Fit For A Queenie

20/06/2026

Maisie is known as 'Magic Maisie' among many of my clients. I always recommend her services to clients who have horses that are struggling, but in actual fact, physio can help your horse before they are obviously struggling, and a regular check-up is a great idea.

Let’s help your pony climb muddy mountains and conquer new heights!

I have Physiotherapy spaces (all animal species) around Newton Abbot!
- carefully tailored rehab plans
- where appropriate use of ultrasound, PEMF therapy & red light therapy
- craniosacral & myofascial release techniques
- a strong background in massage
- Equine (and chicken 🐓 ) behaviour consultant and overall animal behaviour geek, so you know that their mind is being considered as well as their body 😎

20/06/2026

It's all about balance. The internet is full of trimmers a d farriers banging on about hoof balance, and while that's important, it's not why I've posted a photo of my shelter corner upright! If you look at the top of the post you can see I've attached a ring. This ring is for haynets. WHAAAT?! I hear the great and good of Facebook flexing their fingers ready to unleash a tirade about feeding hay from a low position. Yep. I normally do that, but when I am trimming I want the horse to feel balanced on three feet while I have hoof number four in the air. When I'm trimming the back feet, the hay goes on the low ring to transfer the weight into the front end of the horse. When I'm trimming the front feet on the hoof stand (aka flare reduction), the hay goes on the top ring. The horse stretches up, weight goes into the hind end and the horse isn't falling off the hoof stand. Much more stable for the horse, much less stressful for all involved, and therefore much safer and easier for me.
Helping the horse to transfer their weight so they can stand more comfortably for hoof care is something I wish I'd known when I was using a farrier. It can really help you get through a trim (and presumably a shoeing too). Have a chat with your hoof care professional to see how you can help the horse balance better for hoof care - they will be really glad you did!

04/06/2026

TRIGGER WARNING

I often have conversations about euthanasia with my clients. I share my experiences because I think that having an idea about what happens on the day is important. I really hope you don't need this information anytime soon, but if you do, Andrew is extremely good.

A subject most don`t want to think about but its always best to plan, just in case. one of those jobs that needs doing right, which we always try to do and take the required time, not only for the horse but for the owner and the other horses left behind, Welfare always should have priority over time/money. But as a small business i am dependant on word of mouth so if you know of any one or any group that need my services please share.
I will answer any questions if i can even if its questions for the distant future or just in case.

02/06/2026

And another great post by Footloose Barefoot Hooves!

Seasonal changes and regional differences!

At this time of year (ie when we've just had a dry spell in Scotland) I am regularly reminded of regional differences in hooves.
All of a sudden, Scottish hooves start looking more like their southern counterparts. Frogs aren't mushy and sad anymore. Digital cushions wake up. Palmar angles change.
And when we return to softer and wetter ground we sadly lose the improvements.

I don't mean to be negative or shatter all your hopes, guys. But I think it's important to understand what seasons and climate does to hooves and that expectations may need to be different.

I will never forget shadowing an English EP a couple of years back and me and my fellow Scottish EP broke out in (mildly manic) laughter when palpating a digital cushion - we simply do not get DC's like we felt there in Scotland.
(I wrote an article about Scottish frogs a couple of years back; I will repost it alongside this one)

Here is a comparison from a fantastic book, Monique Craig's A Modern Look At the Hoof. It is a great example of how changeable the hoof is in different environments.

Should we stop aiming for the perfect hoof, the perfect angles, the best version of them? Absolutely not.
But we should also be aware that environment plays a big part in what is possible, and we simply cannot look at the hoof in an isolated way.

02/06/2026

Excellent post by Footloose Barefoot Hooves!

Leading on from my previous post, I’d like to go a bit deeper in on the subject.
So, the wider implications of these sad frogs…. let’s take a step back for a second.

I have previously noticed a north-south difference between hooves up in the North of Scotland, to what I see myself in central Scotland, to feet in England (the feet I’ve seen in Germany, yet further down south, are a completely different ballgame).

Frogs and digital cushion strength goes hand in hand. Small frogs that aren’t in ground contact, can’t help stimulate the digital cushions, and often those frogs hurt enough for the horse to avoid landing on them/heel first, which also doesn’t promote a healthy digital cushion. Digital cushions that never receive stimulation on hard grounds, will also not develop in the same way that feet that spend at least some of their time on hard ground.

See where I am going? Often, digital cushions deteriorate in winter, when the ground is soft and there isn’t as much stimulation from firm ground. When the ground dries up in summer, and also when the horses get ridden more on firm grounds, they pop back up again. I’ve seen it time and time again that a dry spell with hard ground has really brought on those feet.

Now in Scotland, the ground is never really firm for long. The further north you go, it is even less so. And this summer, the ground in Central Scotland has basically been what my colleagues up north experience year after year. How jealous me and my Scottish colleague were recently when we got a chance to palpate digital cushions down in England!

Where does that leave our horses when we try to develop good digital cushions? In the last article I’ve already mentioned some points with regards to frog health.

Now think of the digital cushion as a muscle.
Your field is the couch.
Standing on hardstanding is like standing at the bus stop.
Moving comfortably and biomechanically correctly over hard grounds (booted if needed to encourage both of these) is like going to the gym.
Going there once every Saturday morning won’t give you the desired physique, but going there 3-4x/week will help you get there.

Makes sense? Now let’s build some healthy digital cushions!

28/05/2026

Brilliant practice hoof stand made by Lucas Barribal at Munchkins Miniature Shetland Rescue !! It's so important to practice hoof handling and many people forget about bringing the foot forward for the hoof stand!

27/04/2026

Members of the Equine Podiatry Association are required to undertake a minimum of 40 hours a year CPD training. Today 14 EPs and Equine Podiatry Training students, Maisie Maria MacDonald and my mate Beth Mannings got together for a leg dissection day. The legs were kindly donated by a client and we learnt a lot. One of the EPT students found a whole pony skeleton on Dartmoor and after receiving permission from the Dartmoor powers-that-be collected the bones and brought them along.
Here are a few of the less gruesome photos!

20/04/2026

Great post by Remke Cool here if you're thinking about sowing grass!

31/03/2026

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside... at the Emotional wellbeing in animals conference in Torquay!