River Bend Equine Services

04/11/2025

Just another day at the office 😂 of course I only remembered to take one after photo.

01/11/2025

We are excited to announce that our business name has officially changed from Mintle Equine
to
Riverbend Equine Services.

08/29/2024

Long toe is a NO GO!

The goal of orthopaedic intervention for equines with laminitis is to immediately shift the weight of the equine from the damaged, weakened and most painful areas of the hoof to the undamaged areas.

The characteristic stance you often see of a equine suffering with laminitis is the equine trying to do the above itself (to shift its weight onto its heals) = the “classic laminitis stance”.

Why oh why would anyone think that leaving a long toe would have any beneficial effect. There are tens of scientific papers clearly explaining the detrimental effect of a long toe.

The highest amount of loading of the toe occurs when an equine walks (during breakover) and during this time the main shift of the load within the hooves of laminitic horses occurs between the toe and middle hoof regions.

I really shouldn’t have to point this out, but for the 100,000 of people who might be persuaded to think that a long toe is an appropriate rehab for equines recovering from laminitis, I will make this easy to understand:

EASING the breakover phase (which is the time from heel-off to toe-off), by appropriately unloading the toe will MINIMISE the load on the damaged lamellae in the toe region allowing it to heal faster and with the least amount of pain and suffering. Appropriate reductions in the heal and not removing the sole is also extremely important.

In case you are still unsure:

The breakover phase is significantly longer in horses with a long toe, as it acts as a long lever arm. A long lever arm is the last thing that is going to help equines with laminitis.

Ps if there is a laminar wedge - there has been movement within the hoof capsule - this includes rotation and sinking and cannot be estimated by looking at the outside of an equines hoof.

In fact, you can have an equine with more than 2cm of sinking and the hoof can still look “normal” from the outside.

Removing the source of laminitis is paramount (which by the way is not always nutritional), but so is appropriate orthopaedic intervention under the guidance of X-rays.

PPS unsoaked, high quality hay can cause laminitis just as easy as grass, especially in metabolic equines!

Huskamp B. Some notes for the orthopedic treatment of laminitis (Anmerkungen zur orthopädischen Behandlung der Hufrehe) Pferdeheilkunde. 1990;6:3–9. doi: 10.21836/PEM19900101.

Reily PT, Dean EK, Orsini JA. First aid for the laminitic foot: therapeutic and mechanical support. Vet Clin North Am Equine Pract. 2010;26:451–458. doi: 10.1016/j.cveq.2010.06.004

Clayton HM. Comparison of the stride of trotting horses trimmed with a normal and a broken-back hoof axis. Proc Ann Conv Am Assoc Equine Pract. 1998;33:289–298.

04/30/2024

This little boy was welcomed into the world last night. Peaches and her c**t are both doing well. Still throwing some names around but we’ll get there.

04/09/2024

It’s finally warm enough to do some training without 5 layers on. 🎉
We are on Training Week 2 - The boys all got worked in the pen with a saddle on and none of them had a panic attack. They even had enough courage to let me put some weight in the stirrups.

11/19/2023

Are black hooves stronger than white hooves? John Dollar documents in The Handbook of Horse-Shoeing, published in 1898, that hoof color is a critical indicator of durability and strength. The late Doug Leach refutes the anecdotal observations in a September 1981 article in American Farriers Journal.

09/21/2023

Just a heads up! Mintle Equine will be closed from the 28th of this month to the 15th of October. I also only have a few slots open before then if you are wanting your horses in before then.

09/19/2023

Got to have some fun with super fast the other day. This draft horse had a lot of missing foot. A little disappointed with myself for not getting the before but he’s definitely traveling a lot better after a shoe and some artificial hoof wall.

07/05/2023

Hope everyone had a wonderful and safe fourth. I’m in the process of letting everyone know but in case I missed someone my phone number has changed to 1(308)645-7211.

Send a message to learn more

03/16/2023

01/18/2023

Some before/during/afters of one of todays trims. This was one happy pony when we finally got done.

05/20/2022

05/18/2022

It was a beautiful day to trim some horses.

03/17/2022

Due to gas and other price increases. I had to refigure my prices, sorry for any inconvenience this might cause. I have been delaying this for a while. I will continue to split the trip fee and fit as many clients into routes.

01/06/2022