Bare and Balanced Hoofcare

13/02/2025

If we can’t even emotionally regulate ourselves through stress, frustration, anxiety or uncertainty whilst training horses, how can we expect our horses to regulate properly?

It’s unfair to expect a horse to be more stable, relaxed and balanced than the person who is handling them.

Good training ends where frustration begins.

Use of harsh punishment and brute force begins where skill ends.

Working on our own emotional reactivity and how it may result in us taking our frustrations out on horses needs to be a priority in training.

11/02/2025

08/02/2025

29/01/2025

If you are looking to attend a whole horse dissection, I highly recommend Lorre!!!

These dates still have open spots and are the last dates until fall.
Please don't miss out on these opportunities.
Apr 4–6, 2025 Denmark, WI (5 spots left)
Apr 11–13, 2025 Dowagiac, MI (5 spots left)
Apr 25–27, 2025 Tremonton, UT (SOLD OUT)

25/01/2025

The myofascial lines offer an incredible perspective on the interconnectedness of the body. While they are a 𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 point, diminishing the framework entirely would overlook its value in understanding the body's functional dynamics.

When I first learned human and equine anatomy in school, we were taught about individual muscles—their origin, insertion, and function. But the body doesn’t work that way. Muscles don’t function in isolation; they’re part of an interconnected system supported by fascia.

The myofascial lines expand on this by deepening our perspective from individual muscles to larger, interconnected bands that influence all areas of the body. They’re like the interstates and highways connecting states and major cities, facilitating communication, and allowing flow across vast distances. They help us see how seemingly unrelated areas of the body are actually working together as part of a cohesive whole. 🛣

For practitioners, these lines can guide assessments and offer insights into how restrictions or discomfort in one area can influence distant areas. For example, a restriction in the hindquarters might influence the opposite shoulder or tightness in the poll could affect the pelvis, topline, limbs, and even the feet (or vice versa). For guardians, understanding these connections offers insight into why addressing the whole body—not just the symptom—leads to longer-lasting results.

However, just as highways and interstates are only part of a country’s road system, the myofascial lines are only part of the story. When we expand our perspective even further, we see the bigger, more intricate picture—just as you can’t explore the full depth of a country by only traveling its highways, we can't fully understand the body by focusing on these primary pathways alone. True freedom of movement requires us to venture off the highways and explore the city streets, country roads, alleys, and hidden routes of the fascial network. These are the subtle, detailed pathways where each horse’s unique story is held. These smaller fascial routes represent the compensations, adaptations, and nuances that aren't always captured by the larger myofascial lines. This is where the true magic of the body’s connection lies.

Bodywork is an essential part of this journey, but it isn’t enough on its own. To restore balance and freedom, we must also focus on feet and movement—intentional, thoughtful movement that teaches the fascia new blueprints for healthy function. The feet, like the foundation of a house, provide stability and alignment that influence the entire system. Through purposeful movement, we help the body unwind compensations, rebuild resilience, and restore fluidity.

What’s most exciting is the growing collaboration around these ideas. Professionals across disciplines are coming together to expand our understanding of fascia, movement, and the body as a whole. These shared insights deepen our collective knowledge and empower us to better support the horses we love.

While the myofascial lines are not the whole story, they provide an essential framework for understanding key aspects of the body’s interconnectedness. They’re a starting point—a map of the highways—but true understanding comes from venturing into the intricate details of the fascial network. This is where we uncover the profound connections that make each body unique. 🌀

✨Want to dive deeper? Join the conversation at the Holistic Horse Collective and upcoming classes at HeartSong. Or connect with these amazing practitioners who are sharing their expertise and collaborations on fascia and whole horse wellness! 🤝🏻❣️

Here's some of my favs:

Balance Through Movement Method
www.balancethroughmovementmethod.com

Yasmin Stuart Equine Physio- www.yasminstuartequinephysio.com/training-hub-webinars

The Equine Documentalist- equineeducationhub.thinkific.com/courses/hoof-neurosensory-posture

Holistic Equine

Keep your curiosity alive! 📚🔍✨

15/01/2025

This is a great exercise for everyone to work on!!! I always aim to place a horse’s foot down slowly when I finish trimming but a lot of horses tense up as I slowly release the foot down so I end up removing my hand from helping them because the tension is hard on my body. It would be amazing if all horses could do this!!!

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1EvEqVgY2k/?mibextid=wwXIfr

07/01/2025

🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼

Hoofcare Manners

Some of my clients know that I’ve been having some trouble lately, especially with pain in my elbows and collarbone area. I always thought I was young and strong and able to do barn work and hoofcare without any issues; I guess it’s catching up to me!

Having pain when working has really pointed out to me things that occur that likely led to these issues. I look forward to the barns and horses where they allow me to hold up their feet, they stand quietly and let me work without too much trouble. On the flip side, having these aches and pains highlights the horses that fuss, yank, or struggle to hold up a foot while I work.

A small tug of a horse’s leg while I am working can contribute to whatever repetitive strain issues I have going on, and the more this happens, the more I worry I won’t be able to trim at this capacity long term. And I love this job, and want to be able to do it as long as possible.

Now I know in many of these cases, the horse’s pain is playing a role. If it hurts to hold up a hoof, they’re going to communicate in a way they know how to- by asking for their leg back with a shift in bodyweight or a pull. I understand that, and don’t blame them.
On behalf of all hoofcare pros out there- if you have a horse struggling with pain, making it hard for them to stand to get their feet done, ask your vet about options for pain management before the appointment. This will make it easier not only on us, but also on your horse.
Some horses also benefit from standing on gym mats, Sure Foot pads, or softer surfaces when working too.

While I truly believe that horses do not want to be difficult for no reason, and I always default to ruling out pain, there are other situations that can cause a horse to struggle with hoofcare appointments.

-Is it feeding time, and they see the hoofcare pro as an obstacle to their meals?
-Are their friends outside and they’re in alone, and they’re feeling unsafe or herdbound?
-Are they being worked on in an area they don’t usually go to, and they’re feeling insecure or uncertain?

Many of these things are preventable as well, with adjusting when the appointment is or when feeding time is, having an equine friend available to keep the horse company, or working to train your horse to feel comfortable where we need to work on them.

And side note- I do have a handful of clients who will feed hay or treats while I work. I say this is about 50/50 of how successful it is (and my owners and I work out which horses this helps). Some horses just see me as “in the way” of their treats and become more distressed or fussier if fed while I work. Some do great and stand quietly. I am not against food while working if the horse truly is happier and calmer with it.

As I’m taking stock of ways I can prolong my career and keep my body healthy, I notice that how horses stand truly is a HUGE part of that. I genuinely look forward to appointments where the horse is happy to allow me to work (within their comfortable range of motion and being considerate of how I am working, too). I also know that many of us will dread appointments where we feel we have to brace our bodies, tense our muscles, and feel like we are fighting to hold up the weight of a half ton animal.

If your hoofcare pro is mentioning that your horse has trouble standing to be worked on, consider investigating a bit to make the appointment easier not only for us, but for your horse as well. A happy hoofcare pro is a consistent and reliable and healthy hoofcare pro ☺️

Picture of sweet Gus, who used to plow through (literally) holding up a hoof and didn’t want his foot up for more than a few seconds at a time. Some patience and great care and work from the owner on being comfortable holding up his feet, and now he is quite the gentleman.

06/01/2025

I have such a cool job!!! ☺️🙌🏼💖

06/01/2025

🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼

Getting to the root of a pain problem -

As our understanding of pain related behaviour improves, there are many situations where horses might present with a "nothingy something" of an issue but there is no clear indicator of where that problem might be arising from.

The interesting (challenging) thing with this is that, if there is no overt lameness or "if I poke here it really hurts", then oftentimes there is no clear start line for your diagnostic journey.

This can be very frustrating because you can find yourself running around in circles not knowing where to start, with conflicting advice from the professionals around you - some of whom might tell you unhelpful things like "just ride through it" or "it's just bad behaviour"

And this is where I have found traditional diagnostics really need to up their game because from a welfare perspective we need to be intervening with pain before a horse is hopping lame or ditching their rider.

And this in turn will encourage people to pay attention to the smaller behaviours rather than waiting for lameness or waiting to be ditched!

What I have learned is that sometimes you have to pick a place to start and work from there.

This means you may be searching for a little while and you might be ruling out more areas through diagnostics than ruling in areas, but that in and of itself is useful information.

Here is what my career has taught me so far:

- If you think there is a problem, there probably is. Find yourself a team of professionals that will support you.

Sometimes a professional might tell you there isn't a problem because they don't have the skillset to see it or find it, another opinion can often be a good thing - though do keep in mind that too many chefs spoil the broth.

There is many a time where I will say "there is a problem - I can't tell you what, though my observation/palpation skills tell me xyz and I will support you in finding out what it is".

- Sometimes there is so much peripheral noise that you need to strip out a lot of variables and then reassess. This includes improving your horse's management to meet their ethological needs and reducing the workload to see where a problem stops being a problem. These all take time.

I have also found that horses can present as painful because their human is expecting way, way, way too much from them given their physical and emotional health. Getting comfortable doing less and going slower is a solid way of rounding off with a happier, healthier horse that you can actually do more with in the long run.

- I'm a "let's deal with the elephant in the room" kind of gal:

If your horse has poor foot balance, deal with that and then go from there. This could include radiographs to monitor changes in hoof angle and this might mean seeking advice from other hoof care providers to support you and your current hoof care provider in improving things.

Likewise, if your horse's back looks like a saggy hammock, or they have weird lumps/spinal protrusions, deal with that. You could get radiographs to tell you the orientation of the spinous processes. Then rebuild your horse's spinal angle and see where that gets you.

- The problem will continue to be a problem until you have actually resolved it! If your horse has diagnosed hoof balance issues, which you are working on resolving, but the balance is still poor, then it will still be an issue!! This means you have to adjust your expectations of your horse accordingly!

- If you are requesting relatively non-invasive diagnostics, e.g. radiographing/ultrasounding your horse's limbs or back, and you are prepared to pay actual hard earned money for this service even though it might show you absolutely nothing of any value (although to me, ruling out an area is of enormous value), please don't let a professional convince you not to UNLESS they have a reasonable counter plan for another diagnostic (NB a bone scan, to the tune of thousands of £££ is not a suitable counterplan in my opinion)

"I suggested to my vet that we xray my horse's back but they palpated it and said that his reactions were normal so there is no reason to xray"

"Okay well what did they suggest instead?"

"They didn't"

"Great, so you have a horse that presents with pain under saddle and yet we are still no further forward with determining the cause"

- Equally, diagnostics and expertise do come with a price tag, this means that in order to find out what is going on with your horse, you do need to spend money. I know this gets tricky when your horse is presenting with a nothingy something and you have a limited budget to deal with it because you really want to spend that money wisely, but turning up to your vet and saying "I have 55p and three buttons to spend, please tell me what's wrong with my horse", is really unfair on your vet and also your horse.

"I had his hocks medicated but it didn't change anything"

"Did you do any diagnostics?"

"No, we just medicated"

"So what you're saying is you did something painful, that isn't without its risks, despite having not done any due diligence, which means you've spent money you don't have on something that wasn't the problem?"

- It is not as simple as medicating and riding into the sunset.

Why did your horse get the diagnosis they got?

What have you done to improve their management/lifestyle/way of going so you can reduce the instances of this happening again? For biomechanic induced issues, you need to solve the problem by altering their biomechanics; medicating is a way of reducing the pain/inflammation to buy you a window of time to do this in.

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The relationship between pain and behaviour are very complicated. I really wish it was as simple as "nerve block here" to get results. There is so much more I could add and the nuances are vast.

There will of course be outliers to this - people who tried all of the above and are still without answers, or those who walked to hell and back to get them - and for those people I understand that this post might be very triggering, I am sorry about that. I hope you can see here that this is a good starting place for many people and I welcome your experience in the comments if you feel it has the power to help someone.

The final thing I will say is this -

Your horse does not need to perform in any way, shape or form in order to be deserving of your love, care and dedication to them. And if you feel they do, then perhaps you should consider getting a bicycle instead ❤️

02/01/2025

22/12/2024

Just a reminder of what Postural Rehabilitation is all about. When a horse stands canted in, they not only work harder to stand (https://journals.biologists.com/bio/article/11/4/bio059139/275381/Standing-horse-posture-a-longer-stance-is-more?fbclid=IwAR3Q77OpxRCf9GgrxxZJcZceWrEePTjodXdu4IW6b6Lm9ADzxerpyArum3Y), but their posture serves as a negative feedback loop for the distortions in their hooves and dentition. Try this: if you lift your head up, like the high-headed horse here, you can feel your jaw slide back behind your upper teeth. That is like the overjet this horse had before we corrected her dentition. And there were specific damages to the hind heels and front toes that we documented. ACP (abnormal compensatory posture) is not just an incidental finding, it is a whole body problem! See first comment below for a photo of the same horse 10 weeks later.

20/12/2024