Not having been to one of Gillian Higgins conferences before, in fact I have never been to an equine conference, I was unsure of what to expect. I needn't have worried.
The first day was held in the Ramada Hotel in the warmth and started out with Dr Meike van Heel who gave a talk some research that she has been undertaking "Development and Influence of Uneven Feet on Limb Loading and Performance of Warmblood Horses." Dutch warmblood horses are rejected if they have uneven feet, because of a belief that this conformational issue is hereditary. Her research was aiming to establish that uneven feet are developmental rather than hereditary.
One of the most interesting point that she discovered was that horses have a propensity to be handed, left, right, ambidextrous. This could be seen when the foals graze. Foals have long legs inproportion to their bodies in order that they can keep up with their mothers as they graze. This means that they need to stretch their legs in order for them to lower their heads to graze.
Image from http://www.nationalparks.gov.uk/
image from http://stonehollowfarm.com/stallions-pages/shf_coleo.htm
She tested this by putting feed on the floor and getting foals to walk towards it and monitored which leg was protracted so the head could be lowered to reach the food.
The research found that uneveness in feet was more likely to be developmental than hereditary.
Read the full report from the conference here
Watch for my next blog post about horse and rider aysymetry and the second day of the conference and how I will use this to offer a new service at KB Equine Therapy
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