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The Horse First: A Veterinary Sport Horse Podcast
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The Horse First: A Veterinary Sport Horse Podcast

Author: Audrey DeClue, DVM

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Dr. Audrey DeClue hosts this podcast designed to help owners, riders, trainers, and others understand their horse's needs better.
60 Episodes
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Dr. Audrey DeClue, DVM and Dr. Kate Workman, DVM discuss the complexities of lameness in horses and the importance of simplifying veterinary medicine. Dr. DeClue shares her recent work with the US Army Caisson horses at Arlington National Cemetery, the deplorable conditions and mismanagement of these horses including wasteful spending of taxpayer money. They emphasize the need for veterinarians to understand biomechanics and anatomy to solve complex issues like shivers and stringhalt. Dr. DeClue plans to conduct seminars to teach these principles, starting with girthiness and equipment lameness, followed by iliopsoas injuries. They stress the importance of practical, results-based knowledge and the need for veterinarians to continuously learn and adapt. You can also watch the podcast here. 
Dr. Audrey DeClue and Dr. Kate Workman discuss the need to change mindsets within the institution of equine sports medicine. They also highlight the success of a recent seminar on treating girthiness emphasizing practical, hands-on training. At the core, they stress the need to understand the whole horse - not just limb lameness - to provide the best outcomes. This also requires asking different questions to achieve better diagnoses and treatments.  The conversation underscores the need for a paradigm shift in veterinary education and practice to improve horse welfare and performance. Watch the video on YouTube here
Dr. Audrey DeClue and Dr. Kate Workman discuss common lameness issues in sport horses, emphasizing the importance of recognizing body lameness beyond limb issues. They highlight that pain is the most common cause of lameness, with inciting factors including trauma, fatigue, and inflammation, noting that many conditions often go unrecognized. The conversation underscores the importance of a comprehensive approach to equine lameness, including the role of biomechanics and the need for more veterinary education and research. Watch the video of this podcast here. 
Dr. Audrey DeClue, DVM and Dr. Kate Workman, DVM discuss the complexities of body lameness versus limb lameness in equine sports medicine. Dr. DeClue emphasizes the importance of understanding body lameness - a term she coined to describe issues not limited to limbs. Dr. Workman shares her experience as a performance veterinarian, highlighting the basics of sports medicine and the challenges of diagnosing and treating body lameness. They discuss the interconnectedness of the body, the limitations of current veterinary practices, and the need for proper rehabilitation protocols. This episode underscores the importance of a whole-horse approach to equine lameness and the role of veterinarians in advancing the field. Watch the video here
In part 2 of this series, Dr. DeClue continues her deep dive into kissing spine, including some eye-opening data regarding its prevalence across the world. Some highlights in this episode include: The prevalence of back diseases in horses. 5:37 Impingement of the dorsal spine. 10:55 Kissing Spine Syndrome in thoroughbreds. 14:43  Kissing spine in horses in Malaysia. 21:45 Radiographic findings supporting a developmental vs. acquired etiology. 33:05 The 2023 paper from italy on kissing spine. 42:43 Are kissing spine lesions painful? 47:16 Stretching the dorsal spine. 52:43
Countless hours of research have culminated in today's episode on kissing spine in sport horses. Dr. Audrey DeClue pulls knowledge from decades, centuries, and millennia of data on kissing spine to learn more about this affliction that has impacted dogs, cats, humans, otters, horses, and even dinosaurs. 
If your horse seems stiff, uneven, and doesn't track straight, you're probably also having issues with lead changes. It's another long-thought mystery issue impacting performance and sometimes leading to anxiety in horses during drills. As always, Dr. Audrey DeClue brings a practical, common-sense aproach to examining your horse and getting to the bottom of lead change problems in sport horses.
Following a very popular episode previously (Episode 46), Dr. Audrey DeClue talks again with Dr. Kate Workman (Denali Equine in Southern Pines, NC) about cases cases they have treated. They discuss shivers, treatements, lameness, and more with the goal of helping you understand the expectations of performance horses and sport horses that have been significantly injured or have chronic lameness. After proper treatment and rehab, some horses went back into performance or competition. 
Dr. Audrey DeClue discusses a common complaint among riders and veterenarians - cantering issues. Though, historically, much attention has been paid to the limbs, Dr. DeClue brings it back to to the body of the horse, where many of the lameness issues actually originate. She discusses her experience addressing cantering issues and what to consider if this is a problem in your horse. 
In this episode, Dr. Audrey DeClue focuses specifically on the association of the cerebellum to shivers horses. She shines a light on the existing, published research on shivers and the trouble with conclusions based on a small sample size. She also includes an interview with longtime friend, Celeste, to provide a powerful story of what it is like to live with a degenerative cerebellar lesion. 
Dr. Audrey DeClue continues her series on the treatment and solutions she has discovered while helping horses with shoulder and girdle injuries. 
Dr. DeClue discusses the Cause and the Effect of Shoulder Girdle Injuries in Sport Horse creating Kissing Spine, Back and Pelvic Pain, Chronic Undiagnosed Front Limb Lameness, Suspensory Strains/Injury and Sleep Deprivation and Collapsing Horses.
Despite having little to no peer-reviewed published papers about the issue, Dr. Audrey DeClue takes this episode to discuss what she has personally learned while dealing with shoulder girdle injuries in sport horses.  
This episode is a guest appearance by Dr. Audrey DeClue on The Humble Hoof podcast with host Alicia Harlov.  They discuss the research and developments that Dr. DeClue has discovered in her journey of putting the horse first when tackling Shivers and Stringhalt. 
After some time on the road with show horses, Dr. Kate Workman (Denali Equine in Southern Pines, NC) realized her true desire was to put the wellbeing of horses first. While dealing with a particular case, one of her colleagues recommended she listen to The Horse First Podcast. She then reached out to Dr. Audrey DeClue, who, after hearing about the case, decided they should meet.  In this episode, you have the opportunity to hear more about that story as well as insights from both Dr. DeClue and Dr. Workman on topics such as shivers, lunging, limbs, shoulder girdles, and more.
In this episode, Dr. Audrey DeClue addresses the top causes of lameness in sport horses. These include injury during competition, injury during training or overtraining, injury during turnout, and lower limb abscess farrier work. But the number one cause of lameness? Equipment. Listen as Dr. DeClue shows how to find the pain that drives lameness. 
When body lameness in your horse only occurs when they’re moving, it is positional lameness. In this episode, Dr. Audrey DeClue breaks positional lameness into two parts and urges more critical, rational thinking within the veterinary profession in order to put structures together and create a more accurate diagnosis. She’ll discuss how positional lameness is a subset of body lameness, but worth examining to create better outcomes for horses in general.
In this episode, Dr. Audrey DeClue focuses on the impact that the axial skeleton has on the performance of your horse. This often overlooked connection can provide significant insight on body lameness. 
Poor performing sport horses with a difficulty in diagnosis often receive SI injections. And while this can offer some relief, there is hope beyond injections for horses with sacroiliac injuries. In this episode, Dr. Audrey DeClue addresses these injuries with a different perspective than you might commonly find. 
It can be scary to hear the words 'suspensory ligament injury.' But in today's episode, Dr. Audrey DeClue brings some hope to the discussion. She talks specifically about these injuries often being secondary to something else, which can provide for more options when moving forward.
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Comments (2)

Lori Waite Rossit

life changing...solidifying the inklings you see but dismiss as it's such a small details....they are all important!! thank you!

Dec 19th
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Amanda Pezold

Love! Love! Love! I can not express how much this post cast and help bridge the gap between owner, trainer, rider, and vets!!! Make the time to listen ❤️❤️❤️

Aug 29th
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