Hooves with Heart - Kathryn O'Bree

21/01/2024

FUN FACT FRIDAY! Are you familiar with the many adaptations that help your horse stay warm during the cold winter months?

🌾 Hindgut digestion of hay produces the most heat, acting as a small furnace inside of the horse. This is why free choice, good quality hay is so important in the winter.

💪 Horses have a huge muscle mass and muscle activity produces heat. This includes running and playing and even shivering if their body temperature starts to drop. It is important to remember that these activities also will result in a bigger caloric demand so free choice hay and in some cases, grain, is often needed.

🧥 To blanket or not to blanket is a constant debate but either way, as it starts to get cold your horse will grow a thicker coat. If you decide to leave your horse unblanketed you may notice that they look “fluffy”. This is due to a phenomenon called piloerection where the hair stands up to better trap air within. Two layers of the coat also help with warmth. The inner layer is softer and has air pockets to create an insulating layer. The outer layer is coarse and has oils that keep moisture from penetrating the insulating layer and keep the horse warm.

⚖️ Wild horses go into the winter heavier than ideal and the fat serves as an extra layer of insulation. However, if a horse is going to be kept heavily blanketed and in a barn during the cold weather months this is unnecessary and can lead to obesity related issues.

🦵Their distal limbs (below the knees and hocks) are made of mostly bones and tendons, tissues that are resistant to the cold temperatures.

🦶The hooves have an alternative route of blood circulation through larger vessels that can be used in low temperatures. This is why horses can stand in snow without detrimental effects.

👃A horse’s nose has a robust blood supply and is rounded so that it is less susceptible to frostbite than a human’s nose.
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Courtesy of the AAEP Horse Owner Education Committee

16/03/2023

28/08/2022

You see what we do to ourselves and accept as being normal and then view it as healthy enough.
The difference is that there is a choice.
Horses have no choice but to try and cope with what the equestrian world views as normal and healthy enough.
Things need to drastically change, so we are not just having to treat throughout a lifetime in order to maintain a substandard status quo.

17/08/2022

The full story matters… And so does comfort and function 💁🏻‍♀️

Long Toes

I can't tell you how many times I see someone post a picture of their horse's feet and a barrage of comments say "your farrier needs to bring those toes back."

Now, let's ignore all the times it happens when the toes aren't actually too long - they're actually well balanced around the center of rotation based on the hoof pictures provided, and that doesn't seem to be the issue. In those cases, I just assume the person commenting isn't quite sure how to interpret what they're looking at.

Of course, sometimes the toes really are long. Long toes are getting more awareness lately as we know how much they can affect the distal limb.

But that being said, we need to be really careful about giving trim advice without having the entire story, for a lot of reasons.

For example, low or crushed heels can give the appearance of long toes when there actually isn't much room to bring them back. The lack of heel makes the toe look like it has shot forward, when really we are just missing a part of the picture.

Then there are other cases when just "lopping off toes" might actually cause a problem..
Bringing toes back shifts the horse's weightbearing further back in the hoof capsule. Horses with an atrophied frog or heel might not appreciate that; forcing the excess pressure on a weak caudal hoof can actually cause immediate discomfort or soreness. Along the same vein, horses with thin soles can become more sensitive or footsore when taking back even radiographically-confirmed long toes.
In those cases, it can be incredibly helpful to work on bringing the toes back slowly and consider the horse's comfort level as you work towards the goal of a healthier toe length.

Overall, seeing trim advice given based on pictures tends to make me cringe a bit. There's a real horse behind those photos, and a real owner who has to deal with the consequences if the advice makes a horse sore.

Next time you have the itch to write "Long toes!!!!" on a post, take an extra second to consider the whole horse and whole picture.

08/07/2022

I see a lot of posts on social media of horse owners worried about hoof cracks, and often wondering if they can do something to help.

So what are some causes of hoof cracks?:

✴️A diet issue or imbalance - poor wall quality due to low levels of (or imbalanced levels of) minor minerals, poor amino acid profile or low protein in diet, high sugar/starch, etc can lead to poor wall quality that breaks or cracks easily.

✴️Hoof balance issues - excess pressure and load on a certain area or a hoof imbalance can overextend an already weak area of the wall and perpetuate wall cracks.

✴️Laminae issues - a weak laminae connection lends more susceptibility to flaring and excess leverage that can lead to cracking.

✴️Metabolic issues- on a similar vein to the last comment, metabolic issues, especially if undiagnosed or unregulated, can lead to a weakened wall and weak laminae connection. That includes PPID or EMS/IR.

✴️Toe crena/P3 bone loss or remodeling - if the coffin bone (P3) has an area of bone damage, whether congenital or due to pathology over time, the corium around that area can be damaged, making healthy wall production difficult and cause that area to be susceptible to a crack (see The Horse article with Paige Poss on wall cracks and what's underneath them!).

✴️Trim cycle - a cycle that is too long for the individual horse, especially one with weaker walls due to the problems above, can lead to wall cracking issues that are hard to get on top of if the cycle isn't shortened.

✴️Bacteria/microbial issue - sometimes, microbes can invade a weaker area of wall and eat away at the tissue underneath, perpetuating wall quality issues. This can often take topical treatment, sometimes exposing these areas to air to make anaerobic bacteria less willing to "stick around," and a better mineral balanced diet can really help build quality wall that can better withstand these pathogens.

✴️An old injury - some wall cracks stem from a scar from an injury just above the hairline that involved the coronary band. These will usually grow out to a superficial line if properly addressed.

Some horses with hoof wall cracking might need a diet adjustment, some might need a different cycle length, and some might need even need a different approach to their trim. Talk to your hoofcare provider if you're concerned, and see if there's anything you can do to work on growing them out!

05/06/2022

❄️🌱 What to feed your horse over winter 🌱❄️

Over the past week I’ve talked about how to determine if your horse need additional feed or rugging over winter.

If you've determined that your horse actually needs extra feed over winter, let’s talk about what some good options for hard feed are.

I don’t like feeding grains such as corn/maize, wheat/bran/pollard/millmix and barley to horses as they are more difficult for horses to digest. Keep in mind that the large majority of bagged, pelleted and muesli type feeds contain quite a lot of wheat and barley. I urge you all to turn over the bag and read the ingredients so you understand what may be being fed to your horse.

Large amounts of these grains can lead to undigested starch reaching the hind gut. Feeding large amounts of processed/grain-based feeds may lead to issues such as:

* Decreased appetite
* Inability to maintain weight
* Ulcers
* Diarrhoea
* Colic
* Hind gut acidosis

🌿 Excellent feed choices for your thin/hard-keeper over winter are:

🌱 Hay - I know I mentioned it already, but I’m mentioning it again because it’s so important! Grass hay, a biscuit of lucerne, Teff hay, Rhodes hay, a variety of hays is even better! The fibre in hay is what will keeps your horse warm. Not a warm bran mash or similar, this is a myth!
🍠 Beet pulp - Beet pulp is the fibrous material left over after the sugar is extracted from sugar beets. I cannot stress enough how wonderful beet pulp is as an equine feed. The two major beet pulp brands available in Australia are Micrbeet and Speedibeet.

A few reasons I love beet pulp include:
😍 Beet pulp is considered a ‘super fibre’ because its energy content is much higher than typical hays and only slightly less than those found in grains.
😍 Beet pulp is very high in fermentable fibre and is extremely easy for horses to digest. It’s significantly more digestible than most hays. For example, grass hay is 40-60% digestible (depending on its quality) whereas beet pulp is around 80% digestible.
😍 Due to its high energy/calorie content, beet pulp is ideal for horses that have difficulty maintaining weight.
😍 It’s great for performance horses as it’s slow-release energy. It’s a ‘cool energy’ feed meaning the energy from digesting beet pulp is generated slowly and does not cause a rapid rise in blood glucose like cereal grains do. Therefore it’s also an ideal energy source for horses that can get ‘hot’ on grain
😍 It’s fed soaked and therefore promotes hydration as the horse ingests extra water. Additionally the consumption of fibre can also increase water intake.
😍 It’s perfect for horses with metabolic issues such as Cushing’s and EMS and can be safely fed to thin horses with laminitis as it’s low in sugar and starch.
😍 It’s easy for old horses with dental issues to eat as it turns to mush once soaked.
😍 It’s low in protein and can therefore be fed as a perfect complement to lucerne hay, lupins or copra.
😍 Please note that as good as it is, it's still not going to keep your horse as warm as plain grass hay will!

🌾 Lupins - Considered a legume, lupins are similar to peas or beans. A few reasons I love lupins include:
- They’re grown in Australia!
- They’ve very affordable.
- Lupins are a decent source of protein and also contain fat and fibre.
- They’re highly palatable to most horses
- Because of their low starch and high fibre content, lupins are digested efficiently in the hindgut of the horse through fermentation. They are suitable for many (but not all) horses with metabolic issues or laminitis.

🥥 Copra - Copra is the dried meat or kernel of the coconut, which is the fruit of the coconut palm and is another good feed for weight gain and has some excellent qualities.
- Like lupins, copra is affordable, low in sugar and starch and relatively palatable.
- Copra is high in fat and calories and has a low risk of rancidity.
- Copra is low in sugar and starch so is often suitable for horses with metabolic issues that have trouble handling starch and sugar, but it’s important to keep in mind that the high fat content means more energy so it’s only for horses that need to gain weight!
- Copra is high in fibre, estimations for actual digestible energy content of copra put it in the same energy range as beet pulp or soy hulls.
- Because copra is typically a powder, it is however, quite difficult to get horses to consume large amounts of it.
- Copra does have a lot of crude protein, but the protein isn’t of a particularly high quality. Copra does not contain a balanced complement of essential amino acids, as it is relatively poor in lysine, the amino acid essential for growth and for support of the immune system.
- Copra tends to be high in phosphorus and low in calcium, and this imbalance can be a problem when fed in large amounts however if you’re feeding copra with lucerne hay this will balance quite well.

🥛Soybean hulls (Brands include Maxisoy and Benchmark) - Soybean hulls are similar to beet pulp in that they need to be soaked prior to feeding and swell to become and mash.
- Soybean hulls are also a ‘super fibre’, low in sugar and starch, are relatively palatable, affordable and higher in crude protein than beet pulp so not as good a compliment for horses that are also getting lupins, ‘premium’ grass hay that is likely to be higher in protein or lucerne hay which is relatively high in protein. They are excellent however for horses who are not getting fed anything else that’s high in protein. Many horses will have a preference for either soy hulls or beet pulp when it comes to taste.

So as you can see there are lots of good options for feeding horses over winter that are low in sugar and starch, easy on the wallet and great for maintaining or putting on weight.

Please remember that your horse also needs a good mineral supplement (such as Performance Plus, Essentials or Lucerne Lovers) to balance these feeds, salt for hydration, to maintain fluid balance and to keep him drinking over winter when the water is cold and if you’re feeding a predominantly hay-based diet some flaxseeds or chia seeds will help your horse to get its omega 3 fatty acid requirements.

And remember, if your horse is overweight going into winter this is your opportunity to help them lose some weight in a natural way. I encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity as it won't come around for another year!

31/05/2022

BRRR... with all this winter weather coming our way, our first thoughts are often to rugging our beloved ponies!

There is an old saying that a rug equals a feed - whilst there is some truth in this it is more beneficial for your horse to get that extra feed, rather than the extra rug.

More fibre not only keeps your horse warm, but keeps his digestive tract functioning as it should, which provides so many more benefits!

Rugging on the other hand, is much less often necessary than we might think, and may cause overheating. Horses are able to tolerate temperatures down to 5C without using any extra energy. Of course individuals will vary, according to the climate they are accustomed to, and wind and rain factors play a significant role in the temperatures horses are comfortable in.

Older horses and those who are underweight also need different consideration - while some use cold temperatures to try and get weight off the porkier of our equine friends!

Here's a paper I wrote on the subject for my Masters which also contains a small experiment we conducted. (NB: NOT a peer reviewed study, for educational purposes only!) https://www.integralequine.com.au/thermoregulation-in-horses.html

25/05/2022

Fun fact!

Horses consume approximately 2% of their bodyweight in dry feed per day. For a 500kg horse this equates to around 10kg of hay (hay is 90% dry matter) - around half a bale of hay, pretty easy to visualise.

But what about grass? Grass can be up to 80% water - so they actually need to consume a much bigger amount of fresh grass to make up that 10kg of dry feed - somewhere around 60-70kg! It's quite hard to understand how much grass they consume nibbling away all day 🤨

Another way to think about it, is to compare a biscuit of hay, that weighs around 2kg, to how long it would take for a horse to eat the equivalent amount of dry matter of fresh grass. Lucky for us, how much grass horses consume per hour has actually been worked out - and it would take 2-4 hours for a horse to consume the equivalent of 2kg dry feed on fresh grazing.

What's even more interesting, is that horses will graze more quickly the less time they have (no surprise to owners of ponies I'm sure!) - so if they get no turnout, they will consume the 2kg in 2 hours, but if they were out all day, it would be closer to 4 hours 🤓