ABS Equine Services and Farriery

01/08/2025

I first became aware of barefoot loading patterns about 20 years ago from looking at the wild horse studies done by Jamie Jackson and Gene Ovniceck that showed us how mustangs develop ground contact points. This establishes a series of points and arches that suspend the horse over 3-4 ground contact points per foot. These contact points are created from miles of daily wear over varied terrain.

I quit using steel shoes years ago and since then I’ve been working on BUILDING contact points on domestic horse hooves by simulating adequate miles of wear. This isn’t just carving the feet to preconceived contact points like the “4 Point Trim” suggested. If you just don’t let dead wall, frog, and sole accumulate, the hoof capsules eventually conform to the internal structures without deviation. This establishes a fully live undeviated hoof capsule within a couple of years, no matter how much movement the horse gets.

The pillars and arches are natural structural components in every hoof. They just collapse and disappear when the hooves get overgrown and retain dead horn. If horses can wear and build their hooves on their own, given enough acreage, then that wear can be simulated by trimming that respects the individual anatomy and stage of development of each individual hoof.

When this type of trimming is done accurately over time, the result is a fully live well developed hoof capsule with the arches and points in the right places. No movement needed. That’s the part that people get hung up on. I’m not saying that horses don’t need movement. I’m saying that their biomechanics don’t require movement to build their hooves from flat to concave, and it should never be carved.

The horse’s posture improves when you take the correct amount of dead horn off in just the right places. The improved posture sets the weight bearing more accurately over the digital cushion, which thrives from use ( weight bearing ). As the horse shifts more weight back over the heels that are now supported by the DC, the weight comes off of the sole…the sole thrives on suspension. That’s how you use the horse’s weight for them instead of against them to build soft tissue and live sole and that elevation is how you improve their PA and HPA sustainably.

If you try to improve the posture by improving the angles first, there is no digital cushion to support the horse so the joints, tendons, and ligaments have to compensate. That causes irreversible damage that shows up months or years later. This is why I’m against flat trimming for angles, steel shoes, and/or wedge pads.

After almost 20 years of restoring live internal elevation to flat dead footed horses ( all ages, breeds, and sizes ), these are the common issues that I’ve noticed:

The drawing on the left shows the damage that I’ve observed on the inside of a hoof that’s been trimmed flat, steel shod and/or wedged. Horses with better conformation resist the damage better, as do horses that aren’t subjected to these practices.

- lower position of extensor process
- bone erosion commonly seen in these 3 areas ( dotted white lines )
- jammed up frog and digital cushion from dead heel buttresses ( correlating to bone erosion at the back of the palmar processes )
- withered lateral cartilages
- jammed up bars ( not shown ) ( correlating to bone erosion on the middle of the palmar processes )
- jammed up solar corium ( correlating to bone loss along the tip of P3 and the Coronary Band / Extensor process relationship )

The drawing on the right shows how the internal structures should look when the arches and points are respected and built over time.

01/05/2025

Are you looking to give your horse an extra treat (or two) this holiday season? 🐎🎁 Well, look no further! Here is an excellent recipe from the Equine Cushing’s and Insulin Resistance group with an NSC of 2.4%—perfect for horses with metabolic concerns. You can even add salt to help keep your horse hydrated during the chilly winter months. ❄️🌾

✨ Remember, all treats should be fed in moderation.

Try making these at home and let us know what your horse thinks! 🥕💚

01/01/2025

🥳 Happy New Year!!

12/30/2024

12/22/2024

I am excited for this new boot that Scoot Boot has coming out!! If anyone needs sizing help let me know and I can get them ordered in for you!! 🥰

Coming Soon: The TheraRide Introducing the Scootboot TheraRide, the first therapeutic hoof boot designed for both therapy and riding! Join The Waitlist Why Choose The TheraRide? The Scootboot TheraRide is the world's most revolutionary hoof boot designed for both therapy and riding. It's the ideal s...

12/22/2024

Important Reminder!!

A real healthy reminder about sawdust and BLACK WALNUT!
Last night a client with a boarding barn went to unload sawdust. Thank god they knew what black walnut looked like and immediately recognized it! They called the saw mill to check there suspicions and it was confirmed......black walnut had been processed that day.

Horses can be affected by black walnut if shavings made from the tree are used in bedding. As little as 20% black walnut in shavings or sawdust can cause clinical signs within hours of contact. Effects of exposure primarily affect the lower limb and include stocking up, stiff gait, and reluctance to move. If untreated, toxicosis can progress and cause colic, swelling of the neck and chest, elevated heart and respiratory rate, and even laminitis and founder.

She literally saved 10 horses from this fate and dodged a bullet!!!!!

12/18/2024

12/14/2024

12/11/2024

Contact me today about sizing and ordering!! 😇

All terrain Hoof Boots for your barefoot horse. Designed by a farrier. Free & natural movement. Trail riding or rehab & transition horse boot. Free sizing.

12/09/2024

Potomac Horse Fever (PHF) is caused by the bacteria Neorickettsia risticii and primarily affects horses grazing near rivers, creeks, or other water sources. 🐴🌊 The bacteria can be found in aquatic insects or water, with most cases reported seasonally between late spring and early fall. Regions like Ontario, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Kentucky, Illinois, and California are hotspots for PHF.

PHF is not contagious and cannot spread between horses or to humans, but infections often occur in clusters when horses share the same water source. Stay vigilant during peak seasons to protect your horse from this serious disease! 💡✨

Learn more about Potomac Horse Fever from our article:
🇨🇦https://madbarn.ca/potomac-horse-fever/
🇺🇲https://madbarn.com/potomac-horse-fever/

12/08/2024

Here’s part 1

~ Toxo Tuesday: toxic grasses Part 1 ~

When equine stewards read or hear about toxic plants, the term often brings to mind big, ugly, evil-looking plants. While some of them do actually fit that description, it may come as a surprise that a good number of plants toxic to equines are hidden in plain sight, camouflaged by the good pasture grasses they resemble. The fact that they are so well disguised makes them more difficult to identify as well as control.

Many of the toxic grasses don't contain actual toxins, but have structures damaging to equine mouths, eyes, muzzles, and digestive systems. Some of them, however, do have toxic substances such as cyanogenic glycosides, prussic acid, alkaloids, and nitrates. Others may contain ergot, mycotoxins, and endophytic fungi if conditions are right.

While identification of all of the pasture grasses may seem daunting, it's not necessary to have a background in botany. Even now in winter, seed heads and leaves may persist. (When we find one that is questionable on our weekly pasture walks, we can mark it and return in the spring for better identification and determination of the size of the population.)

If we see a seed head with numerous, long, or twisted awns, it's not a grass species we want in the pasture. Grasses with large, tough, sharp leaves are also usually undesirable for forage. Either of the above can cause physical damage to mouths and gastric passages as well as impaction. Most of the very tall grasses aren't suitable for grazing either, due to lack of nutrition and unpalatability.

More to come, along with a list...

12/08/2024

~ Toxic grasses Part 2 ~

Species with damaging physical structures are much more easily identified. That leaves only a small number of toxic grasses to learn. Fortunately, all of these have very singular appearances and are easily identified and remembered.

While this list is not absolutely definitive for toxic grasses, as new findings are reported regularly and not all countries have the same vegetation, it's at least a good start in the US for equine pasture managers. A number of these are also noxious or invasive w**ds in some states, so control of them is encouraged and may be required. If you have one or more w**d species in your pasture, contact your state or local noxious w**d control office, extension agent, or SWCD for recommendations.

Some grass species toxic to equines:
Arrowgrass or goose grass (Triglochin spp.),
Bermuda grass (Cynodon dactylon),
bristlegrasses (Setaria spp.),
cheatgrass or downy brome (Bromus tectorum),
foxtail barley (Hordeum jubatum),
German or foxtail millet (Setaria italica),
golden/yellow oat grass (Trisetum flavescens),
Johnsongrass (Sorghum halepense),
Kleingrass (Panicum coloratum),
Medusahead rye (Taeniatherum asperum),
needlegrass (Stipa spp.),
perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne),
porcupine grass (Miscanthus sinensis),
threeawn grasses (Aristida spp.),
reed canarygrass (Phalaris arundinacea),
sorghum (Sorghum spp.),
squirreltail (Sitanion hystrix),
Sudangrass (Sorghum bicolor),
tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea),
tanglehead (Heteropogon contortus),
wild oat grass (Avena fatua),
wiregrass or goosegrass (Eleusine indica).

The message is the same as with all toxic plants: if we encourage and maintain good, healthy forage, the chances of a toxic event with our equines will be greatly reduced.

Let's be vigilant (but not anxious) and keep 'em safe!

12/06/2024

Some great information about FWS

I have addressed this problem so many times in the field and in my group that I still don’t quite know why it has taken so long to actually do a short article on F***l Water Syndrome aka “FWS”.

FWS typically presents in horses as an excessive amount of thin brown liquid being ejected from a horse’s a**s. This is different from diarrhea because it doesn’t have any f***l matter contained in the liquid. The horse’s manure may be on the soft side or may be perfectly formed.

In most cases FWS isn’t debilitating to the horse but it is messy and can coat their butts and legs with nasty smelling and irritating liquid. It is especially difficult during the cold winter months as you can see from the photo I used. The fluid clumps on fur and freezes while the cold temperatures make it difficult if not impossible to clean.

Obviously FWS is a gastro-intestinal issue but most owners miss the mark when treating FWS. Owners will throw expensive supplements at the problem and the symptoms will persist. I know this from personal experience with my mare, Flair. That poor mare had about 32 different supplements thrown at her and nothing worked.

Probiotics, prebiotics, biosponge, ulcer treatments, gut supplements and anything else I tried wouldn’t clear it up. Nothing ever even slowed it down.

Then while attending an equine nutrition clinic I was having a cocktail with one of the more well known equine nutrition PhDs and I mentioned my frustration to her. Of course she had the answer!

Just so everyone knows, it’s not that I’m really smart but I hang out with really smart people!

In the overwhelming majority of cases FWS is being caused by a mild case of a condition known as Right Dorsal Colitis. I got the full monty clinical explanation, and as I would do in any conversation with an extremely bright, lovely woman who is twenty years younger I sat at the edge of my chair in rapt attention while understanding none of it but all I needed to know was that it is a condition similar to Irritable Bowel Syndrome in humans.

IBS is something that most people in my age range (somewhere between classic and Jurassic) are familiar with. The cure for both conditions is simple: add easily digestible fiber. I began taking a tablespoon of psyllium each day and my IBS cleared up almost immediately.

Right Dorsal Colitis can become very serious and require clinical intervention in some cases. In severe cases FWS is accompanied by lethargy, weight loss, lack of appetite and colic. I am NOT a vet so you should discuss any concerns that you have with your vet and follow their treatment advice.

Many times RDC is caused by coarse hay. Mature, coarse hay is very high in fiber and can be difficult to process in the gut causing some inflammation resulting in the watery fountain of stench emanating from your horse’s butt.

My own experience with FWS is very much like what I hear from others. The FWS shows up in the fall when the horses are off grass and on hay. Whenever I get different hay. My horses are both easy keepers and metabolic so I feed mostly very mature low NSC grass hay ensuring that I am dealing with FWS for most of the year. Quite often you will find that it is worse during the winter and the simple explanation is that they are eating more hay which attenuates the problem.

The dietary treatment for both conditions is to replace some (or all) of the forage with a complete feed enabling the gut to recover by offering some easily digestible fiber.

You can also try using some psyllium but it’s expensive and it typically requires a large dose.

My personal go to and the advice that I have offered to hundreds of people as a first treatment is to simply add a pound of hay stretcher pellets per day to the horse’s normal diet and this usually clears it up. If the FWS doesn’t clear up in a few days I increase it to two pounds per day.

Any genuine complete feed will work as long as the crude fiber is over 20% and the fat level is low. I typically choose to use hay stretcher because it is very high in fiber, usually over 25% and it is not heavily fortified nor high in calories so I don’t really need to make huge adjustments in their diets. I simply toss a cup or two on top of their normal ration and call it a day.

For a 1,000 pound horse two pounds per day should offer relief of the symptoms but if two pounds of hay stretcher doesn’t change things it’s probably time to try something else and at this point all bets are off. Psyllium would be my next step along with a gut supplement.

It is almost never a lack of probiotics unless the horse had recently been on a course of antibiotics.

The long term solution is to feed better hay. If you can find some nice, soft second cutting grass hay it would go a long way towards drying things up.

There are a number of downsides to feeding better hay. Cost and availability are at the top of the list. Then there’s the horse. Second cutting hay isn’t the best choice for easy keepers or insulin resistant horses so this option has its limits.

Many times FWS is linked to insulin resistant horses as a sure sign that they are insulin resistant. The conditions are not related except that most IR horses are on j***y, low starch, low calorie hay.

Please allow me to head off the naysayers and negative comments. This is not by any means a sure fire cure for FWS. It is, however, a very inexpensive treatment as a first go to attempt and it does work in most cases. If not, then try all the whiz bang supplements that probably won’t work either.

In short, if you have a horse with a squirty butt go buy a bag of cheap hay stretcher pellets and run some through the horse. If it works, you got off cheap, if not at least you know something that isn’t going to work.

As a final reminder and a more serious tone, if the FWS persists and the hay stretcher doesn’t work I would strongly encourage you to please consult your veterinarian and have all the appropriate diagnostics done.

Thank you for reading this article.

I am retired and write blog articles to try to make horse owner's lives easier and horse's lives better.

If you found this article to be helpful my horses would be very grateful if you would consider buying some hay for them by going to:

https://buymeacoffee.com/jimthefeedguy

Of course your contributions are not required, nor expected but all are very much appreciated.

Cheers!

12/04/2024

Interesting read!

Comparative neurobiology of horse and human.

Horses and humans are both mammals.
Our brains may not be the same size, but they are almost identical in their structure and function.

Why can our brains look so similar but our behaviours and sensitivity to the world look so different?

The area in the picture highlighted is the prefrontal cortex or the (PFC). Its job in humans, horses, dogs, dolphins, elephants, cats, mice, rats, all mammals, and even birds is to carry out "higher executive functions" such as:

🧠 problem solving
🧠 decision making
🧠 reasoning
🧠 risk assessment
🧠 forward planning
🧠 impulse control
🧠 intention

Obviously, these executive functions are more advanced in humans than in other species of mammals, but this part of the brain plays a pivotal role in higher levels of learning beyond primal behaviours and learning survival skills.

So why aren't we seeing these higher executive functioning skills and behaviours in horses as much as what we see them in dogs, dolphins, elephants and even birds?

Ultimately it comes down to safety!

The latest neuroscience research suggests that when the brain feels unsafe it causes the body to produce stress response hormones and these stress response hormones cause the PFC to go "offline".
This means that subcortical regions of the brain (deeper parts of the brain) such as the primal brain (AKA limbic system, survival brain, flight/fight brain) completely take over to increase the chances of survival.

Feeling unsafe causes the feeling of fear and it is fear that gets this party started.

So behaviours come from two areas:

1. The PFC, carrying out problem solving skills, reasoning, impulse control, forward planning etc. that may be interpreted as "obedience" and "partnership".

2. The primal brain, carrying out reactive survival behaviours. This brain does NOT carry out impulse control, forward planning, problem solving, etc. It just reacts to the world. This brain heavily relies on patterns and consistency. This brain will cause freeze/flight/fight behaviours such as shutting down, bolting, biting, rearing, bucking, kicking, barging, etc.

Which brain is the domesticated horse spending most of it's time in?
It's primal brain!

This is why we don't get to see their full intellectual and cognitive potential because most of the time, domesticated horses are perceiving their world in a fearful way to some degree.

We can help our horses with this!

Feeling fearful is the OPPOSITE to feeling calm.
If we want to help our horses access their PFC then we MUST do whatever it takes to help them feel calm.

☝️ ONLY when a brain feels calm can it slow down enough to develop TRUE confidence. Only when the brain feels confident will it access TRUE cognition (PFC).

☝️ We first need to understand that when we get "bad behaviour" from our horses, it's not intentional or naughty or rude. What you are seeing is either a horse that is just reacting to the fear they feel or they are carrying out their "coping mechanism" in response to their anticipation of feeling fear.

☝️ Try to remove expectations that your horse should "know better".
"Knowing better" implies that all behaviours are coming from the PFC and there should be some impulse control and reasoning. Unless your horse feels calm, they can't access the PFC to "know better".

THIS STARTS WITH YOU!!!

You need to be consciously aware if YOU feel calm first. If you feel calm, your horse will have a better chance at feeling calm. Expecting them to feel calm when you don't is unfair.

The best way to create calmness is to intentionally be SLOW!!!
SLOW EVERYTHING you do down.
SLOW your movement down.
SLOW your talking down.
SLOW your walking down.
SLOW your breathing down.
SLOW your horse down.
If you feel too slow, then you're going slow enough.

Calmness is slow, not fast.

This will help you and your horse to connect and feel safe together.
When the brain feels stressed, the stress response hormones cause the body to speed up.

Stress = speed

We can reverse engineer this process and create a calm mind through slow intentional movement and a relaxed posture.

The by-product of a calm brain is confidence and cognition (PFC access).

Happy brain training 🧠
Charlotte 😊

Photo: Credit: Adult horse (equine) brain, sagittal section. Michael Frank, Royal Veterinary College. Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

12/01/2024

Now that the cooler weather is upon us! Triple Crown has some good tips and tricks to keep your horse warm this season!