looked bleak for my old man. John Little the vet finally persuaded me to have x-rays of his front feet. Thankfully his arthritis wasn’t as bad as we’d expected but as far as his foot balance goes there was a lot of work to do. When you showed me the x-rays and explained how much foot you were going to cut off, and where you were going to position the shoe I was a bit concerned. It seemed so much. But over the last four months seeing that it was a gradual process and now his feet are how you wanted them I have noticed lots of changes in Boysie.
He is definitely much happier in himself, and is back to playing with the other horses in the field. He doesn’t lie down half as much. I can now pick out his front feet without having to let him balance himself or get comfortable. In the past I would have to let him put his front feet down 4-5 times before he fell over. I don’t have to bute him anymore for you to do his feet. He is far more sure footed, he walks out quite happily, even when the ground gets flinty. His tripping has got a lot better too, we get the odd one now and again but no more than any other horse I know. The first time you shod him the earliest I could ride him after was three weeks. The second time one week after. Now I can ride him the next day and he’s comfortable. When John the vet came last he was so pleased with him that he said it was the best he had ever seen him.
So all in all it has given Boysie a new lease of life and has kept him away from retirement for another few years we hope.”
Handout that went with this Newsletter
Differences between wild and domesticated horses