Way back when, coming up to 20-years ago, we met a true gentleman of a horse. Kelso, aka Big-K, was a striking dun and former show cob, and we were lucky enough to later take over his care as my husband's horse. We knew Kelso well as we'd fostered him for 6-months when our trainer had previously been unwell. However, very unlike when we’d previously fostered him, he arrived under our care in August 2006 with brittle, crumbling hooves.

He also constantly tripped, badly, crashing to his knees, with whoever was on him ending up on his neck. He was also completely unable to keep a shoe on, and after relentless visits from the farrier I was at a loss as to what to do. (This was a good 6-months before EquiNatural started, which was actually all thanks to Kelso – see Our Story – so a classic case of wishing I knew then what I know now).

Understanding proprioception and hoof health

This was a true test of proprioception, meaning the sense of body awareness / the ability to sense/feel the limb placement. Poor Kelso was literally stumbling because he didn’t know where his feet were. Not too dissimilar to sleeping awkwardly on your arm and you wake up and can’t feel it. That’s proprioception. Or lack of it.

These last few weeks I’ve been getting a rash of emails about horses with poor hoof health, no doubt in part due to the relentless rainfall earlier this year significantly affecting the grass chemistry. But of course there’s often a deeper issue going on, and it reminded me of a brilliant blog I’d read, written by a holistic Ayurvedic vet in the US, Thomas Schell, who I follow. It went something like this …
 
He was saying that one of his clients was getting bloods done then wanting him to tell them what to do. Quote: “She then wanted me to do a consultation after the results were back. I told her that I didn't need the test results as those numbers on paper mean nothing.”

So, why don't they mean anything? Like us, this vet very much follows the principles of Functional Medicine, the practice of looking at the body as a ‘whole’, and digging deeper to connect the dots. These days, common links between many seemingly separate issues are now clear - we simply have to uncover the root causes in each case.

Back to his blog, and he’d recently been reading an article on Parkinson's disease and how the scientists had 'redefined' it. In short, it meant looking at something a little differently, but as is usual, this generally only comes after the current method of logic has failed. This is typical of many areas in health which are now being treated very differently as a result, i.e. Lyme disease for one.
 
I’ll now quote straight from his blog.

“So, let's do a bit of 'redefining. Look deeper, what do you see? Most owners will see that their horse is 'off', maybe in soundness or under saddle or even behaviour. Something’s not right, so they call the vet and they test and then treat. Most do not recover or end up relapsing. So we dig deeper.

We know something is not right, so Why is something not right? We don't have to define what is not right in absolute, just generic. Maybe the horse is 'off' under saddle. Okay, what next? Look at the horse. How are their feet and foot placement? Landing toe first?

Now, look at them – what’s their body condition? What’s their diet – species appropriate grass forage or fast food from a bag with a fancy name like Musli? What’s their lifestyle – confined, solitary, or free to move with friends? What's their vaccine status and history?

All good questions, but no one seems to ask these things, including the vets doing the blood testing. Not much different from the average neurologist that is attempting to treat Parkinson's disease. We need to ask these questions and then address those items before any blood test is done. The result of any blood test, if it’s positive based on the (now mainly out of date) bars set decades ago, is just an effect, not the cause. It's like looking at your garden shed that’s falling down and seeing that the wood’s rotting. But the wood rot is the effect, not the cause. Correct those factors and you’ll be well on your way to actually curing what’s wrong in your horse.”

Connecting the dots: diet, environment, and health

So what did M.Schell see? I’ll continue to quote:
 
“Overweight, meaning that you can’t feel the ribs; unenthused, and with a confined lifestyle, often dry lotted with no turnout. The BCS in a horse has been redefined (just like for us humans) - a BCS of 4 is NOT a horse with ribs covered by fat where they can’t be seen. The horses have poor hoof conformation, landing toe first with under-run heels. They are stressed mentally and physically. Their faeces are often either loose or they are excessively dry, indicating digestive issues.”

And there we have it. Dots connected.
 
So if we look back at Kelso, with his chronic allergy responses plus crumbling hooves, constantly tripping and completely unable to keep a shoe on …

• Dot No.1: He’d been loaned out for 6-months previously to a teenager who had no clue what to feed to nourish, so poor diet had played a huge role in his general deterioration of health, which naturally affected his hoof integrity.

• 2^nd dot: I didn’t know it at the time (I still had 18-years of imminent intense studying ahead of me!), but he was classically autoimmune, hence his chronic sweetitch and pollen allergies, and borderline dangerous headshaking.

• 3^rd dot: This meant his hindgut biome was well out of kilter, with an overreactive and poorly functioning immune system. With hindsight, if ever there was a classic KPU case, Kelso was it, bred hard and fast in Ireland then shipped over to the UK, barely able to catch his breath before hitting the show circuit.

• 4^th dot: He was grazed on acidic soil, so very poor nutrient levels in his grass which affected his inner-engine chemistry. (Mineral balancing hadn’t been invented then).

• 5^th dot: He’d been fed haylage by his previous owner due to his chronic respiratory issues, a practice I then continued with him, because back then I didn’t know any better.

• 6^th dot: He got a daily feedbowl full of numerous fast-foods filled with sweet and tasty bulk-fillers, and horrors, I also gave him one of those uber-high 17%-sugar chaffs, the brand of which shall remain nameless because they’re still out there, because again back then I didn’t know any better.  

Coincidentally, this was around when my horse world was changing (see Our Story), so after finding the barefoot forum run by Nic Barker of Rockley Farm fame, I took his shoes off. I changed his feeds and got him off haylage. Not much I could about his naff grazing but once mineral balancing hit the scene a year or so later, he (and our other horses) became my crash test dummies.

Like magic, Kelso’s hooves became rock solid, he happily stomped barefoot and never stumbled again, and his allergy reactions lessened.

And there we have it. Dots. Connected. Food, quite literally, for thought … 😉