The Horse First: A Veterinary Sport Horse Podcast

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,...

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 e...

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.

In today's episode, Dr. Audrey DeClue is focused on the importance of communicating well with others based on the strong communication you've built with your horse.  She also discusses the prevalence of suicide within the veterinary community and how we can be supportive of each other during times of extreme stress, trauma, and burnout. 

In this episode, Dr. Audrey DeClue aims to help riders, owners, and trainers take notice of things going on with your horse and point them out to your veterinarian. Taking special note of the subtle things you see in the day-to-day and asking about them can make a big difference in proper diagnosis.

In this episode, Dr. Audrey DeClue provides an 8-step process of elimination to address causes and solutions to contact issues with your horse. This is an important episode if you struggle with bridal or contact issues.

Straightness is one of the most common issues owners and trainers have with their horses. It's also a very common topic in publications, no matter what discipline of the horse.  In this episode, Dr. Audrey DeClue explains that if you can ride your horse in a straight and balanced manner, your lameness  issues go down exponentially. But that's not all, so listen as she digs into the research on str...

Whether it's from a known or unknown injury, tension is the enemy of every lameness. The perfect horse can become lame due to tension and a lame horse come back to life when tension is addressed. In today's episode, Dr. Audrey DeClue discusses cases where lameness has either improved or declined based on discovering and treating tension - no matter what the cause. 

It's among the most common muscular skeletal injuries seen in sport dogs and human athletes. Iliopsoas is also the number one reason people have back pain. Yet there's very little research about it in sport horses. In this episode, Dr. Audrey DeClue discusses her research on the iliopsoas muscle, which is responsible for the clinical signs of shivers and stringhalt in the hind limbs of horses. 

After recently suffering an injury of her own, Dr. Audrey DeClue takes this episode to discuss what you need to look for - and possibly act on - if your horse is injured. 

Dr. Audrey DeClue returns to continue her series on the issues surrounding sleep deprivation and collapsing in performance horses. In this episode, she dives into the anatomy, what the clinical signs look like, and what you can do. 

If you don't know what normal is, you probably don't know what abnormal is. In this episode, Dr. Audrey DeClue goes through the history and research of rest and sleep patterns in horses to help determine what is normal when observing those behaviors in other performance horses.

Dr. DeClue continues her discussion on what is causing Shivers and Stringhalt in horses. 

Today, Dr. Audrey DeClue begins sharing all the information she has gathered on Shivers-Stringhalt Syndrome. 

Dr. Audrey DeClue asks listeners to consider their horse when making new commitments in the New Year. Watching, listening, and learning from your horse helps you understand what they need and how to advocate for them.

Dr Audrey DeClue discusses the dangers of having a girthy horse and how to address it.

A common theme in the Horse First podcast is the importance of advocating for the health and needs of your horse. In this episode, Dr. Audrey DeClue discusses how to talk with your veterinarian about lameness, emphasizing the importance owners play in determining the priorities of the veterinary world.

In today's episode, Dr. Audrey DeClue discusses a number of cases she's seen of horses dealing with Head Shaking Syndrome (sometimes referred to as Trigeminal-mediated headshaking).

Dr. Audrey DeClue continues her series on diagnosing lameness in your horse. Today's focus is on diagnosing at a canter. She details the different aspects of the horse she pays attention to when examining a horse from this vantage point.