Helen Jacks-Hewett - McTimoney Animal Chiropractor

08/10/2025

Wow! 1 in 7 sport horses in the study discussed in this article showed multiple markers of laminitis on X-ray!! This goes to show that laminitis is not just confined to cresty native ponies and less recognised in sport horses.

Insulin dysregulation in sport horses might be underrecognized because these horses don’t always look like your obvious metabolic cases. In a new study, researchers assessed the prevalence of ID and subclinical laminitis in sport horses. ⁣
⁣
One in seven sport horses in the study had multiple radiographic markers of laminitis, highlighting the importance of routine balance films. ⁣

Read more: https://equimanagement.com/research-medical/metabolic/researchers-assess-prevalence-of-id-and-subclinical-laminitis-in-sport-horses/

06/10/2025

𝐂𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐜 𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐦 𝐣𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐯𝐢𝐚 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐥𝐢𝐧, 𝐚𝐬 𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐚𝐬 𝐞𝐱𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐰𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭

High levels of insulin - commonly associated with excess body fat in a number of breeds and types including native ponies and Spanish horses (PRE/Andalusian) - has a degradative effect on cartilage which long term, is likely to increase the risk of arthritis.

Chronic obesity can have a threefold harmful effects on the joints:

1. excess weight
2. systemic fat (adipose)-tissue related inflammation
3. excess insulin (hyperinsulinaemia) which appears to have a degradative effect on joint cartilage (research shows evidence)

If you want to learn about this and lots more, then my webinar all about nutrition for mobility will be just the thing.

There is also a webinar on what matters for the metabolism which will cover more information relevant to this area.

Comment webinars to get all the details.

🐴🍏

27/09/2025

Great advice here about exercising your horse for weight loss.

How to ride a horse 🏇 so that they burn more calories:

1️⃣ Vary the pace

👉 The best way for a horse to burn calories is to use a combination of trotting and cantering.
👉 Slow cantering (at 7m/s or 15.7mph) uses up to twice as much energy per minute compared with trotting.

2️⃣ Vary the type of work

👉 Include hacking, schooling, lunging, for example.
👉 The size of the circle determines how hard your horse has to work.
👉 The smaller the circle, the more calories will be burned, but this can also increase the risk of injury, especially on a horse that is overweight and/or unfit.

3️⃣ Monitor their heart rate

👉 This is the most reliable way to know how hard the horse is working.
👉 It tells you whether you're working them hard enough, as well as whether you're working them too hard for their current level of fitness.

❗An important rule is to increase the speed (effort), the duration of workouts, or the number of workouts per week, but never more than one of these at a time.

So, in the first few weeks do a 30-minute hack five times a week, then a 45-minute hack five times a week, and so on.

Equine obesity is a serious welfare issue and diet alone won’t solve the problem — burning calories through exercise is also essential. Read the full advice from Dr David Marlin via the link in comments 👇🏼

15/09/2025

Some more interesting girth research just out..

A brand-new peer-reviewed paper has just been published in Animals by Animalweb experts Dr David Marlin and Dr Roberta Blake, alongside co-authors Olivia Randell and Emma Mayhew. Why study girths? The girth – may look simple, but it plays a direct role in how pressure is distributed across the hor...

12/09/2025

Great to see RAMP-Register of Animal Musculoskeletal Practitioners is representing it’s members at BEVA Congress this weekend!

🎉Find us at BEVA stand D22!🎉

We've had a great first day talking to Vets, registrants and industry professionals. Looking forward to another busy day today!

08/09/2025

Backwards walking isn’t just reverse action 👇

The ‘back-up’ is a key exercise used in rehabilitation and now we have new evidence to support its effectiveness!

Eldridge et al. (2025) found unique hip extensor muscle activation and increased stifle and hock flexion with backwards walking.

This results of this study support the clinical use of this exercise to improve hind limb strength, stability, coordination and range of movement 👏👏

01/09/2025

Well who’d have thought it…?! Hopefully not just racing but the wider equestrian industry will take note of this and change.

A new study shows that Thoroughbred foals given more outdoor turnout time and weaned later are more likely to succeed as racehorses, with increased starts and higher prize money during their young careers.

The research followed 129 foals from birth to age four, collecting detailed management data and tracking later racing outcomes.

Results consistently linked more time outside and later weaning to positive results, regardless of veterinary care, bloodlines, or farm differences.

Researchers propose that early activity encourages musculoskeletal adaptation, making horses more robust and possibly better at movement and sensory processing.

Ultimately, while industry focus remains on performance and profit, the evidence suggests that practices aligning with horse welfare—like turnout and gradual weaning—benefit both horses AND the business of racing.

Full study: https://beva.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/evj.70084?utm_medium=email&utm_source=substack

24/08/2025

This is very promising research! The anti inflammatory drug Firocoxib (marketed as Equioxx tablets) is proving to be a safe choice for long term pain relief in horses.

Equioxx tablets were a complete game changer for my horse when he needed long term pain relief for arthritis, not only did his gut cope with them better than bute or danilon but they also seemed to be a lot more effective too in terms of lameness score improvement and joint range of movement. His quality of life in his last 6 months was so much more comfortable and I can report that many of my clients horses appear to be getting the same benefits. Slightly more expensive than bute but worth every penny and most equine vets are happy to provide a prescription too.

https://thehorse.com/1138535/long-term-firocoxib-use-appears-safe-for-horses/?fbclid=IwZnRzaAMYBhpleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHhgWCGk1c7cKPY2fLO6U24DUzFhteLRE1-GdaSmkQiQjG_EC0QXiVDO71N_Q_aem_SUlxx7UDEBbUCNxg4TFHtQ

Researchers say long-term use of this NSAID in horses does not have clinically significant negative effects on bloodwork.

24/08/2025

For those of us that need UV reduction masks for our horses this open access article is very useful! The Equilibrium masks I use have come out very well in the results.

UV blocking, or more accurately, UV reducing, masks are widely available for horses. There are a surprisingly large number of reasons you might want to use one, including Equine Recurrent Uveitis, eye conditions such as cataracts, corneal ulcers, conjunctivitis, eyelid cancer or ocular tumours, phot...

24/08/2025

ENERGY OVERSUPPLY: A SILENT RISK IN SO-CALLED 'SAFE' FORAGE

I'm astounded and very concerned to see advice in a forage analysis report that a hay supplying 9MJ of energy per kilo is suitable for a laminitic horse.

Even if that hay was to be fed at just 1.8% bodyweight intake per day (dry matter) - which is restricted i.e. lower than a normal appetite - this will supply 81MJ of energy.

An overweight laminitis-prone 500kg horse needs about 63MJ of energy per day (to ensure gradual weight loss, we feed 90% of energy requirements), so this hay fed at RESTRICTED quantities will oversupply this horse by over 18MJ of energy!!

That is the equivalent of about 1.5kg (a heaped stubbs scoop) of conditioning mix.

This is disastrous advice.

And if we fed this hay free choice to a normal (not a large) appetite (2.5% of BW), this could supply 112.5MJ of energy...
..which is how much a horse in significant work would need. And it's an almost 50MJ oversupply (about 4 stubbs scoops of conditioning mix), which is going to cause significant fat gain.

(And despite the simple sugar being almost 10%, the NSC is 21% - we all know that we must take into account not just sugar, but the entire NSC content of a hay i.e. the fructan as well).

This is DOUBLE the recommended amount of non-fibre carbs recommended for laminitics!!

(There is agreement amongst nutritionists, physiologists and research specialists that we need to consider fructan in hay and not just sugar and starch, when assessing suitability for EMS, laminitis and indeed obesity).

It is absolute basic nutrition knowledge to consider the dietary energy intake (we also call that 'calories').

I've said it many times before but I will say it again...

We MUST look past sugar (or worse, just sugar and starch) to assess the suitability of a forage for laminitics or overweight horses and ponies!!

It can be disastrous not to.

I've had countless owners come to me for advice - more than one almost in tears - wondering why their horse has put on weight on 'low sugar' hay.

And sadly, some of them have ended up with a bout of laminitis.

When taking advice on forage analysis results, please check the source is either a qualified nutritionist or the company has a qualified person working for or with them (who can train them).

Please be very careful who you take nutrition and feeding advice from.

Just because they sell products (feeds/supplements/forage/forage analysis) does not mean they have a suitably qualified person to offer nutrition advice (which this case clearly shows).

Feel free to share this

ps the overweight pony in the picture needs an energy (calorie) deficit, because this is the ONLY thing that will cause fat loss (he is not linked to the report I mention)
🐴🍏