Topline Equine Services

27/06/2025

so good!

Grid Lock or Open Lines?

Why don’t you hear more about the grid when debating hoof care methodology, when in my opinion, it is the most reliable and cheapest way to gauge progress.

If everyone asked, “ How do I get my horse’s feet to have a better grid?” We could all be having a conversation about it instead of an argument. This might get rid of the bickering and confusion that exists in the trimming world today. It also might have the effect of pulling back the curtain and revealing the Wizard of Oz…who is using confusing language and complicated information to hide what they are really doing. Radiographs, MRIs, and Venograms would not be necessary in most cases.

What is the grid?

The hoof capsule grows down from the coronary band at the rate of 1 mm every 3 days. The growth rings are created by hoof horn being produced at the coronary band. They should stay parallel to the coronary band all the way to the ground. The horn tubules are lines that are also created by hoof horn being produced at the coronary band and they should remain parallel from the dorsal wall all the way to the heel. Together these growth lines intersect and form a grid. Every line in this grid contains information about the horse’s weight distribution during the time it was produced and how it responds to weight distribution until it grows out and finally wears off at the bottom of the wall. The alignment of the grid relies on growth/wear equilibrium ( adequate miles of wear or simulated miles of wear ).

Understanding and assessing the grid gives you much needed validation as to growth/wear equilibrium and weight distribution ( posture ). When the grid is correct, the hoof capsule is properly balanced around P3. If the hoof capsule is properly balanced around P3, the soft tissue and live sole will reach optimal depth ( true hoof capsule depth ). Imo, no other pathologies or lameness can be properly diagnosed until and unless all 4 hooves are properly balanced and optimally built. Only then can you assess what other issues may be present. I have had clients that received grim diagnoses by vets that “disappeared” when the feet were rehabbed.

Fix the foundation first…
Feet First

Due to the high volume of blood that is intended to flow through the entire hoof capsule…the more distorted the hoof capsule is, the less blood flow there is in the feet and the less circulation there is throughout the body.

The PA shouldn’t be determined by flattening the bottom of the hoof or propping it up with wedges to create a favorable angle for the coffin bone, that only balances it to the ground. The PA should be determined by the growth rings and horn tubules growing down the hoof capsule from the hairline to the ground, without any deviation from the dorsal wall to the heels. This is built from the inside, not carved from the outside.

The age old debate about barefoot vs shoes should be obsolete. The more recent debate about leaving long toes or chopping them off should also go away. We would only be talking about how fast we can realign the grid and how far we can build soft tissue and live sole. A “realignment trim” and a “derotation trim” would come to mean the same thing. We’d all be on the same page. The writing is on the wall…it’s a universal language just waiting for us to learn how to read it.

Read the Grid

Of course we’ll all still have to do something about it, not just talk about it, but at least we’d know who can keep the horses going in the right direction and who needs to get out of the way.

- - -

(David Landreville, June 2024)

15/01/2025

29/12/2024

27/12/2024

21/08/2024

Do the costs for the working horse outweigh the benefits for humans or possibly the long-term benefits for the horse as an individual or as a species?

After all, training can also assist in enhancing fitness, thereby reducing disease and injury rates, and beyond that, if we were not to use horses for our equestrian purposes, hardly anyone would keep horses and their numbers would be greatly reduced, if not threatened by extinction?

If horses were truly able to comprehend their environment, then perhaps they would not be so trainable and rideable and maybe it would be unethical to ride them?

It could be argued that if horses were capable of reflection, they would suffer by comprehending their own enslavement and the ubiquity of pressure during ridden work, of having to jump clearly avoidable obstacles, and of having to carry another being.

The horse would be consumed by his longing for freedom to simply be a horse: to eat grass, be with affiliates and be free of human exploitation.

That said, there is reason to believe that the correctly and humanely trained horse is not distressed by its interactions with humans. Indeed, ethical training and riding can provide environmental and behavioural enrichment.

It is reasonable to conclude that this is true because the horse has evolved to discriminate and respond to multiple stimuli in a complex landscape covering hundreds of hectares. In the case of the modern horse kept in a comparatively uneventful few square metres -- clear, the consistent learning outcomes that arise during their interactions with humans most likely fulfil the behavioural need to learn how best to interact with the environment.

Equitation Science, 2nd Edition, Andrew McLean, Paul McGreevy, Janne Whinther Christensen & Uta König von Borstel.

16/03/2024

Have we convinced you yet of the tremendous benefits of shortening the toes of domestic horses (which are typically grossly too long)?

For more detailed information, please read the articles in The Horse's Hoof Barefoot News:

• January 2024, "Bowker on Blood Flow through the Equine Foot"
https://mailchi.mp/thehorseshoof/the-horses-hoof-barefoot-newsjanuary-2024

• February 2024: "Dr. Bowker: The long toe is the #1 problem with the horse's foot!"
https://mailchi.mp/thehorseshoof/the-horses-hoof-barefoot-newsfebruary-2024

Sign up for The Horse's Hoof Barefoot News, it's free! https://mailchi.mp/thehorseshoof/50-giveaway

Are you worried about HOW to get your horse's toes shortened in a practical way? It is in the horse’s best interest to go ahead and get the toes shortened all at once. However, don’t be afraid to go slowly with a very overgrown toe if it makes you more comfortable; in this case, a good rule of thumb is to figure out how much needs to come off, and remove half of that the first day. Come back in a week or two, and repeat (remove half of what is needed). Next time, remove half again! And so on and so on, until the toes are correct. Eventually, you get there!

James Welz says, "Until they see it done, many trimmers are afraid to back up the toes enough. There is a strange myth out there, even perpetuated by otherwise qualified people, that rasping into the white line will cause all kinds of “horrible” problems. This is simply false, as backed up (no pun intended) by the thousands of horses I’ve trimmed, and thousands more that I’ve observed. If all my guidelines are followed, backing up the toes will create immediate positive benefits that you will be able to observe in your horse’s feet even before the next trim takes place. Backing up the toes makes mechanical sense."

We provide lots of helpful advice for shortening toes and improving hoof health on Hoof Help Online. A unique platform for learning: You receive exclusive content you won't find anywhere else, plus a barefoot trimming course, community access, recorded livestream video events, 80 issues of The Horse's Hoof Magazine, 1000's of photos, 100's of articles, 70+ videos, FREE App and more! Learn more at: https://members.hoofhelponline.com/

Happy Hooves! - Yvonne Welz

03/12/2023

What is desensitisation?

You can desensitise a horse to something he or she finds offensive (like aerosols, or clippers).

Habituation, where the horse no longer reacts to something, is the learning process behind desensitisation.

Techniques include methodologies like approach conditioning (chasing scary objects), gradual desensitisation, and overshadowing.

Our short course: 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐇𝐨𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧 is an essential one-hour theory-based course for riders, coaches and trainers of all levels and disciplines.

Providing you with a thorough introduction to how horses learn, as well as equine ethology and biomechanics, this equine course, How Horses Learn is designed to teach you the fundamentals of successful horse training.

it is an interesting and enjoyable journey with interactive features, animations and knowledge checks throughout.

Topics covered include:
- Desensitising.
- Pressure-release.
- Positive and negative reinforcement.
- Classical conditioning.
- The horse's mind.
- Differences between horses and humans.

https://esi-education.com/courses/how-horses-learn/

04/11/2023

14/10/2023

Wow. This is powerful, eye opening and a little sad. This is why I’m not in the business of buying and selling horses...instead, I would much rather educate equine enthusiasts about just how sensitive horses truly are...

“Most horses pass from one human to another - some horsemen and women are patient and forgiving, others are rigorous and demanding, others are cruel, others are ignorant.

Horses have to learn how to, at the minimum, walk, trot, canter, gallop, go on trails and maybe jump, to be treated by the vet, all with sense and good manners.

Talented Thoroughbreds must learn how to win races, and if they can't do that, they must learn how to negotiate courses and jump over strange obstacles without touching them, or do complicated dance
like movements or control cattle or accommodate severely handicapped children and adults in therapy work.

Many horses learn all of these things in the course of a single lifetime. Besides this, they learn to understand and fit into the successive social systems of other horses they meet along the way.

A horse's life is rather like twenty years in foster care, or in and out of prison, while at the same time changing schools over and over and discovering that not only do the other students already have their own social groups, but that what you learned at the old school hasn't much application at the new one.

We do not require as much of any other species, including humans.

That horses frequently excel, that they exceed the expectations of their owners and trainers in such circumstances, is as much a testament to their intelligence and adaptability as to their relationship skills or their natural generosity or their inborn nature.

That they sometimes manifest the same symptoms as abandoned orphans - distress, strange behaviors, anger, fear - is less surprising than that they usually don't.

No one expects a child, or even a dog to develop its intellectual capacities living in a box 23 hours a day and then doing controlled exercises the remaining one.

Mammal minds develop through social interaction and stimulation.

A horse that seems "stupid", "slow", "stubborn", etc. might just have not gotten the chance to learn!

Take care of your horses and treasure them.”

- Jane Smiley

📸 Kaly Madison Photography

10/10/2023

03/10/2023