Auburn University & the AHA 2010 Conference

As I mentioned in my last post, I went to Alabama for the 2010 American Hoof Association conference. It was held at Auburn University this year and was an AWESOME experience all the way around. This time around two of my friends from the Pacific Hoof Care Practitioners group - Asa and Leslie - had applied and were certified through AHA, so they were going to the conference as well. We went in on the rental car and a cabin together, got lost, laughed, cooked, shopped, gossiped, brain stormed and commiserated the entire time. The cabin could not have been any better, and we literally squealed as we took in our good fortune...a spotless lakefront cabin with wood vaulted ceilings, fireplace, kitchen, beautiful bathroom, etc. It even had an IRON! (for those who know of my ironing obsession, this was a happy surprise!) We had breakfast at the cabin every morning, including our last day there when Gunnar, an AHA trimmer from Germany, made us German pancakes! (like crepes)

The conference itself was incredible. There is a vet there named Dr. Taylor who is working with Pete Ramey (http://www.hoofrehab.com/ - the trimmer responsible for me getting into natural hoof care in the first place) and his brother in law on some exciting studies aimed at proving that natural hoofcare and a specific diet protocol DOES work to rehabilitate various hoof ailments including the very serious one of founder/laminitis. Dr. Taylor somehow arranged for us hoof nerds to have access to an entire building for our use for the entire week, including bathrooms, a big kitchen and use of all of their AV equipment, plus presentations not only by herself but other vets and professionals at the university (which is a vet school) and a vet named Dr. Ridgway who is nationally known for his bodywork (chiro, accupuncture, myofascial). We had presentations there in lecture form and then drove out to various facilities for hands on demonstrations of things such as the body work on live horses, demonstrations of complicated diagnostic methods including venograms (which show the circulation in the horse's lower limb/hoof) and vet led dissections and anatomy clinics in the AU lab. That was gross on one level to me, and I decided not to share the photos I got of it here... but, it was such an incredible learning opportunity that I really count it among the highlights of the week. We also had nearly a full day of hands on trimming of over a dozen live horses with various pathologies which of course included 10,000 different opinions and approaches from very passionate people - which always leads to more learning and new ideas! We started at 8am every morning and most nights ended around 11pm. Even dinners involved the entire group and lively conversation on theory, and a couple nights included case study reviews during dinner.

I came home FULL of not only every possible fried vegetable thinkable, but ideas and renewed and strengthened *confidence* in what it is that we do! I have driven Mario crazy with remembering and explaining everything I can think of -- all at once, in no particular followable order. ;-P

This week has been insane, I got home Sunday night and we have worked every minute since then, trying to catch up. I was supposed to have Thurs off and somehow that got filled with 6 horses and lots more running around. My Touareg had something wrong with the engine which we HOPE was German engineering's response to a failing battery (which, logically, is located UNDER the driver's seat! no joke!!). It's being fixed as I type this, but in the meantime we had to drive the big Dodge -- which of course got a screw in one of the 6 tires, and badly needed an oil change, which it got today. We are leaving on Sunday -- yes, Easter :- ( -- for the Mark Rashid clinic, and even though I am not looking forward to leaving my critters yet again, I am looking forward to a couple of days of down time...

OK on to some photos!

Asa (pronounced oh-suh, it's Swedish) from Las Vegas, Kevin and Dawn from Scotland (Dawn is the wonderful woman who sent me my pink Wellies!) - partying on the lawn in front of the cabin during the group BBQ

Dr. Taylor taking a venogram of an acute laminitis case

AHA Trimmers working on a horse


Auburn U. intern presenting his findings using MIMICS software imaging of the back of the foot

Beautiful 7am view of the lake from our cabin at Chewacla State Park, AL

Asa posing in the cabin doorway

Dr. Ridgway (behind the horse) presenting on equine bodywork

Not from the conference! Right before leaving for AL I had a mentorship student come out to work with us... none other than John Saint Ryan -- Sean Connery's stunt double (complete with accent!), an actor in his own right, and a well known horse trainer. He's taken his own and training client horses barefoot and is progressing through the PHCP training program. We had a great day with him and lots of laughs. Here he and Mario ham it up... probably punch tired since we did 8 horses that day - it's about 7pm in the photo and poor John was facing a 3+ hour drive home! Regardless he was cheerful and did a great job... and it made me appreciate once again the opportunities that natural hoof care has offered me. In the last 2 weeks I've rubbed elbows with actors, vets, famous (to me) trimmers, etc and people from all over the globe including Scotland and Germany -- complete with sincere invitations to come visit them and stay in their homes! I see some trips in our future! :-)