The Science behind Barefoot Hoof Care

 

Like most horse people, I have too many!  That “too many” number isn’t the same number of horses for everyone – or even the same number all throughout the year -  and certainly doesn’t mean we have any type of personality disorder – it just means we love horses and can’t quite ever get enough!  With “too many horses”, I’m sure you have all noticed, like I have, the rising cost of hoof care.  I am in no way criticizing the farriers for charging what they do – it’s a tough job!  But I needed to start exploring options.  Having been searching and providing scientific, research-based answers for my Extension clients for the last 25 years, that’s what I wanted too – science and research.  I studied boots and natural trimming theories, quizzed my farrier and my farrier friends, tried several products designed to “toughen up” a horses hooves, fixed muddy places in the pastures and run-in sheds and still, had more questions than answers.  I have several clients, colleagues and friends who are firm believers in keeping their horses barefoot, so when our Extension Horse Advisory committee met this summer to help plan our Fall Field Day and requested a barefoot trimming demo,  it fueled my interest in finding the science behind the barefoot trim and the difference between that and “regular” hoof trimming.   

 Planning to use my own horses as guinea pigs for the demo, I took stock of the herd.  I have a few with those cast iron hooves that no matter what, go barefoot year round and their hooves stay perfectly shaped and handle the rockiest terrain without a misstep.  I have a couple who are tough enough to go with just front shoes and a couple who require shoes all around – or so I thought.  A very interesting situation caused me to take my “pet” and use him as the shod-to-barefoot guinea pig.  My favorite horse – the one who has packed my daughter around for 6 years and made her the good rider – and good kid – she is today, came up lame.  Really lame.  Having an excellent vet, we pulled out all the stops to find the cause.  We removed the left front shoe, took radiographs and found nothing - no navicular changes, no rotation of the coffin bone – nothing that would have resulted in such an extreme lameness.  And no apparent abscess.   As great a horse as he is mentally, he has a few challenges physically and one of those is his feet.  For his height and thickness, he has a foot I’ve always considered to be a little too small.  Not extreme, but the one major thing I’d change about him.  And he had a tendency to grow a disproportionate amount of toe which caused him, in his constant state of “energy conservation”, to tend to stumble especially when he was near the end of a shoeing cycle.  And his feet were tender – during a campout last summer, he lost a hind shoe and was so sore after a couple hours on relatively good terrain, I ended up leading him the last hour back to camp. I tell this story not to be “telling my story”, but because it’s everybody’s story – I hear similar accounts from so many people!

I’m happy to report that after 10 days of supportive care, he recovered.  But a most interesting thing happened when we removed that one shoe - almost instantly, his foot changed shape.  What used to have been a somewhat narrow and elongated foot, suddenly became very much round again.  I have a really good farrier – even the barefoot trimmer who did our field day demo remarked what a good shoe job he still had as she removed the three remaining shoes.   But when we took off that first shoe and his foot became more balanced and normal looking than I had seen in 6 years, I was motivated to take the chance and see how he’d fare barefoot.  After removing the remaining three shoes and receiving a very well-done barefoot trim, I’m happy to report no tenderness issues, better hoof shape, better movement - happy and healthy hooves and horses!  Stay tuned for progress reports…

I admit, money was the initial motivator.  But while seeking the science to support a more economical hoof care option, I have found a lot of information (see the links below) to support the philosophy behind returning our horses to care standards more closely resembling those they would experience on their own in nature (can ya tell I dislike the word “natural”?!?)  From nutrition to housing to handling, we have made great strides in the last few decades to try our best to recreate for our horses what makes the most sense to them and for them.  Without many exceptions, the problems our horses present to us are most likely caused by us and the way we ask our horses to adjust to live by our standards of care rather than us taking the effort to provide care that most suits their physiology and psychology.  Not saying any of us would intentionally do something to harm our horses, but we should always strive to know better so we can do better. 

 

http://www.equinesciencesacademy.com/index.htm

http://hoofcare.blogspot.com/2011/07/research-clayton-and-bowkers-effects-of.html

http://www.healthyhoof.com/articles/BarefootList/BowkerPhysiologicalTrim.html

http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/75324/study-barefoot-trimming-shows-positive-effects

Garlic and Horses

Many horse owners have recently been asking about giving their animals herbs or natural supplements, specifically garlic.  They have heard that it can help with fly and worm control, pain relief, treatment of infection, and many more issues.  The problem with feeding garlic to horses is that horses will willingly consume toxic amounts.  Research shows that a toxic amount is more than 0.2 mg/kg of their body weight.  This is only .003 ounces in a 1000 lb horse.  These amounts have caused Heinz body anemia during times of consumption.  Heinz-body anemia is a complicated process.  The toxic element in garlic and onions is a chemical called N-propyl disulfide.  By altering an enzyme present within the red blood cell, it depletes the cell of a chemical known as phosphate dehydrogenase (PD), whose job is to protect the cell from natural oxidative damage.

When the PD level gets low enough, the hemoglobin in the cell oxidizes and forms a bubble called a Heinz body on the outside of the cell.  This Heinz body is distinctive and able to be seen under the microscope. The spleen quickly removes the deformed red cell from the bloodstream. As more and more red cells are prematurely damaged and removed, as happens from consistent poisoning with N-propyl disulfide, horses gradually becomes anemic.

Toxic effects are more gradual but still very dangerous when a lower dose is consumed on a regular basis, resulting in a mild anemia without obvious symptoms.  Some cases of Heinz-body anemia occur every year in horses that graze on wild onions or garlic growing in their pastures.  Depending on the dose, and the frequency and duration of dosing, there could be low-grade damaging effects, due to red-blood-cell damage that's not enough to cause an emergency situation, but just enough to cause a mild anemia that might not be outwardly evident.  It might affect your horse's stamina, energy level, or resistance to disease.

Recovery from anemia may not occur until after 5 weeks following termination of dietary supplementation with garlic.  Research further suggests that the only real benefit of feeding garlic to horses is that it may increase concentrate consumption.  Since most horses readily consume plenty of concentrate anyway, there is little reason to add garlic to an animal’s diet. 

The potential for garlic toxicosis also exists when horses are chronically fed garlic.  Animals are not able to digest garlic like people can, which is why a buildup occurs.  Symptoms of garlic toxicity include trouble breathing, lethargy, diarrhea, vomiting, an elevated heart rate, an increased respiratory rate, weakness, and collapse.

Most herbs have not been scientifically tested for use in animals.  It is therefore unknown if they are safe or even effective.  They are also not regulated with the same scrutiny as conventional drugs.  Some commonly found supplements fed to horses other than garlic include:  Echinace, ginger, ginseng, peppermint leaf, and yucca.  Some herbs have drug-like actions that interact with dietary components.  Drug-herb interactions are common and caution needs to be taken when implementing natural product usage.

Anytime you are thinking about introducing new supplements or a home remedy treatment for your animals, always consult your veterinarian first.  If you need help finding a balanced ration for your horses, please call your local Livestock Agent.

High quality hay will be hard to find this winter

Summer of 2013 was not a good year for producing horse quality hay.  The severe wet weather pattern that Southeastern NC experienced this summer resulted in a widely spread poor crop of hay. Hay is an easy crop to grow, but tricky to harvest correctly. The problem with producing high quality hay is that the farmer is completely at the mercy of Mother Nature when it comes time to bale. Once grass has reached the appropriate stage of maturity, you have to have a minimum of three (and preferably four) rain-free days, with the sun shining, to give the grass time to uniformly dry (reduce moisture through time and bleaching in the sun), then raked, baled and removed from the field.  It’s hard to get this done when rain is constant.

Why don’t they just wait for better weather in a few weeks and bale it then?  They do, but there’s a catch. Grass will only stay at peak maturity for 2-3 weeks before the nutritional value, appearance and overall quality starts to decline rapidly. Once that happens, the farmer’s only choice is to cut the hay, sell it as lower quality (usually referred to as “cow” hay) and wait for the next crop of grass to regrow.  This takes 3-4 weeks to get the next round of “pretty” grass ready to harvest. With Bermuda hay season only lasting for roughly four months per year, and 2 ½ months were quite literally “a wash”, many farmers only put up one good cutting of hay this past year.

You may have to settle for some “older” hay this winter. Because such a small amount of hay was baled at the proper stage, many horse owners will be forced to buy more mature hay than they’re used to feeding.  Fortunately, there is an easy solution to help you tell what quality your hay is.

Have a hay sample sent off for proper nutritional analysis. This is the best way by far to get a proper idea of what energy and protein levels your hay has. Contact your local Extension office for help with this. The cost is $10 per sample and takes a lot of the guesswork out of what your hay is giving your horses every day.

Written by Randy Wood, Scotland County Extension Director and Livestock Agent

Exercise Affects Mare Reproductive Ability

 The acceptance of many equine breed organizations allowing multiple foal registries per mare per year has led to increased use of embryo transfer, allowing mares to continue to train and compete during the breeding season without the hindrance of pregnancy.  Evidence supports that sustained physical activity is detrimental to both embryo recovery rate and embryo quality in mares.  Blood flow to the ovary appears to be critical to follicular development and oocyte and embryonic developmental competence.  However, the influence of exercise-induced stress on reproductive blood flow in any species remains elusive. 

Researchers at Clemson University and the University of Florida reported on a study that examined the impact of exercise on mare reproductive health and embryo transfer.  In the study, mares were divided into three research groups: no exercise (control), partial exercise, and full exercise.  Their objective was to measure reproductive blood flow and embryo number and quality.  Partial-exercised mares were exercised for 30 minutes of moderate-intense exercise daily during the periovulatory period and were rested after ovulation for 7 days.  Full-exercised mares were exercised for 30 minutes daily throughout the reproductive cycle. 

The study demonstrated that 30 min of moderate exercise significantly increased serum cortisol concentrations, tended to decrease embryo recovery rates, and reduced embryo quality scores. 

This is an area of research that needs further investigation, but it is something to think about if you're breeding your mares.  It would seem that avoiding exercise during early embryo development would be beneficial. 

The journal article in it's entirety can be found at the following link:

http://www.journalofanimalscience.org/content/90/11/3770.long

Heaves

With winter right around the corner here in North Carolina, it’s important to discuss the condition known as heaves, which affects heaves prone horses being stalled.  Heaves is an allergic, inflammatory, and obstructive airway disease affecting older horses and similar to asthma in humans.  The technical name for heaves is actually Recurrent Airway Obstruction.

Heaves is more common in horses who are stalled and fed hay.  It may be initiated by the inhalation of organic dusts, such as those associated with hay and bedding materials. These organic dusts contain allergens, endotoxins, molds, and other small particles which can initiate the inflammation process of the lungs.  There appears to be a genetic predisposition to heaves since not all horses develop the condition who are stalled and fed hay.  Even good quality hay can initiate an episode in a heaves prone horse, but it should not be of danger to a horse without the condition.

When heaves predisposed horses are moved from the pasture to a stall and fed hay airway inflammation can occur within six to eight hours.  Airway obstruction happens as a result of bronchospasm, mucus accumulation, and airway wall thickening.  Heaves affected horses have their airways narrow in response to allergens, dust, irritant odors, etc. and this condition is known as hyperresponsiveness.  For heaves affected horses, even a brief exposure to the stable environment can induce hyperresponsiveness.

In severe cases, affected horses have marked respiratory distress, the horse is typically seven years of age or older, and has spent a large portion of its life being stalled.  During a severe acute episode, their nostrils are flared, respiratory rate is increased, the horse is anxious/agitated, they can have a nasal discharge, and use their abdominal muscles which can lead to the development of “heave lines”.  During mild cases, horses may cough during exercise, feeding, cleaning the barn, and may have reduced exercise tolerance.  Your veterinarian is the person who can make a definitive diagnosis of heaves.

There are a few ways to manage heaves such as changing your horse’s environment, changing your horse’s diet, or your veterinarian can prescribe medications.  When changing your horse’s environment, moving your horse to pasture is the best option, however, it should not be a dry lot.  If that is not possible, then you should improve your barn’s ventilation and move your horse to a part of the barn where airborne particles are fewer.  Avoid storing hay in the loft, sweeping constantly, and you should change your horse’s bedding to one that produces less dust such as chopped paper or cardboard.  Your horse’s diet should also be changed to one that contains less dust.  In the winter when grass is low, pelleted feed should be provided and rolled grains should be avoided due to their high dust content.  Round bale hay should be avoided because horses will eat the center out of the bale, therefore inhaling even more particles.  If it is not possible to cut hay from your horse’s diet, then it should be soaked in water for five minutes before it is fed.  Also, alfalfa pellets and alfalfa cubes have a low amount of dust.  Finally, medications may be prescribed by your veterinarian, but this is something a veterinarian must recommend.

 

For more information, please contact your Livestock Extension Agent and review the following Extension publication:

http://www2.ca.uky.edu/agc/pubs/asc/asc172/asc172.pdf

This article was adapted from a University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Publication, ASC-172, written by Dr. Fernanda Camargo, Dr. Bob Coleman, Dr. Laurie Lawrence, Dr. Mary Rossano, and Kristen Harvey.

Winter Feeding

North Carolina is known for mild winters; however, there are still a few things that horse owners should think about in order to keep their equine friends happy and healthy during these colder months. 

It happens every year during the winter, some horses put on extra weight and some start to look too skinny.  The best way to tell if your horse is getting enough food (or too much) is to monitor their Body Condition Score (BCS).  Most horses require 1.5 – 2 % of their body weight in forages and feed a day to maintain the proper BCS (which most experts agree is a 5 on a scale from 1 to 9).  This means that for a 1,000 pound animal, they will need to consume 15-20 pounds a day.  Of course, a majority of that should come from forages.  Horses that are “easy keepers” may require a little less to maintain their BCS and older horses, horses with certain medical problems or those that are just plain harder to keep may require a little more to stay at their ideal weight.  Likewise, horses that are kept in a stall during the colder winter months might not need as much as horses that are on pasture all winter.  The following article from the University of Maine describes body condition scoring and what to look for when doing so.  The main thing is to just be aware of your horse’s BCS and how it changes throughout the winter. 

http://umaine.edu/publications/1010e/

With all this talk on feeding, don’t forget the water!  Cooler months usually lead to periods of inactivity, changes in diet and drinking less water than normal.  All of these have the tendency to raise the incidence of impaction colic.  A typical horse should drink between 8-12 gallons of fresh water a day to ensure that the normal bodily functions continue to stay “normal”.  Horses like their water between 45-65°F and free of ice.  This is often hard to do during the coldest months of the year.  To guarantee that your horse’s water is adequate, check buckets at least twice a day, emptying the icy cold water and replacing it with fresh, warmer water.  If twice a day water checks are not feasible, then you may want to check into some automatic de-icers.  Most experts advise that you continue to offer access to free choice mineral/salt blocks throughout the winter months, as this will also increase their intake of water.

For more information on winter feeding, body condition scoring your animal or anything else mentioned in this post, please don’t hesitate to contact your local Cooperative Extension Center.     

Botulism in Horses

Over the past couple of weeks, two calls have come into the Extension Office concerning botulism in horses.  Because these calls came so close together, this subject should probably be addressed.

Botulism is a deadly disease caused by the toxins produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum.  This is a potent neurotoxin that impairs nerve function, which can cause paralysis of muscles.  Therefore, this disease is often deadly.

C. botulinum is an anaerobic (lives without oxygen), gram-positive, spore forming bacterium.  The clostridium family can cause several different diseases such as botulism, tetanus, blackleg and malignant edema.  These can be rapid, severe and deadly diseases that sometimes show no clinical signs; the animal is simply found dead.

The bacterium and its spores are widely distributed in nature. They are found in soil, sediments of streams and lakes.  They can also be found in the intestinal tracts of fish and mammals. The bacteria will produce toxins under conditions of decaying plants and animals.

Adult horses can be get botulism in two ways: 1) By consuming feed or forage containing the pre-formed toxins of C. botulinum (known as forage poisoning). 2) Through wounds contaminated with the bacteria, generally puncture wounds.

Botulism from forage poisoning can occur when animals eat forage that has spoiled or any type of feed that has been contaminated by a decaying animal.  Spoilage can occur when hay is baled at too high of a moisture content.  Additionally, hay that has been fed or has spilled onto the ground and has mixed with soil and feces provides a greater risk for horses contracting botulism.  If dead animals accidentally get baled into the hay, botulism can occur.

The clinical signs of botulism in horses include weakness; decreased muscle tone of the tail, eyelid, and tongue; trembling; dilated pupils; lying down; difficulty in swallowing; drooling; and green or milky nasal discharge.  Horses progressively get weaker, and once the diaphragm muscles become involved, respiratory failure occurs, and the horse dies of asphyxia.  The disease can hit suddenly and result in the death of horses that were perfectly healthy the day before. Botulism causes a flaccid paralysis, unlike tetanus that causes a rigid paralysis.

Treatment for botulism is an administration of an antitoxin.  This should be done early in the clinical signs to have any chance of success.  However, treatment is costly, difficult and often too late.  Therefore, it is better to prevent the disease.

Prevention includes being diligent about feeding a good, quality hay and other feedstuffs.  Any questionable feed should be eliminated.  Additionally, there is a botulism vaccine.  Talk with your veterinarian about an appropriate vaccination schedule for your horses. 

An additional article can be found here:

http://www.cahfs.ucdavis.edu/local-assets/pdfs/Equine%20botulism%20fact%20sheet.pdf

An audio entitle "Preventing Botulism in Horses" can be found at this link:

http://news.ca.uky.edu/audio/preventing-botulism-horses

 

The above article was originally written by Fernanda C. Camargo, Bob Coleman, Laurie Lawrence, Department of Animal Sciences at the University of Kentucky; adapted by Kim Woods, Person County Cooperative Extension