Karen's EasyCare & Endurance Musings

Dome Pads are Here!

Finally - the EasyCare Dome Comfort Pads have arrived in SIZES!  They are in stock right now in sizes small, medium, and large.  They fit into the Easyboot line of boots, size 00 through 6.

These are my favorite pads to use for endurance riding.  I think they are great for my horses - they give them extra cushioning and support while providing additional stimulation to the bottom of their hoof.  I've used them while transitioning a horse to barefoot that was taking forever with excellent results as well.   Here is an article on peripheral loading and the pad effect. 

Pete Ramey "Under the Horse" Sneak Preview

Stay tuned to my blog and the EasyCare website for more info on this 16 hour hoof rehabilitation series by Pete Ramey!

Newly Discovered Shock Absorber in the Equine Foot

Click here to read the rest of this article by Pete Ramey.

Ramey’s Last Clinic Anywhere for at Least Two Years

 If you haven't ever been, this is a great learning opportunity! 

Robert M. Bowker VMD, PhD, Professor of Anatomy, Michigan State University College of Veterinary Medicine to Host Two-Day Hoof Care Clinic after Ramey. Ramey, World Renowned Hoof Care Specialist Will Be Taking Two Years Off for Research and Writing after this clinic.

 

High Point on Bowker/Ramey and EasyCare in Arizona

What follows is a summary by Dawn Willoughby of  The Natural Trim for the Natural Horse of the Ramey/Bowker clinic that EasyCare hosted in January. 

Physiological Trimming for a Healthy Equine Foot, by Dr. Bowker

Frog on the Ground    

Bowker's research has shown that the frog must be on the ground. He emphasizes that in order to get the frog resting on the ground, the farrier must gradually lower the heel. When the heel is not on the ground, the foot  will start to contract and get smaller, similar to a woman wearing "high heeled" shoes.      

According to Bowker, "Once the frog is on the ground, the bars will contribute in supporting weight and much of the load will be supported by the sole."
       
This load is transmitted to the sole around the frog apex via the dirt that accumulates from the ground. "Dirt should be left in the foot," explains Bowker.  In other words, don't clean your horse's feet unless they have been standing  in a lot of manure.      

Bowker further states that a foot that has a high-cupped or dished-out sole and frog that is not on the ground will not be able to support its weight with the frog and solar surface. This goes back to the analogy mentioned earlier about high heels and a small surface area for weight bearing. This small surface area results in high loads being placed upon the foot and will result in significant stress changes to the foot tissues.      

"In a nutshell, what we want when the farrier is finished trimming the equine foot is that when viewing the solar surface of the foot, one-third of the foot will be in front of the apex of the frog, and two-thirds behind it. This creates a short toe and encourages a 'heel first' landing."

Click here to read the entire article.

Karen's horses hooves

Here are some photos I took today.  The horses were due for their trims.  We try to check them over every four weeks or so, sometimes more frequently and sometimes less frequently.  I look at their feet every day so if something needs attention they'll get it as needed rather than on a set schedule. 

I'm really pleased with Rocky's feet.  He took the longest to transition. The other horses didn't really have a transitional period - probably because they were barefoot most of their lives, and when shod were mainly using plastic shoes.  Zenos only had shoes on for a very brief time too.

The first hoof photo shows the bottom of one of Rocky's hooves.  He's no longer flaring, and his hoof wall has become thicker, stronger, and he's growing heel and Dave even made positive comments about his feet today! 

Here is a photo of one of Zenos' hooves.  He has good strong feet, nice thick wall and no problems or issues.  Dave thinks he has the best hooves of all of my horses.

While Dave worked on Chief, I headed out for a nice long ride on Rocky.  You can tell in the top photo of Rocky that he is dirty with sweat from playing in the hills today.  I'll post a couple of photos below that I took while longing Rocky after I got back.  Dave met us out on the trail and watched Rocky and said he looked great and said he was indeed landing slightly heel first on all four feet.  I cropped a couple of these photos from the longing session so you can see how he is landing with the boots on.  I used Epics on all four feet today - two had regular buckles and two have the new EasyUp buckle (I just love those!).   I also shot some video, which is neat but it's rough and easier to see how he is landing in the still photos.
   

The very last photo is of one of Chief's hooves - I took this after riding him 50 miles on one of the days at the Grand Canyon XP in October.

Difference in barefoot trims

Click on any of my photos to see larger.

This shows two barefoot horses hooves.  Both were painted with white paint and then trotted on a solid surface.  The result shows which areas of the hooves were weight bearing - the white paint wore off on those areas leaving the dark/black color underneath. 

The increase in surface area results in a significant decrease in load on tissues.

Ramey/Bowker

Dr. Bowker's website

Research paper by Dr. Bowker

Info on Navicular, Dr. Bowker

Farrier website talking about Dr. Bowker

Pete Ramey's clinic info website

What I learned today (well, some of it...)

Dr. Bowker covered a lot of stuff today, most of which I am sure flew right over my head at high speed.  I did pick up a few things though.  Here is a short list, in no sort of order.  If I wasn't already convinced that my horses are better off being kept barefoot, I would be now after seeing what the results of this research is showing.  Wow! 

1. Veins in the distal limb of a horse pulsate like an artery (unlike humans).
2. Good feet have thicker UC (ungul cartilage), which plays an important role in shock absorption.
3. The DC (digital cushion) is attached to the UC, which work together for shock absorption.
4. A good footed horse has a thicker DC.
5. A sound hoof does not necessarily equal a healthy hoof.
   
6. Stretching the digital cushion acts like a vacuum to draw blood through the capillaries in the UC.
7. A horse wearing a peripheral loading device (Dr. Bowker's term for a "shoe") doesn't have some of the previous items happen - the same amount of blood goes into the hoof but it DOES NOT PERFUSE through.  This is huge.
8. If a horse doesn't land slightly heel first, something is wrong. 
9. There are proprioceptors in the heel area that are activated in the heel first landing which stimulates blood flow and create shock absorption.  A horse landing toe first or flat isn't experiencing those benefits.
10. Feral and domestic horses are not all that different.  Feral horses do not all have perfect feet.
11. Navicular may not be genetic.
12. Hoof cells may also migrate.

This is just a small amount of things off the top of my head. There is TONS more and if you are interested in this topic at all try and attend one of Dr. Bowker/Pete Ramey clinics if at all possible.

Thrush treatments

We were discussing treatments for thrush and/or fungus type infections of the hoof during the lunch break.  Linda Cowles is here and she showed me this link on her website.

Dr. Bowker

We are having lunch now at the Dr. Bowker clinic.  It's been really interesting so far, this is great stuff!   

2nd day of Hoofcare Clinic

Today was another full day with lots of info to absorb.  Here are a couple of photos - one showing Pete working on one of the horses, and the other showing the image as it is displayed live on five large monitors in the arena.  That way everybody gets a good view.  Pete does an excellent job explaining everything, and patiently answers questions.  When I left the clinic tonight it was SNOWING!  In Tucson! 

Tomorrow is the EasyCare 1/2 day boot fitting clinic.  It's free to anybody who wishes to attend.  We are going to do demonstrations in the arena with U of A horses, as well as show how to do repairs and how to use Comfort Pads. 

If you haven't yet been to a Pete Ramey clinic, then run (don't walk, or procrastinate) to his website at hoofrehab.com and make arrangements to attend one!  Especially if you are interested in your horses hoofcare.  I've learned so much on my own, but boy wouldn't it have been nice to have been able to have learned all of this years ago! 

Pete Ramey Clinic, Tucson, AZ

Today was the first day of the Pete Ramey clinic that EasyCare is hosting in Tucson, AZ.  It was a long day and very educational.  I'll post more later.  It was a long day today, about 14 hours between helping to set up and cleaning up.  Most of that was in the classroom, followed by a few hours of being in the arena and viewing actual trimming of live horses.  There were five large monitors in the arena, so that everybody could get a good view of what was going on with each of the horses Pete worked on. 

Hoof Clinic coming up

The hoof clinic hosted by EasyCare is coming up fast.  It will be in Tucson, AZ this coming week.  I've been catching up after having computer problems last week.  I sent the replacement that was defective back to Dell so they are sending me yet another replacement.  In the meantime, one of my backup external hard drives also died on me.  I don't know if that was a coincidence or if it had anything to do with the defective computer from Dell.  In either case, it was covered by the warranty so I sent it back.  It does look like I may have lost all of the data on it though.  Luckily I have another backup drive.  Good grief!  I learned a long time ago to have a backup for your backup.  :)

I've been putting together some powerpoint presentations on various topics for the day that EasyCare does the hoofboot fitting clinic.  It's going to be a lot of fun!  I hope to meet some of you there and am really looking forward to learning from Pete Ramey and Dr. Bowker.  Here is a photo album that contains some of the photos I've been working with.  These are photos of our hoofboots in use.