Paul Young Farrier, BSc Hons - Farriery Science, Dip HE, RSS

25/09/2025

🐴 MENTAL DEFICITS IN HORSES
A topic I have not yet encountered in the equestrian world, yet I believe it is extremely important to talk about.

In human society, we have defined a wide spectrum of cognitive and intellectual disorders—reduced intelligence, attention disorders, or learning difficulties. We understand that individuals with such diagnoses face certain limitations and (ideally) we adapt to their abilities and provide support.

For some mysterious reason, however, we tend to assume that every horse is born fully functional and ready to perform for humans. In my therapeutic practice, I have worked with horses who showed signs of various mental or cognitive deficits. I have met horses I would certainly place somewhere on the autistic spectrum, as well as horses that displayed clear signs of intellectual disability.

These horses are not to blame for their condition. They are not capable of performing at the same level as their healthy peers. They may struggle with focus, attention, and learning, have difficulties forming social bonds with horses or humans, or be emotionally unstable and unpredictable. This does not mean they are “bad.” They are simply different.

Owners of such horses are often under extreme pressure from their surroundings. They are criticized for not training or disciplining their horse properly, they move from trainer to trainer, trying every possible approach and level of pressure to make the horse behave “normally.” But such a horse will never be “normal.” The only way forward is to accept this reality and offer support.

💡 Not every horse with unusual behavior necessarily suffers from a congenital mental deficit. Cognitive function can also be influenced by:

👉 Aging – degenerative changes in the brain or nervous system
👉 Chronic pain / physical discomfort – pain can take up attention and reduce focus
👉 Neurological disorders – infections or degenerative diseases of the central nervous system
👉 Metabolic disorders – diabetes, Cushing’s syndrome, or hormonal changes affecting the brain
👉 Lack of stimulation – horses kept long-term without proper enrichment
👉 Stress / anxiety / depression – psychological factors that slow reactions and reduce concentration

❓What can we do? Let’s talk about it! Let’s explore and study it. Let’s support such horses and their owners instead of blaming or shaming them. Every horse has its place in this world—though it might not be the one we imagined for ourselves.

K.

21/09/2025

20/09/2025

The Body's Connection to the Hoof

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned in hoof rehab is that the hooves never exist in isolation. We can trim, balance, and protect the feet all we want, but if the horse’s body isn’t healthy, the feet will always tell us.

Sometimes, improving the hooves truly does improve the whole horse. Better movement leads to stronger muscles, improved circulation, and reduced strain. But the opposite is also true: if we don’t address systemic health, with considering things like nutrition, metabolic balance, inflammation, or even pain elsewhere in the body, the feet will never fully heal, no matter how skilled the trim.

The truth is simple: fix the body, and the feet will typically follow. Ignore the body, and the feet won’t hold.

Hoof care is never just about the trim. It’s about seeing the whole horse.

A huge shout out and thank you to SURE FOOT Equine for sponsoring our SOLD OUT Humble Hoof Podiatry Clinic happening at the end of October! Sure Foot Balance pads help us so much here at our rehab facility to get horses to feel better in their body and improve their hoof health, and it fits in perfectly with our podiatry clinic topics of how the body affects the feet and vice versa. While our in-person attendance is sold out, we do have video recording options available to still see the lectures and sessions by our amazing clinicians.

17/09/2025

DO HORSES NOTICE HOW WE TREAT EACH OTHER?

What if horses are paying attention not just to what we ask of them, but to how we treat each other? A recent study suggests they do — and that what they observe could change how they behave.

Researchers from Germany and Scotland tested whether horses, after watching people interacting, would change their feeding choices.

Study details:

• The experiment involved 17 horses, ranging from 4 to 28 years old, across 5 private yards

• Horses observed a human demonstration: a person taking carrot pieces from one bucket while another human gave clear approval (body language + voice), and doing the same from another bucket but receiving disapproval

• After watching this six times, horses were allowed to choose between the buckets — though previously they had no preference and had eaten from both.

What the researchers found:

• 12 out of 17 horses changed their preference after observing the human-to-human approval interaction. They were more likely to pick from the bucket associated with approval

• Horses kept in social housing (open stabling or paddocks with others) showed this adaptation more strongly than those in more isolated housing.

Why it matters:

• Horses aren’t just responding to their direct training—they notice how we interact with others and use those cues, even if the humans involved aren’t interacting with them. What humans do matters.

Take-home messages:

• Pay attention to how people behave around your horse—not just how they behave with the horse. The horse is learning from what people do

• Horses kept socially do better at these sorts of observational tasks. Isolation doesn’t just affect their mood — it seems to limit what they can learn

• When training or managing horses, think about the environment: who’s around, what behaviour the horse is witnessing, and how interactions outside of training may still contribute to the horse’s learning experiences.

Do you think your horse picks up on how you interact with others — not just with them?

Study: Krueger et al (2025). Learning from eavesdropping on human-human encounters changes feeding location choice in horses (Equus Caballus).

10/09/2025

As we approach the start of fall and the temperatures start to drop, here is some important information to know regarding fall laminitis.

Fall laminitis refers to cases of laminitis or founder that occur in the autumnal months. Although laminitis can happen in any season, anecdotally there seems to be an uptick in the number of cases in the fall.

Why could this be?

• As the days get shorter and colder, grasses have been shown to respond to this stress with higher sugar concentrations. Diets with higher simple sugar concentrations may increase the risk of laminitis.

• Decreases in exercise may cause increases in body condition. Fat or obese horses are at risk of developing laminitis.

• Horses naturally have increased levels of certain hormones in the fall. If you have a horse with PPID (previously referred to as equine Cushing’s), the increase in their cortisol levels could put them at risk for laminitis.

If you have questions concerning fall laminitis or are concerned that your equine companion may be at an increased risk, contact your equine veterinarian so that they can properly evaluate your unique situation.

Thank you to the Horse Owner Education Committee for providing this information.

10/09/2025

Two experts explain how you can improve your horse’s joint health through nutrition and how to choose high-quality joint supplements.

30/08/2025

Your horse needs the right fuel in the right amounts to run correctly. Correctly fuelling your horse is essential for resilient health.

27/08/2025

Learn about two different and unrelated processes that present as firm swellings in the horse's pastern region.

27/08/2025

Some of you know that recently, I joined a great team of hoofcare pros and horse lovers over at Flex Hoof Boots, to help educate about hoof health and lameness rehab. We are now ready to start sharing some of what we have worked on the last few months!

I am SO EXCITED to be a part of this new online Hoof Care School! We have been working hard to get this up and running, with countless hours of writing articles, courses, taking photos, filming video, and editing together courses and content on all topics that pertain to hoof health and soundness.

In the Hoof Care School, we will soon have courses on everything from topics that pertain to your horse’s overall health, such as equine behavior, species-appropriate care, nutrition for hoof health, balancing hay tests, building track systems, picking your horse’s care team, communicating with your hoofcare professional, to more in-depth information about hoof anatomy and biomechanics, hoof issues and pathology, laminitis and navicular rehab, approaching various hoof issues with management and trim, and more.

Right now everything is free as we are just starting to add the content, but it will eventually be a subscription-based school where new content will be added regularly. As a member, you’ll also have access to private forums and special intermittent “behind the scenes” day-to-day of hoofcare provider life and candid content of running a hoof rehab facility.

I really am so excited to be a small part of this project!

For now, you can jump in early while it’s free and see what we are doing over at https://hoofcareschool.mvt.so/

26/08/2025

Pete Ramey: The Bars of the Hoof "Leaving a longer bar (and sole ridge around the frog) accelerates the process of achieving a deeply concaved sole by providing support to the internal structures and reducing sole wear. I already learned this lesson about the other parts of the foot years ago. The less I trimmed the sole, the deeper the solar concavity became. The less I shortened the foot, the shorter the foot became. The less I trimmed frogs, the more sound the horses were. Every time I have learned to back off, my horses became more sound, and the rehabilitation of pathologies accomplished more quickly. I was a just a bit slower in seeing the same truth about the bars. Now I’ve come to view them as a critically important weight-bearing structure and see that as with every other part of the foot, over-trimming them makes them grow too long, too fast."
Read more: https://www.thehorseshoof.com/pete-ramey-the-bars-of-the-hoof/

22/08/2025