The Right To Choice

Below is a post taken from Easycare's blog this week. At Trelawne Equine we have been talking about why shoeing is accepted as being normal, instead of questioning why we shoe. Any good farrier will tell you a hoof is healthier without a shoe on it, so why do we still insisit on shoeing as a matter of course? Surely a better approach would be to look at the horses lifestyle, what the rider wants to do with them and ascertain what approach would suit horse and riders needs best in the long term rather than just whacking a set of shoes on straight off. Certainly, if you have a horse you treat as a member of the family and would like the longest and most trouble free working life possible you would have to say that a natural and barefoot lifestyle is the answer. With the advent of modern hoof boots, so many more horses are able to work to a higher level with far less risk of injury than ever before so even if the descision has been taken to shoe in the past a regular review should be considered.

"In recent years, a growing contingent of the equine community has begun to question traditional hoof care. Why do so many of our domestic horses suffer from hoof ailments? Why are our veterinarians and farriers so frequently unsuccessful in rehabilitating these horses? Every horse owner dreads a diagnosis of laminitis, white line disease, founder, navicular disease, sidebone; conditions with mysterious causes, and often heartbreaking prognosis.

How awful would these same horse owners feel if they realized that traditional hoofcare, in addition to a lifestyle at complete odds with that which a horse is designed to live, were actually causing these problems?

Researchers like Dr. Robert Bowker of the cutting-edge Equine Foot Lab at Michigan State University are finally unlocking the mysteries of the horse’s foot, and proving that that is exactly the case. Astounding findings are the result of their ground-breaking work. One of the most spectacular discoveries has been the hydraulic-like function of blood flow in the healthy hoof: a never-before documented, highly specialized and extremely effective means of shock absorption which Bowker likens to a high performance gel running shoe.

The equine foot, it turns out, is quite probably the most amazing foot on the planet. An amazing foot that maintains itself with shocking efficiency in its natural state. An amazing foot that in the wild bears little resemblance to the feet of domestic horses managed in the traditional manner. An amazing foot that – brace yourself for this – can be developed and maintained in those same domestic horses – even horses that have already developed the pathologies mentioned in the first paragraph – using a barefoot trimming technique Bowker calls the physiological trim. A revolution is in the making…

Using Natural Horse Care techniques, maintaining your hoof trim cycle and wearing protective hoof boots is what Trelawne Equine and Easycare believes strongly in and promotes!"

So Whats Stopping you?

Well, what is transition? Transition is the time period after you pull the shoes off of your horse until he is sound enough to walk on gravel. This rehabilitation period of several months to a year, depends on the internal damage to your horse's foot and how you provide natural hoof care. Increased blood flow starts to rebuild internal structures that were damaged by the shoes. Until the rebuilding is complete, many horses can be sore and will need hoof boots to ride in different types of environments. Hoof pads will also help your horse immensely during the transition period.

Transition is the reason why so many horse owners have said that their horse can't go barefoot. It can be an inconvenience for the owner and some of us just don't have the patience. However, once you understand that horseshoes really do weaken the hooves and (If you don't believe me ask your farrier!) that we thought we were doing the right thing by keeping our horses shod and instead we've caused damage to our beloved friend's feet, you can sit back and go through the transition time period. And you can do many things to make your horse more comfortable and rideable while he grows out his new and improved hooves. You, the owner and his friend, made the decision that barefoot is better. Now is the time to exercise patience and trust that your horse will heal. And he will - better than you can even imagine.

The transition period is over when the sole regains concavitiy, which means that the white line has tightened up completely. In general, it takes about a year of good natural hoof care before the hoof returns to complete soundness. The issue during this time period is about your horse and good natural hoof trimming and natural hoof care to rehabilitate his feet, not about the ride that you wanted to go on. In almost every case get the right Easycare hoof boots and comfort pads are you can go ahead and do that ride even while your horse is transitioning.

Most barefoot horses become barefoot rideable within a few weeks of pulling their shoes, given their conditions and natural hoof care. Some are rideable immediately. A non-evasive natural wild horse trim every week or so will help. Read, read, read! Act like a sponge and soak up every article about barefoot and wild horse trimming.

Driving Horses and Ponies in Hoof Boots

Here is an excerpt from Easycare's blog about Peter the driving pony. Peter uses Easyboot Bare hoof boots to protect his hooves whilst working.
"Peter is a small pony I was given by the local slaughter man when he was a foal at foot. He is out of a riding pony mare by a minature stallion - absolutely shouldn't have been bred, but there he was. For the last few years he has been with a friend, babysitting her big horse. He is now 5 years old, 10:2 hh and came home this summer to be backed for friend's small sons to ride.


He has had a number of bouts of laminitis, treated by vet and farrier. When he came home he was over weight and walking with difficulty. His heels were long and toes short. I trimmed him and he immediately moved more freely. Loosing weight helped a lot too! The real problem was: how to train and work a small pony with no children regularly available? I know! I'll start him in harness as well as under saddle. I had harness and got hold of a training cart.

All went well, he proved to be ideal for driving, but he found it hard going on rocky tracks and wore his feet out when working on the road. I discussed options with my farrier and he suggested I try boots - then when I was working on grass I could leave them off and they would also protect his soles when working on stoney tracks which shoes wouldn't do. So I ordered a pair of Easyboot Bare - mainly because they came small enough.

They're great - quick to put on, easy to keep clean. Now I want a set of gloves for his hind feet - we are doing so much work he is quickly wearing them down. Trouble is, gloves don't come small enough! Picture is of us recently at a beach town near here - still using the training cart. Peter was happy to trot all around town, coped with children running up to pet him, balls thrown and kicked at him, dogs barking at him and crossing little foot bridges that were only just wide enough for the cart!

Name: Anne MacAulay

City: Hamilton
State: Waikato
Country: New Zealand
Equine Discipline: Other
Favorite Boot: Easyboot Bare"

Hoof Boots - The Importance of Correct Measurements and Fit

Trelawne Equine are more than happy to offer individual advice to retailers and consumers about any aspect of booting your barefoot horse, if you have any doubts about the suitability of a boot for your needs please do contact us on 0844 257 8585 or advice@trelawneequine.co.uk

The most important detail we advise to any end user or retailer when talking about Easycare hoof boots is fit. Getting the proper measurements is the first stage to achieving a good fit. Any hoof boot can not perform properly if it is used on the wrong size and shape foot. Just like a saddle needs to be fitted correctly as all backs differ, hoof boots and hooves are no different! The graphic above shows where both the length and width measurements need to be taken. Proper sizing of the hoof boots is imperative to maximize ultimate performance and a positive boot experience. The best way to get an accurate measurement is with a rigid ruler and to measure in millimeters ideally after a fresh trim on clean feet. Then follow these steps.

1. After a fresh trim, measure the width of the hoof across the bottom at the widest point.
2. Measure the length of the hoof from the toe to the buttress line of the heel. The buttress line is the farthest weight bearing point of the heel where the hoof wall ends. Do not include the heel bulbs in the measurement. If your horse has under run heels, measure slightly further back to where the heel should be in a 'normal' hoof.
   
3. Compare your measurement with the appropriate size chart. Please note that each hoof boot style has its own unique size chart.
4. Ideally, the length and width measurement will fit into the same size. If the length and width measurements indicate different sizes, select the larger size. If the width and length measurements are different by more than one size, your selected boot style is not recommended. Make sure you check your measurements against an alternative boot in the EasyCare range—another style may accommodate your horse’s hoof shape better. The best hoof boot is the boot that fits your horses hoof best, not just the style you like the look of best!
   

Hoof Tracings, pictures, iron shoe size and guesses are not acceptable for fitting EasyCare boots. Easycare hoof boots are the highest performance equine shoe replacement boots available in the world, but they need to be the proper size to work to their potential. Ask yourself this question... would you run a marathon in shoes that were too big, small or the wrong shape for your feet?

Transitioning to Barefoot- What to Expect

This is a very interesting and thought provoking passage from 'The thoughful horseman', ideal to comfort anyone new to taking their horse barefoot and using hoof boots like the Easyboot Glove or Easyboot Edge to do so.

"In six months to a year, your horse will have essentially grown new feet. Some horses are completely comfortable much sooner than that (3 to 4 months is common). You will be astounded at the difference, and thrilled with the soundness and durability of your barefoot horse. But until that time, your horse may need hoof boots and pads to be comfortable in his newly de-shod feet, particularly when he is asked to carry a rider's weight or work on rugged or rocky terrain.

It is important to understand why the horse's feet may be tender during the transition. It is NOT the barefoot trim....I work very carefully to not remove material that the horse needs, unlike a typical "pasture trim". My goal is to keep the horse as comfortable as possible through the transition. Most horses, even horses with no serious hoof pathologies, experience tenderness on their newly bare feet for the one or more of the following reasons:

Left: at set up trim, September 2008
Right: the same hoof, April 2009

1. Inadequate calloused sole.

Farrier's routinely carve sole from the bottom of the horse's foot. They do this for a number of "reasons": to create a flat plane upon which to set the shoe, to make the foot look more esthetically "neat", and to raise the sole of the foot off of the ground to "prevent soreness". It takes months for the horse to grow and callous sole, and our goal is to develop at least a half inch of good, tough sole across the bottom of the foot. It is not uncommon to see horses with less than an eighth of an inch of sole protecting the inner structures of the foot when they are first deshod. Even if the sole does have adequate thickness, it will need to callous. Inadequate calloused sole is the number one reason horses are tender footed after shoes are removed.

2. Lack of fully developed digital cushion and lateral cartilages

If the back of the foot has never been allowed to develop through pressure and release on the sole and frog, the horse never develops the digital cushion and lateral cartilages. The digital cushion is literally a cushion between the frog and heel bulbs, and inner structures of the hoof. A healthy, well developed digital cushion is made up of tough, fibrocartilagineous tissue; in an immature or underdeveloped hoof, this cushion is soft and spongy. The lateral cartilages are the "scaffolding" that supports the back of the foot (like the coffin bone supports the front of the foot). Both the digital cushion and lateral cartilages can be stimulated and developed, and this is our goal. But until these structures are healthy, the horse may experience sensitivity in the back of the foot. See Bowker's research paper on "good-footed" and "bad-footed" horses for more information. This sensitivity is mitigated by using boots and comfort pads. Development is achieved through constant pressure and release on the sole and frog.

3. Undeveloped or carved and uncalloused frogs

Again, farrier's almost ALWAYS pare the frog much more aggressively than is truly necessary. By doing so, they are removing the tough outer layer, and exposing tender, immature tissue underneath. It may look tidy, but the truth is, the horse needs that tough outer layer. With the exception of exfoliating frog material that is already loose, or paring excess growth, the frog should be allowed to toughen and callous. Until your horse toughens up and grows a wide, healthy frog, his frogs may be tender.

4. Frog infection

Those trimmed frogs are sitting ducks for opportunistic fungal and bacterial infections. A deep crease at the central sulcus is indicative of chronic infection. Chronic infection of the frog HURTS. Treatment as your hoof care provider prescribes will quickly help promote a thick, healthy frog.

5. Dramatically increased blood flow in the hoof

Nailing a shoe to a horse's hoof IMMEDIATELY reduces perfusion (blood flow) by 50%. FIFTY PERCENT!! HALF!! Think about that...how does your arm or foot feel when you sleep on it funny and limit circulation? NUMB! How does it feel when the circulation is restored? REALLY UNCOMFORTABLE!!

You've made a wise, educated decision to transition your horse to barefoot...stick with it! Give it at least six months. Better yet, give it a year. You can always slap a shoe back on after that, and at least the hoof will have had a year to recuperate. ALL farrier's texts recommend leaving the horse barefoot periodically to let the hoof recover. But believe it, if you stick with it that long, you will never, ever let a shoe come near your horse's feet again."

Dry Feet? You Need an EasySoaker!

It has been a few years since I have been able to write about potential problems with dry hooves in the UK, but we are last seemigly going to have a summer which although long overdue presents new challenges for horse owners! One such problem is dry hooves. Hooves need a certain amount of moisture to retain their elasticity, and it can be even more of a problem with a shod hoof that will begin to split and crack if allowed to dry out. An ideal solution is to have an area around the water container (to simulate drinking from a river in the wild) large and wet enough to soak the horses feet when they drink. In practice, this is not always possible or convenient, and water will bring with it the inevitable mud (ubles you are lucky enough to have a custom built watering area with a waterproof base) which we would all prefer to avoid whenever possible!
The EasySoaker is the ideal solution to soak and medicate if necessary the horses hooves, and is a very versatile boot that can be used for a number of applications as well as soaking. Soaking your horses hooves in an Easysoaker can help with sand cracks, seedy toe, white line disease, thrush, contracted heels and abscesses as well as helping to alleviate the symptoms associated with navicular, contracted heels, corns and founder.

Vettec Glue for Easyboot Glue On boots

Trelawne Equine is pleased to announce that we are now able to supply the vettec products as recommended by Easycare for their Glue On hoof boots! We will be stocking the Vettec adhere, which is the adhesive compound use to secure the boots to the hoof wall, the Equi-pak CS and the tools needed to use the products. We chose to stock only the Equi-Pak CS as our UK climate is so very wet (apart from as I write this post!) and thrush of some sort is almost inevitable. We felt it was best practice to always use a product that will inhibit (and even help to address the problem of) thrush so that when the boots were removed after the recommended 5 - 10 days there would always be a nice healthy looking frog to reveal! For more information, and price for trade customers only please contact us.

Keep Your Hoof Boots Smelling Sweet and in Good Order!

Keeping your horses Easycare hoof boots clean and fresh, and in good operating condition prevents rubbing and prolongs the life of the boots and comfort pads.
Hoof Care Products can be hosed off and placed out to dry. Make sure you take the pads out of the boots and thoroughly clean both the inside of the boot and the pad. Let both dry before using. Once dry, sprinkle the inside of the boot with a little antiseptic/athletic Foot Powder or similar to freshen the boot, discourage bacteria and fungus, and also to help the boots slip easily over the heel bulbs.
To keep the wire in EasyCare Epic hoof boots sliding freely, spray the "loop" ends inside the boot with a little WD40.
It is a good idea to keep a spare pair of pads on hand; when one pair looks flattened, pull them out and replace with new, but don't throw them away just yet! If the pad still has some life to it put them aside for a few days and you could find they regain sponginess! Remember, cleaning sand, dirt and grit out of the boots after every use preserves the life of the pads. Don't forget to also check the tightness of any screws when cleaning as all moving parts need checking periodically.
Good hoof boot maintainence can extend the life of your boots and pads considerably, and

An inspirational woman and a very worthy cause!

Susi Sadler is an amazingly strong woman, and her story is truly inspirational! Susi is going to take part in the Mongol Derby, a butt-searing 620 mile ride across the steppe on semi-wild Mongolian ponies! She will have just 5kg of kit, no back up crew and will be miles from civilisation, and is doing it in order to help a very worthy organisation, operation smile . By completing this ride along with only 34 other riders, Susi is hoping to raise enough money to give 33 children back their smile.
The drive behind this ride, is due to Susi herself suffering a horrific facial injury. Trelawne Equine are donating a set of gloves for Susi's barefoot horse, Rudi to enable her to be able to put the miles and miles of training in she needs to prepare for this week long marathon.
Susi writes about her accident on her website dedicated to this challenge and her cause www.600miles.org (you can also sponsor her directly via her site if you wish to):

"In 2009 I was breaking in my 4-year-old home-bred horse, Rudi. I was riding in the school when he spooked and took off at top speed, then applied the brakes chucking me face-first and with great force into a post and rail fence. Thankfully, my helmet protected me from a serious head injury (the doctors were amazed when they saw the x-rays that I hadn’t fractured my skull). However I had managed to slice my face from nose to ear, ‘de-gloving’ (the medical term - explicit enough, I think) the left side of my face.

I was in surgery for five hours whilst an amazing team stitched my face back together. I will be forever grateful to them for the work they did that night, because despite the seriousness of my injuries I ended up with one very neat line of (approximately twenty five) stitches across one side of my face.
I had suffered nerve damage, which meant I lost the use of one side of my face and mouth. This, coupled with a lot of swelling, badly torn gums, loosened teeth and a further 60 stitches inside my mouth, made eating, drinking and even talking a real challenge. I’ve always enjoyed my food (an understatement, perhaps) so surviving the first two weeks, when the only manageable meals were cup-a-soups consumed through a straw felt almost impossible. I lost a stone in weight. For the first month I went everywhere with a stash of drinking straws in my handbag, until I could learn to drink from a glass again. My potato masher saw hard service for the first month!
My face looked very different. Although the scar was healing, the nerve damage improved more slowly. I looked odd when I talked or smiled because only one side of my face worked. I avoided cameras and covered my mouth when I smiled. Even people I was close to found it hard to know how to react.
After the accident I felt nervous about riding again, especially about riding Rudi. Getting back into riding after the accident, and rebuilding my confidence was a long, slow process. At first my nerves made riding physically difficult – my whole body was so tense that I couldn’t relax and move my spine. However, with a little time and a lot of determination the nerves gradually subsided.
I feel very fortunate that, nearly a year on, my scar is fading and my nerve function is slowly improving. I can eat and drink anything I like, and smile again. I have plenty to smile about. Not only did I benefit from some world-class medical treatment, but I’m also back in the saddle and training Rudi for his first competitive season in 2010.
If you’ve got this far, I hope you can understand why competing in the Mongol Derby is important to me. Firstly, having recovered my confidence in riding again, I feel the need to take on a big challenge to really test myself. Secondly, I want to raise as much money as I can for Operation Smile, and help bring facial surgery to children whose lives are severely affected by a cleft. Sadly, many of these children do not have access to the excellent treatment that I benefited from free of charge.
I don’t want anyone to have to experience life without a smile. "

Glove Hoof Boots: The Best Just Got Better!

The revolutionary Easyboot glove hoof boot has been through another improvement phase, and the gaiter has been substantially improved. The back of the gaiter has been shaped to be more ergonomic, and the material used in the body of the gaiter has been changed to a very soft, resilient
fabric. The top of the gaiter is doubled layered to help prevent rubbing, the same way that a hiker wears two pairs of socks. This enables the material to rub against itself as opposed to the horse. The fastening has been slightly narrowed to allow even better freedom of movement, and lengthened to allow them to fit larger boned horses easily. Internal reinforcements have been added to the inside of the gaiter for a better fit and longer life. The Easyboot glove is one of the fastest selling boots in the Easycare line, and in very high demand so make sure you secure your new pair as soon as you can!

Just How Well Does the Glove Fit?

The Easyboot Gloves and Easyboot Glue On shells have been designed to fit like a second skin onthe hoof, but without being able to see inside it has always been down to common sense to dictate why these boots work so well. Now however, the proof is there to see, as these X rays show! You can see how the hoof sits flat to the sole of the boot, there is no excess boot protruding to the sides or front to inhibit the movement. The wall of the boot sits totally snug against the wall of the hoof, the elasticity of the boot material allows the hoof to move and flex as it would if bare.

Trelawne Equine in the press

://www.trelawneequine.co.uk/">Trelawne Equine has been features in 3 magazines this month. Local rider ran our piece about beating concussive forces, Natural horsemanship magazine (who's barefoot section we also sponsor) ran a piece about deciding if taking your horse barefoot was right for you, and we had a double page spread about the benefits of removing shoes from laminitic horses and ponies.