Emerton's Professional Hoofcare

05/07/2024

Four years ago today arrived and we commenced our Australian Brumby Challenge 2020 journey. Look at him go now 🥹

📸 Sarah Sullivan Photography & Jane Sheppard

04/07/2024

Hot tip - anything from a produce store in a bright and shiny bag is probably bad news (for any horse, not just the laminitic ones)

27/06/2024

Thoroughbreds Don't Have To Have Bad Feet 👣

I am so passionate about sharing positive hoof stories and showing what is possible with thoroughbred rehabilitation. It has been a long term goal of mine to get a thoroughbred out doing endurance, as close to barefoot as possible.

Recently my 13yo OTTB completed his first 40km Endurance ride at Biggenden. The ride consisted of a variety of terrain, most of which we tackled at a trot and canter. Danny completed the first 22kms completely barefoot. At around this point the track got quite rocky so I put front boots only on him, leaving his back hooves barefoot. We wasted a lot of time going back to fetch boots that had fallen off (some lessons for me there for next time!), and by the third time I decided to keep them off and so the last couple of kms barefoot again. This means in total he did about 25kms totally barefoot, and his back feet did all 40kms barefoot! 🙀

Since moving north to Bundaberg about 12 months ago there have definitely been some challenges with the wet and green paddocks, and his feet have lost some quality and are still far from perfect. Nonetheless, he is very functional and I am super proud of what he has achieved.

I'd also like to note Danny very much has 'typical' thoroughbred feet. He isn't some fluke of nature who by chance has good feet for a thoroughbred. He gets managed for good hoof health. He lives on a grain free diet with mineral supplementation, he has been scoped and treated for ulcers and gets plenty of movement - far more important than anything I can do trimming wise. I will include a link to a 'before' video of Danny for anyone who is interested in the first comment. You will be able to see a very sore horse with compromised feet, he was sore even walking on sand! 😓

I hope he serves as some inspiration for the OTT owners out there. Hoof rehabilitation is slow and takes dedication, but the results are worth it I promise 💖

📸 Photo credit to Sarah Sullivan Photography and Jane Sheppard

02/12/2023

Mentally and physically 😆

For the next week I'll be bobbing around the Pacific Ocean. Please feel free to get in contact, however please note that my phone will be off and I wont start going through and responding to messages until I get back on the 11th December 🏝️

11/11/2023

Christmas and New Year's hours 🤶🏼

November availability for Bundaberg & Surrounds:
Thursday 23rd and Friday 24th

December: Regulars have been pencilled in for Dec and will be contacted shortly. Some availability remains for Bundaberg on the 12th and 13th, and the 21st and 22nd.

✨ May your holidays be merry & bright ✨

25/09/2023

There are some tough feet out there at the moment!

A little bit of coconut (or other) oil on the hoof before a trim can go a long way to not only saving my wrists and tools, but it will also result in a nicer trim and finish for your horse 🤗

08/08/2023

👏👏👏

08/02/2023

Soft tissue development post shoe removal ~ Feb '22 to Feb '23

06/02/2023

Miss Fleur, my 4yo Anglo Arab filly had her 2nd and 3rd rides on the weekend.

I am beyond thrilled at how well she is starting under saddle. Her second ride was on Saturday, we packed up in the float and headed out to my brother's property (Fleur has never been there before, in fact she's been to a total of 3 places previously, 2 of which are her breeders place and my place). I ponyed her off my wb mare for a few kms on a trail ride, this was her first experience bring ponyed. Then I switched horses. Once she was settled in she had her first trots under saddle, and I let my mare run free with us. She had zero hump or spook the entire ride, despite everything about it being foreign and new. She was so cool with everything that once we got back to my brothers we had a play at liberty in the 20 acre paddock, safe to say she enjoyed the ponying and stuck to us like glue despite being at liberty and NOT having been trained to do this.

On Sunday we headed out again for ride 3, and Fleur handled everything like a seasoned horse. We lead my niece on the big mare behind us, Fleur never spooked or complained once. I haven't 'desensitised' her to ropes being all around her, she just knew that the lead rope attached to my mare wasn't a threat and didn't react to it being all around her rump and legs. And i just knew that she would be ok with it. Fleur lead for alot of the ride, out in front past cows, cars and motorbikes and didn't bat an eyelid.

I'm telling you all this becuase I'd like to share a little background information that I think could be helpful to anyone on their horsemanship journey. There's no real point to my ramblings, but take from it what you will from our experiences :)

Firstly, Fleur has never seen the inside of a roundyard. She doesn't know how to lunge in a traditional sense, all of her work has been in hand. Her first ride was in our unfenced arena following the kids around on their ponies. My goal for this horse has to really give her genuine choice and start her fear free, and she is the type of horse who really let's me know when she doesn't enjoy something.

For example, the first time I put fly spray on her she didn't like it. She took off down the other end of the paddock, and wouldn't let me catch her for 2 days, there was no bucket of feed tempting enough to coax her anywhere near me. Ten years ago, I would have said "blow this, you're going in a round yard and we are doing join up until you 'choose' to come straight to me every time I enter the yard." As you can probably appreciate, this isn't really a choice.

I made the choice, be it out of personal growth or laziness, not to yard her and to see how far we could go with consent based training as guided by her. If she buggers off after we do something, I acknowledge my short-comings and that she wasn't ok with whatever we just did. I change what I'm doing and try to approach whatever it was that upset her in a way that she finds OK. When I can walk up to her the next day and she doesn't run away, I know I've done good!

So far not only has she not run away after any of her rides, she's let me catch her the next day in a 20 acre paddock that isn't 'home.'

She also decided to self load at liberty to come home. She wouldn't commit to fully loading and I had to go to the front of the float to get all the way in, but still I'm very proud of her! This is only her fifth time in a float!

The point of all this, is that I believe by not yarding her when she runs away (I detest hard to catch horses and it was very difficult for me to resist yarding her!), and paying attention to when she is genuinely enjoying (or not enjoying) what we are doing... not only is she easy to catch, she's handled her first rides like an absolute pro with minimal prep and no spook at anything that's been asked of her. I'd go so far as to say she really enjoyed herself on the weekend!

05/02/2023

"White feet are weak"

Yeah nah.

The girls out rock crunching for the weekend. I love their matching off hind white socks and white dots on their noses 😍

03/02/2023

Did you know that diet affects the gastrointestinal (GI) tract and health of the GI tract is linked to laminitis!?

Laminitis describes the localised inflammation of the vascular components of the equine hoof. Though the pathogenesis it is believed to be systemic, originating in the gut (Elliot & Bailey 2006, Steelman & Chowdhary 2012). The localised inflammation can lead to disintegration of the dermal-epidermal junction, which can cause the third phalanx to detach from the hoof wall.

The horse is a hindgut fermenter, with ~60% of the gastrointestinal tract comprising of the large intestine, with fermentation occurring in the caecum and colon. The microbial population in the hindgut is responsible for fermenting fibrous feed and converting it into energy in the form of Volatile Fatty Acids (VFA’s) (Dicks et al., 2014).

Other roles include antimicrobial compound production, including antimicrobial peptides (bacteriocins) which keep a healthy microbial balance and prevent the growth of pathogens. Stimulation of the immune system may also be initiated by lactic acid bacteria (Dicks et al., 2014).

Thus, disturbances in the hindgut microbial populations may impede correct function of the inflammatory pathways and may imbalance microbial populations and allow pathogen growth.

Disturbances to the entire gastrointestinal tract, not just the hind gut, and the microbial population therein is related to both acute and chronic forms of laminitis, and thus dietary management is crucial to managing laminitis risk, as it can affect the health of this system.

Join myself and Nia A. Cooke this Sunday at 5pm where she will bring more brilliant information on species specific feeding, the rest of the GI tract, and how important it is in horse and hoof health!

https://equineeducationhub.thinkific.com/courses/species-appropriate-feeding

13/01/2023

Everything begins and ends at the feet!

The stance in this picture in particular I would add that this horse has heel pain and is toe loading. Get the heels comfortable and you're well on the way to helping this horse (and the saddle fit)

Sometimes saddle fit issues are not about the saddle - they're about the horse. And sometimes the issues are starting at ground level.

The postural effects caused by underrun heels (actually caudal hoof failure) richochet right through the body.

One of the worst things we can do is fit a saddle firmly around those narrow withers like a clothes peg. Any chance of redeveloping muscle as the hooves improve (because of course, the horse is receiving remedial hoof care, isn't it?) and the posture normalises is limited unless the horse can move correctly. That means creating space for redevelopment without compromising saddle stability.

Again, it's simply the essence of the issue from a bodyworker's point of view. I'm making no claims to be scientific here, but it's what I've been seeing in over 15 years of bodywork practice.

Visit and follow my blog for regular body talk articles: https://thehorsesback.com

- Jane

07/12/2022

The hoof capsule reflects the pedal bone 👀

22/11/2022

Some R&R today with a ride to the local watering hole 🍻🐎
... I will get back to returning messages tomorrow!

22/11/2022

Good doers and chunky monkeys I'm looking at you 👀

Equine Metabolic Syndrome What is Equine Metabolic Syndrome or EMS for short? Many of you have probably heard it mentioned, but what do you need to look for and how does it occur? Once upon a time horses were just grazing animals only eating grasses and high-forage diets. As they

18/11/2022

Solid dumblood hoof after 12km of rock crunching 💪

18/11/2022

💯

Sometimes, what owners worry about when it comes to their horses' feet and what farriers worry about when it comes to the horses' feet are not the same.
I will sometimes receive texts from a concerned owner with a picture of a small chip at the end of a cycle, but another cycle they will somehow neglect to tell me that their horse was footsore over stones recently when it hadn't been before..

Some of the most common "owner concerns" I see online or in person are:

✴️Wall chipping: although chipping isn't ideal, usually it won't cause much issue for stronger walls. Often this tells me that the horse either needs a shorter trim cycle, or a change to their hoof balance.

✴️Frog shedding: In wet seasons, sometimes I see an entire frog come off in one piece. Often owners worry this means something is wrong with the frog - don't worry, this is often completely normal!

✴️"A weird growth on the top of the hoof" (aka periople): I can't tell you how many times someone has asked me what the "stuff" is underneath the hairline. Think of the periople like your nail cuticle - it protects new growth as it comes in. Sometimes, especially in dry seasons, it can grow a bit farther down the wall than we are used to. Sometimes when the weather changes between wet and dry, we can see some weird periople changes, or even "flaps." It is usually completely fine!

✴️Waterlogged heel bulbs: Heel bulbs that seem to suddenly become white are often soggy heel bulbs that have had contact with a boot of some sort. Let them dry out a bit and they will be okay!

✴️Thinking a horse "just doesn't look due": Usually when an owner thinks a horse hasn't grown, really it just means they haven't chipped.. which is a good thing! We don't want them to chip or look grossly overgrown when it's time for a trim. Our goal is to keep them in balance, not chase after distortion. Sure - there ARE cases where a horse doesn't grow much foot, but 9 times out of 10 the hoof actually IS due for a balance adjustment.

These situations usually aren't a cause for concern for me. Of course, it depends on the horse and the circumstances, but overall these "issues" are simply cosmetic or a misunderstanding of how the hoof grows and naturally adjusts through seasons.

So what DO I worry about?

🚩Hoof sensitivity or changes in comfort: I don't want to see any of my client horses sore over ANY terrain - especially if it is a sudden change! This is a big red flag to me that the diet, trim, or metabolic management might need adjustment. I never want my horse owners to just accept hoof sensitivity as "normal."

🚩Abscesses: Abscesses are often a huge symptom of something unhealthy going on. A strong foot shouldn't get stone bruises or abscessing - see my last point. If the horse is throwing abscesses, especially if it seems to happen a few times a year, I want to know if the diet needs adjustment or if the vet should step in for some metabolic testing.

🚩Chronic event lines: the wall of the hoof should be smooth overall. Diet changes, fevers/illness, metabolic issues, etc can cause something called an "event line" to show up on the wall as it grows out. This can reveal to us a period of inflammation, although by the time we see it it's often in the past. When I see a series of event lines showing up on the wall, I know something is continually affecting the health of the foot. With that, I worry about something more sinister down the line, such as the risk of laminitis or founder, if the source of the event lines isn't found. Don't ignore them!

🚩Sudden changes in sole appearance, white line health, etc: If the horse's sole is typically concave and suddenly seems to flatten out "out of nowhere," or if we suddenly can see a stretched white line or fit a hoof pick between the wall and the sole, I know something is going on. OR, if a flat foot suddenly has a "sucked up" in a drastic ridge of concavity, I assume the soles have revealed that they are extremely thin. These all warrant further investigation.

Educating ourselves on what might be a red flag and what might not be can help catch early warning signs before a real issue starts.

14/11/2022

Got grass? Lots of it?
Do you know what type of grass you have, what exact species your horse is eating?

This type of knowledge can give you a good insight as to the nutrients and calories your hrose is ingesting.

Tell me in the comments if you know what type of grass you have?
Post a picture...

31/10/2022

For anyone needing some training goals and motivation for next year! 💪

25/10/2022

Yerp

25/10/2022

Due for a trim? Yay or nay?

20/10/2022

Awesome opportunity for someone to work with some lovely donks 💗 Located wivenhoe pocket

16/10/2022

VBASocks showing off a beautiful brumby foot 😍

His foot tells a few stories. Firstly the quality of his digital cushion and concavity are a strong argument for youngsters to have the freedom to cover miles and roam over varied terrain. They are also an argument for NOT feeding youngsters grain and pre-packaged pellets (Biomare I'm looking at you 😒). I strongly believe he is able to grow such a robust foot due to the connective and soft tissue development in his youth.

Secondly his foot hasn't always looked like this. Although he came here unhandled in 2020, he had spent approximately 4-5 months in domestic setting in a green and wet Victorian paddock. His foot was suffering the ill effects of wet and sugar with event lines, distortions, white line disease and the associated separation and thrush. My point is that even though he is a brumby, he is still very much susceptible to domestic horse problems - which are environmental.

Barehoof Trimming
Horse Training
Currently studying Bachelor Equine Science & ACEHP qualification

15/10/2022

Horses have evolved to MOVE

Studies of wild horses show they move on average 20-40km every day! This equates to approximately 200km per week as a conservative figure. As a consequence their hoof continually grows to allow for this continuous wear.

Horses in the domestic setting are lucky to do 1-2km per day around the paddock, horses in stables do approximately 800 steps per day. Even if you ride your horse 10km every day you still are not reaching their minimum quota for movement.

Each trim you are taking the wall and other tissues down to simulate the kms that haven't been done. David Landreville makes the point that for a 4 week trim you are adding 800km to the horses hoof in one go, as opposed to daily wear in the natural setting. This is significant to the horse. Now consider how many kms you are dumping on the horse in one go if you insist on an 8 week cycle.

🧠 Food for thought 🧠

10/10/2022

Queensland itch

I want to present to you a potential treatment option if you've tried everything and nothing seems to work...

🌟Pull your horse off the grass🌟

When I bought miss Fleur she came rugged, it was winter, and she still had itch behind her ears. I bought her from a breeder only 15 minutes away from myself, so not a huge change in climate or midge populations.

The big difference was she was living in quite green grass. When she came to mine she's onto ad lib rhodes hay and a good quality mineral mix. I haven't rugged her since she's been here, I haven't used any oils, lotions, potions or washes. No insect repellents. The only thing that's changed is getting her off the grass and increasing the minerals.

Yet she's gone from having itch in the winter to no itch now in spring. I believe that access to green subtropical and/or pasture improved grass (ie most pastures in SE Qld) is inflammatory to the whole horse, not just their feet. Food for thought 🧠

08/10/2022

This horse was given away due to having "back pain."

This is what was underneath his shoes when I took them off. Ruminate on that for as long as you need.

🌟Everything Begins and Ends in the Hoof🌟

08/10/2022

There's a pretty horrific video of an Arab being broken in a round yard, run and terrified with a rider on board until he flips himself over.

Firstly, I'd like to encourage anyone who has seen the video to refrain from liking, sharing or commenting on the post. I'd also encourage you to hide the video from your newsfeed and block their page. This drives the popularity and reach of the video down. They are getting off on the (negative) attention, please don't give them the satisfaction.

Secondly, I'd like to present a counter argument for starting what is considered an energetic or flighty breed.

Meet Fleur, she is a 4yo filly I purchased not long ago. I hadn't done much with her, trimmed her a few times and done one in-hand session with her. I then took her to a two day clinic, facing obstacles with the focus on connection and using positive reinforcement.

This horse has never been in a round pen, let alone run around one.

On Thursday she came trotting over to me when the kids caught their ponies for a ride. Once they were tacked up I took her out for a walk around to see how she was feeling. Then I asked her to line up at the mounting block. She obliged first try, and stood in a state of stillness, a step she wasn't ready for at the clinic. With little more thought than that I threw a leg over. She stood cool as a cucumber without bracing her body. We took a few steps and then found stillness again, and I hopped off.

This Anglo arab filly was able to be backed without stress, without engaging flight mode, without wearing her out, without the confines of a round yard, in just 4 training sessions.

There is no need to break a horse. Know better, do better.

07/10/2022

I've been so busy that it has barely registered that David's clinic is this weekend! Pinching myself that I will finally meet the man himself tomorrow and looking forward to a weekend of all things hooves 🤓