Bare Care Barefoot Trimming

24/04/2025

23/04/2025

20/04/2025

🌾 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗧𝗼 𝗗𝗼 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗛𝗮𝘆 𝗜𝘀 𝗛𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗧𝗼 𝗦𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲

🐴 I'd like to preface this by saying that I am a huge advocate of hay being a superior and stand-alone roughage source for horses. It provides so many benefits; from supporting psychological health and calming behaviours, to increasing saliva production via mastication, to minimising the risk of gastric ulcers, sand burdens, and colic - If pasture isn't available or sufficient, hay is undeniably the best forage replacement you can offer your horse.

🌱 So with that out of the way, what should we as owners of horses be doing if they do not have access to sufficient pasture and we cannot source enough hay to offer them as an alternative?

• Look for alternative hay types that may be available. If you cannot source your usual grass hay, it is okay to consider cereal hays like oaten *if* your horse does not have any diagnosed health concerns such as a predisposition to ulcers or hindgut acidosis, laminitis, insulin dysregulation etc. While I am not the biggest fan of cereal hay crops for a lot of horses due to their often high non-structural carbohydrate content, the bottom line is that any hay is better than none at all if there is nothing else to graze on.

• If you can only obtain small quantities of hay, do not put it all out at once and expect your horse to know how to ration it out. It may take up more of your time, but putting out portioned piles or nets of hay so you can manage how much your horse eats is a highly effective way of making it last longer. Implementing slow-feeder style hay nets or grazing pods is another very useful way of managing how quickly a horse can polish off their hay.

• Know how much roughage your horse actually needs per day, weigh your hay, and only feed them what you have to. Easy-keeping horses in particular don't need ad libitum access to hay, so don't feel obliged to keep them eating constantly if you're really struggling to source hay. Horses need 1.5-2% of their body weight in roughage per day, but they will happily eat 3%+ if allowed to do so. If hay is scarce, I would recommend aiming for 1.5-2% of the horse's body weight in hay (7.5-10kg for a 500kg horse), slow-fed over a 24 hour period.

• Horses shouldn't go longer than around 3-5 hours (maximum) without ingesting food, so use this guideline to time how often you should be feeding out hay if you cannot afford to leave it out ad libitum. The risk of gastric ulcers and colic is significantly increased if horses are deprived of food for prolonged periods of time, so please make sure they aren't spending more than a few hours on an empty stomach at any given time, including overnight.

• If clean straw is available, consider replacing up to 50% of your horse’s forage intake with some straw which will offer relief to your hay stores without compromising on gastrointestinal function. Keep in mind that straw is typically higher in indigestible fibre and lower in nutritive value than hay, so it is important to keep an eye on your horse’s fluid balance (hydration), manure consistency, and body condition score as impactions, dehydration, and weight loss are common symptoms of too much indigestible fibre relevant to digestible fibre in the intake.

• Where hay is just simply not available to purchase, you can start looking at some fibre sources that are somewhat "hay replacements." Feeds like chaff, hay cubes, beet pulp, lupin hulls, and soy hulls are suitable hay alternatives if that is what it comes to. It's important to remember that horses are trickle-feeders, and this means that they are physiologically designed to be intaking roughage at a rather slow rate. The stomach capacity of a horse is quite small and makes up only around 10% of the whole digestive system, so feeding 5kg of chaff in the morning and 5kg of chaff in the evening is not an effective way of managing your horse's roughage requirements. Again, it may take up more of your time, but providing a horse with 3-5 bucket meals that contain lots of fibre per day may just help reduce how much hay you need to feed out in a 24-hour period.

🐎 Feeling overwhelmed? Here are the important bits:

1. 1.5-2% of body weight in roughage per day.

2. No longer than 3-5 hours without food.

3. Small and regular meals rather than large and infrequent ones.

4. Substituting up to 50% of your horse’s forage intake with straw may relieve the pressure of hay restraints without compromising on gastrointestinal function.

5. Don't be hard on yourself if you need to implement different hay types or hay replacements to get you and your horses through.

6. ANY food is better than NO food (for most horses).

Please feel welcome to share. ❤️🌾🐴

18/04/2025

There are 3 forms of laminitis, and as they are quite different it is important that we are clear which form we are talking about.

Most laminitis (around 90%) is HAL - Hyperinsulinemia-Associated Laminitis - due to high levels of insulin in the blood (hyperinsulinemia), usually after eating sugar and starch. The horse or pony will have (or have had) insulin dysregulation (ID). This is the form of laminitis associated with eating lush spring grass, being overweight, not getting much exercise, being a native pony breed...
HAL has previously been called pasture associated laminitis and endocrinopathic laminitis.

HAL is about insulin, not inflammation - the high concentrations of insulin in the blood act on IGF1 receptors in the feet causing the lamellae to stretch and become dysregulated and weak, which can lead to the pedal bone becoming misaligned with the hoof capsule under the horse's weight/movement. Treatment/management involves bringing insulin levels down quickly by keeping the sugar and starch content of the diet low, and (as with all laminitis cases) supporting and realigning the feet. SGLT2 inhibitor drugs are being used to quickly lower insulin in horses with acute laminitis, but side effects have been reported and use should be kept to a minimum with blood and clinical signs closely monitored.

Note that corticosteroid medications can cause insulin dysregulation and have been used to induce hyperinsulinemia-associated laminitis (Pinnell et al 2023).

The other 10% or so of laminitis cases are either
SRL - sepsis related laminitis, or
SLL - supporting limb laminitis.

Sepsis related laminitis SRL is the inflammatory form of laminitis (that we pretty much thought all laminitis was until it was discovered (only around 15 years ago) that insulin causes most laminitis). SRL develops in horses that are already seriously ill, e.g. with colitis/acute diarrhoea, or infection due to retaining placenta after foaling, and it has been experimentally induced by giving horses huge amounts of starch or oligofructose. Damage in the feet is often sudden and serious, with complete separation of the basement membrane/breakdown of the suspensory apparatus. This form of laminitis has been halted in clinics by continuous cooling of the feet (cryotherapy), and horses with inflammatory illness/SIRS being treated in clinics will often have their feet cooled as a precaution before any clinical signs of laminitis are seen. As well as cryotherapy, the primary disease must be treated, and anti-inflammatory treatment given.

Supporting limb laminitis SLL is very rare and mostly seen in clinics when horses are being treated for fractures or significant leg injuries/infections. Laminitis develops in the leg(s) that are supporting the horse, not so much because the supporting leg(s) are taking more weight than normal, but because reduced movement (reduced limb load cycling) of the supporting leg(s) reduces perfusion of blood in the foot/feet and this damages the lamellae. This is the laminitis of reduced blood flow/ischemia. Research is ongoing into how SLL can be prevented and treated, focusing on how to increase limb load cycling (lifting the supporting foot/feet off the ground) and blood perfusion.

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The Laminitis Site rescues, cares for and rehabilitates horses and ponies with laminitis, and provides information and support for owners of horses with laminitis (and navicular), EMS and PPID all over the world.
Please consider supporting the work of The Laminitis Site: www.thelaminitissite.org/donate.html
For more information and support, join Friends of The Laminitis Site (£12 annual donation payable): www.thelaminitissite.org/join-friends-of-tls.html

18/04/2025

18/04/2025

18/04/2025

Big dog in his Renegade Hoof Boots

15/04/2025

Amazing work on a setup rehab trim from ACEHP Carly Sutherland

12/04/2025

🚫 It's never "just a crack" - it's a playground for pathogens.
🦠A warm, moist environment with some lovely laminar to chow down on and degrade
🐴 Seedy Toe is an opportunistic bacteria and will invade any small deviation in the hoof wall or laminar line
🌦️Hooves in wet conditions are more susceptible due to the softening of the hoof, however
🌵Hooves in dry conditions are not immune.
➡️Check your horses hooves for any signs of deviation or ⚫ black areas in the laminar line
🎯Use targeted prevention and management
⛔Hoof care isn't always "pretty", but pretty doesn't equal proactive when it comes to dealing with Seedy Toe🔵
➡️Find your Handy Hoof Care articles and information here: www.thehoofco.com.au

12/04/2025

Biotin, often mentioned as the "golden goose" for healthy hooves. Did you know that Biotin is actually a B-vitamin and not a mineral? It's produced by gut microorganisms and can be found in fresh grass (forage is king!). If your horse is on a pasture-based diet, a deficiency is uncommon, meaning supplementation might not always be necessary.

Remember, hoof care professionals can't work miracles on nutrient-poor hooves. If your horse is struggling with poor-quality hooves, it’s important to look at the bigger picture. Start with a discussion with your hoof care professional and a review of your horse's diet to make sure they are getting the essential nutrients they need.

12/04/2025

I love this post from Outrun Acres . I've always thought of it as a bit of ratio. More soft tissue : less heel height. For rehabbing hooves most of the time hood quality soft tissue isn't there so : more heel height for comfort.

11/04/2025

Half round (crescent) nippers have been a godsend this year with how dry it's been!

09/04/2025