Barefoot Hoofcare - Deborah Fowles

24/11/2024

🌟🌟Exciting news!🌟🌟

As many of you may well know, I am a qualified Reiki Practitioner, and I am now offering treatments for people, 🐴 horses and even your beloved 🐶 dogs and 🐱 cats!

For my hoof care clients: 🐎 I am happy to include a Reiki treatment during my visit – for you, your horse, or any of your furry companions! 🐎🐕🐾

For everyone else: 🌿 You can also book a session at my peaceful 🕊️ home therapy room, where you can relax, recharge, and experience the restorative benefits of Reiki in a calm and nurturing space. 🛋️✨

Reiki is a gentle and holistic therapy that supports relaxation, balance, and overall wellbeing – a perfect way to care for yourself and your four-legged friends. 💖🐾

📩 Message me to find out more or to book a session. I look forward to sharing this healing energy with you! 🙏💫

🐴 🌟 🐾 🛋️ 🌿 ✨

20/08/2024

No-one is going to miss me in this one!

08/04/2024

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/waDSeEmqj9ULiuto/

31/12/2023

Happy New Year to all my lovely clients. Thank you for your support in such a trying year for me. x

31/12/2023

Happy New Year to all my friends and family. Let's hope its better than the last 2 years! x

09/10/2023

Very proud of my daughter Denise Powell - Barefoot Hoofcare

And so to another new(ish) tutor.

Denise Powell qualified with EPT in 2020 and has already become a highly respected member of the profession. She comes from a family tradition of barefoot trimming and has been competing on barefoot horses for years in everything from endurance to eventing.

Denise has been helping us out with the odd day on the Trim 2 course for a couple of years now and has proved to be a natural at teaching. So she's going to take a bigger teaching role on Trim 2 from now on. She's also training to be an assessor and will become one of three final exam assessors (with Sally and Richard) as well as being an assessor for the Stage 2 exam.

12/08/2023

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=694946015983163&id=100064033113744&sfnsn=scwspmo

Shoes get blamed for a lot of problems with horses, which is weird, as they’re just an inert bit of metal applied externally. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying having metal on the bottom of your feet is a good thing, I’m just asking if the shoe is really the problem…

Shoes are usually applied to solve a problem. Which means, there’s a problem there already. I’d rather look to solve the root cause of the problem.

Applying a shoe solves the problem of there being no shoe.

Very rarely do I hear someone saying the problem is that their horses feet don’t have shoes. They tend to say the problem is the growth is too slow, or there’s too much wear, or wear is uneven, or the horse is footsore (lame – footsore means lame. Lame in all 4 feet).

All those problems can be covered up by a shoe, but not solved. By covering the symptom up, you allow the problem to persist and even deteriorate.

Hoof Health Laid Bare is a comprehensive course to help you understand how horse health affects the hooves, so you can worry less and get the strongest hooves possible. Find out more, here
https://hoofgeek.com/hhlb/

13/09/2022

⚠️ LAMINITIS WARNING ⚠️

Despite the very hot weather and the grass all looking brown we are still seeing lots of new cases of laminitis. This is only going to get worse now that we are getting a bit of rain and the grass is starting to grow again - take care everyone and remember to watch out for the early signs

09/09/2022

"Wow, you didn't even have to use your nippers! I guess that he didn't really need a trim yet, huh?"

As the summer winds down and we enter fall in this part of the world, we may see a slowdown in hoof growth and these kinds of comments come up every so often. The misconception is that a trim is simply to remove excess growth on the hoof - but that's actually not the case.

Our goal as hoofcare providers is to keep the horse comfortable and sound. We want to work to get the foot to function at its best, so the joints, tendons and ligaments up the limb can stay healthy for years to come. Our trim is about balance, equilibrium, and hoof health, not just removing gross length.

The last thing we want is to wait until the hoof growth is causing detrimental effects to the internal structures to try to remedy it; instead, if we can keep the foot at its optimal balance, then we can get ahead of issues before they start.

That means that often, our trims should even look fairly minimal. Finding a cycle length that allows us to do "less" actually allows for more targeted changes to the hoof capsule. Big changes don't just make for a nice looking before and after photo, they can have knock-on effects every cycle as the horse adjusts to new angles with the adjustments.

I always say one of my favorite things about hoof rehab is "suggesting" to the foot where I want it to be. If every cycle I'm doing two nipper runs to get the foot back to baseline, I'm probably not making much progress over time.

So next time you feel there wasn't much that needed to be done to the foot, consider whether it was truly because the hoof didn't need it, or whether it is actually simply keeping the foot comfortable and in balance with where it will function best. It's not about what we trim, but often about knowing what NOT to trim.

25/07/2022

5 Reasons why long grass is better than short grass for horses.

1. Generally the further up the stalk the horse eats, each cell of the plant has a higher fibre/sugar ratio.
2. Eating longer grass means the horse has to chew more, slowing the intake while increasing the essential flow of saliva. The saliva helps to buffer the stomach acid.
3. A healthy horse eats until they have a specific volume of fibre in their stomach before stopping. So eating short grass with a high-sugar and low fibre ratio means a horse consumes a lot of high-sugar grass before enough fibre is ingested to trigger that 'full enough' feeling and finish their grazing bout.
We should focus on increasing our pastures' fibre content, which will reduce the NSC intake.
4. Short grass is usually stressed grass, constantly trying to recover/grow. Therefore it will store/hang on to a lot of Non-Structural Carbohydrates (NSCs) (sugars/starches) in preparation for when growing conditions improve.
5. Long grass creates a longer root system, improving both the health of the grass, the soil biome and it follows the health of the horse.
Read the full article here. https://www.equiculture.net/blog/horses-short-grass-or-long-grass along with many other great articles.

27/06/2022

31/05/2022

14/05/2022

LONG OR SHORT GRASS?

The question of long or short grass for obese good doers or those with metabolic issues comes up frequently.

Very short, overgrazed grass in a restricted area (ideally tracks rather than rectangular) with supplementary hay (long-soaked if necessary) is a better choice than ad lib healthier pasture with longer grass, for an obese horse.

You MUST find a way to get them to lose weight, and allowing them access to longer grass which may be higher in fibre and lower in energy (calories) and sugar & fructan per kilo does not take into account how much they can eat and therefore their total calories, sugar and fructan intake.

It's not about how much sugar is in the grass.

It's about how much sugar/fructan and calories the horse gets from the grass, over a set period of time grazing.

Always monitor your horse and assess the suitability of their environment from them themselves. You may find that strip grazing longer more mature grass is a good option, or a grazing muzzle on shorter grass may work well.

Please help spread the word by sharing - thank you 🐴🍏

18/04/2022

'Backing Your Young Horses'
Written by Vikki Fowler BVetMed BAEDT MRCVS

"There is much info around which leads the reader to think horses age more quickly when they are young and slower as they get older. There is no evidence to support this. Why would the horse be the only animal in the world that ages in a non-linear manner? It doesn’t make sense and is used as an excuse for impatient owners to justify working their immature horses.

Sitting on a horse before maturity has many dangers. It is risking kissing spine, especially if the horse is not conditioned slowly. Sending a horse away as a three year old to go from unbacked to ridden daily in 6-8 weeks is a recipe for disaster. Riding in circles on three year olds damages the hocks. Jumping four year olds is asking for stifle injuries. Pounding the roads pulling traps with two year olds damages every joint in their legs. Any joints asked to take excess pressure before maturity increases the risk of irreparable damage. Maybe a young horse puts down more long bone in response to trauma, to work, but just because a child heals quicker than an adult it's no excuse to cause such damage. An adult is still fully capable of adapting to the work load, just slower, without the collateral damage to the rest of the body.

For every horse that is backed at three and lives a long working life until they are thirty, as a Vet I can show you thousands, tens of thousands that are euthanised before they hit their teens because their bodies are broken. The exception is not the rule.

Fact: A horse ages roughly three times faster than a human, so a 90 year old human is a 30 year old horse. Both very old, usually arthritic, don’t have many of their original teeth left, and very likely retired and enjoying the finer things in life.

A 25 year old horse is a 75 year old human. Some are still happily working but some prefer retirement and an easier life. Often depending on just how hard a life they’ve lived.

A 20 year old horse is a 60 year old human. At that point where the body doesn’t work like it use to but the brain is all there and wants to be active.

A 13 year old horse is a 39 year old human. Middle aged, prime of their life where their knowledge and physical ability are about equal.

So let’s get down to the babies and work our way back up:

A 1-1.5 year old horse is getting their first adult tooth, this happens at 6 years old in a human child.

A 3 year old horse is a 9 year old child.
A child.
Not ready for work by a long stretch. We have moved past sending children down the mines.

A 4 year old horse is a 12 year old child. Often will do odd jobs for pocket money, maybe a paper round, mowing lawns etc. Basically a 4 year old horse can start a bit of light work experience to learn the ropes.

A 5 year old horse is a 15 year old teenager. Think they know it all, cocky, and ready to up their work and responsibilities. Still quite weak and not fully developed so shouldn’t be at their physical limit but can start building strength.

A 5.5 year old horse has just cut their final adult tooth, this happens at 17 years of age in a human.

A 6 year old horse is an 18 year old human. An adult.
Ready to work

An 8 year old horse has achieved full fusion of their final growth plates. This happens at 24 years of age in a human. This is the age it is safe to push a horse for their optimal performance.

Pushing your youngster too hard too young will result in the failure of many body parts. Joints, spine, tendons, ligaments as well as their brains. Waiting another year or two at the beginning could give your horse an extra 10 years of useful working life.
Be patient with your pride and joy!

31/03/2022

The Equine Podiatry Association UK are proud to present the EPA 2022 Conference, 11th-12th August 2022 in Bristol, UK.

We have an impressive team of speakers this year! Details of all our speakers and lecture descriptions, as well as tickets, are available through the following link:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-equine-podiatry-association-conference-2022-the-hoof-beyond-tickets-255575662687?aff=ebdssbdestsearch