CC’s Hoofcare

02/09/2025

It’s that time of year again when we start to see laminitis flaring up in ponies and horses on Spring grasses 🌾

The image above shows the rotation that can happen of the pedal bone within the hoof capsule when a horse or pony is exposed to a high sugar diet (ie. lush spring grasses). In this case the pony was diagnosed with Equine Metabolic Syndrome and Laminitis.

Please monitor your equine friends closely, keep them on a regular trim cycle with your farrier, and give us a call if they look like they are becoming foot sore as we come into Spring 🌸

31/08/2025

Calling all hoof care professionals! 🐴

We're inviting farriers, barefoot trimmers, and other hoof care practitioners across Australia to take part in an important research survey exploring the realities of our careers and the impacts on horse welfare.

This research is being conducted by one of our association members Sarah from Innovative Hoof Care Australia - with Sarah Kuyken

The anonymous survey takes around 25 minutes and asks about your experiences, challenges, and beliefs around hoof care and horse welfare. It’s open to all Australian hoof care practitioners - whether you’re qualified or not, full time, part time, or trimming as a side hustle. If you’re over 18 and receive financial compensation for hoof care services, your voice is welcome.

📌 Take the survey here: https://s.pointerpro.com/hcpsurvey2025/

✅ Ethics Approval: University of Melbourne, Project ID 32733

📝 A Plain Language Statement is included on the landing page so you can read all the details before deciding to participate.

👀 Some of you may find this survey familiar - it was initially released a few years ago, but following a pause while Sarah was on maternity leave and has since having a restructure of the research project the survey is now being re-issued. Your input is just as valuable now as it was then!

🙌 Horse owners, you can help too! Please tag your farrier or trimmer in the comments or share this post with them to spread the word.

Thank you for supporting scientific research in our profession - the more responses we gather, the more meaningful the findings will be. 💬

29/08/2025

THE UNOFFICIAL HCP SURVIVAL KIT: HOW TO KEEP YOUR HOOF CARE PROVIDER ALIVE (BARELY)

(Because apparently rasping 1,200kg of metabolic ambiguity every week takes a toll.)

Your hoof care provider is a resilient species. They operate in silence, kneel in mud, and absorb more equine dysfunction than your average field vet and therapist combined. But even they have limits. Here's how to keep yours from quietly dissolving behind the wheel of their van.

1. Snacks. Always Snacks.
Hoof care providers are powered by caffeine, pocket lint, and sheer will. If you’ve got a flapjack, hand it over. If not, offer haylage or fence post bark — they’ll understand.

2. Clean, Dry Horses.
Nothing says “I respect your spine” like a horse that isn’t caked in five layers of damp archaeology. Bonus points if they’re caught before the trimmer arrives. Double if they don’t bolt.

3. The Sacred Square Surface.
Your HCP has trimmed on gravel driveways, sloped patios, soft bog, and once — by necessity — a trampoline base. A flat surface is not a luxury. It’s a form of love.

4. Don’t Say “While You’re Here…”
They came for one horse. You’ve now released a herd of seven, all overdue and two of them unhandled since 2020. This isn’t a surprise party. It’s a slow-motion ambush.

5. Tea. But Not Too Much.
Yes, a hot drink is divine. But too many offers and you’ve created an obligation loop. Now they’re trimming with one hand, holding a mug with the other, and quietly resenting your hospitality.

6. Speaking of Backs — They’re Broken.
Your HCP currently has:

One shoulder held together by kinesiology tape

Two knees on extended notice

A hip that speaks Latin when it rotates
They will never admit it. Just assume they’re in discomfort. Offer ibuprofen. Or a qualified osteopath who makes house calls.

7. Don’t Ask “Is This Normal?” Unless You Want the Truth.
The white line shouldn’t be black. The frog shouldn’t smell like compost. If you’re not ready for the answer, offer biscuits and a subject change.

8. Eye Contact and Emotional Containment.
Try not to lock eyes during a difficult hind. They’ve seen things. Let them focus on the hoof and mentally detach as needed.

9. Say Thank You.
Just once. No need for a parade. But after the horse has stood like a swaying giraffe on cobbles for 45 minutes, a quick “Thanks, I don’t know how you do it” can keep an HCP emotionally upright for up to 6 weeks.

BONUS TIP:
Never refer to their job as “just a trim.” That phrase alone has driven six of them into full-time goat rescue.

28/08/2025

27/08/2025

🌱 𝗔 𝗟𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗹𝗲 𝗦𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗜𝗻 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽

🐴 Spring is quite literally just around the corner, and with the change of season often comes a change in pasture growth and the nutrient requirements of horses.

🌾 If you have a harder keeper, you’ll probably welcome the warmer temperatures and increased forage quality with open arms as it will likely take some pressure off of the supplementary feeds of hay and concentrates you’re having to provide.

🍬 If you have an easy keeper (I am looking at all of the ponies who resemble marshmallows right now), spring can be one of the most challenging times of year because the increased calories, sugar, and starch in pasture often mean a widened waistline and unfortunately an increased predisposition to metabolic issues and laminitis.

⚖️ An overweight horse is not what you want at the end of winter, as they are likely to gain even more weight if their pasture intake and diet is not managed carefully. Horses are metabolically programmed to drop off in condition during colder months, and increase in condition when the weather warms and pasture nutritive values improve. This is what helps them to regulate their body condition and metabolism over an annual period. Domestication has seen humans over-feed and under-work equines and subsequently increase the occurrence of obesity, metabolic issues, and laminitis as a result.

🗓️ So, with spring not too far away, what measures can you put in place to prevent health issues in our equine friends?

✅ Remember that as pasture availability increases, so does your horse’s digestible energy (calorie), protein, sugar, and starch intake. You may find your horse needs less supplementary feeds to ensure their energy intake isn’t exceeding their energy output.

✅ The vitamins, minerals, and essential amino acids provided by your horse’s forage intake will likely change which may mean you need to make adjustments to any other vitamin, mineral, and amino acid sources in the diet to ensure that toxicities, deficiencies, or imbalances don’t occur. Some of my clients prefer to engage in Review Consultations for their horses based on seasonal changes.

✅ Mycotoxins are likely to have a party when pasture begins actively growing and increasing in sugar. The symptoms of Mycotoxicosis can include reactive behaviour, photosensitivity, greasy heel, mud fever, rain scald, respiratory distress, and poor skin and coat quality among other issues. A toxin binder can make all of the difference in the diet of a horse grazing pasture or hay that has been infected by Mycotoxins.

✅ Actively growing pasture = increased sugar levels. Spring is well-known for producing hot, excitable, crazy, reactive behaviours in horses but there is always a reason why. It is also worth noting that short, stressed, or overgrazed pasture is likely to be higher in sugar than longer, mature pasture is. Please don’t put obese horses and ponies in an overgrazed paddock and assume spring won’t negatively impact them.

✅ Restricted grazing times, track systems, grazing muzzles, and substitutional feeds of lower quality/calorie hay and straw are often necessary for obese or metabolically-challenged horses and ponies. Pasture sugar levels are generally lowest between 3am-10am, although if there has been a frost, the grass will have stored sugar which makes it unsafe for horses who require careful management.

✅ Regularly check your horse’s digital pulse! Heat and a digital pulse in the hooves and lower limbs can be an early warning sign of a pending laminitic episode.

✅ If you are unsure of what you should be feeding your horse, employ the services of someone who is qualified to assist you. The cost of an Equine Nutrition Consultation often pays itself off very quickly and the added bonus is you know you won’t be feeding anything unnecessary, unhealthy, or counter-productive.

🫶🏼 Please share!

25/08/2025

When horses go into training, the focus is often on 🐎 fitness, 🍽️ feeding, and 🎯 skills under saddle… but sometimes their 🦶 hooves get overlooked.

👉 Regular trims (and shoeing if needed) aren’t just about neat feet—they’re the foundation of the whole
horse. Do you remember the saying no hoof no Horse? 

🐴 Unbalanced or overdue hooves can cause discomfort, strain joints & tendons, and hold a horse back from performing at their best.

✨ Whether your horse is in training, rehab, or just enjoying paddock life, consistent hoofcare keeps them:
✔️ Comfortable
✔️ Balanced
✔️ Able to reach their full potential

Training starts from the ground up… and that means healthy hooves! 🦄💪

24/08/2025

✨3 Day Equine Dissection Workshop✨

Borambola Valley Veterinary present Dr. Raquel Butler for a comprehensive, 3-day whole horse dissection workshop. Dr Raquel (BVSc, BSc(Hons), GDABM, GCLTHE, EEBW, EMRT) is an industry leader in equine biomechanic medicine, as well as a university lecturer, teacher of the ABM graduate diploma, Equinology courses, and online equine postural courses just to name a few!

Recommended for veterinarians, equine body workers, professionals in the equine industry and any equine enthusiast. Join us as we deep dive into the anatomy, physiology and biomechanics over an intensive 3 days.

Location: Borambola Valley Veterinary Podiatry Centre
Date: October 7, 8 and 9th 2025
Investment: $600 for the 3 days
Limited positions available.

To secure your spot, message the page or contact Nicole Umback on 0488 597 724, or Heidi McGrath on 0467 681 474.

11/08/2025

FEELY, FOOTY, SORE — OR LAME?
Why sensation in the hoof is not automatically pain

A horse’s hoof is not just horn wrapped around bone. It is a living, weight-bearing sensory organ, richly supplied with nerves, blood vessels, and specialised receptors. These include mechanoreceptors that detect vibration, proprioceptors that monitor limb position, and nociceptors that register potentially harmful pressure or temperature extremes. All of these are constantly feeding information to the central nervous system.

This feedback is essential. It allows a horse to adapt stride length, limb placement, and weight distribution in fractions of a second. Without it, the horse is less able to move safely over uneven ground, avoid overloading a limb, or respond to changes in surface.

Which means: sensation is not only normal — it is necessary.
The presence of sensation does not automatically mean there is pain, injury, or pathology.

Feely

A horse that is feely is responding to increased sensory input. This often happens on surfaces that are unfamiliar, abrasive, or more variable than the horse’s daily environment. They may step more cautiously, shorten stride slightly, or pick a particular line. The movement change is subtle, proportional to the stimulus, and often disappears once the horse adapts. It’s a sign the hoof is doing its job as a sensory interface.

Footy

Footiness usually describes more obvious caution — perhaps intermittent reluctance to load fully, especially on hard, stony, or irregular ground. It may reflect early-stage overload, sole pressure from retained exfoliating material, thin soles, or simply a lack of conditioning to that terrain. Footiness can be transitional and benign, but it can also precede soreness if the cause isn’t addressed. The key is whether the horse returns to baseline comfort with rest, protection, or surface change.

Sore

Soreness indicates a level of discomfort that changes movement on most surfaces and in most contexts. It can arise from over-trimming, bruising, inflammation of the laminae, or other tissue stress. However, mild and short-lived soreness can also occur when previously unloaded structures (e.g., frog, bars, caudal hoof) begin to take load again during rehabilitation — a form of adaptive stimulus. Distinguishing between adaptive soreness and damaging overload requires close observation, history, and context.

Lame

Lameness is a clinical term: a repeatable, measurable asymmetry caused by pain or mechanical restriction. It is more than a response to an uncomfortable surface — it’s a movement change that persists across contexts or gaits. True lameness should always prompt veterinary evaluation to identify and address the cause. However, mislabelling normal sensory caution as “lameness” can lead to unnecessary interventions and may undermine trust between owners and professionals.

Why the distinction matters

If every altered step is seen as pathology, we risk overprotecting the foot, depriving it of the very stimulus it needs to adapt and strengthen. If we ignore clear signs of discomfort, we risk allowing reversible issues to progress to real injury. The hoof’s role as a sensory organ means some change in movement is expected when surfaces, load, or environmental factors change — especially in horses that aren’t fully conditioned for that challenge.

The right question is not simply “Is the horse sound?” but:
– What is the hoof reporting to the brain?
– Is the movement change proportional to the stimulus?
– Does it resolve with rest, protection, or adaptation?
– Is it protective (self-preserving), adaptive (strength-building), or pathological (damage-related)?

When we understand the difference between feeling, protecting, adapting, and true pain, we make better decisions — and give the horse the best chance to keep both its function and its feedback intact.

11/08/2025

Reviews Make a Big Difference! 🐎💬✨

If you’ve had a great experience with CC’s Hoofcare, I’d be so grateful if you could take a minute to leave a review on my page! 💻🖊️

Your review doesn’t just mean the world to me—it really helps my small business grow. 📈 It boosts my visibility with Facebook’s algorithm, which means more people can discover the work I do and the care I give to every horse and donkey I work with. 🐴❤️

To all of my amazing clients: THANK YOU! 🙌 I appreciate each and every one of you more than words can say. Your trust and support keep me doing what I love every single day. 🐴🫏🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷🫏🐴

04/08/2025

Sensitive Sole Dysregulation Disorder (SSDD):
Why Your Horse Isn’t a Jerk—He Just Has Sore Feet 🐴🔥

⚠️ This is long. Possibly the most important thing you’ll read this year about your “frustrating” horse. So dig deep and let me transplant some good ideas into your head....

People come to me for all sorts of reasons.
Some are curious about my nerdy, no-nonsense take on horse training.

Some want help building a better relationship with their horse.
And some arrive clinging to the last threads of hope, unsure whether their horse is traumatised, dangerous… or they are just not good enough to own a horse 😔.

Most of the time, the horse is just confused.
Once we clear up the misunderstanding, lay out a process, and build some real skills, the change is phenomenal.
✅ Communication improves.
✅ Confidence blooms.
✅ Partnerships are born.

It’s effective.
It’s beautiful.
It works—until it doesn’t.

Because there’s a subset of horses—genuinely lovely horses, with well-meaning, capable humans—who still struggle.
Not from lack of effort.
Not from uselessness.
Not because the horse is a waste of time.

It’s because the horse isn’t physically in a state to learn.
And the top culprit?

Sore. Bloody. Feet. 🦶💥

Which is why I’m proud (and mildly exasperated) to introduce a term that I believe deserves a permanent spot in the equine lexicon aka lingo:

Sensitive Sole Dysregulation Disorder (SSDD)

A multifactorial, stress-induced hoof spiral that masquerades as a behavioural problem—but is actually your horse’s way of saying, “Human, I cannot cope. And what you're asking me to do is bloody uncomfortable and I feel threatened.”

Why We Need a Term Like SSDD

If you’ve read my blog on New Home Syndrome, you’ll know how powerful naming things can be.

That post gave thousands of horse owners a lightbulb moment:
💡 “Ah—it’s not that my new horse was drugged and sold by an unscrupulous lying horse seller. He’s just completely unravelling from the stress of relocation.”

Naming gives us a grip on the slippery stuff.
It stops us chasing trauma narratives, mystical contracts, and fantasy horsemanship rabbit holes wasting our time, money, and enjoyment of horses.
It invites clarity.
It invites action.

So let’s do it again.
Because SSDD is real.
It’s widespread.
And it’s quietly ruining training, relationships, and confidence—for both horse and human.

The Official Definition (Because I’m Nerdy Like That 😎)

Sensitive Sole Dysregulation Disorder (SSDD):

A stress-induced, multifactorial syndrome in horses, characterised by systemic dysregulation and poor hoof integrity. It results in chronic sensitivity from inflammation, poor structural balance. It causes altered posture and movement, and unpredictable or defensive behaviour—especially when the horse is asked to move, load, or engage physically.
Commonly misdiagnosed as poor training, bad temperament, or “being crazy, dangerous, or… a bit of a dick.”

How It Starts
(And Why It’s So Sneaky 🕵️‍♀️)

Stress—whether from relocation, dietary change, social disruption, intense work, poor training, or all of the above and more—disrupts the gut.

We talk about ulcers and hindgut issues, but gut disruption reaches much further. It impacts:

- Nervous system regulation
- Nutrient absorption
- Muscle and fascia development
- Sensory processing
- Postural support
- Biomechanics
➡️And yes… hoof quality

Systemic inflammation gets triggered, and it ripples to the hooves.
Thin soles.
Inflamed hoof structures.
Suddenly, every step hurts.

And when all four feet hurt at once?
There’s no limp.
No giveaway unless you know what to look for.
Just a horse who suddenly doesn’t want to:

🚫 Go forward
🚫 Bend
🚫 Load
🚫 Be caught
🚫 Be mounted
🚫 Leave its friends
🚫 “Trust you”
🚫 “Connect”

From the outside, it looks like resistance and unpredictability.
But inside?
It’s one long, silent “Ouch.”

And just because they run, buck and gallop in the paddock does not mean it isn’t festering away.

Case Study: The Off-The-Track Time Bomb 🧨
Meet the OTTB.
He’s fresh off the track with the emotional resilience of a sleep-deprived uni student living off Red Bull and vending machine snacks.
His microbiome is wrecked.
His feet are full of nail holes.
His hooves are thin and genetically fragile.

Hoof balance and form has been considered for the next race—not the next 20 years.
And someone’s just pulled his shoes in the name of “letting down naturally.” 🙃

Cue: SSDD.

Now he’s bolting, spinning, rearing, planting, or shutting down.
The forums recommend groundwork, magnesium, a different noseband, an animal communicator, or an MRI for a brain tumour.
The horsemanship world says “move his feet.”
The trauma-informed crowd say “get his consent.”
Kevin at the feed store says “get his respect.”

But nothing changes.
Because it’s not a behaviour issue.
It’s a hoof–gut–nervous system–biomechanical spiral.
And until you break the cycle, no amount of connection, compassion, or carrot sticks will touch it.

What SSDD Looks Like:
🔹 Short, choppy strides
🔹 Hesitation on gravel
🔹 Tension through the back and neck
🔹 Braced posture, dropped belly, collapsed topline
🔹 Popping hamstrings
🔹 Loss of bend, swing, or rhythm
🔹 Explosions without warning
🔹 Refusal to leave the paddock
🔹 Sudden regression in training
🔹 Being labelled a “dick,” “bitch,” “jerk,” or “nutcase”
Imagine removing your shoes.
Now walk barefoot over gravel, or Lego hidden in shag-pile carpet 🧱
Add a backpack.
Now have someone control where you have to move and how fast.
Now smile, be polite, and do what you’re told.

Sound like trust and connection to you?

That’s SSDD.

Let’s Be Clear 💡
This isn’t an anti-barefoot rant.
And it’s not a pro-shoes crusade.
It’s about recognising that stress undermines hoof quality…
And compromised hooves undermine everything else.

Hoof pain is a master dysregulator.
It breaks posture.
Fractures movement.
Feeds stress.
Causes breakdown.
Blocks learning.
And it’s hard to see—especially when you think your horse is acting like an idiot.

What To Do (Especially for OTTBs, STBs, and New Arrivals)
✅ Be strategic.
✅ Be clinical.
✅ Be kind.
- Replace shoes or hoof protection, don’t rip off shoes on Day One.
- Support the gut from the start.
- Prioritise routine, rest, and recovery.
- Make sure they’re sleeping—properly.
- Work with a hoof care pro who understands stress transitions.
- Wait before reassessing shoeing choices.
- Stop mistaking pain for personality.
- Choose insight over ideology.
- Choose systems thinking over magic silver bullets.

Why It Matters

When we name SSDD, we stop blaming horses for not coping.
We stop shaming owners.

We stop spiralling into horsemanship cults where stillness is the only sign of success.

We start looking at the actual horse.
In the actual body.
With actual problems.

Because sometimes, it’s not temperament.
It’s not training.
It’s just a hoof—
Tender, tired, inflamed—
Whispering softly:
“I can’t cope.”
A hoof that needs support and protection.

📸 IMAGE TO BURN INTO YOUR MEMORY BANKS
Study it.
See the posture searching for comfort?
The tension lines?
The zoned out face that says “pain”?
The weird stance?
That’s SSDD at a standstill.
Even if you can’t see it yet—please consider it.
I might’ve made up the name…
But the thing itself is very, very real.

Just like New Home Syndrome, SSDD deserves its own hashtag.
Okay fine— is a bit long.
Let’s go with:

If This Blog Made You Think—Please Share It 🙏
But please don’t copy and paste chunks and pretend you wrote them.
There’s a share button. Use it.
Be cool. Give credit. Spread the word.
Because if this made you stop and wonder whether your horse isn’t being difficult—but is actually sore, stressed, and stuck in a spiral—
That moment of reflection could be the turning point that changes everything.

We’ve just released our Racehorse to Riding Horse – Off the Track Reboot course, plus other clear, practical resources to help you understand OTTBs & OTTSTBs and support these incredible horses, as they are more prone to this than most.

Because with the right information, what feels impossible…
Can become totally achievable. 🐎✨

I’ll pop some references in the comments.

02/08/2025

🐴 𝗟𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗰𝗿𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝗖𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗺𝘀 𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗟𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘀

🌱 It is almost spring in Australia and therefore almost peak laminitis season. Despite all of the science and meticulously researched information we have available on how to best support an equine recovering from laminitis, there is still so much dangerous advice circulating and I’m a bit fed up about it.

🐴 Myth #1: White chaff and hay is what you should feed a laminitic horse.

🌱 Truth #1: White chaff and hay are derived from cereal crops which almost always have a high sugar and starch content. Please, for the love of god, do not feed a laminitic horse wheaten or oaten chaff/hay.

🐴 Myth #2: Bran is a safe feed for laminitic horses as it’s a good source of fibre.

🌱 Truth #2: Bran can be thrown in the same category as white chaffs and hays given it is derived from cereal grains. It is too high in sugar and starch to be considered safe, regardless of the fibre content. It is also high in phosphorus and requires careful balancing with regard to calcium in the diet.

🐴 Myth #3: When soaking hay, the colour of the water indicates how much sugar is being soaked out.

🌱 Truth #3: The dark colouration you see coming from hay that is soaked in water has nothing to do with the sugar content and instead is the tannins and dirt leaching from the hay. Don’t assume clear post-soaking water means that the hay is low in sugar.

🐴 Myth #4: Grain-free premixed feeds are suitable for laminitic horses.

🌱 Truth #4: In my experience, laminitic horses do better on whole food diets rather than premixed feeds. It’s not only the sugar and starch content that is important, but also the protein and fat content. A grain-free feed that is high in protein and fat is still potentially unsuitable.

🐴 Myth #5: Feeds that are labelled as “grain-free” or “laminitis safe” are exactly that.

🌱 Truth #5: I know of several feeds labelled “laminitis safe” that contain cereal by-products such as oaten or wheaten chaff/hay. There are also plenty of feeds that claim to be grain-free that contain by-products such as bran, pollard, or millrun. The manufacturer’s argument is that the feed is “whole” grain-free. There is no regulatory authority that governs how feeds are marketed.

🐎 Read your feed, guys. There are so many feeds that are marketed poorly or deceptively and simply do not support the recovery of our laminitic equines or the prevention of an episode. Stop taking nutritional advice from people who are not up to speed on the latest information regarding feeding the laminitic equine.