Jul 10, 2026 · 1 hr 10 min · 12 segments
Matthew Jackson talks about various factors that affect hoof health and soundness, and the potential and limitations of the internal structures of the hoof and the hoof capsule itself.
Matthew JacksonGuestAlicia HarlovHost
I think, I think, and I think this is where we have to be very, very serious with this, you know, uh, you know, I constantly talk about foundation, talking about sort of birth to adult weight.
You know, it starts, a lot of it, with certainly Thoroughbreds or, or excessively inbred horses.
There's an inherence there, inherited challenges that these guys are gonna be born with.
But, but predominantly, and this is what I kind of struggle with a lot, you know, you know, never go on social media, I've, I've really weaned myself off it, because you're seeing people wanting to do really, really well, but they're not grasping what's going on here.
And, and, and for me, you know, I mean, I can tell you all the mistakes 'cause there's thousands of them.
Do you know what I mean? You know? But, but what is it that they all have in common? And the start of it is they have very underdeveloped feet.
You know? And when we talk about the development of the foot, as soon as the, as soon as they're born, these guys gotta move.
And the importance of that is the internal structures of the foot, they're not formed, you know, and, and people are just not grasping this importance of let's get the foundation there, you know? So if we talk about young foals when they're born, the biggest structure is the digital cushion.
Now, I've seen incredibly well-developed feet in adult horses, and they move exactly the same, you know? So why aren't they getting from that point to that point, you know? So we can talk about exercise, and we can talk about stimulus and all those sorts of things, and the dynamics of growing up, but nine times out of 10, there's not a lot of people talking about that or thinking about that.
So what we end up with is the start of when the horse starts getting backed or people are wanting to do things with them.
So first and foremost is, is the horse ready? And it's not about, you know, you can talk about like that kind of mental wellbeing, but let's just go through ph- the physical first.
You know? It's the digital cushion now starting to form, the fibrous structures that are then attaching to the secondary fibrous structures that need to form off the lateral cartilages in the back of the foot.
And that's brutally important because the lateral cartilages, although they're making up a good proportion of the back of the foot, the sides of it, they're also encapsulating and protecting the veins leaving the foot.
So now we're into the importance of circulation, that kind of stuff, you know? And then the next part, again, people don't really think about, is laminae itself.
I think, I think, and I think this is where we have to be very, very serious with this, you know, uh, you know, I constantly talk about foundation, talking about sort of birth to adult weight.
You know, it starts, a lot of it, with certainly Thoroughbreds or, or excessively inbred horses.
There's an inherence there, inherited challenges that these guys are gonna be born with.
But, but predominantly, and this is what I kind of struggle with a lot, you know, you know, never go on social media, I've, I've really weaned myself off it, because you're seeing people wanting to do really, really well, but they're not grasping what's going on here.
And, and, and for me, you know, I mean, I can tell you all the mistakes 'cause there's thousands of them.
Do you know what I mean? You know? But, but what is it that they all have in common? And the start of it is they have very underdeveloped feet.
You know? And when we talk about the development of the foot, as soon as the, as soon as they're born, these guys gotta move.
And the importance of that is the internal structures of the foot, they're not formed, you know, and, and people are just not grasping this importance of let's get the foundation there, you know? So if we talk about young foals when they're born, the biggest structure is the digital cushion.
Now, I've seen incredibly well-developed feet in adult horses, and they move exactly the same, you know? So why aren't they getting from that point to that point, you know? So we can talk about exercise, and we can talk about stimulus and all those sorts of things, and the dynamics of growing up, but nine times out of 10, there's not a lot of people talking about that or thinking about that.
So what we end up with is the start of when the horse starts getting backed or people are wanting to do things with them.
So first and foremost is, is the horse ready? And it's not about, you know, you can talk about like that kind of mental wellbeing, but let's just go through ph- the physical first.
You know? It's the digital cushion now starting to form, the fibrous structures that are then attaching to the secondary fibrous structures that need to form off the lateral cartilages in the back of the foot.
And that's brutally important because the lateral cartilages, although they're making up a good proportion of the back of the foot, the sides of it, they're also encapsulating and protecting the veins leaving the foot.
So now we're into the importance of circulation, that kind of stuff, you know? And then the next part, again, people don't really think about, is laminae itself.
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