Stable Science from Dr David Marlin's Animalweb

Latest Episodes:

Dr David Marlin interviews Farrier Ben Benson at ACPAT Oct 27, 2024

Show notes

Dr David Marlin took the opportunity to catch up with his old friend and colleague, farrier Ben Benson, at the annual Acpat seminar at Leamington Spa in October 2024.

Ben Benson AWCF Farrier presented at the conference 'The Farrier's role in influencing equine posture and injury prevention'.

They discuss the role of the farrier and how they can work with other professionals to determine the best course of action for any horse - given their unique perspective. How can a horse owner/rider get all these experts working together.

Why is the farrier industry in decline, and what are the problems, causes and concerns for the industry? And what are the price differences between shoeing a horse in the UK and abroad? Farriers are being forced to shoe high numbers in the UK, and this is having a detrimental effect on their bodies, and they are struggling to make ends meet.

They even discuss barefoot and why this topic is so divisive, and really it should be about welfare and what is best for the horse at that point in their life given; breed, age, condition, care, sport and whether it actually benefits them or not!

You'll be able to watch the interview video here on Animalweb or listen to the podcast.

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To find out more about becoming a member >>> AskAnimalweb.com

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Livery Yard Drama or Harmony? With Nicola Bell & Adi Devonish Oct 20, 2024

Show notes

TWO Animalweb experts, Adi Devonish and Nicola Bell, come together to discuss the trials and issues with running livery yards and what yard owners and their liveries need to be talking about, planning for and discussing.

The conversation includes:

Cost of having a horse on livery
The vital role grooms and yard staff provide
How yard owners and their liveries interact and communicate
Dealing with welfare issues
What support and training do our livery yard owners and their staff need
What do we need to do to ensure our industry is here to stay, and how can we improve it for all
How to handle conflict or when to raise concerns if you have an issue

Find out more about Adi and Nicola on the website. You can also read their recent articles - https://askanimalweb.com/the-team/

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Dr David Marlin on Blue Tongue Sep 29, 2024

Show notes

Dr David Marlin discusses Blue Tongue

What do we know?
What do we THINK we know?
What do we NEED to know?

Why have we only been seeing images fairly recently?

What can we learn from the photos we have seen? And why photos can't tell us everything we need.

David also discusses a small pilot survey about Blue Tongue and what could be causing it.

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To find out more about becoming a member >>> AskAnimalweb.com

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Dr David Marlin Reviews the latest results from the Second Round of Bedding Testing Sep 25, 2024

Show notes

Dr David Marlin discusses the different beddings the Animalweb team tested from the first round to this second round. There are a wide variety of types from all the different manufacturers.

David discusses all the different tests that have taken place; dust, hygienic quality, absorbency and marketing claims.

Do you use any of these bedding products?

Bedmax Littlemax & Strawmax
Caviera Cavianthus & Raviera
Champion Chip
Easibed
Ethos Original
Probale Probed
Sorbeo Horse
Sundown Sun-e-bed
Swish Original
OR any of these?
Aubiose
Blue Frog
Bedkind
Bedmax
Concord
Hunter
Megaspread
Megazorb
Natural Flake
Platium Plus
Snowflake
Wooburn

Want to know which is the lowest for DUST, most HYGIENIC, most ABSORBANT and best value for money?

See Here:

The latest (the second) round of bedding test results here > https://askanimalweb.com/horse-bedding-tested-round-two-sept-24/
The first round of Bedding Tests here > https://askanimalweb.com/horse-bedding-tested-the-results/

ALL OF OUR TESTING IS TO HELP YOU MAKE INFORMED BUYING DECISIONS!

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To find out more about becoming a member >>> AskAnimalweb.com

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Dr David Marlin interviews Leading Event Coach Caroline Moore (LIVE from Burghley) Sep 07, 2024

Show notes

Caroline is LIVE from Burghley Horse Trials, and David is away on holiday, but the two found a little time to catch up and discuss their work.

Caroline is a renowned Eventing Coach who works with many leading horses and riders. Although spending her life producing horses and riding up to 5*, Caroline’s passion has always been in coaching and helping others achieve their goals. Caroline became a Fellow of the British Horse Society in 2008, had three years of experience as a Young Rider selector and spent the next ten years as a Youth Performance Coach for British Eventing.

Now, Caroline enjoys coaching riders of all ages, nationalities and levels and has helped riders medal at Junior, Young Rider and Senior levels, including European, World and Olympic Games. In 2023, Caroline published her first book, Training To Win, and is actively working within programmes to develop performance riders and coaches for the future.

LIVE from Burghley - Listen to Caroline and David muse about the industry and pick up a few hints and tips to help you and your horse!

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The Sympathetic Nervous System by Dr Gillian Tabor Sep 04, 2024

Show notes

What is the autonomic nervous system, and how does it affect our horses?

In this podcast Dr Gillian Tabor discusses the flight and fight, rest and digest elements of horse behaviour and poses the questions:

Is being in a high arousal state always a concern?
Can it be beneficial in rehab and training?

We have a lot to learn about motivation and ideas such as 'flow state' and how they can be applied to horses, but we must consider that much can be translated. What do you think?

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Dr Gillian Tabor reviews TWO Rehabilitation Exercise Research Papers Aug 18, 2024

Show notes

Animalweb's Equine Physiotherapist Dr Gillian Tabor reviews two new research papers on rehabilitation exercises:

The first paper investigates the horse's trunk kinematics and limb movement when walking backwards and forwards.

Jobst, I.D., Zsoldos, R.R. and Licka, T.F., 2024. Trunk kinematics and limb movement of horses walking backwards and forwards in hand and lifting a single limb. The Veterinary Journal, p.106202. Links to the studies can be found on the Animalweb website.

The second paper evaluates the electromyography activity of a horse's hindlimb muscles during exercises.

Elósegui, M., Cediel, R., Goyaga-Elizalde, J. and Hernández-Fernández, T., 2024. Evaluation of the electromyography activity of hindlimb muscles during core exercises in horses. Journal of Equine Rehabilitation, p.100013. Links to the studies can be found on the Animalweb website.

Gillian then muses on what we can learn and use in our daily lives from these two new studies and whether we are using the correct exercises for the rehabilitation of our horses.

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Dr David Marlin Interviews Charlotte Hodgetts - Cooling Horses Research Aug 11, 2024

Show notes

Dr David Marlin Interviews Charlotte Hodgetts of Myerscough College about her latest Research into Cooling Horses.

David chats with Charlotte about how her equine science career started and what led her to research cooling horses.

Charlotte's work and abstract can be found on the Animalweb website here.

To understand more, here is the Introduction:

Introduction: Strenuous exercise like British Eventing (BE) cross-country competition can increase equine core body temperatures to critical levels, particularly in hot/humid conditions without suitable acclimatisation (Marlin et al., 1996). Heat stroke is a welfare concern, particularly with increasing occurrences of UK heatwaves due to global warming (Kendon et al., 2021). Cooling practices have been investigated for international competition horses working maximally (Marlin et al., 2018), but not specifically the practices used in industry by riders at grassroots level. The aim was to investigate cooling practices used after cross-country phases at BE affiliated grassroots and international-level competition.

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Dr David Marlin - How Are Decisions Around Climate Management For Major Equestrian Events Such As The Olympics Made? Jul 26, 2024

Show notes

Listen to Dr David Marlin as he discusses in-depth how he advises the FEI and IOC on climate mitigation and, essentially, how to manage competitions in terms of climate and temperature.

This is an incredible podcast where David discusses:

Education
Scheduling
Air-conditioning
Competition modification
Cooling facilities
Monitoring

Plus, David makes weather predictions and suggestions for the teams out in Paris.

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Motivation, energy and flow with Dr Gillian Tabor Jul 14, 2024

Show notes

🐴 Can Horses Experience "Flow" During Training? 🤔

Ever wondered if we could make rehab and training more enjoyable for our equine partners?

Research by Hintze & Yee (2022) asks: "Can we provide animals with the same access to a sense of enjoyment that we as humans value so much?"

🔑 Key Points:

Effective rehab/training requires intensity for adaptation
What if horses could be happy increasing effort?
Could horses experience a 'flow state' during work?

Dr Giliian Tabor has been diving into human psychological theories of motivation, particularly Self-determination theory by Ryan and Deci. It's fascinating to consider how these concepts might apply to our horses!

What are your thoughts? Can we make training more intrinsically rewarding for horses?

📚 Further reading: