Alba Equine Podiatry

29/07/2025

Thanks for highlighting this Lindsay 😊🐴

**Veterinary surgeons, farriers and paraprofessionals**

I wanted to take a moment to think about how we as horse owners can help keep us vets, farriers and fellow para-professionals (physiotherapists, chiropractors, foot trimmers) safe when we visit.

It’s really important to let us all know if your horse is likely to bite or kick, or if you even just think it might on that particular day.

We all have challenging jobs and it can be made really dangerous, really quickly.

I have experienced numerous situations recently whereby I have found myself in a potentially dangerous situation. I've simply been lucky not to be seriously injured. And I've spoke to numerous farriers who have experienced similar situations. If any of us get kicked, we could potentially be laid up and unable to attend to your horse, and out of work, for a considerable period of time.

We are already seeing a shortage of farriers, so we must ensure we are looking after them!

I think it’s important to understand “why” your horse might be behaving like this. It’s highly likely that your horse is in pain, or is fearful, or perhaps both. If this resonates with you just speak to us.

Lets try to protect our wonderful veterinary paraprofessionals.
And let’s listen to our horses.

13/05/2025

Well worth reading 👌 By using the term 'lami' we downplay the severity of such an excruciating condition.
And I'm delighted that Dani has acknowledged the important role of Equine Podiatrists 🐴

27/04/2025

Last week I had a wee accident - not horse related! Stupidly, I managed to get my finger jammed in the van door. It wasn't just "ouch", it was gut-clenching, pain shooting up the arm kind of "OUCH!!!!!" 😫
Why am I putting this on my work page? Because the pain in my finger has made me think about horses with hoof pain even more than I already do.

Moral of the story -
Don't jam your fingers in the van door🚗
But if you do...
Arnica is brilliant for bruising ✅
Gently wrapping the wound improves comfort but if the 'support' is even slightly tighter it increases the pain and throbbing 😵
If my nail catches on anything it really HURTS so shortening the nail helps a lot (photo=too long so needing trimmed again!)💅
Thankfully I've been able to work, but not using that finger - that one is off duty until it heals a bit more 🤛

Take home messages -
Prevention is better than cure 😉
Appropriate treatment early on really helps 🧑‍⚕️
Constriction of the sore area increases pain 🥴
Leverage on the nail HURTS, correct regular trimming helps ✂️
Return to full activity has to be appropriate to stage of healing 👉

Horsey people, if you know you know.... 😉 (especially if you've ever had to deal with laminitics) 🐎

16/04/2025

We've been enjoying some beautiful weather recently and I hope you've been able to spend some time out with your horses 🐎 but rain is forecast so expect the grass to come shooting up 🌱 Please manage your horses carefully and restrict grazing if necessary. Be extra vigilant for laminitis warning signs!! How is the horse standing? ..moving? how are the digital pulses? Even 'mild' laminitis can do damage to the feet which can take time to grow out. Prevention is better than cure! If you're concerned contact your vet 🐴

05/06/2024

Calling all my horsey contacts! Can you please complete this survey re hoofcare? It’s relevant to anyone with horses, ponies, donkeys, mules (even zebras!) Thanks 😁🐴🦓
PS, if you're one of my clients I'm in the 45-55 category (admit it, you thought I was much older😂)

❓ Do you have five minutes to help The British Horse Society?

📝 We all know how vital regular hoof care is to our horses, ponies, donkeys and mules. To futureproof this care, The BHS needs your help to assess the availability of qualified farriers in the UK and the Republic of Ireland via this quick survey 🔗 forms.office.com/e/QjLDuMJqk3

🐴 If you’re over 18, they’d love to hear about your routine hoof care and your experiences when accessing farriery and hoof care provider services for the animals in your care.

🤝 Your insight will allow the BHS to work in partnership with other equine welfare charities, and the industry, to make access to the farriery profession easier so that, together, we can futureproof horse care in the UK.

24/05/2024

Nice work Footloose Barefoot Hooves 🐴👍

Would you believe there are only five weeks between these pictures of a laminitis recovery? You can see how quickly that event line is coming down.
Also keeping that breakover in the right place for this pony, heels in a more comfortable place, while leaving him enough hoof to stand on.

21/05/2024

Laminitis warning ⚠️
Long hours of daylight at this time of year, a spell of good weather, then turning to rain = the perfect conditions for tipping borderline laminitics into real problems 😬🐴 Please be extra careful with laminitis prone horses ⚠️🐴
Even those who might not typically be thought of as laminitis-prone might find the change in conditions challenging. It's likely we'll get a grass spurt - often that means softer less fibrous grass, full of sugar and with a less-than-perfect mineral balance. Watch out for gurgly tums, wetter droppings than normal, etc. The joys of keeping horses in the north of Scotland 🌞🌧️🐎🙃

22/01/2024

I had the pleasure and privilege of spending some time over the weekend with fellow EPs Sydne Pruonto and Sarah Leggett and student EP Thomas Straw. When hoof geeks get together there's always lots of helpful conversations, ideas shared, advice given and received... It was great to meet some of Sydne's clients and their beautiful horses - many thanks to each of them for making us so welcome 😁 Unfortunately EP Bonny Mealand couldn't join us on this occasion (get well soon Bonny). Looking forward to our next get-together before too long!

24/12/2023

Wishing all my clients a very happy Christmas 🎄🎅 Thank you for having me as part of your horse-care team. It truly is a privilege to work with you all. Enjoy the holidays and I'll see you in 2024 🐎😁

02/10/2023

Well done Tarzan and Simon for helping to conserve Scotland's ancient rainforest. Who says working horses need shoes?! I love their commute to work 🚢

Caledonian pinewood trees have been all but removed from the Pine Forest since the 1960s and replaced with non-native conifers. | ITV National News

26/08/2023

Following the tragic death of one of our co-founders, Jayne Hunt, in early July, EPT has regrouped so as to continue to support both our existing students and the new intake as planned. Our 2023 intake have already received their enrolment packs and are under way with their first assignment!

We are very lucky to be able to draw on the huge experience and good will of the members of the Equine Podiatry Association (most of whom qualified through our course over the years) to step into Jayne's role. A huge amount of work has been going on behind the scenes. Our first priority was, of course, to ensure that our existing students continued to be supported – including running final exams on-time within a few days of Jayne’s death. But we’ve also worked hard to ensure that those already signed up to start in September weren’t disappointed. The new tutors who have joined us in the last few weeks provide safe and capable hands to allow us to continue to deliver the level 5, Lantra-accredited course which Jayne devoted a massive part of her life to.

Over the next few days, we’ll be posting some details of the new tutors who have joined us, but for now we are regrouped, reorganised and ready to roll out the course in memory and honour of the amazing Jayne Hunt.

12/07/2023

All members of the Equine Podiatry Association UK are in shock at the news of Jayne Hunt's death. Jayne was a great friend and true inspiration to many. I was privileged to know her as a wonderfully supportive tutor and colleague. She was a vastly knowledgeable horsewoman with a deep commitment to equine welfare. Her huge contribution to the equine world will ensure that her name is never forgotten. I'll also remember her for her wit and humour as well as her compassion and kindness. She will be greatly missed 💔

Jayne Hunt

The members of the Equine Podiatry Association have been devastated by the sudden passing of our beloved Jayne Hunt in a riding accident on Sunday 9th July.

Jayne has been at the heart of our community since its inception. With her longstanding friend and colleague Richard Vialls, she established the Equine Podiatry training company delivering the Equine Podiatry diploma. In that role she shared her passion, wisdom and warmth with her students. So on Sunday afternoon, in the blink of an eye, our association not only lost our warmest, funniest and most generous member, we also lost our teacher, our mentor and our dear friend. Her favourite answers to our inevitable student questions were ‘it depends’ (to almost any Equine Podiatry question) and ‘it’ll be fine’ (to any set back or problem) and those refrains still echo with us now she’s gone.

We will be forever grateful for her life, and that she had the foresight and bravery to follow her passion for this profession. We’re thankful that she and Richard brought their dream of establishing a professional Equine Podiatry qualification to fruition, when two years ago the Equine Podiatry Training course was accredited by LANTRA as a Level 5 qualification. It is a comfort to us that she achieved this long held ambition before her untimely death.

Living her life as she did, Jayne influenced and changed so many lives for the better: from her clients, we podiatrists, and the horses that bring us all together. We are so thankful for the time we had with her and wish we had had much more, she will be profoundly missed by us all.