Faye Dobbie Student Equine Podiatrist

21/07/2023

From the pony that wouldn’t let you even touch her legs without kicking to now happily keeping her foot on the stand herself! She’s come a long way.
If she needs a break, she gets one. If her patience has run out then we come back to it the next day. Working with her rather than against her has meant she is much more comfortable as she knows she can say no and we listen - before it escalates to her feeling the need to kick out.

13/07/2023

Jayne was a truely lovely lady and a wonderful teacher. She inspired everyone she met and she will never be forgotten. I hear her advice in my ear with every time I trim, as I’m sure everyone she has taught will too. A truely huge loss to world of equine podiatry and to everyone who knew her
Thank you Jayne for everything ❤️

Jayne Hunt

The members of the Equine Podiatry Association have been devastated by the sudden passing of our beloved Jayne Hunt in a riding accident on Sunday 9th July.

Jayne has been at the heart of our community since its inception. With her longstanding friend and colleague Richard Vialls, she established the Equine Podiatry training company delivering the Equine Podiatry diploma. In that role she shared her passion, wisdom and warmth with her students. So on Sunday afternoon, in the blink of an eye, our association not only lost our warmest, funniest and most generous member, we also lost our teacher, our mentor and our dear friend. Her favourite answers to our inevitable student questions were ‘it depends’ (to almost any Equine Podiatry question) and ‘it’ll be fine’ (to any set back or problem) and those refrains still echo with us now she’s gone.

We will be forever grateful for her life, and that she had the foresight and bravery to follow her passion for this profession. We’re thankful that she and Richard brought their dream of establishing a professional Equine Podiatry qualification to fruition, when two years ago the Equine Podiatry Training course was accredited by LANTRA as a Level 5 qualification. It is a comfort to us that she achieved this long held ambition before her untimely death.

Living her life as she did, Jayne influenced and changed so many lives for the better: from her clients, we podiatrists, and the horses that bring us all together. We are so thankful for the time we had with her and wish we had had much more, she will be profoundly missed by us all.

08/06/2023

The association is run as a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee. The two key legal documents which control how the association runs are the Memorandum and Articles of Association. In addition, the council maintains a set of association rules which control the day-to-day running of the associ...

01/05/2023

7 months progress for this little Welsh pony 😊

26/04/2023

• Warning - Dissection •

The final day of the course was dissecting the legs we trimmed the day before. As expected the back of the foot was weak and the digital cushion was squishy and poor quality (it should be firm and springy).

I’m always amazed by how perfectly the inside of the foot mimics the outside, as you can see by the shape of the frog. The ‘furry’ appearance on the sole of the foot is the papillae, which attach the sole to the corium almost like Velcro. On a healthy foot, this attachment is really strong but this foot was so unhealthy that it separated very easily.

Always grateful to the horses that these legs come from. Although we know nothing about the horse, you can learn so much from a dissection and use that to help more horses in the future

25/04/2023

• Warning of cadaver foot •

Day 2 was a mock for part of our final exam. We got half an hour to assess, trim, and fill in a report on a pathological hoof we hadn’t seen before. Then we assessed each hoof as a group to learn from each other’s trims.
This hoof’s main pathology was underrun heals and potential navicular syndrome. It had a very weak internal arc, meaning the back of foot would not be able to absorb shock as it is meant to.
A hoof like this would really benefit from boots and pads to support the foot and help stimulate the frog and digital cushion, in time strengthening up the back of the foot

24/04/2023

We are on the final meet up for our course and yesterday was spent learning about Farriery from Chris Powell FWCF. We discussed the similarities and differences between a farrier and an EP’s approaches, followed by a demonstration of shoeing a horse including making the shoes completely from scratch. Watching the metal working was fascinating and the skill that goes in to making the shoes is incredible

Very interesting day with some honest and open discussions between us all.
Thank you to Chris and his apprentice Cameron 😊

21/02/2023

A few hooves from the past week, some are new clients and some are regulars.
I feel very lucky to be able to work with such a variety of horses, and their owners of course! Every horse teaches us something different 😊

19/02/2023

Yearling Dudley decided his owner and I had been talking for far too long and put himself on the stand to hurry us along! This little man is not bothered by anything, especially if there is food to be had

23/01/2023

Really useful advice for using muzzles

Fat Ponies, Swards and Muzzles

Do you know that in SOME circumstances the use of grazing muzzles has been reported to:

· INCREASE body weight;

· INCREASE frustration;

· CAUSE tooth damage;

· INCREASE rates of laminitis!

Here I will help you understand those circumstances so you can avoid them.

USEFUL DEFINITIONS:

Sward: an area covered in grass.

Sward height: height of the blades of grass in the sward.

WHAT WE KNOW FROM SCIENCE ABOUT USE OF MUZZLES

Muzzles are a relatively popular method around the world for aiming to control weight in “good doers” (Cameron et al., 2021). However, the use of them stimulates strong polarized opinions with the for and against camps in existence (Cameron et al., 2021 and Jaqueth et al., 2018). Let’s look at some facts to help inform you when making decisions for weight management in 2023…

· Full time use of muzzles (24 h/d) can REDUCE body weight (Davis et al., 2020).

· Part time use of muzzles (10h/d) can INCREASE in body weight (Davis et al., 2020).

· Full time use of muzzles (24 h/d) can REDUCE heart rate when compared to part time or unmuzzled horses (Davis et al., 2020).

· Part time use of grazing muzzles may INCREASE rates of laminitis (Pollar et al., 2019).

· Grazing muzzles can DECREASE the amount of forage consumed (Glunk et al., 2011 and 2014).

· Grazing muzzled horses on pasture which has grass length greater than 10cms or less than 3cms (sward height) causes frustration and potentially may be responsible for some of the cases of teeth damage observed in muzzled horses (Longland et al., 2016).

LET’S ADDRESS THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

The higher rates of laminitis and greater body weight gain in part-time muzzled horses are important observations and might be considered surprising. However, muzzling horses part time will teach the horse that there are periods of non-muzzling. If that horse has access to good pasture during periods of non-muzzling it will gorge (phenomenon called “compensatory eating”). This will allow the horse to gain weight despite part time muzzling and therefore increase the risk of laminitis.

If you are only able to part time muzzle your horse for practical (e.g. yard rules), or emotional (you end up feeling guilty and taking the muzzle off), or other reasons, and your horse has access to pasture the rest of the time, it is probably better to consider a different weight management option.

SO, WHAT IS THE BEST SCENARIO FOR USE OF MUZZLES?

Sward height is another CRITICAL parameter you must consider when deciding whether or not to muzzle your horse. If you have paddocks with a sward length of between 3-10cms, then the use of a muzzle for 24h/d is likely to reduce/maintain body weight, without causing frustration or allowing gorging. It is also the scenario under which it is unlikely that the muzzle will lead to tooth damage as the grass passes easily through grazing muzzle holes. If you have paddocks with only long or extremely short grass this is not the scenario to use a muzzle under as you are likely to increase frustration and potentially cause tooth damage with the horse trying extremely hard to access the grass swards that do not enter easily the muzzle.

TAKE HOME ADVICE FOR CONSIDERING USING GRAZING MUZZLES

The most effective and safe use of grazing muzzles is if they are worn 24/hr/day on pastures with sward height between 3-10cms. If worn part time, the horse must not have access to good pasture for the times it is un-muzzled. The critical consideration for preventing frustration and teeth damage is sward height.

Cameron A, Harris P, Longland A, Horseman S, Hockenhull J. (2021) UK Horse Carers' Experiences of Restricting Grazing When Aiming to Prevent Health Issues in Their Horses. J Equine Vet Sci. 2021 Sep;104:103685. doi: 10.1016/j.jevs.2021.103685. Epub 2021 Jun 13. PMID: 34417001.

Davis K.M., Iwaniuk M.E., Dennis R.L., Harris P.A., Burk A.O. (2020) Effects of grazing muzzles on behavior, voluntary exercise, and physiological stress of miniature horses housed in a herd. Applied Animal Behaviour Science. 232. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2020.105108.

Glunk E.C., Sheaffer C.C., Hathaway M.R., Martinson K.L. (2014) Interaction of Grazing Muzzle Use and Grass Species on Forage Intake of Horses. Journal of Equine Veterinary Science, 34 (7), 930-933, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jevs.2014.04.004.

Jaqueth AL, Iwaniuk ME, Burk AO. Characterization of the Prevalence and Management of Over-Conditioned Ponies and Horses in Maryland. J Equine Vet Sci. 2018 Sep;68:26-32. doi: 10.1016/j.jevs.2018.02.007. Epub 2018 Feb 28. PMID: 31256884.

Longland A.C., Barfoot C., Harris P.A (2016) Effects of Grazing Muzzles on Intakes of Dry Matter and Water-Soluble Carbohydrates by Ponies Grazing Spring, Summer, and Autumn Swards, as well as Autumn Swards of Different Heights. Journal of Equine Veterinary Science, 40, 26-33, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jevs.2015.09.009.

Longland A.C., Barfoot C., Harris P.A. (2011) The effect of wearing a grazing muzzle vs not wearing a grazing muzzle on pasture dry matter intake by ponies. Journal of Equine Veterinary Science, 31 (5–6), 282-283, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jevs.2011.03.105.

Pollard D, Wylie CE, Verheyen KLP, Newton JR. Identification of modifiable factors associated with owner-reported equine laminitis in Britain using a web-based cohort study approach. BMC Vet Res. 2019 Feb 12;15(1):59. doi: 10.1186/s12917-019-1798-8. PMID: 30755193; PMCID: PMC6373032.

19/01/2023

Always satisfying when the hoof nippers off in one piece

17/01/2023

Handsome Maverick looking stylish in his socks! Great was to keep feathers out of the way for trimming, with the added bonus of him looking much cooler than his friends

15/01/2023

First two case studies completed 🙌
What a difference 6 months has made to both of these horses

13/12/2022

Dentist day for the horses today. Thank you Will Pimlett Equine Dentist for keeping them in tip top shape as always 😊

09/12/2022

Another fab day using the HoofBeat to analyse horse’s movements and test whether what we were seeing by eye was accurate (luckily it was!). The HoofBeat measures far more in-depth than we could ever see so it is a super tool to use. It opened up plenty of discussion about the findings and whether we would adjust the trim with what we found.

Thank you to Amy and Charlene for running the day, fascinating as always!

25/11/2022

Another trim day today, using the Werkman Black tool to analyse gait in walk and trot both before and after trimming. It’s such a useful piece of kit! Thank you to Heavenly Hooves Equine Podiatry for letting us have a go, some very interesting results

24/11/2022

I have spent the past two days in Somerset on training days with some of my fellow students. We were trimming lots of horses as well as practising gait analysis, looking at X-rays, and discussing hoof boots.
Thank you to Denise and Sally for hosting and for teaching us so much in the few days we were there!

19/11/2022

I’ll keep this brief, but having been asked today, thought it would be helpful to share a professional’s take on the differences.

A lame horse shows discomfort that might be caused by an issue in the foot, or anywhere in the body that causes any kind of limp. It might or might not be be obvious, and in just one limb or multiple limbs. It might not even be visible to an untrained eye. You might just feel something isn’t quite right when riding. You might have no idea! If you think your horse is lame, have them checked by a vet.

A “footy” horse is a horse whose gait is affected by any surface (including tarmac), because the sole is thin, the laminae are inflamed, and as a result of one or both, the horse is sensitive to hard surfaces. This is, basically, a lameness that originates in the soles/solar corium. For example, you walk your horse out on the road, but that little bit of grit by the kerb is not comfortable, and your horse only strides out when you move onto the verge or away from the kerb. Or your horse’s movement is short and careful, because he’s doing his best to avoid discomfort. If you think your horse is footy, it is important to figure out why and address the cause. Even more so if the footiness is a new thing. Talk to your hoofcare practitioner (not your confidence coach/Sally from Iowa), and always keep them informed of changes in comfort.

An unconditioned foot is one which simply isn’t used to a surface. For example, you wouldn’t do man vs horse on something that came out of shoes yesterday, regardless of how healthy the feet look. Or your horse might be fine on most surfaces, but that lump of stone in the middle of the yard car park could well be enough to make the most stoic of horses’ eyes water. If he is gradually exposed to coarser surfaces which condition the feet, chances are he’d stomp over that stone like a wild mustang. But when he lives in a grass paddock and all his exercise is on a rubber ménage, should you really expect anything less without regular, gradual exposure?

03/11/2022

Mid way through trimming horses this morning and the heavens opened! Hail, rains, and thunder and lightening. Luckily we had a barn to hide in, but most of the horses still chose to stand outside. They really are far better equipped for this weather than we often give them credit for 🌧️

Thank you to Lower Weare Horse Retirement Grass & Track Livery for having us today 😁

25/10/2022

Even just a towel off to remove the mud and most of the wet make such a huge difference!

Before the mud season has us in its full grip, here's my annual winter housekeeping post.

Please clean and dry up your horse's feet before a trim.

My ability to do a good trim suffers - I can't see what's underneath: bruises, dark or light spots, or anything else that would determine or refine my trim decisions is hidden under a sea of brown. I can't stabilise a slippery foot properly, which neither me, nor the horse, nor my trim likes.

My tools suffer - the grit in the mud dulls every single one of my (expensive) tools and shortens their life span. The moisture causes rust. In the end, this raises my trimming costs significantly.

My body suffers - I hold and hug those feet and legs with my arms and legs. I have walked away from a muddy horse with mud up to my armpits before. That makes for a very cold and wet day. And all of that goes into my car too every time I leave a site - the car wash place has a mugshot of me on the wall reading "charge her double, car is filthy, apparently she works with horses".

Bring them in five minutes earlier, grab an old towel and give them a good rub (legs too!). It makes the world of a difference to my work and my body, and tbh my mood too!

And thanks to everybody who is already proactively doing this. It's very much appreciated!

24/10/2022

Love it when the horses are so happy and comfortable in their environment that they hold themselves for a trim!

05/10/2022

This is why we ask questions about environment, diet, workload and history, and why it’s important to see the horse move. So many things in the body can be affecting the feet and visa versa.
It’s not ‘just a trim’ it’s a whole horse approach to hoof care

04/10/2022

Clifford uses his hoof boots for turnout too 😊

04/10/2022

Hoof boots! I’m sure you’ve heard a lot about boots being used for barefoot horses, and they can be helpful in so many situations. This is a horse with really sensitive feet, he struggles with gut issues amongst many other things that means he really struggles to walk on even fine gravel. Yet with boots, he’s happily walking over these big stones. The boots flex like the natural hoof would but have enough rigidity to support over tricky terrain.
The other massive benefit particularly for Clifford is that there are a variety of pads to go inside the boots whether for comfort or support. In this case, the pads mould to the shape of the foot to help to stimulate the sole and frog with each step, encouraging growth. In time, this should create a thicker sole and frog so he can manage without boots in the future!

There are so many styles and makes of boots depending on the hoof shape and what they are needed for. They are a super versatile tool to have!

(As you can see from the wear and tear, he wears these boots a lot. But this is only cosmetic, the boots themselves are still going strong! 🙂)

01/10/2022

This crack was caused by a traumatic injury 2 years ago and has remained an issue since then. These photos show the progression we’ve made in just 3 trims! A short trim cycle and relieving the pressure from the ground on the crack has allowed the new hoof to grow down without the crack spreading.
It is by no means fixed yet but certainly on the right track 🙂
First photo is early July and last photo is yesterday.

22/09/2022

It seems to have been a week of nervous horses this week!
Second trim for the gorgeous Colin and he was already so much more confident with his feet being handled than last time

21/09/2022

These two photos are 2 weeks apart.
When I first went to see Johnny he was such a sweetheart, but once I started trimming he really wasn’t happy about a stranger having his feet. He had recently had a bad experience and that had knocked his confidence - and understandably he didn’t trust that I wouldn’t do the same thing.

I managed 2 feet before he very clearly said ‘no’ to any more. We left on a positive note and Johnny’s owner has worked really hard in these two weeks to practise holding his legs up calmly and with new people.

Today I was greeted by a much more confident horse! He knew he had an option to ask for his foot back (and he’d realised he didn’t need to be quite so angry about how he asked!)

So although it took 2 weeks to trim this hoof, the most important part is that by listening to and respecting his limits, he was able to have a positive experience of trimming and hopefully he will be even better next time 😊
(I couldn’t bare to take him away from his food for a better photo as he’d definitely earned his dinner)

15/09/2022

Barefoot feet at work!

05/09/2022

Beautifully explained by Kelly! If your horse’s feet look like they’re crumbling apart after this sudden rain, don’t panic! It is most likely this natural process

If in any doubt, always ask your hoof care provider or vet 😊