Furlong's Soundness Center

01/19/2024

We love having Z at FSC. He is loving his tailored rehabilitation program and we love working with him. Thank you Phillip Dutton Eventing for making this video of Z enjoying his time with us.

12/22/2023

Phillip Dutton walked around Furlong’s Soundness Center with Drs. Brendan Furlong and Aja Harvey and Jess to see all that we have to offer his horse while he undergoes his rehabilitation journey. We appreciate his team recording their walkthrough so that we can share some highlights of what it is like to be a patient at our soundness center.

10/27/2023

Winter show season is quickly approaching, so why not give your horse that extra competitive edge with cross-training and conditioning? At Furlong's Soundness Center (FSC) we offer short-term conditioning programs and outpatient water treadmill sessions.

How does the cross-training and conditioning program at FSC benefit your horse?
Our approach focuses on addressing the whole horse, as well as supporting areas of weakness, arthritis, or previous injury. We can help achieve core stabilization, increase range of motion, and promote overall strength and balance.

Contact us today for more information!

10/19/2021

Happy Veterinary Technician Appreciation Week!

To all of our incredible teams of veterinary technicians and assistants, thank you for all that you do each and every day. Your hard work and dedication sets a standard of excellence that is unsurpassed. You work tirelessly morning and night to provide every patient with the highest level of care while maintaining patience and compassion. You are always there to lend a helping hand and provide a shoulder to lean on, even on the hectic days. Thank you for being super heroes. We appreciate and value all of you.

10/14/2021

It is important to appreciate the "why" and "how" behind the tools we select to add to a horses rehab program. Please check out the peer review here on how one of our favorite tools (the Equiband System) benefits the horse in work.

Happy reading and happy rehabbing! 👩‍🏫🐎

Core strengthening and postural stability are desired outcomes of certain therapeutic exercises performed in horses. A recent study, conducted at the University of Tennessee, aimed to quantify changes in muscle activation at a walk and trot in horses traveling over eight consecutive ground poles evenly spaced in parallel fashion in a straight line, and with hindquarter and abdominal elastic resistance bands applied at 25% stretch. Researchers found that the use of ground poles at a walk resulted in an increase in the longissimus dorsi and re**us abdominus muscles. The use of ground poles at a trot resulted in an increase in the re**us abdominus muscles. The hindquarter and abdominal elastic resistance bands resulted in an increase in the left re**us abdominus muscle.
These findings provide support regarding changes in muscle activation when using ground poles to increase core and epaxial muscle engagement. While an effect on core muscle activation was identified with the elastic resistance bands at a trot, further research is needed to further characterize their effects on muscle activation. For more information about this research visit https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jevs.2021.103772

10/13/2021

Congratulations to one of our teams favorite water tread patients for a safe and super successful finish at Morven Park last week!

09/10/2021

Just a chuckle for your Friday to get your weekend started right!

Enjoy the beautiful weekend! 😎

09/06/2021

09/03/2021

Happy Friday!

To finish this week, we want to share one of our programs favorite finds!

Anyone remember how "food is not love"? Sad, but still true.

We all love to make our equine partners happy, especially when they may be on a long term lay up.

Whether it is just a "thank you for being amazing" treat, or part of your physiotherapy program to help with stretches, there are now more options for health conscious horsey snacks!

Our personal favorites are Purinas' Outlast and Carb Concious Treats.

Patients give them 2 thumbs up (well, if they had thumbs!)

Explore what's out there and find your favorite too!

09/03/2021

09/01/2021

Wednesday Weigh In

So, now that we know some of the benefits of weighing forage, how do we accomplish the task?

🤫Top secret ----- just kidding!

Here, we use a manual or digital fish scale or luggage scale and a slow feed hay bag.

Step 1: 👩‍🏫 Math! Calculate the total daily forage requirement based on the horses current weight. Divide that total by the amount of hay meals fed over the course of the day.
So your 1000 lb horse needs 15- 20 lbs per day. We like to split that over 4 hay meals so each meal would weigh 3.75 - 4 lbs per feeding.

Did you make it this far? Great!

Step 2: Weigh the hay bag empty and tare out your scale.

Step 3: Add hay to bag. Add or remove as needed until desire weight is reached.

Step 4: Feed!

In the event we have a horse that we are actively trying to reduce calories to lower their BSC and weight, we add the extra step of soaking their hay meals.

We can reduce their forage as low as 1% of their body weight if needed.

Follow Steps 1 thru 3.

Step 4: For this we use a standard size muck tub and a plastic fish basket for an easy soak and drain.

Thoroughly soak entire basket of hay for 30 minutes.

Step 5: Remove basket from tub and allow to thoroughly drain.

Step 6: Feed!

⭐Please note, there are other scenarios where wetting or soaking hay may be appropriate for your horse. Todays post is only addressing one way in which we implement soaked hay to a feed program. Always collaborate with your veterinarian if you need assistance designing the optimal feed program for your horses dietary and health needs⭐

08/30/2021

Weighing in on Weighing Hay

🤓 Did you know a horse should be fed 1.5 - 2% of their body weight in forage daily?

This means a 1000 lb horse needs between 15 and 20 lbs of forage per day!

Another perk to tracking our patients weights!

Each horses' needs vary, and therefore this requirement can be met in a variety of ways - a great reason to have your veterinary and nutrition team all working together!

Benefits to weighing hay may include:

🐴 Ensuring a hard keeper is meeting daily minimum requirements.

🐴 Ensuring a heavy horse is not being overfed.

🐴 Tracking how much forage your horse is consuming if they are not ravenous hay eaters, or fall in to the naughty "hay waster" category!

🐴 Ensuring you can split up forage throughout the day to best support gastric health and mimic the natural grazing style of the horse.

Check back in Wednesday for more!

08/27/2021

Anyone else's horse do their own yoga? 🙋‍♀️🧘‍♂️

Embracing

08/26/2021

Stay cool and stay safe!☀️

08/25/2021

Check out the handy tools available to set up for success in your feed program!

08/25/2021

Expanding on Mondays post - feeding by weight, instead of by volume, may seem tedious.

However, most several commercial feeds (such as Purina and Triple Crown) make pre labeled cups and scoops with their most common feeds pre marked by weight. ✅

It is also easy to find weight feed scoops in your local feed store or online.

Once you weigh your feeds once, you can translate them to your regular 3 quart feed scoop, or even your trust old coffee can if you prefer!

The most important takeaway is that each feed has a takes up a different amount of space.

For example, in this photo below I have Purina Equine Senior in my feed scoop. While I have 1.5 lbs of Senior measured out, if I was comparing the same Volume in Ultium or Strategy I would actually have 2 lbs. That cumulative half pound difference per feeding is significant when managing a feed program and easily illustrates how feeds can differ when measuring by volume alone!

08/24/2021

☀️ Today we need to share both our gratitude and our sadness as our team bids farewell to our final summer extern. ☀️

Sophie Wayner has been an incredible student, a constant source of positivity, and the epitome of horsemanship.

While we are sad to see her go, we wish her all the very best in her next adventure and expect nothing but amazing things from her future!

Thank you Sophie!