Nicole Jory - Hoof Care Practitioner

10/08/2026

Since there has been a huge increase in the use of SGLT2 inhibitors with metabolic horses, I wanted to make sure equine owners had a good resource on how they work, what the risks are and ways to support your equines while they are taking them. I personally have seen incredible turnarounds on lamintic cases with their use, but they aren't without risk and complications so please do your homework!

https://www.ecirhorse.org/EMS-Canagliflozin-Ertugliflozin.php

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Canagliflozin (Invokana) and ertugtliflozin (Steglatro) are the latest weapons in the war against difficult to control Equine Metabolic Syndrome (EMS)..

10/08/2026

Fall feet can be tricky up in the North "wet. This year has been particularly warm and dry so the transition to winter feet has been a bit less dramatic. Sometimes the hooves go from bone dry and like little blocks of concrete, to soft, shedding and full of new fugus and bacteria eating away at the newly exfolaiting tissue which can create proprioceptive changes for the horses, especially when the feet are changing by the ground is still hard. We have that same transition here in the spring. New grass re-emerging with rain also can contribute to inflammation and tender toes for some, especially those predisposed to metabolic challenges, gut health issues and other inflammatory conditions that get aggravated at by the seasonal changes.

Naturally, the trim process is constant and progressive. The exfoliating material releases, rots and gets worn away (if they are moving enough to do so) leaving a hoof wall that is a bit longer than this new, uncallused sole plane. Through movement on varied surfaces, the hoof wall chips and breaks away as new sole callus develops, and balance is restored until the next seasonal shift.

With many domestic horses, all of this happens with one trim which can be an overwhelming change, and in some cases cause brusing, abscessing, or just general "footiness". Sometimes the trim is too aggressive for this specific shift, or the horse may not currently have good hoof form and development to be able to adjust qu**ky.

With my own horse, I like to help him exfoliate the shedding sole and frog a few days before doing a full trim to allow him to adjust, but in situations where you aren't trimming your own some other adjustments to the trim can be made by the practitioner.

Leaving a little extra wall above the sole can help, and sometimes even planning a few trims on a bit of a shorter cycle during this time to help with that transition so you can trim less, but still keep them balanced, especially since I notice some horses have a bit of a hoof growth spurt before winter. Also, if you don't already use hoof boots for exercise, it can be nice for your horse to use them during these transition periods to keep them comfy until the feet are set up for the season ahead.

Last but not least, because of the increase in moisture, humidity and bacterial and fungal activity, it's a good idea to start proactively treating the hooves for thrush/fungus etc a few times a week, to keep the tissue healthy and robust.

Overall, keep them moving, building those calluses, keeping those internal tissues strong and the blood pumping to feet those tissues, and making sure they are comfortable enough to do so is top priority.

10/02/2026

I wrote this in Grade 5. I see nothing has changed.

09/15/2026

Glyphosate and Equine Ulcers

My post a few days ago seemed to resonate with a lot of people who have noticed the increasing trends in the metabolic health of our equines and the increased presence of glyphosate in all aspects of the lives of our animals (and ourselves).

People also noticed the increase in other immune related issues related to things such as EPM, Lyme, sweet itch, hyperreactivity to vaccines, and overwhelmingly- gut health issues.

Unfortunately even though so many people have stories about how they have witnessed health decline in their horses when exposed to glyphosate, there are almost no equine related studies that we can reference.

BUT... there is one! (Link in comments)

Schusser GF, Köller G, Recknagel S, Lindner A. (2022). [Glyphosate detection in the duodenal fluid of horses with gastric ulcer syndrome]

This shows a connection between the presence of glyphosate in the duodenal fluid of horses and gastric ulcers in horses.

In my own experience, i have seen subclinical and chronic lamintis symptoms in horses with gastric ulcers. I can often see the quality of the feet, presence of repeated stress lines, sole depth, posture and overall comfort in the feet, whether or not a horse is suffering with ulcers.

I'm unsure if the cause of those hoof changes are due to chronic systemic inflammation, poor nutrient absorption, bacterial die off or imbalances in the microbiome causing a toxic systemic reaction or all that and then some? But if this study is correct, and glyphosate can be connected to the presence of ulcers, that is another connection between glyphosate and hoof health.

Once again, not implying that glyphosate is the ONLY cause of ulcers, there are so many things that can contribute, but the case is there and we need to informed. I promise my page won't turn into all glyphosate, all the time, but while I am educating myself more on the topic I may as well share!

09/12/2026

Glyphosate causes insulin resistance and metabolic disorders, disrupts the gut microbiome and the effects can be heritable.
(Please note, I am not saying it is the ONLY cause)

Last year I made a post about laminitis that was quite popular. In the post, one of the points I mentioned was the potential roll of the use of herbicides/pesticides in the widespread development of metabolic disorders in our horses for the past few decades.

I want to elaborate on that point, because it's something that people often roll their eyes thinking I'm part of the tinfoil hat brigade.

But my inital statement is not opinion, it is not speculation and it is not even surprising. It is being proven in scientific studies. Wide spread use of Glyphosate is altering our metabolisms, our immune systems and our DNA.

But don't take my word for it.

A study done in 2025 entiled ' Prenatal exposure to dietary levels of glyphosate disrupts metabolic, immune, and behavioral markers across generations in mice' by Barnett JA, Josephson JK, Yuzbashian E, et al.
States:
"Prenatal glyphosate reshapes gut, metabolism and behaviour across multiple mouse generations

Harmful effects arise at 0.01mg/kg/day, a dose far beneath current safety limits.

Gut barrier damage, mucin loss and inflammation persist into the F2 generation.

Glyphosate-linked microbiome shifts disrupt endocrine and tryptophan pathways.

Dose- and generation-based host-microbe rewiring suggests heritable gut-brain-immune dysfunction "

Another study done in 2022,
'Impact of Glyphosate on the Development of Insulin Resistance in Experimental Diabetic Rats' by Monisha Prasad et al states:

"Glyphosate aggravated ROS, altered antioxidant activity, disrupted the glucose homeostasis, altered insulin action in liver via NFκB signaling in liver. As the primary organ for metabolism and detoxification, the liver is affected by oxidative stress caused by glyphosate, which could change crucial regulatory pathways including insulin signalling and JNK, resulting in insulin resistance and inflammation."

There are many more studies out there, and of course, unfortunately they have not been done on horses by if you are curious, The Humble Hoof Podcast did an episode with Elizabeth Hilborn where she discusses the devestating impact the use of pesticides had on her own farm and the animals that lived there and the book she wrote about it called "Restoring Eden". I immediately read the book and it really made me realize what I was noticing in so many horses, and ourselves!

I got into hoofcare because I wanted to know the "Why?" behind so many common hoof problems. When I would ask why, I would only be given answers that were bandaids, not solutions, and definitely not prevention. That spurred my deep dive into all things hoof. That was over 22 years ago, and a lot of things have changed in the world around us, and wide spread use of Glyphosate is one of those things.

I don't know what the solution is now, as it is now so intertwined in all aspects of the food we eat and feed. The desire to have "w**d free" monocrops, roundup ready alfalfa, canola, corn. Oats, wheat and straw etc sprayed for uniformed drying. Our commercial feeds, our hay, our water sources etc are all affected.

I have seen more and more cases where people are feeding hay that should be deemed safe in sugar content, they aren't getting any grass etc and yet they still are metabolic and will tip over the edge into a lamintic episode with even the slightest insult. Horses under the age of 10 being diagnosed with PPID due to sky high acth levels. These things are not normal.

We need to be aware of what could be causing the dramatic uptick in cases of insulin resistance, EMS and other gut microbiome diseases we are seeing so we can stop only treating the symptoms by restricting our horses diets to manage disorders that the very feed we are trying to help them with, may be creating. Yes, there is a web of contributing factors that lead to laminitis, but we are fighting a losing battle if we aren't addressing what may be sending our bodies and the bodies of our horses into this dysfunction in the first place.

So what can we do?

Links to studies etc in the comments

Photo of stretched lamina present in a laminitic miniature horse

08/24/2026

The healing power of equines and deciphering repetitive cycles

(photos are of Right Hind)
When I first met this little donkey he had super low heels, no sole depth, Negative plantar angles, and and signs of laminitis, although he still moved around pretty good. I didn't know him or his history well enough to realize exactly what was happening. I actually only trimmed a few times initially and for about a year he was trimmed by someone else.

When I came back he had even more obvious signs of laminitis (unfortunately no photos from that time) but his hooves always wanted to grow low heel -long toe because of how much he leaned onto his heels. I managed to get thing looking better comparitively, but then another bout of lamintis and we would start all over again.

Owners modified his diet, he healed again. Feet started to look normal, and then last winter it happened again! I finally realized that we were dealing with extreme winter lamintis. As soon as the cold weather hit, he would start walking on his heel bulbs and he would get quite severe capsular rotation on all 4. He probably had this cycle for many years and had just figured out how to best avoid the pain by walking on the soft tissue! Smart little guy!

Anyhoo, warm weather hit and his feet are almost back to normal, if not even better than before because this time i had radiographs to trim by.
Hoping this year we can get ahead of it and it won't happen again! But the speed at which his hooves bounce back is pretty remarkable!

08/09/2026

The "flozin" drugs ( such as Invokana) have allowed for amazing recoveries from laminitis causes by elevated insulin. But the drugs, like all drugs, still have the risks, that often aren't fully discussed. We want to help our horses, but we need to make sure we aren't creating new problems in the process. If you have a horse that is currently taking a "flozin" drug, please take a look at this post.





https://drkhorsesense.wordpress.com/2026/08/09/side-effects-of-sglt2-inhibitors-flozin-drugs-in-horses-are-avoidable/?fbclid=IwdGRjcATlhxVjbGNrBOWGMHBkb2YFZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEeIVtLbm33yUqlOQVM_v4DJ8BzSwVczPjjEtNrksfTDGnLfWWUHDdOUl9WwCM_aem_hyJWitpgxwMfaF4rd9fjwg

07/22/2026

Sitting in the forest with my pony, staring at his feet like a weirdo...

07/15/2026

Duncan takes his supervisor role very seriously...

" Listen, are you going to go ahead and have those TPS reports for us this afternoon?"

06/28/2026

Every hoof is unique...

THE SHAPE EVERYONE CHASES

Some feet spend their entire lives being compared to feet they were never built to resemble.

The horse stays sound.
The sole stays healthy.
Nothing hurts.

Yet the foot remains oddly unsatisfactory because it refuses to produce the one thing hoof care has learned to admire.

The cup.

Turn a hoof over and watch where the eye goes.
Straight to the concavity.

Deeply concave soles have become one of hoof care's most recognisable symbols of success.
Owners look for them.
Practitioners photograph them.
Discussion groups dissect them.
The deeper the cup, the easier it is to assume that something good is happening.

Sometimes that assumption is right.

Increased concavity can accompany positive change.
A foot recovering from pathology may develop more sole depth. Improved alignment between capsule and bone can alter the shape presented at the solar surface. Better loading patterns can influence how the foot adapts.

The appearance of the sole is not meaningless.
Far from it.

But somewhere along the way, concavity stopped being information and became a destination.

That is where things become more complicated.

Because the sole is not creating its own shape.
It is expressing the shape of the structures above it.

At the centre of every foot sits the distal phalanx.
And distal phalanges are not identical.

Some present a more pronounced solar dome.
Some are comparatively shallow.
Most occupy the vast territory between those extremes.

The sole develops beneath that architecture. The horn produced by the solar corium conforms to the contours it is given.
The sole is not inventing its own shape.
It is responding to one.

And it is responding not only to anatomy, but to the forces acting upon it.

There is room for improvement.
There is room for deterioration.
There is room for adaptation.

But there are also limits.

At some point, every foot encounters the reality of the bone it is built around.

A horse with a relatively shallow distal phalanx may never develop the dramatic concavity seen in a horse with a more strongly domed one.
Not because anything is wrong.
Not because the horse is failing.
Simply because anatomy varies.

This is where the conversation often drifts off course.

Concavity can increase.
It can accompany positive structural change.
It can reflect a healthier foot than the one that existed before.

But that does not mean every foot is capable of producing the same amount of it.

If concavity becomes the goal, every foot is judged against the same destination.
Yet not every horse is built around the same bone.

And the reverse mistake is just as easy to make.

A deeply concave sole is not a certificate of health.
It does not tell us sole depth.
It does not tell us the condition of the digital cushion.
It does not tell us the state of the lateral cartilages.
It does not tell us whether the horse is comfortable.

The shape alone cannot answer those questions.

Which leaves us in a slightly uncomfortable position.

Concavity matters.
But not in the way many people think.

The shape is real.
The interpretation is where things become difficult.

A lack of concavity does not automatically mean something is wrong.
Concavity does not automatically mean something is right.

The shape is a clue.
Not a verdict.

A flat sole may be signalling pathology.
A flat sole may be the normal expression of a healthy foot built around a shallower distal phalanx.

A deeply cupped sole may reflect excellent internal health.
A deeply cupped sole may simply reflect the anatomy the horse is built around.

The challenge is not deciding whether concavity is good or bad.
The challenge is understanding what the sole is actually telling us.

Because the goal was never the cup.

The goal is a healthy, functional foot.
Sometimes that foot is deeply concave.
Sometimes it isn't.
The shape alone cannot tell you which one you're looking at.