Nexus Equine Care- Sarah Turowski APF-I

04/11/2024

8yr old with 3d pad improperly placed. Collapsed frog and lots of other physical problems. Eponashoe and system works great for these rehab cases.

02/11/2024

www.EponaMind.comEquine, Postural AlignmentEquine Health, Comfort, and PerformanceEponaMind develops technology devoted to horse health and comfort. From pol...

01/26/2024

11/30/2023

11/29/2023

Great book for understanding “their” language.

Black Friday Sale

11/21/2023

11/07/2023

Creative ways to support after injuries.

09/16/2023

Equine Health, Comfort, and PerformanceEponaMind develops technology devoted to horse health and comfort. From polyurethane horseshoes, MetronMind veterinary...

09/02/2023

08/18/2023

Equine Health, Comfort, and PerformanceEponaMind develops technology devoted to horse health and comfort. From polyurethane horseshoes, MetronMind veterinary...

07/16/2023

How often do you observe your horse while your farrier is working? How relaxed and stable is your horse while holding each leg off the ground? What areas of muscle tension do you see. How relaxed is your horse throughout the whole session? Does your horse fight and strain against your farrier?

👉 Using sedation, twitches, lip chains... If these are needed to have farrier work done, then it's time to take competition goals off the table and figure out what is bothering your horse. These should not be long-term solutions to getting shoes on or hooves trimmed. They are indicators of serious problems.

A healthy, trained horse should be nice and relaxed while your farrier works. This keeps everyone safe and maintains good relationships. The last thing a farrier wants is to have to drive nails on a moving target when there is so little room for error. I also don't want my farrier hurt.

Look for muscle spasms, weak areas that tremble, tense areas, and compensation in stance. Pay attention to everything your horse does, because it isn't done without a reason.

A few general tips of common finds while watching farriers work over the years:

▪️ If the horse won't pick up the hind leg, check the sciatic and femoral nerve areas. Also check to see if negative hind angles are causing compression to the sciatic nerve.

▪️ If the horse strikes or won't bring the front leg forward, check the pectoral muscles and ventral (underline) chain of fascia. Also check hamstrings. You'll usually find tension here.

▪️ If the horse "pushes" on the stand with the fronts, look for weakness in the stabilizing muscles of the hind end.

▪️ Struggling or refusal to bring the legs out is usually a sign of tight muscles on the medial (inside) side of the leg.

▪️ Pulling back while driving nails is a sign the vibration up the leg is causing nerve pain.

👉 Your horse isn't just "trying to be a problem" for your farrier. The dread comes from associating pain with farrier work. If your horse doesn't enjoy "gettin' their nails did"... It's your responsibility as an owner to start investigating WHY.

If your horse doesn't have a friendly relationship with your farrier, it is your job to investigate WHY. Farrier work shouldn't be an all out war with your horse and a horse that can't safely stand with one leg off the ground probably shouldn't be asked to perform an event.

Need some ideas for stretching legs for better range of motion? Check out the stretching section on the Superior Therapy video tab.

03/06/2023

Equine Health, Comfort, and PerformanceEponaMind develops technology devoted to horse health and comfort. From polyurethane horseshoes, MetronMind veterinary...

01/31/2023

01/09/2023

05/24/2022

Come join us for episode 7 of Equine Body Talk….

Self carriage what is the anatomy doing , what should it look like and some simple ways to get it !

What is self-carriage?
Self-carriage means that the horse should be able to maintain his frame, rhythm, and balance without the rider having to use the aids every stride in order to support the horse.

Self carriage it the equivalent of both lifting weight and dancing simultaneously 😳
I challenge you to lift a heavy object while dancing gracefully and look in the mirror 😳😂

This is what we ask of our horses all the time, come find out how to set them up for success !

03/28/2022

EponaMind presents Educational Events. We offer superior quality horseshoes, education, and vet software dedicated to improving the lives of horses.

02/13/2022

https://eponashoe.mybigcommerce.com/educational-events/

01/30/2022

05/07/2020

I am a human who lives in chronic pain due to a rare neuro-spinal condition. I often struggle to articulate that or to get those around me, including doctors, to even try to understand how I'm feeling. I might not outwardly look all that 'lame' but inwardly my nerves and joints are on fire, constantly. Sometimes this makes me grumpy. Sometimes it makes me sad.

Now imagine if I was a non-human animal, in chronic pain but unable to verbalize, unable to speak up, unable to show people where it hurt, denied an opinion, emotions or a right to rest, self-medicate or ask for time off, constantly told I'm stupid or naughty, subjected to increasingly aversive experiences until I eventually give up and stop even trying to speak.

Often, the owners of horses with behavioural issues spend a well-intentioned fortune getting various checks done, find no clinical signs of pain, say “his saddle/back/teeth have been checked, he is fine” and blame the behaviour on “just how he is”. It is safer, however, to assume that even if the cause is not found the horse is still in pain. Best case scenario, the source of the pain is found and fixed, but they still have pain association from the time they battled the pain. Arguably the worst case scenario is that the horse gives up trying to show how much pain they’re in and shuts down, reaching Learned Helplessness, a level of deep depression that most of us can only imagine.

Even for horses that are not yet shut down, recognising pain has historically been a challenge, not just for owners but also for vets and trainers. However, there is now an abundance of evidence to show the behavioural signs a horse might present when he is in pain. These can be subtle and almost imperceptible: small changes to their eyes, muzzle, nostrils, ears, the muscles in their face and the level of tension in their body, before they reach more overt signs. Spending time getting to know what these signs look like and learning what is ‘normal’ behaviour for our horses can allow us to pick up on these changes and quicker identify when something is wrong. Then we can take the necessary steps to help them.

As a human, I know how hard it can be to speak up when I’m in pain, how difficult it can be to verbalise how I feel, how much effort it takes to carry out the smallest of tasks when the pain is dominating my every thought. Generally, as a human, I am fortunate to have choice, autonomy over my decisions and actions, the ability to ask for help and the confidence that I will be listened to. Our horses deserve to be afforded the same.

For further info see:
Dyson, S. et al (2019). Can veterinarians reliably apply a whole horse ridden ethogram to differentiate nonlame and lame horses based on live horse assessment of behaviour? Equine Veterinary Education. doi:10.1111/eve.13104

Gleerup, K. B. et al (2015). An equine pain face. Veterinary Anaesthesia and Analgesia, 42 (1), 103-11

02/01/2020

07/29/2019

To be a farrier is to know pain...

Of all the years I've spent and of all the lives I've helped save during my career as a first responder it has paled in comparison to the joy I feel helping our four-legged family members take the first few comfortable steps they have felt in months or even years. However, when you work with the kind of complicated cases I do you quickly realize for every great battle fought and great victory won there is always the risk of devastating defeat lurking just out of sight.

Despite my tireless efforts this past year I have endured far too many defeats, which has made me realize that to be a farrier is to know pain. Physical pain from the grueling labor of the job and pain from the terrible blows to your body when a horse lashes out, angry or frightened at their own pain and suffering. The mental pain from all the late-nights pouring over case studies, the endless miles, time, and treasure spent attending clinics, and all the planning, research, and collaboration done in a endless effort to prevent the next tragedy. Lastly there is the emotional pain of losing the battle and a life (a life we all too often have grown to love as much as their owners), of losing clients who all too often become friends over the years, and the pain of all the time with friends and family forever sacrificed on the open road.

So please, be kind to your farriers. Their day has often been more difficult than you know...

07/16/2019

I added the colour to the blood vessels- the equine foot- such an amazing, incredible design!!

Thanks to Fran Jurga Hoof blog for the photograph that’s currently circulating Facebook.

06/22/2019

This guys come a long way in comfort. Starting to build sole the Epona way!

05/27/2019

To learn more about the hoof, read Dr. Robert Bowker's proceedings from the 2017 NO Laminitis! Conference. Download is free. https://bit.ly/2zP9w1w

03/15/2019

Great day for an Epona reset.

02/16/2019

Footing is one of the most common factors cited when a horse performs poorly or suffers an injury.