“What should I feed my horse?” It’s a question that horse owners ask their farriers from time to time. The easy answer is, “Well, you need to feed a balanced diet.” Yet, a horse owner doesn’t always understand what that is.

Conference Short Highlights The American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine recently published several abstracts of their annual meeting related to two endocrine disorders:

Joint Injections Compared Joint injections using corticosteroids, hyaluronic acid (HA) or a combination of the two are commonly used to treat synovitis and arthritis in performance horses. In this study, researchers compared the efficacy of one type of corticosteroid (triamcinolone acetate, TA) with and without HA for the treatment of lameness, localized to one limb only that responded to a diagnostic joint block. Eighty horses of various breeds were enrolled in the study with follow-up at 3 weeks by re-examining the horses and 3 months by an owner questionnaire. No other medications were permitted during the first 3 weeks of follow-up.

Memory Foam Orthotic Can Comfort Horses

Ethylene-vinyl acetate — better known as memory foam — is noted for its softness and flexibility. Manufacturers use it for mattresses, pillows and shoe liners to provide comfort and support for human consumers. Lake Elmo, Minn., farrier Scott Lampert uses them for the same reasons with horses by placing a lightweight memory foam pad under a foot.

There is more to farriery than just looking at the horse’s hoof. To treat horses properly, it’s necessary to look at the whole horse and consider its gait, conformation and body weight and how those factors affect the hooves and how the trimming and shoes that are applied can affect the rest of the horse.

Obesity is a result of horses consuming more calories than they are expending, either through basal metabolism or exercise. Excess fat is stored under the skin and the amount of fat can be easily estimated using the highly popular body condition scoring (BCS) system.

An ambitious experimental study was conducted to compare ground reaction forces and hoof accelerations among dirt, synthetic and turf racetracks. Force measuring horseshoes and accelerometers were attached to the front hoof of three Thoroughbred racehorses, and each horse was exercised at the trot and canter on each surface while an onboard computer recorded the data.