Fleet Feet

06/05/2024

Very useful to know - especially if you’re managing a horse with laminitis, PPID or EMS.

Understanding a Hay or Pasture Test Forage data is essential to truly be able to balance a horse's intake. Forage whether that be grass or hay or a

06/05/2024

This is interesting. I never knew that some horses suffer from motion sickness.

Could motion sickness make a horse reluctant to load and cause him to scramble in the trailer? Find out what the research says.

17/04/2024

27/03/2024

I’m sadly finishing up my Scootboot fitting, and selling all my stock at $50 less than RRP ($260/pair). See pictures for sizes.

Scoots have just made it too difficult to continue as a small retailer, and at $310 per pair of boots, I think they are too expensive.

When I started fitting boots, Scoots were keen to have them fitted in person by people knowledgeable about hooves, and preferably by farriers or barefoot trimmers. Trimmer-fitters would be honest with their clients about whether their horse was actually suitable for Scootboots, and could help people rehabilitate their horses’ feet. Now it seems that anyone can sell them, and the people who don’t turn over much stock pay much more than the bulk buyers.

I have calculated an average price for what I’ve paid for my stock, and am selling it all off at $260/pair of boots.

I can post for $15 for up to two pairs of boots, and if you order two pairs, I will throw in a bonus accessories pack. (While stocks last).
I currently have pads, shims, mud straps, pastern straps and toe straps.

I will also be selling my fitting shells, which I would like to sell as a set, but will split if no one has showed any interest by the end of March.

If you’d like to buy accessories without boots msg me for price.

I would like to thank all my wonderful customers. I have met some lovely people along my hoofcare journey, and have certainly gained more value from the people I have met than the money I have made.

I am still happy to answer questions and support anyone who has bought boots from me.

12/03/2024

15/01/2024

Barefoot is best!

Barefoot Horse Hooves Can Move 50% More than Shod Hooves

Recent Swedish research presented the final results of a study comparing shod horses hooves and barefoot hooves. The study, entitled "Unshod Sports Horses - for Durability and Performance," showed that barefoot hooves can move up to 50% more than hooves that are shod with traditional horseshoes.

The research also highlighted other significant findings, including increased hoof expansion, enhanced hoof contraction during roll-over, and improved range of motion in barefoot hooves. The study's lead scientist, Lars Roepstorff, emphasised the positive impact of barefoot hooves on shock absorption and overall horse health. The research suggests that going barefoot may offer performance advantages and reduce lameness and injuries in horses. Read the full article here.

https://eu.scootboots.com/blogs/blog/barefoot-horse-hooves-can-move-50-more-than-shod-hooves

Scoot Boot provides an ideal solution for horses to experience the benefits of going
barefoot while still ensuring adequate hoof protection. By using Scoot Boots, horse
owners can allow their horses to have the freedom of barefoot movement while
minimising the risks associated with traditional horseshoes. This research further supports
the notion that using Scoot Boots is a superior option for maintaining the natural health
and performance of horses' hooves.

https://scootboots.com



AD

08/01/2024

Scoot Boot fittings on the Mid-North Coast with experienced approved fitter and stockist -all popular sizes now in stock.
Please call or text Kathryn on 0418486656 and leave a message.
Fitting fee included in the price of the boots.

23/12/2023

Well said…and I know most of you will agree with this viewpoint.

Now bear with me for a moment as I may ruffle some feathers.

Let's pretend for a moment that I believe in dominance theory.
That we need to exercise a totalitarian level of authority with our horses at all times, and anything less than a complete cooperation with our demands is an act of blatant disrespect fueled by an underlying agenda to retaliate, and retaliation must be punished to preserve an imposed hierarchy.

Sounds silly when it's written out like that, but really.... that's what dominance theory boils down to.
I've been around... and in action, it often plays out this way, too. Regardless of whether most people are willing to see it.

🗣 "Make him do it, he's just testing you."

🗣 "Show him who's boss, he doesn't have a choice."

🗣 "He's going to have to just get over it."

🗣 "Smack him until he does it."

🗣 "He's not afraid/in pain, he's FAKING it."

𝘐 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘨𝘰 𝘰𝘯.

Now, we as an industry speak of leadership and respect.
As I get older, the more I'm being faced with the question:
Do we actually 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗲 the leadership role or 'respect' of our horses? 🤔

And I know some people will stop reading here. But seriously, this is the seed I want to plant.
Consider it.

Why 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 my horse 'respect' me?

Because I say so?
That means nothing to a horse, sorry. 🤷‍♀️

👉 Do I make her feel safe and heard?
👉 Do I take the time to listen to her concerns, no matter how silly they seem to me?
👉 Do I do my best to prepare her for challenging physical/emotional tasks?
👉 Do I try my best to keep her under threshold so she is of the mental state to learn?
👉 Do I respect that some days just aren't her day, and adjust our goals accordingly to still make our time together positive and productive?

That's something a horse cares about. That's partnership.

I don't know about you, but I was raised on the idea that respect is a two way street. And the lack of respect and consideration I see towards horses on a physical but MOSTLY emotional level on a daily basis makes me believe that the answer to that question is NO.
𝗔𝘀 𝗮𝗻 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘆, 𝘄𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗳 𝘄𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗵 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴.

Now, I'm only human, and I have my off days too, and every day I try to be better for my horses.

But let's be honest, if you had a friend who regularly made you feel unsafe, scared, unprepared, overstimulated, gaslit you, ridiculed you, punished you, etc.
Would you respect that person?
Would you want to be around that person?
Would you view that person as a leader?
No. You wouldn't.
You probably wouldn't hang around with that person.
Fortunately, we have the autonomy to decide if we want to be around certain people. Horses do not.

Just some food for thought. 🧠💭

13/09/2023

So I did it!!!

Today is my first day with 100% dedication to Together Horsemanship. I quit my office job yesterday. It’s a scary thing to ‘let go’ but I’m committed to follow my passion. My passion to share a kinder way of communicating with our gorgeous horses, of listening to them and building a partnership….of encouraging those that have lost their confidence to be able, once again (or for the very first time) find the beauty and wonder that can be found in the presence and company of horses. We have started to build a community where ‘Together’ we support each other and our horses 💕.
I’m also loving being able to share my wonderful herd of horses with clients who come here to enjoy the magic that horses can bring into our lives and deep into our souls. Those that would not be able to enjoy the experience otherwise.
🐴
Thanks so much to all of you who have supported me so far and continue to support me-Danny, my mentor-Tanja Kraus , my friends (you know who you are), my early student who have been so encouraging and given such wonderful feedback. 🙏
So here we go - I’m going to keep on ‘Doing it’!!!

24/07/2023

An excellent article!

That is the question! Horse owners are told to keep horses on short grass if they want to manage weight (and prevent laminitis etc.) but it is not that simple.

20/07/2023

I've got lots of stock in at the moment, so I can supply the popular sizes of boots at fittings.

I have sizes 0 to 4 in Regular and Slim fittings, plus all the usual accessories: coloured straps, mud straps, shims etc.

Contact me for a fitting by text or leave a message on 0418486656

28/06/2023

What does it take to become a police horse?

A police horse can take between 6 months to two years to train. Part of the training is exposure to noise and missiles such as banging on drums, waving flags, shouting, and throwing tennis balls at the horse and rider.
A variety of equine breeds are used for police work, but the most common are draft horses, quarter horses, and thoroughbreds. Police horses are almost always geldings.

Metro Nashville Park Police Mounted Patrol only have barefoot horses. In this photo they are using Scoot Boots. This gives their horses the protection to patrol on all types of surfaces. And as you can see - in all locations both inside and out!

Thank you Metro Nashville Park Police Mounted Patrol for being great Scoot Boot representatives and thank you for your service.

19/06/2023

Mismatched Feet

Sometimes I come to owners who are worried that their horse is struggling with high/low front feet, or differing angles. This appears as one foot having more upright angles - a steeper heel and dorsal wall angle - and the other foot having lower angles. Sometimes it can be that a horse has “low and lower” feet, where both may be low but one is lower than the other, or “high and higher” feet.

I get the cause for concern, especially when the horse is dealing with soundness issues. But should feet be symmetrical? And what can cause high/low feet?

First- I will say that I almost always note some asymmetry between front feet in most horses, even if incredibly subtle.

This can be due to things like:

✔️A “handedness” of the horse where they are weighting one side more than the other in posture and/or movement
✔️Grazing stance as the horse was growing/developing
✔️Past injury leading to the horse off-weighting a certain foot and overloading another foot
✔️Current lameness issue leading to off-weighting of a limb
✔️Conformation/congenital reasons

Despite congenital issues, injuries, or handedness, I HAVE seen these cases improve with proper training to have the horse balance and move straighter, while incorporating good bodywork, etc.

With cases where high/low is very overt, it is likely that the coffin bone and internal structures have modeled to that shape and you can never physically get the feet to match.

So why bring this up?

Trimming front feet to “match” or have the same angle - if the internal anatomy is structurally different due to conformation and development - doesn’t solve the issue and often can exacerbate the problem or make these horses more lame.

If you hear a comment of “they trim every foot different!” … well that isn’t a bad thing. We as hoofcare providers trim the foot in front of us, based on the internal structures of that hoof and limb, and not to make a matching pair. Each leg has its own joints, ligaments, tendons, etc that all need to be considered with every choice we make to the foot. Are there times where we do work to correct an issue, like limb length disparity? Sure. But I find most cases I see don’t involve anything overly corrective.

And not only that, I often find when I trim to the individual foot’s needs, I end up with a more comfortable and much sounder horse, and often the feet end up more balanced over time. Form following function…

But overall, do I freak out when I see mismatched feet? Not so much.

If you want to hear more about mismatched feet, you can listen to this throwback podcast episode from 2021 with Dr. Sara Malone:

https://thehumblehoof.com/2021/04/09/mismatched-feet/

Does your horse have mismatched feet?

03/06/2023

This would be fun!
Love the horse’s ‘sunnies’!

15/05/2023

This made me chuckle…😁

10 years today since a client's boyfriend presented me with this unamused horse...

23/04/2023

https://www.worldhorsewelfare.org/blog/laminitis-what-is-it-why-do-horses-get-it-and-how-is-it-treated

Find out what laminitis is, what the signs are, why horses get it and how it's treated - plus download our free leaflet

21/04/2023

https://www.ecirhorse.org/proceedings-2017.php?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=proceedings_campaign&fbclid=IwAR3E7Wuydo16cDX0w1O71SgZ6kSx-iKcM8FeqmMy57w1-4fBkm04aDDf2a0&fs=e&s=cl

Download various proceedings from the 2017 NO Laminitis conference..

26/03/2023

07/03/2023

Growing out some serious cracks and flares with 10 months of 4 weekly trims by Victorian based ACEHP practitioner Mollie Miller (Mollie Miller Equine )

This horse already had the right diet, movement and regular bodywork in place, so the short trim cycles were able to grow out all the cracks in one hoof capsule.

15/02/2023

BLOODWORK

Some of those hoof cases that confound us, that just seem to have all these nagging problems that won't go away despite good diet and environment, things like the persistent thrush, chronic thin soles, hoof soreness/sensitivity, abscessing, wall quality issues, could simply be suffering from undiagnosed metabolic problems.

I want to be clear that while many of us assume a metabolic horse will be a chunky horse with a cresty neck and fat pads, thin horses can be metabolic as well. In fact, early PPID (Cushing's) often presents itself as a horse becoming a harder keeper, experiencing topline loss, or overall losing condition. Don't assume your horse isn't metabolic just because it's not fat!

To rule out metabolic issues, the first port of call is your vet. Have your vet pull some bloodwork to check that the horse's insulin and ACTH levels are in range. The Tufts Endocrinology Department has a great PDF about current practices, and ECIR is a wonderful resource for blood draws, so you can make sure your management leading up to the appointment will give the most accurate result on the blood test!

Just a note that this time of year (January through June) in the Northern hemisphere, ACTH levels are naturally lower. This can produce a lot of false negatives for early PPID/Cushing's cases - and can make people assume their horse isn't metabolic when the test simply wasn't sensitive enough for them!

During this time of year, ask your vet about a TRH stim test. It is much more sensitive and can help find those early cases of PPID that might be causing hoof issues but nothing else yet. Their coat might look fine, they might seem okay in all other aspects, but their feet are struggling a little.

The stim test is when your vet pulls a baseline ACTH blood draw, then injects a thyroid stimulating hormone, waits a bit, and pulls ACTH bloodwork again. This can help with comparing the pre-stim to the post-stim result to see how the pituitary gland is responding to the injection.

If you're struggling with hoof issues and can't seem to figure out why, bloodwork may be very telling!

05/02/2023

I would like to advise you all that 2023 will be my last year of fitting and supplying Scootboots.

I will not be taking on any new clients this year, but am happy to fit new boots/horses for clients already on my books up until the end of December.

I will however continue to support customers who have bought boots from me, so please do not hesitate to contact me with any queries.

I sincerely hope somebody else might step up to cover this area for boot fitting, as I truly believe all horses should be free of metal shoes, and that Scootboots are the best boot option for the majority of horses.

Thank you to all my customers. I have met many wonderful, lovely people during my years of barefoot trimming and fitting boots. I hope to see you all again while out and about on my own horses. 😘

FleetFeet will continue to operate from 2024 onwards as an information page, so stay tuned for news, research and information relating to horse welfare and barefoot hoofcare.

17/11/2022

Excellent article. Well worth reading.

Learn how horses understand their enviroment by the vibrations felt underfoot, helping follow their instincts by nerve frequency | Scoot Boots | Hoof Boots

05/09/2022

Another valuable insight from Alicia Harlov.
(From the USA, so they are in Autumn there right now).

Laminitis Care

As we are in the middle of the seasonal rise of ACTH, alongside weather changes affecting sugar levels in the grass, we often start seeing laminitis creep up in metabolic horses.

Recently I was chatting with someone about options for comfort for horses experiencing acute laminitis. We were talking about how some hoofcare providers can come in and apply a shoeing package to make these acute cases comfortable, sometimes even rideable, despite these internal issues and pathology.

But.. Should they?

Now let me clarify. I am not going after the hoofcare providers here. I am one! I think it's incredibly important we get these horses comfortable. I never want to see a horse in pain. And I give immense credit to pros who have the skill and experience to make an immediate change that allows for that comfort. I also appreciate pros who are seeking their client's comfort - we have the same goal, and we both care about how our clients are doing.

That being said, we know that up to 90% of laminitis cases are endocrinopathic, and require changes in management from the owner and/or barn. If they don't make any changes and simply rely on the farrier to "fix it," even if the horse is comfortable - even if the horse seems "sound"!- the internal damage may be worsening to the point where soon, comfort may not be achievable.

Laminitis is most often indicative of a systemic issue that needs to be addressed. Anything we apply to the foot for comfort won't change the blood insulin levels, or the ACTH levels. It likely won't change the breakdown of the laminae, even with the best leverage reduction and conscious decision-making about distributing the horse's weight properly. That's because the lamellar breakdown is most often due to a dietary issue or hormone issue, not a "what's on the foot" issue.

The call is coming from inside the house, as they say.

Patching up the issue isn't strengthening the laminae, and riding the horse can allow for further damage on compromised laminae if changes aren't made... Even if the horse appears comfortable.

So while I want to give credit to hoofcare providers giving comfort to sore horses, I want to give an exhortation to horse owners and barn owners to look for the cause of the issue. We don't want to just put a bandaid on a bullet wound.

When we remove the trigger for laminitis, the horse should become comfortable very quickly - I've had clients go from barely able to stand, to pasture sound in less than 2 weeks when a dietary trigger was found and removed, or ACTH bloodwork was assessed and changes were made in medication.

The comfort that comes from when the trigger for laminitis is removed results in a tighter laminae connection growing in, a healthier foot, better sole depth, and yes - can even result in rotation growing out to clear radiographs. But this can only happen with proper management.
It can be frustrating searching for what triggers your horse (a client of mine found that a 1/2 cup per meal of a "safe" balancer was the main trigger for recurring founder for her pony!), but it is more than worth it!

04/08/2022

Alicia Harlov, (The Humble Hoof) is a highly regarded Hoofcare Practitioner in the US.
She has a wealth of knowledge and experience, and generously shares her wisdom to help horses, donkeys, and their owners all over the world.

For some owners, their horse's laminitis seemed to have come "out of nowhere."

The thing is, up to 90% of laminitic cases are endocrinopathic/metabolic - so we know that diet and exercise play a HUGE role in prevention and recovery.

And of course, there is the other 10+% whose founder cases aren't endocrinopathic. These can be caused by a SIRS reaction to a toxic w**d, high fever, illness, colitis, retained placenta, etc, or an injury that results in supporting limb laminitis from overweighting a non-injured limb.

Each of these instances requires a different approach to rehab.

So how do we determine what caused the laminitis in the first place?

That is where working with a veterinarian is invaluable. Bloodwork to determine metabolic status (checking ACTH levels for PPID, and insulin levels for EMS) can help to clue into the cause on the vast majority of laminitic cases.

After that, troubleshooting can come down to the individual horse. Some metabolic horses are more sensitive than others, so if a generic "low sugar" diet doesn't seem to be working, don't rule out endocrinopathic laminitis just yet. The ECIR forum online can help pinpoint dietary triggers for metabolic horses. And remember, just because it's marketed as "low sugar" doesn't mean it is safe!

You can't treat the symptom without identifying the cause. While you're implementing the ECIR emergency diet to be safe, pursue diagnostics to determine if your horse is dealing with metabolic laminitis, SIRS laminitis, or supporting limb laminitis, and go from there.

To learn more about how to approach each kind of laminitis case, check out the laminitis episodes on The Humble Hoof podcast. The episodes with Dr. Van Eps and Dr. Taylor especially go into how to rehab metabolic vs. SIRS vs supporting limb:
https://thehumblehoof.libsyn.com/size/5/?search=Laminitis+

If you know you have a metabolic laminitis case, this episode with ECIR members will help explain what's going on and how to manage it!:
https://thehumblehoof.libsyn.com/managing-the-metabolic-horse

01/08/2022

LAMINITIS: Do you know the facts?

Head on over to our website and download your free pdf version of the Founder Facts booklet!
Handy knowledge for all horse owners and great to forward on to clients.

https://www.australianhooftrimmers.com/publications