Equine Podiatry Students - Australia

Twenty one students  have enrolled in the inaugural Diploma of Equine Podio-Therapy, being run by The College of Traditional Medicine, based in Melbourne.

The first block of study - anatomy and physiology - was held at Merrijig  - at Chris Dunlop's trail ride outfit -   in the Victorian High Country. The venue was chosen because of the availability of  the trail riding horses and the associated lodge facilities including accommodation and a seminar room (complete with log fire).

The Diploma is one of two courses being run in Australia by government recognised Registered Training Providors. It has  attracted students from around Australia - ranging from school leavers to professional trimmers. There was a wait list for places. I was fortunate enough to enrol early, and get into the course.

It includes a requirement for 20 documented case studies, and more than a dozen written assignments on anatomy and physiology and on the distal limb.

The other course is the Certificate III in Agriculture (hoofcare) which is about to enrol its third intake of students in June. The first students from this course are completing their studies now. Two  have already graduated.

The introduction of both these courses is expected to take equine podiatry to the next level in Australia where the main impediment to more widespread adoption of the practice of barefooting horses is that there are not enough experienced and knowledgeable trimmers to meet demand.

By the time three intakes have graduated from the Tasmanian course, and the Diploma students complete their studies, there should be around 75 qualified trimmers in Australia.

Both courses have the support of the Australian Hoof Care Association, the peak body for professional trimmers in Australia.

• At the top of this post is a pic of the Diploma students and teachers, with Prof Robert Bowker from the University of Michigan's Equine Hoof Lab, at the conclusion of the first anatomy and physiology lectures.

• Above right is a pic of me with Prof Bowker after we'd deconstructed a cadaver leg.

 

Comments

[rebeccascott]

Yep...the essence of the difference between a physiological barefoot trim (Bowker coined that term) and a traditional farrier trim, is that a farrier trims the hoof flat on the solar surface, as if to seat a shoe.

Shoes - by definition - peripherally load the hoof. By that I mean that the horses are effectively bearing all their weight on the outside wall. That is akin to you walking in stiletto shoes, when really you feel more comfy in sneakers. Sneakers share the weight much more amongst the foot soft tissues. Its like when you get a new saddle - you want the load to be distributed across the panels, rather than concentrated on a few points. Thus it is with the horse.

So a barefoot trimmer should follow the sole in deciding where to trim the walls down to. The walls should be trimmed so that the weight is distributed to the frog, the sole and then finally to the hoof wall. My horses which have done endurance over rocky trails in the Australian High Country, didn't have walls to speak of.

If your horse is in a paddock and gets a solar plug (you know, that wodge of dirt) in his hoof, then that is nature distributing the load more evenly across his hoof.

So technically, it is possible to have both a shod and an unshod hoof (which exhibit some length of wall) to NOT be peripherally loaded, if they are 'wearing' a solar plug.

But when you go to ride that horse and trot it down the road the plug will fall out and the horse will once again be bearing all its weight on its walls.

Conversely, a horse with a barefoot trim will NOT be peripherally loading.

I hope that helps explain the diff.

When you talk to your farrier he will think you have gone nuts if you suggest to him that horses were never designed to walk on their hoof walls. But that is the fact....and traditional farriery has ignored that, particularly in recent times. Old farriery books talked more abt keeping the frog on the ground..by old I mean in the 1920s!

Peripheral loading crunches the navicular bone into P2 and P3 and adversely affects circulation.

Peripherally loaded horses - if they are put into work for years - are prone to develop navicular, particularly if they land toe first instead of heel first.

Hope that helps.

- Rebecca

[ELL]

Can you explain to me please the difference between trimming a horses hoof for shoeing and trimming it for barefoot? I have always used the same farrier for both and have never seen or been told their is a difference. This is of particular concern to me as I have a 6 year old who has never been shod, and on whom I plan to compete in trail and endurance in the near future. Thanks.