Paul Young Farrier, BSc Hons - Farriery Science, Dip HE, RSS

17/09/2025

DO HORSES NOTICE HOW WE TREAT EACH OTHER?

What if horses are paying attention not just to what we ask of them, but to how we treat each other? A recent study suggests they do — and that what they observe could change how they behave.

Researchers from Germany and Scotland tested whether horses, after watching people interacting, would change their feeding choices.

Study details:

• The experiment involved 17 horses, ranging from 4 to 28 years old, across 5 private yards

• Horses observed a human demonstration: a person taking carrot pieces from one bucket while another human gave clear approval (body language + voice), and doing the same from another bucket but receiving disapproval

• After watching this six times, horses were allowed to choose between the buckets — though previously they had no preference and had eaten from both.

What the researchers found:

• 12 out of 17 horses changed their preference after observing the human-to-human approval interaction. They were more likely to pick from the bucket associated with approval

• Horses kept in social housing (open stabling or paddocks with others) showed this adaptation more strongly than those in more isolated housing.

Why it matters:

• Horses aren’t just responding to their direct training—they notice how we interact with others and use those cues, even if the humans involved aren’t interacting with them. What humans do matters.

Take-home messages:

• Pay attention to how people behave around your horse—not just how they behave with the horse. The horse is learning from what people do

• Horses kept socially do better at these sorts of observational tasks. Isolation doesn’t just affect their mood — it seems to limit what they can learn

• When training or managing horses, think about the environment: who’s around, what behaviour the horse is witnessing, and how interactions outside of training may still contribute to the horse’s learning experiences.

Do you think your horse picks up on how you interact with others — not just with them?

Study: Krueger et al (2025). Learning from eavesdropping on human-human encounters changes feeding location choice in horses (Equus Caballus).

10/09/2025

As we approach the start of fall and the temperatures start to drop, here is some important information to know regarding fall laminitis.

Fall laminitis refers to cases of laminitis or founder that occur in the autumnal months. Although laminitis can happen in any season, anecdotally there seems to be an uptick in the number of cases in the fall.

Why could this be?

• As the days get shorter and colder, grasses have been shown to respond to this stress with higher sugar concentrations. Diets with higher simple sugar concentrations may increase the risk of laminitis.

• Decreases in exercise may cause increases in body condition. Fat or obese horses are at risk of developing laminitis.

• Horses naturally have increased levels of certain hormones in the fall. If you have a horse with PPID (previously referred to as equine Cushing’s), the increase in their cortisol levels could put them at risk for laminitis.

If you have questions concerning fall laminitis or are concerned that your equine companion may be at an increased risk, contact your equine veterinarian so that they can properly evaluate your unique situation.

Thank you to the Horse Owner Education Committee for providing this information.

10/09/2025

Two experts explain how you can improve your horse’s joint health through nutrition and how to choose high-quality joint supplements.

30/08/2025

Your horse needs the right fuel in the right amounts to run correctly. Correctly fuelling your horse is essential for resilient health.

27/08/2025

Learn about two different and unrelated processes that present as firm swellings in the horse's pastern region.

27/08/2025

Some of you know that recently, I joined a great team of hoofcare pros and horse lovers over at Flex Hoof Boots, to help educate about hoof health and lameness rehab. We are now ready to start sharing some of what we have worked on the last few months!

I am SO EXCITED to be a part of this new online Hoof Care School! We have been working hard to get this up and running, with countless hours of writing articles, courses, taking photos, filming video, and editing together courses and content on all topics that pertain to hoof health and soundness.

In the Hoof Care School, we will soon have courses on everything from topics that pertain to your horse’s overall health, such as equine behavior, species-appropriate care, nutrition for hoof health, balancing hay tests, building track systems, picking your horse’s care team, communicating with your hoofcare professional, to more in-depth information about hoof anatomy and biomechanics, hoof issues and pathology, laminitis and navicular rehab, approaching various hoof issues with management and trim, and more.

Right now everything is free as we are just starting to add the content, but it will eventually be a subscription-based school where new content will be added regularly. As a member, you’ll also have access to private forums and special intermittent “behind the scenes” day-to-day of hoofcare provider life and candid content of running a hoof rehab facility.

I really am so excited to be a small part of this project!

For now, you can jump in early while it’s free and see what we are doing over at https://hoofcareschool.mvt.so/

26/08/2025

Pete Ramey: The Bars of the Hoof "Leaving a longer bar (and sole ridge around the frog) accelerates the process of achieving a deeply concaved sole by providing support to the internal structures and reducing sole wear. I already learned this lesson about the other parts of the foot years ago. The less I trimmed the sole, the deeper the solar concavity became. The less I shortened the foot, the shorter the foot became. The less I trimmed frogs, the more sound the horses were. Every time I have learned to back off, my horses became more sound, and the rehabilitation of pathologies accomplished more quickly. I was a just a bit slower in seeing the same truth about the bars. Now I’ve come to view them as a critically important weight-bearing structure and see that as with every other part of the foot, over-trimming them makes them grow too long, too fast."
Read more: https://www.thehorseshoof.com/pete-ramey-the-bars-of-the-hoof/

22/08/2025

13/08/2025

I am sharing this as it provokes some interesting thoughts, please read the comments, please keep your mind open to new possibilities

12/08/2025

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.