Empowering Equine Education

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Join the FREE Emergency + First Aid Masterclass with Dr Lizzie now 👉 https://www.empoweringequineeducation.com/gwmc

Equine Emergency + First Aid Training
by Dr Lizzie McCready, BVetMed(Hons), CVA ~ helping you give your horse the best care possible. Founded in 2021 by Dr Lizzie McCready BVetMed (Hons), an equine veterinarian who qualified from the Royal Veterinary College in London and currently

works in Victoria, Australia. Amongst Dr Lizzie's decade of veterinary training and clinical experience, she has spent time working in ambulatory equine practice as well as at a specialist referral equine hospital. She aims to take the practical knowledge and transferrable skills from her own experiences, and provide resources for owners to use in their personal education development, allowing them to expand their ability to offer excellent care to their beloved competition and companion horses.

2023 Online Courses:

� EQUINE EMERGENCY RESPONSE TRAINING �

13/07/2026

Horses across the US and UK are feeling the heat! 🐴 ☀️

Here's how to help them out:

1. Crank up the airflow
Fans in stalls keep air moving across your horse's body, which helps sweat evaporate instead of just sitting on the coat.

2. Add mist
Misting fans or a simple mist attachment adds evaporative cooling on top of moving air. Great combo for horses stuck in a barn during peak heat.

3. Hose them down with cool water
Cold hosing is one of the fastest ways to bring core temp down. Ideally, keep the water running over large muscle groups (neck, chest, hindquarters) for several minutes.

4. Skip the scraping
Research shows that continuously reapplying cool water without scraping cools horses faster than the old hose-then-scrape method!

5. Add salt to their diet
Horses lose electrolytes through sweat. Don’t rely on just the salt-lick in their stable, add either plain salt (up to 2 tbsp) or a balanced electrolyte supplement directly into their feed.

6. Shade + water, always
Dense tree cover in the paddock or bringing our horse inside to get out of the sun are essential. Paired with fresh, clean water available at all times.

7. Know the warning signs of heat stress
Elevated heart rate and temperature, rapid breathing, lethargy, muscle weakness and staggering.

29/06/2026

During my recent vet lameness workshop, I found myself back in my teenage years, thinking about my old pony, Ella.

She was my heart pony. We did everything together but eventing was our world.

The newspaper clipping is us after winning a one-day event back in England. I've kept it all these years ❤

Her favourite phase was cross-country, where she was lightning fast and incredibly brave.

Dressage was never our forte. She struggled to hold the soft, consistent outline the judges look for. And showjumping, we'd nearly always get a pole or two, because she'd rush and start jumping flat.

I put it all down to training. Just problems we needed to work on.

It took us a couple of years to look any deeper. When we finally did a full lameness workup, including x-rays of her neck, she was diagnosed with osteoarthritis in two of the joints between her neck vertebrae.

The vet medicated the joints to ease the inflammation and pain. It helped a little, so we carried on. More training. Many more competitions.

I look back on that now and my heart sinks. Ella would have been uncomfortable the whole time, and she carried on anyway, doing everything she could to give me what I was asking for.

I just didn't know how to read what she was telling me. The speed, the inconsistent outline, the careless poles. That was her communicating pain, and I couldn't see it yet.

That's the bittersweet part of learning.

It's incredible to feel my knowledge expand every time I attend a new vet workshop, conference or lecture.

But it comes with a sinking feeling too, when I think back on my own animals and the patients I missed things on, simply because I didn't know any better at the time.

Even though I was doing my best with what I knew, that hindsight can be uncomfortable.

But it's a discomfort that adds fuel to the fire. It stokes my passion to never stop learning, because there's always more to know.

And I hope I can inspire you to keep learning too. That's why I'm here.

So we can reduce those bittersweet moments together, and give our horses the absolute best ❤🐴

27/06/2026

‼️PSA: Stop putting vet wrap straight onto the horse's skin.

Vet wrap is that colourful, stretchy, self-adhesive bandage you'll find in nearly every animal produce and tack store. Used well, it's brilliant. Used wrong - like over the back of the knee in this photo - it can do real harm.

Vet wrap should NEVER be applied directly to the horse’s skin. It should always be used with adequate padding underneath - I use cotton wool, layered to approx 1 inch thick for this.

Without adequate padding, it can:

> Rub on the horse as they move, leading to pressure sores that can be difficult to heal. The accessory carpal bone at the back of the knee, the medial malleolus on the inside of the hock, and heel bulbs are the top places I see pressure sores occur.

> Bunch up - as it doesn’t actually stick to the skin, just itself. This can lead to uneven pressure over important structures like tendons.

> And if it gets wet, it shrinks and constricts, which can cut off circulation and cause serious tissue damage.

When applied as the outer layer to hold cotton padding firmly in place - it’s awesome. Just make sure you leave at least ½ inch of padding visible at the top and bottom to prevent chafing at the edges.

I really wish they'd print: "Do not apply directly to skin. Use over padding." on the wrapper 🙏

Until they do, I’ll be shouting this one from the rooftops!

Please pass on the message. This is such a common mistake, and it's such an easy one to prevent once you know.

~ Dr Lizzie
Founder, Empowering Equine Education

26/06/2026

Thrilled to see the improvement in Scarlette’s eye today! Her corneal ulcer had hit a plateau and required debridement to remove the unhealthy tissue. It’s now well on its way to fully healing, with the incredible dedication of Emma and her commitment to the medication schedule (If you’ve ever treated a serious eye ulcer, you’ll know!) 👏🏻

I’ve been loving nerding out on eyes and utilising my new gadgets since getting back from the amazing ophthalmology workshop in Queensland 🤓

24/06/2026

👁 3 Eye Checks for Horse Owners (that take less than 10 seconds)

#1 Are the eyelashes pointing down?

One of the earliest signs of eye pain is a drooping of the eyelashes on one side. This happens because a painful eye is reflexively retracted back into the skull as a protective mechanism, pulling the eyelashes with it.

#2 Is the surface of the eye clear?

Any cloudiness (new or progressing) can indicate inflammation, infection, trauma, or scarring. New lesions always warrant a vet assessment.

#3 Are the pupils symmetrical?

Horses' pupils are dynamic. They dilate in low light and constrict to a narrow, letterbox shape in bright conditions. If one pupil is more constricted than the other, that asymmetry is a sign of pain and should be flagged with your vet.

These are subtle changes. Which is exactly why they get missed. Once you know what you're looking for, you start seeing what was always there.

23/06/2026

“You see what you know.”

I recently heard this saying from one of my favourite mentors, Professor Dennis Brooks, one of the best horse eye vets in the world.

It got me thinking…

Our knowledge works like blinkers. We can only perceive what falls inside our awareness, and we're blind to what sits outside it.

Horses are always trying to show us what is wrong. It just depends on if we can see it or not.

The more we learn, the more the blinkers widen, and we’re able to perceive what was there all along.

Being a vet is a life-long learning journey. And I believe the same applies to horse owners too.

There’s always more to learn. And every bit of knowledge we build pulls those blinkers a little wider.

Empowering us to recognise more, and do better by the horse.

That’s why I’ll never stop learning. And why I love to teach.

📸 Picture from the 3-day advanced ophthalmology workshop I attended in Queensland recently. It was eye-opening!

18/06/2026

“Better safe than sorry” When it comes to horse first aid and emergencies, those four simple words have never been more true.

The last thing we want when a horse needs help is to be second-guessing, searching for answers, or panicking.

In those critical moments, the difference between “I don’t know what to do” and “I’ve got this” is almost always preparation.

As an equine vet who has helped hundreds of horse owners through critical situations, I believe...

When the unexpected happens, being prepared is the greatest gift we can give a horse.

In this free masterclass, discover my 5 step Emergency-Ready Framework for handling emergencies confidently - without relying on luck or guesswork.
👉 www.empoweringequineeducation.com/gwmc-fb

What you'll learn:
✓ 5 game-changing strategies for handling emergencies
✓ Clear, actionable steps you can implement immediately
✓ Essential first aid skills that build confidence and capability
✓ Effective vet communication so you know exactly what to say
✓ Money-saving insights that can help reduce vet bills without compromising your horse’s well-being

This online class is free, interactive, and actionable - with replay access if you can’t attend live.

👉 Click below to join the free class:
www.empoweringequineeducation.com/gwmc-fb

See you there,
Dr Lizzie

17/06/2026

I wish I'd known this decades ago!!

Looking back, some of the horses I rode over the years were showing me signs I didn’t know how to recognise. We were told to ride them through it. To push on. And I took that as normal.

It wasn't.

One of my biggest takeaways from the recent veterinary lameness workshop with Dr Sue Dyson I attended was something called the Ridden Horse Pain Ethogram. It has me looking at ridden horses through a whole new lens.

Dr Sue is one of the world's leading authorities on equine lameness. The ethogram is a science-backed tool made up of 24 ridden behaviours. If a horse shows 8 or more of them, there's likely underlying musculoskeletal pain.

Our horses aren't being naughty. They're communicating. We just have to learn their language.

I highly recommend her book: Harmonious Horsemanship by Dr Sue Dyson and Sue Palmer. It walks through all 24 signs with clear photographs, so you can train your eye to spot them.

This is my copy. Sue signed it with "keep looking & learning" 😍

Every owner who rides should know about this.

16/06/2026

If you’ve ever experienced your horse choking, you’ll know that heart-stopping feeling of panic.

Here's the tricky part about choke:

Sometimes, when feed or hay becomes stuck in the oesphagus, it can clear on its own within 15-30 minutes - often before your vet even arrives. The scary symptoms (nasal discharge, coughing, neck spasms, distress) might stop, but then you're left wondering...

"Are we really in the clear?"

I once had a worried client face this exact situation. Her horse seemed better, but she wasn't sure whether to get me out or not. So I shared a simple but powerful test that every horse owner should know:

🌱 The Grass Challenge Test

1. Hand-feed your horse a handful of grass (only do this if you think the choke has passed).

2. Watch the left side of their head and neck - follow the red dotted line in my diagram.

3. Watch for THREE key signs:
- Normal chewing
- Comfortable swallowing
- A smooth-moving ball of grass travelling down the left side of their neck as it passes through the oesphagus (where the red, dotted line runs down the neck).

⚠ If your horse starts showing any signs of distress (lip curling, neck stretching, coughing), the obstruction is likely still there and they need veterinary care.

This simple test is just one example of how the right knowledge at the right time can make all the difference in an emergency and first aid situation.

14/06/2026

Are you feeding too much in one go?

A horse’s stomach is smaller than you’d expect - about the size of a rugby ball.

When we feed large meals, we overwhelm their ability to digest starch and sugars in the small intestine.

The undigested food then spills into the caecum, where it ferments and disrupts the delicate microbial balance - increasing the risk of gas, hindgut acidosis, and colic.

All things we want to avoid.

✅ Safe Feeding Rule: Keep meals under 0.5kg per 100kg bodyweight.

That’s equal to:
- 2.5kg for a 500kg horse
- 1.5kg for a 300kg pony

Important Tips:

🐴 When feeding a soaked feed (like beet pulp or hay cubes), be sure to count the full soaked weight - water included.

🐴 If your horse needs a high volume of hard feed daily due to limited forage (such as older horses with poor teeth), split the feed into smaller meals and space them throughout the day

Address

Melbourne, VIC

Website

https://www.empoweringequineeducation.com/

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