JGM Hoofcare

01/04/2024

Love our tribe! A fellow graduate who doing awesome things! https://blog.easycareinc.com/hybrid-easyshoe-earns-usdf-bronze-medal/?fbclid=IwAR3BWowjtsAWOJdeZh6OpeKRPYWgWHripNVShqGcCy6P4-qXZu9yKiX73NU_aem_AdicLpZRJ23N72_uYzBSdjaO5R7rbC6hKI-J5cid3qqr0EBUycDS0Ms4AZSGth8dzSI

Written by EasyCare HCP, Sara Hathaway of 4 Hooves Hoof Care, LLC This is Copper, the best communicator ever with particular hoof care preferences. He loves the EasyShoe Performance, so much so that he has refused to walk out of the cross ties normally with multiple other styles of glue-on shoes! Ke...

10/17/2023

Had so much fun at the Advance Practitioner Class this past weekend. Learned a lot and met some amazing trimmers. It was so fun to compare notes and see before and after with a special horse that needed bodywork. “Know Hoof, Know Horse”

09/30/2023

These are my go to shoes. Horses love them, with built in caudal support, shock absorption, easy to grind whatever you need to modify breakover. Thanks Easycare for everything you do!

09/28/2023

June 2023 - Sept 2023 continued progress on this older gentleman that wore metal bar shoes and wedge pads most of his life diagnose with navicular disease. Unfortunately they weren’t keeping him sound any longer. He’s been wearing Easycare Cloud boots since April and was immediately more comfortable and is back to running and playing! The owner switched him to a forage based diet and has been great maintaining his boots. Check out the digital cushion coming back! His heels are growing back down, slowing getting the toe and flare back on a 3 week schedule and vertical height improving.

09/12/2023

Floyd letting me try epona shoes glued on with cast and DIM. I opted to cut casting away from his heels to prevent constricting them.

07/23/2023

07/23/2023

06/14/2023

06/07/2023

Pretty barefoot thoroughbred hooves - living outside 24/7 and ridden multiple times per week. He gets Hoof Armor every other week and this Stronghorn spray if any superficial cracks show up with the dry hard ground. A balanced trim no longer than 5 weeks and beveled wall are essential to prevent chips and cracks.

04/27/2023

04/26/2023

I LOVE these boots. I have a fit kit available to size your horse and can order them and heat fit them if necessary. Boots are great for horses that are comfortable barefoot while turned out but need extra protection when riding and while riding on footing that your horse isn’t used to. Remember horses that are used to soft ground may need protection on hard rocky ground since the hoof adapts to the environment. They are a great tool to transition from shoes to barefoot. Scoot Boots are used by many endurance riders and are long lasting. Jump and event in them! I particularly like these boots more than most others because: there is no Velcro to worry about; they are a slim design and are not clunky; water and mud go through them with the open design. You can even get different color straps for more custom fun!

04/26/2023

3 new clients today including this big sweetheart. One hoof trimmed and decided to take a photo. If she waited any longer those cracks could break causing more issues. It’s important to keep horses on a good schedule for the health of the foot, and it’s easier and quicker for the horse and farrier with less corrections needed!

04/05/2023

03/25/2023

Trying the Octos on Floyd. I’m excited for these because they can be reused with just super glue!

03/25/2023

My first trim on Spirit. Can’t wait to see how his hooves and body transform the next few months.

03/02/2023

New client, adorable sweet HEALTHY miniature that retired from combined driving. He’s 30 years old but doesn’t look like it.

02/07/2023

Diet is so important! I urge all of my clients to stop feeding grains with added iron - most horses have too much iron just from hay and grass alone and not enough copper and zinc to be able to balance -

02/01/2023

I wanted to document Neo’s progress. He is an 2018 OTTB I purchased in September. His last race was 8/28/22 and his shoes were pulled after that and he was put out in a pasture 24/7. The stress line or event line was around when his race shoes were pulled. He was sound barefoot mainly because the owner always pulls shoes when her horses are not racing which helped him out since open heeled shoes cause caudal failure and more when horses are in them for long periods of time. He still has a ways to go but this is the trim I give him that he’s happy with so far. Encouraging the heels to grow down instead of forward, relieving the quarters so there’s less pull of the heel and keeping his toe back to also prevent heels from being pulled forward. He still has thin soles but some concavity that gives his soles space for ok blood flow. I try to keep the height by not lowering his walls and just beveling them to prevent flare and keep them strong.

01/26/2023

Did you know that horses can get caught in neurological loops of compensation?

Compensations are usually a response from the nervous system to pain or discomfort to protect itself from physical damage. This can lead to a change in the signal transmission in the body.
The change in signal transmission changes muscles and fascia tension. Muscles and fascia tension will change skeletal alignment.
This changes the neurological loop and the cycle of pain or compensation continues (Clifford 2022).

On top of this the compensations will often have affected hoof morphology due to changes in how its loaded.
The hoof as a neuro-sensory organ itself, can then have negative influence on this neurological loop.

The horse is a neuro-bio-tensegrity, muscle tone is important for “switching on” the tension within the body and pain, discomfort and proprioception can affect posture by changes in this innervation.

https://www.theequinedocumentalist.com/post/neuro-bio-tensegrity-the-push-puppet-effect

Dr Clifford took us through the compensations that occur right from birth, how they can be recognised and what we can change.

https://equineeducationhub.thinkific.com/courses/Conformation

And recently I discussed with Celeste Leilani Lazaris the Neuro-hoof balance- posture relationships.

https://equineeducationhub.thinkific.com/courses/nerve-impingement-hoof-balance

The image below shows how changes in hoof balance directly affect limb position, however limb position directly affects hoof balance, creating either a positive or negative neurological loop.

01/13/2023

Okay, I guess I'll go on a soapbox roll.

Unpopular opinion: if your horse's current living situation isn't able to control laminitic issues, you might have to move the horse in order to save their life.

Up to 90% percent of laminitis is endocrinopathic - which means it is metabolic in nature, highly affected by hormones, diet and exercise (or lack thereof). This means that nearly every laminitic case needs strict guidelines in regards to diet and turn out environment. It can mean the difference between lame and sound, or even life or death.

The management for a metabolic laminitis case should look something like this, especially if there is any sign of pain:

✳️Remove all grain from the diet
✳️Remove access to grass pasture/fresh grass or even weeds
✳️Remove alfalfa - unless the horse is sound and deemed to be not affected by it
✳️Ensure hay is safe - either by testing it or soaking it
✳️Add in safe calories as needed (unmolassed beet pulp, forage cubes like Triple Crown Timothy Balance Cubes, flaxseed, etc)
✳️Feed essential vitamins and minerals in a metabolically safe carrier
✳️ Involve the vet to pull bloodwork and prescribe medication as needed to control ACTH levels or refractory high insulin

I can't tell you how many times I hear from owners of laminitic horses, whether in person or online, that they "just can't" restrict their grass access, or "but the grain says it's low sugar and starch" (spoiler alert: it probably isn't), or "but it's only a little bit of (XYZ)."...

Side note - when it comes to the barns that say "but there's really no grass out there!" my response now is, "If there weren't any horses in the paddock, would there be any grass? If the answer is yes, then the grass is being eaten... Imagine what the grass would look like without horses on it, and that's roughly how much they are eating."

I get it. It's hard to deny your horse something they love. But we are our horses' advocates, and just like a parent to a child, we have to decide what is best for their health and long term quality of life.

I am not writing this post to make anyone feel bad. I just see so many stuck in a cycle of laminitic setbacks, and sometimes a little push is needed.

Metabolic horses take extra special attention and care, and finding the right situation for them can mean the difference between watching them in pain, and watching them thrive for years to come.

01/09/2023

This horse wasn’t comfortable with metal shoes but goes very nicely in hoof boots. But hoof boots can leave rubs when left on 24/7 and be a pain in the but with wet conditions. It’s been so fun playing with different composite shoes and finding what he likes and building a healthier foot at the same time. Easycare Inc. Has so many great options.

12/03/2022

I love using SureFoot pads to help my clients be more comfortable during a trim. Many benefits; even for horses that have healthy hooves, include resetting the nervous system and proprioception. Most times the horse enjoys the pads so much they try to put both hooves on one pad! https://www.surefootequine.com/

11/17/2022

Whenever I trim a difficult horse, I think about ways to make it better and easier for next time. CBD has been very helpful.
Today I trimmed an Icelandic horse that I could not finish last time. He was beat with a rasp by a farrier and punched by another trimmer and he supposedly tries to kick with his hinds. He didn't try to kick me last time I was there but he kept running away whenever I asked to see his hind feet. I remained calm, and tried trimming him with his feet on the ground and he was ok with it but I couldn't get a good angle to get the job done. BUT - there was no hitting, no smacking, just me telling him I understand his concern and we will try again another day. The handler mentioned he used to be fine on CBD oil years ago.
So today, they gave him CBD oil and I greeted him outside with his pasture-mate without my apron or hoof jack (because last time he was spooking at me) He got to eat his dinner while I brushed him and picked out his hooves. He offered his hinds to me and I was able to nip off what he needed. Building trust takes time and patience and worth the time it takes.
Brave Horse CBD Treats are an awesome product that I carry with me to leave with clients for the next trims.

11/05/2022

Right hind trimmed vs left hind un-trimmed. This guy will be more comfortable without his clown shoes on 😉

10/10/2022

Progress from May 2021 to today. This guy had long flares all the way around. 4 week trim cycle with hoof armor for thin soles and he now has concavity.

09/12/2022

My personal horse has Negative plantar angles and used to pile up shavings in the corner of his stall to stand on. I always wondered why. Now that I am aware of this and trim him to help correct his angles, he doesn’t do it 😉

Is hind coronet angle a reliable representation of positive or negative plantar angle (NPLA)?

Anecdotally following the trajectory of the hind coronet angle should point toward the front carpus (knee) in a hind with a positive plantar angle, within a normal range. However, as horses adopt a compensatory posture linked with NPLA, where the trajectory points too can be unreliable, as changes in limb position can change the body part pointed at. However, the coronet angle doesn't change according to limb orientation, so is there an appropriate range of hind coronet angle?

Stewert 2022 found that 90% of horses with a hind coronet angle of 30 degrees had NPLA, 88% of horses with 28 degrees.
While my personal research found the average hind coronet angle in horses presenting with NPLA was similar at around 29-30 degrees. While horses with a corrected plantar angle then presented with a coronet angle of around 23 degrees.
If positioned correctly in the average horse, this will point toward the front carpus.

So, it would seem that, that anecdotal hypothesis has merit and further research could further cement it.

join Stewarts and Sharps (My) presentations at the symposium to find out more and see the research these numbers came from..

For my talk alone..
https://equineeducationhub.thinkific.com/courses/the-postural-link-between-negative-plantar-angles-and-pathology-along-the-dorsal-myofascial-lines-using-thermography

Stewarts talk alone..
https://equineeducationhub.thinkific.com/courses/Assessing-Strassers-Angles