E-Vet Clinic - Horse Health Care

Horse slaughter is an issue that really gets people going and it is back in the news yet again.

Our friends over at Veterinarians for Equine Welfare (www.vetsforequinewelfare.org) have issued a press release yesterday with some very interesting detective work. Here is a portion of the Press Release -

“The AVMA is part of a coalition misleadingly called the Horse Welfare Coalition,” stated veterinarian Dr. Nena Winand, another founding member of VEW who went to Washington, DC. “The coalition isn’t about horse welfare, not a single welfare organization is involved. It’s about making money at the expense of our horses and its members include many agribusiness trade industry groups like the American Meat Institute and the Kansas Pork Association. In fact, the coalition’s associated website, commonhorsesense.com, was originally purchased by a lawyer for two of the domestic horse slaughter plants and counts among its spokespeople Charlie Stenholm, former Member of Congress and current lobbyist for the slaughterhouses. While the AVMA and others decry the export of American horses to Mexico for slaughter they are partnering with the very companies that are actively buying and shipping horses to Mexican slaughter plants.”

Very politically scathing comments with conspiracy theory undertones. If true this really damages the reputation of the Horse Welfare Coalition and also the AVMAs position of being unbiased and only looking out for the welfare of the horse. You can read the rest of the press release on their website at —> www.vetsforequinewelfare.org/vew_on_hill.php

My position for the record is that I feel horse slaughter methods be changed and if not then abolished; however if abolished, the unwanted horses that may occur need to be taken care of, which is why I support the Unwanted Horse Coalition - www.unwantedhorsecoalition.org/

The most important aspect of the health of a horse’s hoof is how it is trimmed.

Oh there are nutritional supplements that help and there are hoof applications that help and how you ride and what type of surface all helps in determining the health of the hoof but THE most important is how it is trimmed.

So now we can open a can of worms as to how is this accomplished? What is the best way to trim a horses hoof? There are arguments upon arguments or shall we say intellectual discussions on how this is to be done. There are farriers who have been around for centuries it seems that have never gone to farrier school and say it should be done this way, and there are others straight out of farrier school that say it should be done this way and then there is every type of farrier in between. Just take a look at one of my favorite forums to lurk - www.horseshoes.com/forums/ This forum is a great resource to learn about shoeing and trimming and everyone there has an opinion. You just need to be able to read between the lines or rather take all the information in and form your own opinion OR just read my blog and I’ll give you your opinion…LOL

Dynamic hoof balance, geometric balance, natural balance, physiologic hoof trim, Strasser trim (OK not that ONE) all are techniques used to improve the soundness of the horse and not one of them is the RIGHT one for every horse. A good farrier will know how to use one or more of a combination of these techniques to improve the hoof health and soundness.

As a horse owner how can you tell if your horse’s hoof is trimmed so that it is healthy. What should you look for? Here are three foundation principles you need to notice about your horse’s hoof and if your horse’s hoof does not follow these foundation principles, you need to ask your farrier why. Now there may be a perfectly valid reason why your horse’s hoof does not exactly follow these three principles and your farrier may have a good reason for not following these but they are a good start to building a healthy sound hoof…

First, look at the bottom of your horse’s foot (the sole). Draw an imaginary
straight line through the widest part of the foot. From that line back to the heels
should be more total surface area than in front of that line.

Second, the frog should be at least ½ as wide at the heel base, as it is
long. It should also make contact with the ground at the base.

Third, the angle of the hoof should parallel the angle of the pastern. It is
not an exact number but usually falls between 45 and 55 degrees. The best way
to determine if proper angle is met is to look at the foot from the side and place a
straight edge (ruler) along the front aspect of the hoof from the toe to the coronet
band. If it is a correct angle, the front aspect of the pastern will follow on the
bottom of the straight edge exactly all the way to the fetlock.

If your horse’s hoof follows these three foundation principles then it should be as healthy as it can be. If not ask why not, because as the Native Americans used to say…no foot, no horse! Or was it some old british farrier, I can’t remember. In any case a healthy hoof is a good foundation to a healthy horse.

A suspensory ligament injury or in more technical terms the proximal suspensory ligament disease (PSD) is an extremely common injury in performance horses. The Horse magazine has a good article giving an overview of what Dr. Sue Dyson, head of Clinical Orthopaedics at the Animal Health Trust in Newmarket, England, presented at an AAEP focus group in Colorado. The article, Proximal Suspensory Ligament Disease of the Forelimb goes over the diagnosis, the complications, and the treatment for this injury; however it does not go through any prevention steps. Now I was not at this meeting so I do not know if it was discussed or not but in my opinion this would be an important topic and some research would be great on this subject.

Here are some of the horse sense steps that you can take to prevent the suspensory ligament injury -

- this goes a long way in prevention, proper balance of the horse’s hoof not only improves most movement and over better health of the hoof but will cause les strain on the ligaments and tendons when the horse moves. A good farrier that understands hoof balance and horse movement can easily help in prevention of suspensory ligament damage. Low heels and long toe, a long wall on one side, a flare, high heels and short toe all are imbalances that can cause more strain on ligaments and tendons.

- proper footing for the horse is a must in preventing injury. Deep sand or uneven arena surfaces are definitely causes of strain and injury. My opinion here is also that you should train the horse on, what you show the horse on. Even though the rubberized surfaces are great and are very cushy for your horse it also does not allow your horse to condition up to the arena surfaces that they will be showing on.

- overtraining is a big problem in the show world and it is the cause for many chronic injuries of the suspensory ligament. Your horse needs to rest, working 7 days a week, or heavily training for three consecutive days will not improve your horse, more likely it will break your horse down. Other conditioning tips would be to actually stretch your horse on a regular basis. Stretching just prior to going into an event is not going to prevent injuries however stretching on a consistent regular basis will. I recommend stretching your horse everyday, but then I do realize the time commitment and some people can not accomodate so, you need to stretch your horse before or after every ride and if you do it prior to riding warm the horse up first.

One specific stretch for the suspensory ligament and flexor tendons is to take a small flat board about 3/8 to 5/8 inch in thickness and place it so that the horses toe is just on the edge of that board. Next go over to the opposite front leg and pick it up. Hold this position for 15 to 30 seconds to stretch out the flexor tendons. To give you a visual - think of stretching out your calf by placing your toe on the riser of a stair and sinking down. I will post a picture soon.