testimonial
arabian
gelding
Haleef
Ibn
Baikal
An
amazing team:
David
and I can’t say enough about Dr. Myers, his wife Carlene, and Sylvia
Kornherr!
Dr.
Myers himself,
a highly experienced vet, has encyclopedic knowledge of his field,
keeps up to
date with the latest research on horse health, and hoof care in
particular, has
profound understanding of equine biomechanics, and is a insightful
diagnostician.
Carlene, in
addition to her deep experience of horse and hoof care, has an unerring
eye and
instinct for what is working and, most importantly, what is not
working, in a
horse.
Sylvia
is a horse
owner, who has trod the heart-breaking path of
life-threatening
laminitis, and
completely understands how difficult it is to know where to turn in
such a
crisis, a quest which led her to Dr. Myers. As a certified
hoof
balance consultant and communicator, she is extraordinarily
dedicated to helping horse owners find the help they need for their
horses’
hooves.
A
difficult journey:
Originally,
we had three horses, trimmed for years by local farriers.
Then, in 2004,
we bought a tall, athletic, 2-year-old Arabian with lovely movement,
Haleef Ibn
Baikal, who was being trimmed by one of these farriers. A bad
winter in
2008 prompted us to put Hal into intensive training for 2
months. After a
month, he developed check ligament inflammation and was clearly in
pain.
Assessment by a vet at the training facility pointed to the need, in
his
opinion, for corrective shoeing and artificially building up his hoof
walls,
and, at the other extreme, a highly experienced
farrier, maintained that
“a few good trims should fix it”.
As we
had always prided ourselves in giving our horses the best possible
care, we
were devastated to realize that we had gone very wrong with this horse,
and, to
a lesser extent, with our other three as well. Like many
well-meaning
horse people, we had assumed that hoof care practices were tried and
true. After all, horses have been trimmed and shod
successfully for
centuries, haven’t they? Or have they…?
Our
next move saved us. We had heard about Sylvia by word of
mouth,
and a
phone call brought her out to see Hal one very cold January
afternoon.
Together, we spent many shivering hours measuring, observing, and
taking digital
photos. Sylvia gave Hal an initial corrective trim to address
the
imbalances in his feet to relieve his discomfort. He had
little
hoof to work with. Hal then
came home to rest.
Enter
Dr. Myers:
Mid-April
brought Dr. Myers to our area to assess and train vets and farriers in
the art and science of hoof care. He went over each horse
from
ear tips to tail, a whole-body
evaluation of the horse’s biomechanics, including the all-important
limb
deviations, that might be causing those hoof issues, in addition to
evaluating hoof condition. We were very impressed with the
time
he and
Carlene spent with Hal and the care they took!
Diagnosis:
Historically, Hal
had been incorrectly trimmed long term; his elongated
toes
and under-run heels had allowed the “bony column” in his feet
to
sag and break backwards, causing pain and inflammation in the heel and
joints,
and actual bony changes occurred in his feet.
Prognosis:
Correct
trimming, based on Dr. Myers’ experience and the empirical evidence
provided by
the balance X-Rays, means that Hal can live a normal, happy, athletic
life.
Tragedy
averted:
If
we hadn't put this horse into intensive training, we would have gone on
thinking that the farrier work was correct and that
all was
well. According to Dr. Myers, had we left it another year, it
would have been very difficult if not too late for Hal.
Cynthia
Orman
Lanark
County
Ontario,
Canada
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