Deb Cook Hoofcare Practitioner

25/03/2025

The classic summer mix of rain, warm temperatures and plenty of sunshine can quickly cause a pasture flurry in the matter of just a few days! So, it is very important after such spells, that we take extra care and vigilance on our horses who are more vulnerable to high sugar diets ☀️

Did you know that the actual time of day can have an effect on pasture sugar levels?

As light intensity increases, so does a plants photosynthetic rate, which produces sugars, right up until several hours after sunset. It often isn't until the depths of the night that the plant has processed its photosynthetic goods, and returned to its baseline level, ready for the next day of sunlight. This means that the early morning period can be the most favourable time for low sugar grazing.

If you have concerns about your ponies consumption, sugar levels or nutrition, you can reach out to our team at [email protected]

03/03/2025

Cyclone Preparation

Here on the east coast of Australia we are being inundated with warnings about the impending landfall of Cyclone Alfred.

When It comes to our farms and horses, there are a few things we can do to be prepared, and I thought I would share with you what we are doing here at home.

Firstly, there are many people saying “they always warn us and nothing comes of it”. This might be true, but in this case the cyclone is very real, sitting off the coast and all models show it making land, the question is not if but rather where and when. So my first bit of advice is to take early action - at best it will be a great exercise in testing your emergency plan. They didn’t do fire drills at school for nothing - its great to practice these things.

This is what we have done and will be doing over the next couple of days around our place;

Horses

High Ground. Nows the time to move your horses to flood free areas.

Know what happens in your paddock - back in 2009 our horses were caught in a terrible flood, we were lucky that we didn’t lose any although we came very close. Our paddock at the time had high ground, but the creek running through the middle rose first, pushing them towards the boundary creek rather than up the hill, this is how they were caught. Our paddock now when the creek rises pushes them up to higher ground.

Hay. In wet weather grass is waterlogged and horses are often isolated to high patches which rapidly become overeaten. Rain and wind cause your horse to use more energy to stay warm, and hay is the best thing to help them keep their warmth up. We have stocked up on hay so we can feed out multiple times a day in the worst of it.

Salt. In poor weather horses can tend to not drink enough, you can keep the salt up to encourage drinking.

Fresh water. With all the water around we sometimes forget that it can be contaminated and non palatable, make sure your horses have access to clean, fresh water at all times.

Feet. Water brings bacteria, now is the time to make sure your horses trims are up to date, and I also treated my horses feet with a beeswax and bluestone mix in any cracks. This will help to resist mud and bacteria settling into these areas.

Rugs. The horses we have in small paddocks that are flood free will be rugged with a canvas rug to help them remain warm due to having limited access to move around and seek shelter and warmth with the herd. Our herd horses will remain rug free - rugs can become entangled with debris, can be waterlogged or at worst, can catch on something and tether your horse in a dangerous spot. Note these horses have plenty of high ground in this paddock, and water pushes them up onto it. They are not at risk, but I still won’t take the risk of them having rugs on in stormy weather.

Zinc. I have put zinc on our pinked nose horses to form a barrier against bacteria and being wet for days on end, pink skin is so sensitive, this will offer some kind of protection.

First Aid kit - make sure you have a stocked first aid kit in case your horse does injure themselves and you are unable to get a vet in for a few days.

House

Power. Be prepared for the power to go out, pull out your candles and torches and put somewhere handy, along with checking the batteries. Freeze some large containers of water to help keep your fridge and freezer cool in case the power is out, and have supplies of water and food for at least a few days, along with cooking facilities that don't require power.

Supplies. If you are likely to be flooded in, make sure you have essentials like pet foods and medications for a few days.

Batteries - charge anything with a battery - laptops, phones, iPads, torches.

Fireplace. If you are fortunate to have a fireplace, bring some dry wood in as you may want to light it to dry everything out!

First Aid - don't forget to stock up on the human first aid kit too!

Yard / Paddock prep

Cyclones come with big winds - secure anything you don't want to lose, or anything that can become dangerous (which is everything!) - remember winds are so strong, so even things you think are quite heavy may need to be secured down. If you have time cut overhanging branches from fencelines.

Horse trailer - make sure you shut the windows and vents - Your welcome!

Cars, trailers, caravans. Don’t park under trees or near rising waters. Make sure cars have fuel - especially those that are capable of going through water.

There are many other checklists circulating the internet, some far more comprehensive than these, preparation is key.

Stay safe everyone, leave any more tips in the comments.

T x

Photo from 2009, Phil and the ever reliable Alby, swimming Rosie and Squizzy out of floodwater.-

17/02/2025

We’re halfway through February, which means it is nearly March, which means it is almost “autumn”, which means it's time for this annual post, to catch you all before you drench your horses on the 1st of March.

Mid - late autumn is the No. 1 time of year to worm your horses, because it ties in best with breaking the bot-fly life cycle. A bot fly’s lifecycle is 12 months, so treating just once a year will break that lifecycle (and overtime decrease bot fly populations). By mid-autumn/early winter, the entire population of bot flies will be inside your horse, which means you can target all the bots on your property with a single dosage of a boticide dewormer (ivermectin, abamectin, moxidectin).

If you deworm your horses too early in autumn, you will not be targeting all the bot flies as they are often present well into autumn, laying eggs on your horses coat. If you deworm on the 1st of March, there will be bot flies, and subsequently bot eggs and larvae that come after the treatment and will remain within your horse for the year.

Therefore, hold off on the autumn deworming a little longer, if your horses are in good condition. Wait until the nights cool down and the bot flies disappear before deworming – and make sure that the dewormer you purchase is active against bots, otherwise it will all be in vain. If your horses need to be treated now, do so, but make sure you target bot flies again in early winter. The “first frost” method simply means it is cold enough that the bots will be finished. Australia frosts are not cold enough to actually kill any worms in the ground – these need consistent days of below zero temperatures (think Northern European/American winters)

So that’s my bot-fly spiel. Normally I write about strongyles (my favourite), and so I shall of course make a mention of them here too.
I always recommend a mid-late autumn deworming for ALL HORSES because it a) cleans out any bots and b) all horses really should have a strongyle clean out once a year as well. I may be against deworming for the sake of deworming, however that is only if you are doing it 3 or 4 or more times a year.

Strongyles can have a lifecycle of as little as 6 weeks. In addition, at any one point, about 90% of the strongyle population is living on the pasture, not in the horse. Therefore, the concept of using chemical dewormers inside the horse to break the lifecycle of strongyles would not work. At all. So, we chose our annual deworming-clean-out to line up with as many other parasites as possible.

All boticide dewormers are also effective against strongyles so deworming in autumn is a 2 for 1 type deal. You should also consider using a dewormer that also contains praziquantel to treat for tapeworms to get a complete clean out, just in case tapeworms are present. WormCheck does offer a tapeworm specific FEC now, if you wanted to check beforehand to avoid the overuse of praziquantel. (There have been some scary reports of praziquantel resistance in Europe.)

Lastly… wait, second lastly.. this is a topic too complex to get into here, but: this time of year is key for larval cyathostomins, where encysted larvae have mass emergences from the intestine wall, in response to changes in weather (e.g. in VIC as it cools and becomes wetter again). Deworming and removing adult populations of worms can act as a trigger for larval re-emergence, which is also why I often baulk at deworming horses now. The larvae may slowly re-emerge coming into the cooler weather and treating in mid-late autumn may be a safer bet to remove adults and emerged larvae. The research on this is sketchy as best, however these are patterns shown in cattle and hypothetically should translate over into horses.

And lastly (pat on the back for reading this far): just because I’m recommending deworming all horses does not mean I am not recommending FECs in autumn. A FEC will tell you important things about your horses health, and pick up anything odd that may be happening (e.g. a spike in EPG in a horse that is usually a low shedder; this is a sign of an impaired immune system, e.g. EMS, cushings). Doing an autumn FEC will also allow you to test drug efficacy. Autumn should be a key time for everyone to do a FECRT (faecal egg count reduction test), where you get FECs done before and after deworming to make sure that it worked. If you only deworm once a year, then you’ve only got one chance for a FECRT, and you cannot, I repeat, you CANNOT do a FECRT without a FEC before to compare to.

If you’d like to organise FECs and FECRTs for your horses this autumn, check out the website (link on the FB page) for postal submission and drop off points/events.

11/01/2025

Had an amazing day today assembling an entire horse skeleton with Maggie Ashley from evolution equine services. It was amazing piecing together the puzzle of their lives and learning about all the things the bones teach us. Our poor TB had kissing spine in wither and lumbar spine, bone cysts, joint changes in stifle and elbows, demineralised pedal bones with bone loss and side bone. And his poor teeth so damaged from EORTH. Very cool to get hands on with all these conditions.

24/12/2024

Merry Christmas to all my lovely clients.🎄🎄Thankyou for a great year working with all your lovely horses. feeling very privileged to share your journeys with you. Looking forward to another incredible year of trimming in 2025. Photo credit Flash Pony.

 Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 🥳

29/05/2024

I now have the ability to fit flex boots, aswell as scoot boots. I’m loving the flex boots on my new horse Sparrow. They are great for horses that need a little extra protection over rocky trails.

17/04/2024

24/03/2024

Had a great weekend in nimbin furthering my education and improving my skills in hoof mapping and trimming with the team from International school of integrative hoofcare.

22/01/2024

***ANSWERS TO THE TOP THIRTY MOST COMMON NUTRITION AND WORMING QUESTIONS***

I updated and added to this every year for a while, but I haven’t done that for a few years now! I’ve added to the list with some info about grass and pasture specifically as I’m finding that these are the things that horse owners struggle to understand the most.

1. If there isn’t adequate pasture, your horse needs hay. 1.5%-2.5% of its body weight per day. It’s all well and good getting what’s in the bucket right, but roughage is the key to a healthy gastrointestinal system and without a healthy gut you just can’t have a healthy horse! A lack of roughage can lead to colic, ulcers, a lack of condition and a whole range of other issues. In fact, even if you do have adequate pasture, chances are your horse will still benefit from some hay.

2. From an owner's perspective, the most difficult part of equine nutrition is understanding grass. Balancing the diet is relatively easy, but unless you understand pasture and its effects on individual horses then you’re going to struggle. Start your ‘learning about pasture’ journey now or get in touch with someone that can help you.

3. The sugar and starch in grass isn’t constant! If you’re having grass issues then the safest time to let your horse onto pasture is just before the sun rises as the grass has used up its sugars to grow overnight. Sugars are highest in the late afternoon just before the sun goes down. This makes the safest times to graze are between about 4am and 9/10am. Obviously you’re unlikely to wake up in the middle of the night to put the horse out, but letting your horse out for a few hours between waking up and going to work/lunch is a good start. *Note that if the temperature at night drops to below 5C this will cause the grass to 'shut down' and store/accumulate sugars. So if this is the case your horse shouldn’t be allowed onto grass for that day.

4. Plan ahead for all grass-related issues. Don’t wait until the spring grass has sprung, get sorted early. If your horse is affected by grass then it’s much easier to prevent the problem then it is to fix the problem. Like with all things horse (and life), prevention is better than cure!

5. Feeding your horses a VARIETY of roughages is beneficial. Every webinar about horse nutrition I have listened to lately has suggested that variety helps the gut to be healthy, and a healthy gut leads to a horse with less behavioural issues.

6. Further to the above; The brain and the gut are closely related, Google ‘gut-brain axis’ and enjoy your trip down the rabbit hole.

7. Horses are designed to graze and browse, this means that always feeding them at the same height isn’t mimicking their natural environment. Mix it up a bit and think about how this might assist with some ‘passive physio’.

8. Magnesium is not the answer to all your issues. Neither is turmeric.

9. Get creative with your paddocks. Use temporary fencing to restrict intake and keep horses on more mature grasses and reduce how they selectively graze. Incorporate a track system, use slow feeder nets, you can also add logs and natural obstacles to help your horse’s body and brain.

10. Lucerne isn’t high in sugar. Rye/clover, oaten and wheaten hay probably is. Teff, Rhodes and native hays are likely to be lower in sugar than ryegrass-based hays (often called pasture/meadow) and cereal hays, but unless it’s tested you can’t know for sure. I’ve seen high sugar Teff and low sugar oaten, so testing is the only way to know.

11. Your horse is very unlikely to be getting all it needs from grass/hay (no matter how good it looks). It very likely needs at least copper, zinc and selenium and also probably iodine, sodium and chloride. Find a supplement that contains AT least the first three/four and salt will replace sodium and chloride.

12. Mineral blocks are mostly salt and molasses - they do not and cannot replace the minerals your horse needs (i.e. the ones missing from grass and/or hay). None of them. Even the good ones. Your horse would have to lick for Australia to get what it needs.

13. Your horse probably needs salt added to its diet, almost certainly if it's in a lot of work and it's summer. A salt lick may be okay if your horse isn’t in very much work. If it’s in work and the weather is hot you should probably be feeding at least a tablespoon a day. Horses need electrolytes in winter too. Pool salt is probably fine in most instances, but it’s not food grade. Many horses prefer fine salt, but some find coarse perfectly acceptable.

14. Your horse doesn’t need any more iron. There’s plenty in everything they eat. Don’t buy a supplement with added iron in it.

15. Soy isn’t evil, but if you’re not keen on it, feed something else. Some horses don’t do well on soy, but some cope just fine. H**p meal is a great alternative to soy.

16. To put weight on your horse, first feed more hay. If you’re still struggling add lucerne hay. If you’re still struggling then you can try beet pulp, soaked cracked lupins, copra or soy hulls. If you can afford it, add up to 150ml of food grade flaxseed oil as well (not the furniture one, that one is for furniture). If you can’t afford 150ml of flaxseed oil use ½/ flaxseed oil ½ canola oil to maintain a decent omega 3:6 ratio.

17. Topline is a combination of a good diet containing adequate essential amino acids (such as lysine) and correct work. An under-conditioned horse can’t have good topline. If your horse isn’t getting enough protein and amino acids it can’t build or maintain topline. Beet and grains don’t contain enough protein. If your horse is in pain or has a poorly fitting saddle it’s also not going to be able to build good topline. If your horse isn’t moving well biomechanically it’s not going to be able to build good topline either. It’s not always the diet.

18. Ulcers are tricky. If you can afford it, have your horse scoped, it’s the only way to know for sure and it’s cheaper than omeprazole. If you really can't afford it then first get your diet right, provide enough roughage, reduce stress. Stop any grain and processed stuff. Try an over-the-counter product. If that doesn’t work try a vet prescribed omeprazole product. If that doesn’t have any effect your horse either doesn’t have ulcers or you need to scope.

19. There’s research to support that getting the omega 3:6 ratio in the diet right is important. This means it’s very likely that feeding flax or chia or h**p oil is a good idea. You also get a free shiny coat for your efforts! No other vegetarian oil besides flaxseed, chia seed or h**p oils (h**p is a little different, but still a great option) has the right ratio of omega 3 to 6 and may promote inflammatory conditions.

20. ‘Complete feed’ in MANY instances just isn’t that good, claims of ‘low GI’, ‘cool/calm conditioning’ and ‘laminitis friendly’ is mostly just marketing. Some of them are okay, but some are little more than expensive chaff. Yes, some people get good results sometimes, but doing some research and doing it yourself in most instances will get you better results, will be more affordable and give you more control over your horse’s intake.

21. If you’re looking to reduce your feed bill (because horses = poverty) then think outside the box. Net your hay (it lasts a lot longer), buy rounds and put it in nets, consider if your horse really does need that super expensive gut supplement ongoing (maybe it does, but maybe it doesn’t) and make sure your diet is balanced. If your horse isn’t getting minimum protein requirements then it’s going to struggle regardless of what else you’re feeding.

22. If your horse is overweight DO NOT rug in winter. This is your opportunity to reduce weight before spring comes and provides excessive sugary goodness to make your horse fat and footsore. If you have a normal-keeper then you may need to provide extra hay to keep it warm in winter. If you have a hard keeper you probably need a rug and more hay.

23. If your pony/horse has laminitis, lock it up completely off grass and feed actual tested low sugar hay at 1.5%-2% of its body weight per day. If you don’t have access to this hay, soak your hay for 30 minutes in warm or 60 minutes in cold water. This will also leach minerals so make sure you’re feeding a good quality mineral mix and salt. If it’s laminitic and thin see point 16 (noting that each horse is different and some won’t tolerate some feeds).

24. If you’re going to lock a horse up, you MUST feed it hay (see point 1). Slow Feeder nets are godsends for fat, greedy, bored ponies, so is exercise. Exercise will actually stimulate the insulin response AND cause weight loss. Diet alone can't do this.

25. If your horse is prone to laminitis it more than likely has an endocrine issue (Cushing's or Equine Metabolic Syndrome (EMS)). Cushing’s and EMS are on a spectrum. If you’re spending the money on pergolide/prascend spend the money on asking a qualified nutritionist for a diet that’s specifically tailored for your horse and its needs. If your horse has an endocrine condition then diet MUST play a major part of the management strategy. An individual diet plan can be created for less than the price of a fancy saddle blanket.

26. If your horse has an endocrine issue then you must have a plan for spring/autumn grass and put it in place BEFOREHAND. It can reap a huge amount of damage in a very short space of time.

25. Many horses can't gain weight if they're in pain, under a lot of stress or have issues with their teeth, feet, saddle, stress. Good horse health always requires a multi-pronged approach.

26. Just because you don’t see parasites in your horse’s poo doesn’t mean it doesn’t have worms. Just because your horse looks fine doesn’t mean it doesn’t have worms. Just because it looks terrible, doesn’t mean it does have worms. 20% of horses carry 80% of worms. There are excellent odds your horse doesn’t need worming more than once or twice a year.

27. Dentists aren't farriers, bodyworkers aren't dentists and vets aren't nutritionists. Do you expect your GP to operate on you or manipulate your spine?

28. Worming is easy (promise!). Equest once a year after the first frost and do faecal egg counts in between (every 8-10 weeks unless you just wormed with Equest (moxidectin/praziquantel) and then you can wait 14-16 weeks). Rotational worming every 8-10 weeks is completely outdated; even pharmaceutical companies agree. If your vet doesn’t, find a new vet.

29. Pinworm often needs addressing from the inside (with a wormer) and the from the outside (diluted neem oil and/or vaseline spread around the a**s for several days each afternoon prior to and after worming). This is because adults lay eggs outside the a**s at night and crawl back in in the morning. Yep, gross.

30. Random people on the internet do not know what to feed your horse! Everyone has an opinion, but that doesn’t mean they’re right. Chopping and changing your horse’s diet based on what someone on Facebook says isn’t the answer. If you want your diet to be specifically tailored, or you have a problem that can’t be solved by the above, contact a qualified and independent nutritionist. Getting a diet made up by a feed company for free is great, but do you think they are going to recommend products other than their own?