Amy Vickers Farrier Services

10/11/2024

Bell boots can make a huge difference to shoe retention, especially for the terrors who love to pull shoes in any way they can! 🤪🐴

In the event that your hoofcare provider has taken the time and effort to put glue ons on your horse - please please please, for all hoofcare providers out there, have well fitting bell boots that cover the back of the foot to protect your investment :) I promise, we will ALL be appreciative of them.

11/10/2024

02/10/2024

Edited to add; I'm always a bit reluctant posting these sorts of posts because its always the loveliest clients who worry if they're not being good, and the people who need to fix themselves the most who probably won't read this. Just wanted to say if you've been on my books more than 5 visits I can just about guarantee I don't mean you, and I love and appreciate all of my wonderful ongoing clients so much

04/08/2024

Awesome opportunity to expand your knowledge! Go check out Kat in Koo Wee Rup on the 17th & 18th August 🤩

Is equine hoof care something that you would like to learn more about? We are running some workshops around Australia to educate horse owners and allow them to take an active role in their horses care.

Here's what you can expect to learn:

👣 Internal & External Hoof Anatomy: Looking at the structures inside and outside the hoof, understanding their functions and how they can contribute to overall hoof health.

🗺️ Hoof Mapping: Learning the external landmarks of the hoof and how to use them to apply hoof mapping confidently

🏇 Biomechanics & Posture: Discover the connection between biomechanics, posture, and horse performance. Learn how proper hoof care directly impacts movement, comfort, and athletic ability.

These workshops aren't just about theory; it's hands-on and practical, designed to empower you with actionable knowledge to optimize hoof health and enhance your horse's quality of life. It will be a mixture of interactive lectures, demonstrations as well as trimming under supervision on cadaver feet and live horses.

VIC: August 17&18
https://fb.me/e/57YGGGuya

Canberra: Sept 7&8
https://fb.me/e/7b0zsbe23

10/07/2024

I hear the phrases “the horse was drugged”, “they lied to me” etc etc far too often! These things can happen, but it is far more likely your new horse is just suffering from “New Home Syndrome” ❤️

"New Home Syndrome"🤓

I am coining this term to bring recognition, respect, and understanding to what happens to horses when they move homes. This situation involves removing them from an environment and set of routines they have become familiar with, and placing them somewhere completely different with new people and different ways of doing things.

Why call it a syndrome?

Well, really it is! A syndrome is a term used to describe a set of symptoms that consistently occur together and can be tied to certain factors such as infections, genetic predispositions, conditions, or environmental influences. It is also used when the exact cause of the symptoms is not fully understood or when it is not connected with a well-defined disease. In this case, "New Home Syndrome" is connected to a horse being placed in a new home where its entire world changes, leading to psychological and physiological impacts. While it might be transient, the ramifications can be significant for both the horse and anyone handling or riding it.

Let me explain...

Think about how good it feels to get home after a busy day. How comfortable your favourite clothes are, how well you sleep in your own bed compared to a strange bed, and how you can really relax at home. This is because home is safe and familiar. At home, the part of you that keeps an eye out for potential danger turns down to a low setting. It does this because home is your safe place (and if it is not, this blog will also explain why a lack of a safe place is detrimental).

Therefore, the first symptom of horses experiencing "New Home Syndrome" is being unsettled, prone to anxiety, or difficult behaviour. If you have owned them before you moved them, you struggle to recognise your horse, feeling as if your horse has been replaced by a frustrating version. If the horse is new to you, you might wonder if you were conned, if the horse was drugged when you rode it, or if you were lied to about the horse's true nature.

A horse with "New Home Syndrome" will be a stressed version of itself, on high alert, with a drastically reduced ability to cope. Horses don't handle change like humans do. If you appreciate the comfort of your own home and how you can relax there, you should be able to understand what the horse is experiencing.

Respecting that horses interpret and process their environments differently from us helps in understanding why your horse is being frustrating and recognising that there is a good chance you were not lied to or that the horse was not drugged.

Horses have survived through evolution by being highly aware of their environments. Change is a significant challenge for them because they notice the slightest differences, not just visually but also through sound, smell, feel, and other senses. Humans generalise and categorise, making it easy for us to navigate familiar environments like shopping centres. Horses do not generalise in the same way; everything new is different to them, and they need proof of safety before they can habituate and feel secure. When their entire world changes, it is deeply stressful.

They struggle to sleep until they feel safe, leading to sleep deprivation and increased difficulty.

But there is more...

Not only do you find comfort in your home environment and your nervous system downregulates, but you also find comfort in routines. Routines are habits, and habits are easy. When a routine changes or something has to be navigated differently, things get difficult. For example, my local supermarket is undergoing renovations. After four years of shopping there, it is extremely frustrating to have to work out where everything is now. Every day it gets moved due to the store being refitted section by section. This annoyance is shared by other shoppers and even the staff.

So, consider the horse. Not only are they confronted with the challenge of figuring out whether they are safe in all aspects of their new home while being sleep deprived, but every single routine and encounter is different. Then, their owner or new owner starts getting critical and concerned because the horse suddenly seems untrained or difficult. The horse they thought they owned or bought is not meeting their expectations, leading to conflict, resistance, explosiveness, hypersensitivity, and frustration.

The horse acts as if it knows little because it is stressed and because the routines and habits it has learned have disappeared. If you are a new human for the horse, you feel, move, and communicate differently from what it is used to. The way you hold the reins, your body movements in the saddle, the position of your leg – every single routine of communication between horse and person is now different. I explain to people that when you get a new horse, you have to imprint yourself and your way of communicating onto the horse. You have to introduce yourself and take the time to spell out your cues so that they get to know you.

Therefore, when you move a horse to a new home or get a new horse, your horse will go through a phase called "New Home Syndrome," and it will be significant for them. Appreciating this helps them get through it because they are incredible and can succeed. The more you understand and help the horse learn it is safe in its new environment and navigate the new routines and habits you introduce, the faster "New Home Syndrome" will pass.
"New Home Syndrome" will be prevalent in a horse’s life until they have learned to trust the safety of the environment (and all that entails) and the humans they meet and interact with. With strategic and understanding approaches, this may take weeks, and their nervous systems will start downgrading their high alert status. However, for some horses, it can take a couple of years to fully feel at ease in their new home.

So, next time you move your horse or acquire a new horse and it starts behaving erratically or being difficult, it is not being "stupid", you might not have been lied to or the horse "drugged" - your horse is just experiencing an episode of understandable "New Home Syndrome." And you can help this.❤

I would be grateful if you could please share, this reality for horses needs to be better appreciated ❤
‼️When I say SHARE that does not mean plagiarise my work…it is seriously not cool to copy and paste these words and make out you have written it yourself‼️

05/07/2024

I’m on lots of different hoof care and farrier pages, on one of them a farrier asks a question each day for us to discuss. Today’s question was do we enjoy working on pathology and complex cases, or prefer sound straightforward horses?

A common misconception from horse owners is that hoof care providers make more money doing complicated cases. I get that - your bill is higher, so we must be making more money right?

In fact, the opposite is true. We make our living on the easy horses with good feet, these are the ones that pay our bills.

The complicated rehab cases are just plain expensive, they cost you more, and they cost us more too. They require a higher skill level, more equipment and materials, and a whole lot more time. They also require more commitment, thought, emotional energy and are much harder on us physically.

On the flip side, with rehab we get to exercise our problem solving skills, push outside the box and to grow ourselves as a professional. Seeing a horses soundness and quality of life improve is very rewarding, and that’s why we do this at the end of the day.

This means that if we suggest something extra for your horse, we are doing so for the good of your horse, not for the good of our pockets. We want them to be happier and sounder.

I enjoy a mix of cases. I want most of the horses on my books to be sound and straightforward and a few that keep me challenging myself and practicing different skills.

03/07/2024

Don’t let the sunshine fool you, it was still a pretty chilly morning 🥶

29/06/2024

Good morning, I hope everyone has been enjoying their weekend despite the weather!

As of tomorrow, Monday 1st July, I will be registered for GST. Therefore, any services performed on or after Monday the 1st of July will have GST added on top of the service price.

If you have any questions about prices etc. don't hesitate to ask!

11/06/2024

⚖️ 𝗘𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗢𝗯𝗲𝘀𝗶𝘁𝘆: 𝗔𝗻 𝗔𝗰𝗰𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗪𝗘𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗧𝗼 𝗛𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻

🐴 Contrary to popular belief, forcing an overweight horse to go prolonged periods of time (4-5+ hours) without forage does more harm than good. Forage is the 𝙡𝙖𝙨𝙩 thing we should restrict when trying to encourage weight loss or prevent weight gain in equines. Here is why...

🌱 Horses are physiologically designed to be ingesting and digesting roughage almost continuously. 𝘼𝙡𝙢𝙤𝙨𝙩 is the key word here, and it plays a huge part in managing the obese equine. An overweight horse does not need 𝙖𝙙 𝙡𝙞𝙗𝙞𝙩𝙪𝙢 or 𝙪𝙣𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙩𝙚𝙙 access to roughage, but they need a controlled, trickle-fed amount relevant to their weight in order to keep their gastrointestinal tract operating as it should. Research suggests that horses going as little as 4-5 hours without intaking food are at significantly higher risk of developing gastric ulcers and colic.

🔧 Below is a simplified list of tools we can use to manage the weight of our curvy equine friends without unnecessarily increasing their risk of compromised digestive health:

1️⃣ Weigh the horse. This is the most important factor when managing calorie and nutrient intake. If we don't know how much they weigh, how could we possibly know how much to feed? If you do not have access to large animal scales, below is a handy calculator that will help you determine an approximate body weight for your horse based on a few simple measurements:

https://thehorse.com/tools/adult-horse-weight-calculator/

2️⃣ Weigh the feed. Guessing does not do us nor our horses any favours. A set of digital kitchen scales for weighing concentrate feeds and a set of luggage scales for weighing hay are invaluable tools that really don't cost that much to invest in.

3️⃣ For overweight horses, we need to feed 1.5% of their current body weight or 2% of their ideal body weight (whichever is more) in preferably tested low sugar and starch grass hay. Bonus points for lower calorie and protein hay too. If forage analysis is not practical or available and we suspect there may be more sugar than ideal in our hay, we can soak it for 30-60 minutes prior to feeding to remove some of the water-soluble carbohydrates (sugars).

4️⃣ If the horse is grazing on pasture 𝙖𝙣𝙙 receiving supplementary feeds of hay, we need to establish how much pasture they are intaking in order to calculate how much hay needs to be provided to achieve the 1.5-2% rule. Remember, actively growing, short, lush, or stressed grass is likely to be higher in sugar than maturer grasses, and this does not work in favour of our overweight equines. The catch 22 is that horses with access to longer pasture can generally eat more volume per day as they don’t have to work as hard for food as they do with shorter grasses. Grass sugars accumulate as the grass is exposed to sunlight during the day and then decrease again during the evening, so the 'safest' time to have a high-risk horse grazing on pasture is between around 3am and 10am, unless there has been a frost.

5️⃣ If the horse resembles a Dyson and makes grass and hay disappear in an instant, implement restrictive grazing tools such as grazing muzzles, strip-grazing, slow feeder hay nets, or if you have the luxury of feeding them several times daily, portion out their hay so they don't receive it all at once. They don't need continuous access, but they shouldn't go longer than 4-5 hours with an empty stomach either.

6️⃣ Stop feeding bulky hard feed meals out of guilt. Overweight horses do not need a premixed or pelleted feed with a daily feeding rate of anywhere from 500g - 3kg daily. If you are uncertain, have an Equine Nutritionist formulate a suitable diet based on a ration balancer or powdered supplement bound through a small portion of a carrier ingredient that includes everything the horse needs and nothing they don't. I promise, your wallet and their waistline will thank you for it.

7️⃣ Exercise the horse. We cannot expect a herd animal who evolved by grazing over vast landscapes to be locked in a small yard or paddock, with their food and water source in the one place, to maintain an ideal body condition score. Sometimes, genetics get lucky and prevent the horse from becoming overweight, but movement is so important for aspects other than weight control, such as blood circulation, hoof health, muscle conditioning, and mental stimulation. Track systems are excellent tools to implement in order to encourage foraging behaviours and movement.

🐎 If you enjoyed this article, please feel welcome to give it a share. If you’re struggling with managing the diet of an over or underweighted horse, an Equine Nutrition Consultation may put your mind at ease:

https://stableisedequine.com.au/products/remote-equine-nutrition-consultation

27/04/2024

Thank you for being willing to share your endless knowledge - myself, my horses and all other horses I encounter will be forever grateful. ❤️❤️❤️

Honoured to be used as an example in a brilliant post by Shelley Appleton ❤️

Which Dressage is the Right Dressage?✅

Today, I was asked this question:

"Recently, I have seen a lot of backlash with a governing equestrian body 'rewarding' horsemanship that seems to go against horse welfare. My question is in regard to dressage; could you share some pics of what you believe true dressage, which works to build a horse and helps it move freely, looks like? I get so confused when I see lovely soft frames being scored so low and horribly tight riding where the horses look stressed winning. I'm actually genuinely confused about what they like about what they see."

It is a topic I have probably been inconspicuously silent on when I probably shouldn't have been. My excuse is that it is complicated—let me explain.

What is Dressage?

If you look up the definition in the online Merriam-Webster dictionary, it means the art of riding and training a horse in a manner that develops obedience, flexibility, and balance.

If you dig deeper into history, you will find the art of riding and training horses has had many different thoughts and approaches throughout time. Different eras, cultures, breeds, and uses of the horse all add to the complexity of the idea of dressage. The only commonality I can find between the different approaches I study is that they all believe they are correct. I also don’t believe that this belief of being correct was done flippantly. I am sure a lot of trial and error went into establishing the belief that each approach worked, considering how vital the role of the horse has been throughout the history of the human race and the development of civilisations.

I can also see that when you combine a long period of time and humans doing things in a certain way, we can get pretty entrenched in what we do, see, and believe.

Therefore, the first thing I am putting on the table is that "dressage" has been around for a very long time and is layered with culture and history. It is NOT a sport but has become known as a sport. But it is not like basketball, which has always been a sport... and here lies our problem.

Dressage became a sport when it was included in the Olympic Games in 1912. The FEI was created in 1921 because when you are trying to hand out gold medals, you need rules and a qualification system.

Therefore, the FEI is all about the competition of certain equestrian sports that are included in the Olympics, and one of them we label "dressage".

However, that does not mean the FEI are the masters of all things dressage. Just the sport of dressage and organisations that fall under its banner. Thinking it is the master of all things dressage is like thinking the Eurovision Song Contest is the master of all things music! Just like the Eurovision Song Contest, you can get outraged over the rules and which songs win! But you always have to remember, it is the Eurovision Song Contest and that is it. It will stamp its authority of the winner based on its rules and its judges but it is only within this context.

But I know what you are about to say - but Shelley, there are horses involved! What the FEI labels as good has this massive influence on what people believe is right and acceptable!

And you are right... dead right... and so starts my uncomfortable discussion...

I have been that person who lived in the belief that dressage was a sport of levels of increasing complexity of "movements" and got validated I was good at it by the ribbons I won... this was my belief system. I was doing bad dressage but I was in a silo. The people I was surrounded with, the voices I heard, things I read and watched were all from exactly the same silo. A world that believed the same things that I did. I know the blindness of that silo. I know the outrage and frustration I felt when people would criticise rollkur and how stupid I saw that as this was the only way I could control my horse when I first got on at an event. I saw people who criticised it as just being ignorant about what it took to ride such an athletic sensitive creature as a warmblood.

But then one day I made one of my horse’s mouths bleed and my world came crashing down. It did so because back then I had to see blood to see I was hurting a horse. I was blind to all the other screamingly obvious signs that I know now. The reactiveness, heaviness, over and under muscling, struggling with certain movements etc...

Now this is the scary bit. I am not sure that if my horse’s mouth did not bleed that day that I would not still be in that silo. Because I was locked in deep. I was validated by ribbons and with a whole world of people that never pointed out the reactiveness, heaviness, over and under muscle, or struggle with certain movements as anything more than irritating frustrations that I tried to fix with bits, tack, and powders.

So, I have made it my life’s mission to find the people like me. The people who love and care for their horses but cannot see what they are doing. They can only see this very superficial version of dressage as this sport without appreciating its true purpose of training and working a horse in a way that protects it from being ridden. I find them and open their eyes to being able to see what a horse knows and feels. A place that can initially be confronting. I do this by teaching a knowledge base and skill set to be able to make decisions and do something to help a horse.

But there is more... what do you actually do to protect the welfare of the horse? Which dressage is the right dressage?

If educating people is my life’s mission, working out "what dressage is the right dressage" is my life’s work...

I know that it is not necessarily found in the classical masters' classics nor is it in any backyard of the people that have extremist views or point fingers and scream cruelty with so much moral superiority that make the silo walls 100 times thicker.

It is because if you want to train and nurture a horse that is protected against the wear and tear of being ridden, they need more than training. They need a skilled, educated owner that is an easy load for the horse to carry. That has the funds and time to adequately provide for the horse what it needs to be mentally, physically, and emotionally healthy. The right dressage for the horse needs to be backed up with a healthy metabolism, well-balanced comfortable hooves, a fit body, well-fitting tack, and a lack of chronic stress for it to even be anywhere near "right".

Therefore, it is here I start. I start by promoting mental, physical, and emotional health.

My forte is getting horses calm, willing, and confident in all their general handling and foundation training. The foundation training is that first layer of a horse’s education that you can turn into any purpose. The ability to accept a rider and be willingly guided. It is that layer that sets the horse up to be flexible, adaptable and is aware how to learn.

I am always learning, studying, experimenting, and critically monitoring the outcome. Anyone I influence, I teach to be the same. I feed people back into the world of dressage and other disciplines to lead by example. At the very least, they get to enjoy their outings more, and their aim is always for their horse's welfare to be their first consideration with any decision they make.

This is as "right" as I have got it so far. It is not perfect and can fail, but that just gets fed back into the pursuit of trying to work it out. This, I believe, is the most effective way to create change. At least to free people from a silo to see that there are so many incredible horse trainers outside of it. There are many exceptional people that I stand alongside and I am proud of the communities I help create.

Therefore, does the governing body reward poor horsemanship? Yes, it can. But remember, some of the winning songs of Eurovision are pretty terrible. It is just a contest, but I understand its power of influence is not to be minimised. But understanding what it is in reality is important. The sport of dressage has a propensity for mixing up tension for impulsion. Flashy movement that gets rewarded has a question mark over whether breeding for this has inadvertently introduced genetic physical weakness.

Finally, here are some photographs from my clinic last weekend to show you what is going on outside the silo of the world of competition dressage. This is Amy and she brought her two horses. An off-the-track thoroughbred called Harvey and Sweeney. Both formerly troubled horses worked beautifully and confidently in the clinic environment. Not only does Amy ride and train beautifully, she is also a farrier and has done incredible rehab work on both horses. If you have a look at the data I collected from Harvey’s session using my Equestric Saddle Clip on the symmetry of rhythm, landing, it is excellent. It is even more impressive when you become aware of the fact that Harvey carries a number of soundness issues that good training, farriery, and management have allowed him to flourish in his work.

So, yes... there are problems in dressage competition land but there are seriously impressive people and horses to be found on the outside of the silo! Our numbers are growing and however I have been able to influence Amy, I know she is going to take it to the next level in her life time. Change IS happening.... ❤

25/04/2024

Hit the nail on the head 🙌🏼

You’re only as good as your last job!

After consulting on a horse last week that was going poorly, & had been for a while, I found the farriers comments at the end of the session quite interesting.

After talking about the obvious NPA, postural changes, tension & muscle development or lack of in the hind quarters, how these horses tend to behave when being shod, how they tend to behave when being ridden & from the nods of the owner & farrier getting it pretty much 100% correct

Add to that I took the X-rays (qualification/licensed I get no credit for) & talked about shoe fit (which was poor after only 4 weeks with feet growing over the shoes) hoof mapping & how to find COR of which this qualified farrier had little to no idea about.

This farriers final comments made me laugh & be a little annoyed as well, when he said ‘if u were qualified you would probably have more credibility’

So whilst this may be true, & believe me I’ve tried to get qualified in the Australian system & it’s not easy as a mature applicant, I asked him how him being a qualified farrier has in any way helped this horse?!

Being qualified is only a piece of paper & whilst I believe qualification is a good thing, sadly I am constantly correcting work of many qualified farriers, incl some of the most qualified.

Qualification is only the start of your career, it’s not a right of passage allowing u to learn nothing further & cruise through life doing poor work.

Qualification in Australia is only apprentice standard & I can assure you the standards of education are very low.

A friend of mine who is a good barefoot trimmer went through the apprentice system & was horrified at how poor the standards of education are.

So if you are hanging on to your qualification as a stamp of quality, you’re kidding yourself. Constant honest & objective evaluation of your work is the only way to continue to improve in this industry & im not just talking about hitting steel.

You’re only as good as your last job!