Preview: Rood & Riddle Equine Podiatry Conference

Rood & Riddle Equine Podiatry Conference

April 14-16, 2022

Spy Coast Farm Equine Education Center 

Lexington, Kentucky

Late breaking news! Attention, veterinarians: 19.5 hours of RACE continuing education credit has been approved for this event.

Renate Weller appointed vet school dean at University of Calgary

Renate Weller, an educator and leader in the equine veterinary field in Europe, will become the new Dean of the University of Calgary Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Canada this September.

Well-known veterinary educator and researcher Renate Weller, Dr Med Vet, PhD, MScVetEd, FHEA, NTF, DipACVSMR, MRCVS will accept a new challenge in September when she adds Canada to the countries she has called home. Professor Weller will soon be known as Dean Weller as she assumes leadership of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Calgary (UCFVM) in Alberta, Canada.

Worshipful Company of Farriers awards Honorary Fellowship to Professor Renate Weller

Professor Renate Weller received an Honorary Fellowship from Steven Wilson, Master of the Worshipful Company of Farriers, in London last week. A native of Germany, the veterinarian wore her traditional Bavarian coat for this special occasion. Photo Credit: Sam Lane Photography. 

Professor Renate Weller, Drvetmed, PhD, MScVetEd, ACVSMR, FHEA, NTF, ECVSMR, MRCVS,  has received Great Britain's Worshipful Company of Farriers' (WCF) Honorary Fellowship in recognition of her “outstanding contribution to the craft of farriery and the welfare of the horse”.

Transitions: Hoof research innovator Renate Weller makes career move to corporate veterinary education

Professor Renate Weller (center) of the Royal Veterinary College in the United Kingdom announced this week that she is leaving academia for a career in corporate veterinary education. Weller has been a magnet in the equine industry for her inclusive and inspiring dialogues with students, horse owners, farriers and the public. She is shown here during a demonstration for an equestrian group touring the RVC's Structure and Motion Laboratory where she conducts research. (RVC publicity photo)

Professor Renate Weller, Drvetmed, PhD, MScVetEd, ACVSMR, FHEA, NTF, ECVSMR, MRCVS, has announced her decision to leave her academic teaching role at the Royal Veterinary College (RVC), University of London in the United Kingdom.

2017 British Equine Veterinary Association Congress features “BEVA Farriery Day” and equine lameness programs

The British Equine Veterinary Association (BEVA) Congress is only six weeks away, and the time has come to make plans to attend this world-class event. Touting itself as "organized by horse vets for horse vets", the BEVA Congress is Europe’s largest equine veterinary conference. This year it will be held at Liverpool Arena Convention Centre from 13-16 September.  The Hoof Blog has dissected the schedule to pull out interesting speakers and topics of interest to veterinarians and farriers.

Speaking of farriers, this year the BEVA Congress is hosting a full day of farriery speakers, moderated by Professor Renate Weller of the Royal Veterinary College, on Saturday, September 16. Farriers may attend the one-day session at a special rate, but the rate ends on August 4.

The schedule for BEVA Farriery Day: 

Anatomy and biomechanics of the foot |  Jean-Marie Denoix 

How do nerve blocks help in the management of foot pain? | Michael Schramme Radiography of the foot – how does it help farriery management? | Renate Weller MRI of the foot – how does it help farriery management? | Tim Mair

How does arena surface modify distal limb biomechanics in sport horses? |  Nathalie Crevier-Denoix 

How to read the hoof capsule | Grant Moon Farriery of the foal | Simon Curtis 

The natural balance approach | David Nicholls 
Kinesitherapic shoes | Jean-Marie Denoix 
Managing the Thoroughbred foot | Declan Cronin 
Keeping the dressage horse sound | Haydn Price 
Guidelines for trimming and shoeing the sport horse | Grant Moon 

Farriery panel and case discussions on The Barefoot Revolution--Fad, Fiction and Facts with panelists Renate Weller, Michael Schramme, David Nicholls, Simon Curtis, Haydn Price, Grant Moon, Declan Cronin and Jonathan Anderson

Here's a message from Professor Weller about the farriery event:

Early registration rates close on August 4, 2017, however direct online registration is not available for those registering for the Farriery Day only. The form can be filled out and emailed to Verity at BEVA.

Click here to download the registration form with the full schedule, rates, and details.

Click here for full BEVA Congress information.

The BEVA Congress has a wide-ranging program of events; in addition to the packed multi-track lecture schedule, the Congress hosts a large trade show of equine veterinary products and some innovative specialty topics are covered in depth, such as an afternoon session on equine "end of life" decision making.  The pros and cons of incorporating a veterinary practice will be debated.

In addition to the farriery day, there is also a dentistry day and a nursing day. Derek Knottenbelt will present the 2017 John Hickman Memorial Plenary Lecture; his topic: Using the past to make the future better. Tom Divers of Cornell University is one of the US veterinarians who will be speaking at Liverpool.

This video offers some reactions to the BEVA Congress from 2016 attendees:

Some lameness highlights from the main Congress lecture schedule:

Thursday Lameness Topics and Speakers from the Main Congress Schedule

Dealing with excessive granulation tissue | Yvonne Elce
Chronic progressive lymphoedema | Marianne Sloet
CAT: What is the risk that corticosteroid treatment will cause laminitis? |  Edd Knowles
Skin problems of the distal limb |  Marianne Sloet
Foot conformation and placement | Thilo Pfau
Training aids |  Russell Guire
Pelvic movement asymmetry | Thilo Pfau
Tendon properties | M. Verkade
Sole packing and impact vibrations | Amy Barstow
Wounds | Jonathan Anderson
Acute Laminitis | John Keen

Common fractures | Matthew Smith

Lymphangitis/cellulitis | David Rendle

Choice of intra-articular medications for treating joint disease | Andrew Bathe

Use of stem cells in treatment of osteoarthritis | Michael Schramme

Use of bisphosphonates in bone disease | Olivier Lepage

Complications of biologic therapies in the treatment of musculoskeletal disease | Roger Smith

CAT: Is it worth me operating on a DIRT lesion in a juvenile Thoroughbred intended for racing? | Richard Reardon

Imaging the proximal suspensory ligament | Jean-Marie Denoix

Medical treatment of proximal suspensory desmitis | Kent Allen

Surgical management of proximal suspensory desmitis | Andrew Bathe

Acupuncture in the management of equine lameness | Dietrich Von Schweinitz

CAT: What is the best treatment option for a medial femoral condylar subchondral bone cyst? | Etienne O’Brien

Diagnosis of PPID and EMS | Kelsey Hart

CAT: Does pergolide therapy prevent laminitis in horses diagnosed with PPID? | Edd Knowles

Fractures secondary to kick injuries | A. Schreier

Friday Lameness Topics and Speakers
from the Main Congress Schedule

Limb and hoof conformation: When do variations affect intended use? | Sue Dyson

PPE of horses intended for breeding. What can be done? | James Crabtree

PPE across Europe – understanding the clash of cultures | Malcolm Morley

PPE and radiology of sports horses. What is the evidence? | Werner Jahn

PPE disasters – and how to avoid them | Malcolm Morley

Resveratrol in osteoarthritis | D. Ryan 

Synovial fluid metabolomic profiles | J. Anderson
Computed tomographic contrast tenography | R. Agass

Hock conformation and PSD | J. Routh

Suture patterns for DDFT repair | L. Chapman

Catastrophic condylar fractures – MRI | J. Peloso

Nuclear scintigraphy in sports horses | L. Quiney

Facial expressions and pain | S. Dyson

EHV-2 in tendon | R. Wardle
Return to racing after SDFT injury | R. Alzola

Complications of arthroscopic surgery | Bruce Bladon

Where are we and where are we going with objective lameness evaluation? | Filipe Serra Bragança

Objective lameness evaluation in clinical practice | Michael Schramme

Why I prefer subjective evaluation of lameness | Sue Dyson

CAT: Can I give alpha-2 agonists for blocking and accurately assess the horse’s lameness once blocked? | Michael De Cozar

Pragmatic approach to multi-limb lameness | Luis Rubio-Martinez

Changing disease patterns in an aging equine population | John Marshall

Fasted insulin for EMS diagnosis | R. Olley

Effects of Karo dose on oral sugar test | N. Jocelyn

PK and PD of oral pergolide in horses with PPID | D. Rendle

When nerve and joint blocks go wrong | Bruce Bladon

CAT: Is nuclear scintigraphy helpful in the diagnosis of chronic lameness in competition horses? | Jonathon Dixon

Evaluation of flexion tests | John Marshal

Owner perceptions of equine obesity | T. Furtado

Regional anaesthesia of the distal limb | Luis Rubio Martinez
Ultrasound of the distal limb | Roger Smith

Regional anaesthesia of the distal limb | Luis Rubio Martinez 

Distal limb dissection Parts 1, 2, and 3 | Jean-Marie Denoix

Saturday Lameness Topics and Speakers
 from the Main Congress Schedule

Emerging methods using ultrasound for detection of soft tissue musculoskeletal disease | Valeria Busoni

Is MRI of the proximal metacarpal or metatarsal region worth it? | Lucy Meehan

Body condition scoring – how to do it and how to engage horse-owners | Lizzie Drury

Use and abuse of NSAIDs | John Marshall

Live Horse Ultrasound with Jean-Marie Denoix  | Sponsored by The International Society of Equine Locomotor Pathology
Basics of medication of competition horses | Andrew Bathe
Do vets need to understand the rules of competition, showing and racing? | Jonathan Pycock

Photo credit for preserved leg specimen in top graphic: Museum of Veterinary Anatomy FMVZ USP.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing; Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is the news service for Hoofcare and Lameness Publishing. Please, no re-use of text or images on other sites or social media without permission--please link instead. (Please ask if you need help.) The Hoof Blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a headlines-link email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page). Use the little envelope symbol below to email this article to others. The "translator" tool in the right sidebar will convert this article (roughly) to the language of your choice. To share this article on Facebook and other social media, click on the small symbols below the labels. Be sure to "like" the Hoofcare and Lameness Facebook page and click on "get notifications" under the page's "like" button to keep up with the hoof news on Facebook. 

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Disclosure of Material Connection: The Hoof Blog (Hoofcare Publishing) has not received any direct compensation for writing this post. Hoofcare Publishing has no material connection to the brands, products, or services mentioned, other than products and services of Hoofcare Publishing. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

The Royal Veterinary College’s Equine Locomotor Research Course for farriers expands to the USA

Good news! The already-successful graduate diploma research course for farriers at England's Royal Veterinary College (RVC) will be offered in the United States, beginning in January 2018. The deadline for applications is September 4, 2017. 

Royal Veterinary College studies elastic resistance bands for equine rehabilitation and training

Horse wearing the modified saddle pad with abdominal resistance band attached; the clip for the hindquarters band can also be seen.

Core strength training for horses has been a key criteria for developing equine athletes with the necessary condition and muscle develop to sustain advanced gaits and collected movements. Even if a horse has great conformation and appears to have the natural talent to excel, sufficient core body strength is required for sustained collected work.

Professor Renate Weller, noted for horse hoof research and imaging, in line for presidency of British Equine Veterinary Association

Professor Renate Weller of the Royal Veterinary College, London, will be president of the British Equine Veterinary Association in 2018, following results of an election held this year. (BEVA photo)

The British Equine Veterinary Association (BEVA) issued a press release this week with some news about a British veterinarian well-known to everyone exposed to equine hoof research. The Hoof Blog is happy to share this news.

Royal Veterinary College Announces Graduate Equine Locomotor Research Diploma for Farriers

These images from recent locomotor research at the RVC were part of a test on the influence of hoof packing on a shod horse's foot deformation at the walk and trot. (©RVC image)

Hoof Blog comment: Progress happens slowly, and this announcement has been a long time coming--about 225 years, in fact. Sometimes making progress requires going back to the beginning of things and looking it all, all over again. That’s what’s happening in Great Britain this summer, as the Royal Veterinary College prepares to invite farriers to return to the vet school, which (like all vet schools) began when 19th century farriers sought to improve their scientific knowledge, banded together, and expanded their skills. The result was the invention a new field of medicine: veterinary science. 

The United Kingdom's Royal Veterinary College (RVC) announced today that it will launch a new Graduate Diploma in Equine Locomotor Research (Grad Dip ELR). The new program offers farriers the opportunity to gain skills and experience in producing original research to both increase the evidence base behind farriery, and to enhance equine welfare.

BEVA Congress Farriery Day Asks Key Questions about Evidence-Based Hoofcare

“What would you do?”

That was the question at the British Equine Veterinary Association (BEVA) Congress Farriery Day earlier this fall in Birmingham, England.  One thing that came out of this day long poking and prodding of contemporary farriery was that you might think a bit before answering that question the next time someone poses it.

Stromsholm's November Newmarket Hoof Care Conference Focuses on Long Toes - Low Heels in the Competition Horse

Stromsholm, a leading British hoof care products supplier, will host the Newmarket Hoof Care Conference on November 17, 2014 in the Millennium Suite at Newmarket Racecourse in Newmarket, England.

Attendance is by advanced reservation only. Please call 01908 233909 to request a reservation.

British Equine Veterinary Association Announces Foot and Farriery Topics, Speakers at 2014 BEVA Congress

The 2014 "BEVA Congress" or annual convention of the British Equine Veterinary Association, has announced the addition of a full day program on farriery and foot lameness for Saturday, September 13. The Congress will be held at the ICC in Birmingham, England, where five separate scientific programs will run concurrently in five lecture halls over the three days of congress,.

Hoof Explorer: Discover and Interact with the Horse's Foot in Three Beautiful Dimensions, Online

Hoof Explorer is a new interactive 3-D anatomy education tool that is in four languages and has almost infinite capacity for displaying the anatomy of the distal limb.

It's official: 2013 is the year of 3-D hoof anatomy on the web. 

Adventures in Hoof Science: British Farriers Collect Data on Heart Bar and Lateral Extension Shoes at Royal Veterinary College's Structure and Motion Laboratory

Story and photos provided by Carl Bettison, AWCF (Hons)

British farriers spent a day at the Royal Veterinary College's Structure and Motion Laboratory last week; they watched while Jim Blurton shod two horses with bar shoes. Equigait wireless gait analysis technology was paired with high speed video and a force plate to monitor changes with the addition of the shoes. (Gill Harris photo)

A small group of farriers with a keen shared interest in equine biomechanics and a thirst to understand the science behind horseshoeing had a unique opportunity to witness an afternoon’s research conducted in the Royal Veterinary College’s Structure and Motion Laboratory in England last week. The RVC’s Renate Weller DrMedVet, PhD, MRCVS, FHEA led the event, along with her team, which represents a range of scientific disciplines.

Hallmarq Standing MRI: Hoof Conformation from the Inside Out

 

This sponsored blog post is the latest in a series produced in partnership with Hallmarq Veterinary Imaging. Thanks to Hallmarq for their support of The Hoof Blog. This video explains the process known as "Standing MRI" of the equine foot using a Hallmarq system. The units are in use around the world.

Which came first: the chicken or the egg? 

Forget everything you “know” or think you know, about the relationship between foot shape and lameness. What matters in this age of evidence-based veterinary medicine is 1) what can be demonstrated and measured; 2) reliably repeating what was demonstrated; and 3) documenting the data of the measures.

If some hoof research makes you yawn and seems to be proving what is already obvious to you, remember that building a better tower of knowledge means that we know we can count on the blocks at the bottom of the tower. They must be proven before we can move on.

Hoof science is shy a few blocks. The tower is still on the drawing board. In order to document what you "know"via the scientific process, it is necessary to approach it from different angles so that it can be measured.

The deep digital flexor tendon (DDFT) is the most common site of damage in the foot identified by standing MRI scanning of sport horses. As you know, this tendon runs down the leg and attaches to the bottom of the coffin bone (P3). The three arrows added to this scan are directing the eye to the portion of the DDFT which, in this Irish horse, has a lesion that looks like a split. Normally tendon would be solid black. The recent study in England looked at a group of horses with similar injuries of the DDFT and measured for similarities in the conformation of foot structures. (Photo courtesy of Troytown Equine Hospital, Co. Kildare, Ireland.)

When researchers at Great Britain’s Royal Veterinary College wanted to get to the bottom of this age-old conformation to lameness relativity issue, they used Hallmarq standing MRI images to collect data that could be measured. The group of investigators worked under the direction of Renate Weller Dr Med.Vet, PhD, MRCVS, FHEA, senior lecturer in diagnostic imaging and locomotor biomechanics, at the RVC's Structure and Motion Laboratory.

Tim Mair, BVSc, PhD, DEIM, DESTS, DipECEIM, MRVCS is an author of the paper and a partner in England's Bell Equine Veterinary Clinic, where Hallmarq Standing MRI scans were sourced by Hallmarq's Nick Bolas. Also from the private sector, and a recent RVC graduate, Jonathon Dixon BVetMed MRCVS of Rainbow Equine Clinic was involved with the study.

The premise of the study is an inside-out refinement of hoof confomration. Instead of measuring the circumference of the hoof capsule and the contour of the coronet, they measured or calculated characteristics of the structures inside the foot. The availability of real-world lameness cases' standing MRI scans meant that the researchers had the luxury of a library of almost 200 images of injured or lame feet that met the study's criteria.

The MRI would have been originally made to assist in a definitive diagnosis on a lame horse. The clinician noted that the MRI showed a lesion in the deep digital flexor tendon or injury to the navicular bone, etc.

The researchers from the Royal Veterinary College undertook the project of evaluating these standing MRI scans not in the context of a single lame horse, but in the hopes that they would find other similarities in the feet of horses that had received the same diagnosis.

Once again: don’t assume anything, but see what the MRIs had to say.

If you overlaid a dozen images of the same type of injury from a dozen horses’ hooves, would the hoof capsules line up and show similar characteristics?

The researchers found that there indeed was similarity in the measurements of feet with the same diagnosed injuries.

What type of horses and lameness?

The mean age of horses in the study was between ten and eleven years; the average grade of lameness was approximately a “3” on a scale of 1 to 10. Breeds included 37 Warmbloods, 51 Thoroughbreds and Thoroughbred crosses, 22 Irish sport horses, 15 Irish draft horses and Irish draft crosses, 11 Cobs and 43 horses of other various breeds.

The horses had been diagnosed with many types of injuries, including lesions of their deep digital flexor tendon (DDFT), navicular bone (NB), collateral ligaments of the distal interphalangeal joints and

25 other structures.

What was measured? C, sole angle; D, toe angle; H, heel angle; N, deep digital flexor tendon angle; PL1, plumb line 1;  PL2, plumb line 2;  MA1, proximal moment arm; MA2, distal moment arm; SI, distal phalanx length; LC, toe length.

Sole angle

Sole angle is a relatively new term in the lexicon of foot anatomy. It is not the angle formed where the sole meets the wall, as documented in some studies. Its number is not describing the sole at all, in fact, rather the concavity of the coffin bone.

Dr. Weller took the time to explain it for Hoof Blog readers as the concave sole surface of the coffin bone to horizontal angle. Check the diagram to see the point on the mid-sagittal MRI scan where this angle is measured.

Dr Weller explained: "The issue we have in practice is that the sole angle we measure on radiographs does not correspond to the angle at which the DDFT actually attaches, but (rather we measure) the lateral and medial coffin bone borders.

"This (angle of the coffin bone) can be taken as an approximation at best, since the concavity of the coffin bone differs between horses. So some may have little concavity and in those horses the radiographic measurement will correspond quite well to the insertion angle of the DDFT, (however) some horses may have (a) very concave coffin bone and in these the radiographic measurements will not represent the DDFT insertion angle.

"The reason we care about this angle is that it is strongly related to the strain the DDFT experiences and hence the pressure this tendon exerts on the navicular bone," she concluded.

Measurement results

• A larger sole angle was associated with combined deep digital flexor tendon (DDFT) and navicular bone (NB) lesions, but not with NB lesions alone.
• A more acute angle of the DDFT around the NB was associated with DDFT and NB lesions.
• A lower heel height index was linked with DDFT injury.
• The larger the sole angle, the smaller the likelihood of a DDFT or NB lesion.
• Measurements of the feet in the study contradicted findings of other studies.

Why is this study important?

Taking measurements from diagnostic images is not a new idea, so why is this study newsworthy? 

Previous studies have shown that certain conformational traits--sole angle in particular--increase forces acting on the DDFT and NB in sound horses. This study supports these findings by showing that conformational parameters are associated with DDFT and NB lesions in lame horses.

Standing MRI is done with the horse
bearing weight on the injured limb

The researchers noted that while this study shows an association between certain conformation parameters and foot lesions, foot conformation cannot be identified as causative factor of lameness. "Foot conformation may change as a consequence of lameness," they concluded.

Which brings us back to the chicken and the egg.

Future studies at the RVC will focus on dynamic conformation by investigating foot-surface interaction in lame versus sound horses, which may eventually open a preventative and/or therapeutic window for horses in the process of developing specific lesions within the foot.

Relevance of this study

The study's findings emphasize the deep digital flexor tendon's influence on the conformation of the foot and that it plays a leading role in many foot lameness problems. The DDFT's angle within the foot and the relative concavity of the distal phalanx (P3) (as measured by sole angle) may become routinely documented in the future.

Studies like this one are changing the way that foot structures are evaluated and measured. Standing MRI scanning provided three-dimensional evaluation of the foot, expanding the diagnostic field for the most precise possible examination of foot tissues and for the most accurate measurement protocols for scientific relevance. 

But Weller’s team’s emerging protocols for evidence-based hoof evaluation provide the sport horse and racing worlds with a basic building block that could one day be used on important studies to answer questions on equine welfare, prevent pain and increase a horse’s useful years. The hoof is one of the last frontiers of equine science, and the Royal Veterinary College is dedicated to learning more about it.

Research can’t be any more relevant than that.

To read the full paper: Kate Holroyd, Jonathan J. Dixon, Tim Mair, Nick Bolas, David M. Bolt, Frederic David and Renate Weller; Foot conformation in lame horses with different foot lesions diagnosed, published online in The Veterinary Journal, September 2012.

 To learn more about Hallmarq Veterinary Imaging and standing MRI technology for horses:

• "Like" Hallmarq Equine MRI Facebook page;
• Follow @HallmarqMRI on Twitter;
• Subscribe to the hallmarqvetimaging channel on YouTube.com;
• Watch for a growing equine distal limb Hallmarq MRI image gallery on Flickr.com.
• Visit the Hallmarq.net web site. (Plan to spend some time there!) 

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing; Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. Please, no use without permission. You only need to ask. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page). To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found. Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.  

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Disclosure of Material Connection: Hoofcare Publishing contracted to receive compensation for compiling this post but the veterinary expertise and opinions in the article were provided by John Peloso DVM and Hallmarq Veterinary Imaging.  The information contained in this article is for informational purposes only, and should not be used to replace professional veterinary advice for your horse. Visitors to the website are responsible for how they choose to utilize this content. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.