P J Martin Farriers

18/09/2024

Second day of the Mustad Hoofcare tour. Yesterday was a tour of the distribution centre in the Netherlands where all products for the European market pass through. A very impressive slick operation moving tonnes of nails and shoes around World.

Today was a guided tour of the horse shoe manufacturing plant in Friesland. The day started with a presentation by Mustad of their company, ethos and aims for the future. Followed by a guided tour of the manufacturing facility (sadly no photos!). It is a fantastic experience to see the process from the development on computer, through to the tooling and onto the shoes actually being made.

A huge thank you to Richard Ash Horseshoes for the invitation on this trip, if any farrier is offered this opportunity I would highly recommend it.

28/08/2024

This is a great illustration of why you shouldn't pull nails or any foreign object out of the foot until you have taken the horse to the vet to have it xrayed. If you pull it out, without a radiographic image, you won't know where the nail Penetrated. Getting radiographic images can help prevent your horse from long term or permanent lameness.

28/07/2024

Xc day at Paris 2024 Olympics!
There is a good buzz in the air today and blue sky!

25/07/2024

Moreaid at the Olympics!

26/01/2024

Simples!

15/12/2023

5* event horse with mild asymmetric front feet. Left fore P3 is slightly flat on X-ray, so fitted a The Shoeing Lab 01905-641640 pad with click in centre cut to provide caudal support of p3. Right fore is slightly more upright than the left, and as is quite common with these lands quite hard on the lateral quarter. This foot I fitted a Shoeing Lab unilateral lift pad, drilling some holes to allow the impression material to key into the pad. The shoe is Jimmy level, combined with the pad creating a more level foot fall and balanced loading of the limb.

12/12/2023

I am running a one day CPD event aimed at farriers, vets and equine physios on the 19th January ‘24. It will be a full day of information, discussion and demonstrations by Ian Gajczak Farrier.

The day will start at 8am with tea/coffee before lectures and discussion.
A hot lunch will be provided by the Unicorn Equestrian centre, before an afternoon of live horse assessment and demonstration by Ian Gajczak of some of the techniques he uses day to day.

As with the CPD event I organised earlier this year the profits will go to the Farriers Foundation, hopefully we can match the £900 raised in February.

To attend please follow the link

Ian Cajczak Dip.W.C.F explores the gap between ideal clinical practices and the real-world challenges of everyday shoeing

10/07/2023

Every horse owner and/or yard should have the right tools for removing a shoe in an emergency. Any of my clients who would like to know how to remove a shoe for emergency purposes just need to ask and I will show you.

06/06/2023

03/06/2023

5 days old and growing nicely! Sox (Sugar Brown Babe) is very bold and likes a good scratch! Dougie (Solon Glory) is not so sure about these hoomans wanting to say hello!

27/05/2023

A great follow up post from Lindsey Field aka The study of the equine hoof showing the difference between a healthy and unhealthy frog.

There are many products on the market to treat thrush, but the common denominator in all of them is picking feet out thoroughly on a daily basis. This allows air to get to the affected area, and as thrush is an anaerobic bacteria the exposure will help kill it. The topical solutions will compliment the effect of picking the feet out.

Thrush.

My last post showed you an image of a slice through the horse’s foot at the area by the bulbs. You could see that the slice through the digital cushion had light showing through the “slit” meaning it was not dense healthy frog tissue. That part sticking up is called the frog spine or frog stay. It should be a thick strong structure that bisects the digital cushion, and looks a bit like a shark fin. It’s important because it helps to stabilise the back of the foot and helps to resist the shear forces that can occur between the heels. It also has numerous micro cartilage strands attached to it, and they attach to the collateral cartilages. They help to keep the cushion strong, resist tearing and resist it being stretched outside its allowable stretch.

Photo 1 shows the effect of thrush. It’s affect can be hidden to horse owners unless they investigate the slit in the centre of the frog, towards the back to the foot. A slit is not healthy and needs investigation. Thrush actually eats away at the frog tissue, destroying it, and making it fragile.

Photo 2 shows a foot with a nice healthy frog spine. It’s not in exactly the same plane as photo 1 but it demonstrates well what we should be seeing. The frog spine consists of dense frog tissue and it is robust and thick. Look carefully at the white strands in the digital cushion, they are the fibrocartilage strands that I mentioned above. Many of you asked me to show you a healthy foot to compare.

If you can sink your hoof pick into the frog then there is trouble. Trouble that needs your help.

Support me on patreon and enjoy a win win with 5 years of my videos and photos of my equine foot and whole horse anatomy. http://www.patreon.com/hoof-studies

My valued sponsors:

https://www.lighthoof.com

https://www.espacechevalmoderne.com/ecm-parage

http://www.holistichoofcareforhorseowners.com/

[email protected]

https://www.thehorseshoof.com/

https://www.equine-rehab.com

The Crazy Mare Chronicles

https://www.caballo.co.za/

https://www.holistichooves.com

26/05/2023

Probably the most common foot ailment that I come across, yet no one takes it seriously as it’s too much like hard work to resolve it!

02/05/2023

One from today, 4* event horse that had an abscess in his medial heel following a serious bout of lymphangitis. The heel had “blown” and no longer weight bearing, and due to the foot conformation I decided to use a heartbar to transfer load onto the frog and away from the affected heel. I expect this to be used for two shoeings before returning to a standard open heel shoe.

20/01/2023

New horse to me today. Apparently it was shod 4 weeks ago🤔. Pictures are post trimming, not that there was a lot to trim off. Foot conformation of the hind feet is far from ideal and in this case could potentially lead to problems further up the limb (PSD, spavin, SI inflammation). Application of an appropriate sized shoe and the 3D hoof care half mesh pads along with silicone impression material, will reduce compression of the heels allowing them to regenerate and grow. Hopefully this will lead to better hoof conformation and reduced likelihood of performance issues further down the line.