The Horse's Advocate Podcast Geoff Tucker, DVM

Equine metabolic syndrome (EMS) is a collection of factors and events within the horse affected by food, stress, and sleep. This podcast focuses on the fact that behind the top three causes of medical deaths in humans (atherosclerosis/cardiovascular disease, cancer, cognitive disorders) is a metabolic system not functioning to its full potential. Could a poor metabolic system also be causing health issues in horses? I believe it does.
In the last podcast (Part One), I overviewed the basics of the ingested materials (air, water, minerals, fats, sugars, and proteins) and what they do within the body. It covered the role of insulin, insulin resistance, and its relationship to metabolic syndrome. I also discussed the secondary diseases of EMS, including laminitis, muscle loss, and others.
In this podcast (Part Two), I narrow the discussion to fat storage and its' role in inflammation, mitochondrial flexibility to partition the fuels used in power production, the role of exercise in glucose uptake, and balancing the amount of calories in with calories used.
Correct metabolic functioning depends on balancing food consumed (as calories in) with using that food (as calories used). When this balance is heavy on the food eaten, metabolic syndrome follows with its associated illnesses, breakdowns, and early death. But if the balance goes the other way (excess work, stress, poor sleep, or absence of food), death will occur, too. Healthspan and longevity come from a perfect balance between the two.

Equine metabolic syndrome (EMS) is a collection of factors and events within the horse affected by food, stress, and sleep. This podcast summarizes information in general terms for most horse owners. While preparing it for broadcast, I realized that making a part two would help further understand the questions raised within this podcast.
This podcast covers the ingested materials (air, water, minerals, fats, sugars, and proteins) and what they do within the body. It covers the role of insulin, insulin resistance, and its relationship to metabolic syndrome. Also discussed are the secondary diseases of EMS, including laminitis, muscle loss, and others.
I make this all understandable for those without scientific minds. After all, if you can't understand how to feed them, how will you be able to Help Horses Thrive In A Human World? Unfortunately, we depend on misinformation from product marketing, causing most of the lameness and illnesses of horses today. We must get our horses' metabolism right to do "the best for our horses." Feeding them according to their evolution, adjusting to their current environment, reducing their stress, and improving their sleep are all necessary.

For many of us, it's hard to understand math. But twisting numbers to explain what we observe only makes things worse. With confusion in our understanding of what the scientists find in an experiment, we turn to others, like magazines, news articles, and social media, for a distilled explanation. Further, we assume these distillers of information have it right, but unfortunately, they usually don't.

Most horse owners only want to do what is best for their horses. We spend money on anything that sounds good. Yet, we often don't see the results claimed by the science-backed studies. Why is this? Are the products made poorly? Or could the science these products are based on be wrong?

In this podcast, I explain in easy terms how a thought becomes a study and how the results are analyzed with math to predict if something causes disease and, more importantly, if it is clinically meaningful. The bottom line of how science affects our horses is why we must consider these basic ideas and analyze the data ourselves to Help Horses Thrive In A Human World™.
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TheHorsesAdvocate.com is a website about horses, horse barns, and farms. There is a membership side of the website where horse owners can attend live meetings to ask questions and get a deeper understanding of things they have learned on the site.
TheEquinePractice.com is a website that discusses how and why I perform equine dentistry without immobilization or the automatic use of drugs. I only accept new clients in Florida. TheEquinePractice.com/appointment
HorsemanshipDentistrySchool.com is a website for those interested in learning how to perform equine dentistry without drugs on 97% of horses. There are eight spots a year for interested students PLUS, there is a separate online course for those wanting to learn how to do this but can never get to South Florida for hands-on training.
Show support for The Horse's Advocate by wearing a hat or shirt or drinking from a cup, all with the official logo. Go to this link for our swag.
Please give a thumbs up or 5-star review and share these everywhere. I know horse owners worldwide listen, and the horses need every one of you in "Helping Horses Thrive In A Human World."

The Beatles played music from the 1950s through today, though two of the "Fab Four" are now dead. Their "invasion" of the United States occurred in 1963 when I was in 5th grade. While some of you listening to this have probably never heard of this iconic band, their music still plays around the world. Their song, "Here Comes The Sun," is one of the top songs, if not the #1 song, ever played by listeners. And at its roots is what is at the core of horsemanship.
I go a bit esoteric on this podcast, relating what all of you know as horsemanship to a song. Over the past several decades, adverbs added to modify the word "horsemanship" imply that you need to do something, be something, or join something to become a horseman. Of course, there is the gender issue, but I'll ignore that because "man," when used in "horseman," implies "human." So far, no one has wanted to create the word "huher," as in horsehership.
But I wanted to make this podcast when I worked on several horses last weekend regarded by their owners as "unpredictable," "bad actors," and generally horses that caused anxiousness in these seasoned owners. After successfully making them willing partners in the floating process, I decided to listen to music on the ride home. That is when I heard this song, and that is when I realized the secret to working successfully with horses that I have never seen before and having them become willing partners within a minute of starting.
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TheHorsesAdvocate.com is a website about horses, horse barns, and farms. There is a membership side of the website where horse owners can attend live meetings to ask questions and get a deeper understanding of things they have learned on the site.
TheEquinePractice.com is a website that discusses how and why I perform equine dentistry without immobilization or the automatic use of drugs. I only accept new clients in Florida. TheEquinePractice.com/appointment
HorsemanshipDentistrySchool.com is a website for those interested in learning how to perform equine dentistry without drugs on 97% of horses. There are eight spots a year for interested students PLUS, there is a separate online course for those wanting to learn how to do this but can never get to South Florida for hands-on training.
Show support for The Horse's Advocate by wearing a hat or shirt or drinking from a cup, all with the official logo. Go to this link for our swag.
Please give a thumbs up or 5-star review and share these everywhere. I know horse owners worldwide listen, and the horses need every one of you in "Helping Horses Thrive In A Human World."

The road near our house is under construction, causing traffic snarls for over a year, and completion this year is unlikely at the work rate seen this weekend. Two days are dead quiet on the construction site. From Friday night to Sunday night, workers do everything except build the new highway: family time, sports, and recreation. Why? Because road construction is a job. These people may be good, or even the best at what they do. But at the end of the day, making a road is just a job that doesn’t call you when the road develops a pothole.
Veterinary medicine is a calling, a passion, that drives people to do extraordinary things, such as commit to healing animals at any moment, despite the personal cost. Today, however, veterinary medical organizations are spending a lot of time working to change the profession to meet the perceived needs of veterinarians. Ignored are the animals and their owners. I discuss in this podcast rather than adjusting to the social norms and a balance of work and life goals, vet schools and professional organizations should focus on returning to the passion of helping horses and their owners.
The obstacles to returning to passionate care seem insurmountable: debt, low pay, and the social perception of family over job. And to this last thought, family always trumps job. But is being a veterinarian a job? Only if horses are robots. Being a vet, especially a horse vet, is a calling that is not for everyone and does not fit the standard social patterns of today. It is similar to deciding to have a child or committing to a relationship; it is a commitment to passion, and there are no days off.
I finally offer the only solution - Enjoy every moment with every horse and accept the challenges and hardships, as nothing is better than helping horses (and their owners) thrive in a human world. If you are faithful to your calling, your friends and family will understand, but never forget them and deliver to them your all when you can. You will always satisfy your family if you remain passionate about giving to others.

This podcast covers three topics within the interest of dentistry in horses. EOTRH (Equine Odontoplastic Tooth Resorption and Hypercementosis), dentistry in donkeys at The Donkey Sanctuary in the UK, and the problems that can occur with cheek tooth extractions in horses.
Dentistry in horses is what I have done since 1983 and exclusively since 1998. I have drawn my own conclusions by studying the correlations of diet, age, surgery, and other factors on the teeth of horses. But in an era where we want evidence-based studies to prove causation, no randomized, controlled, double-blinded studies have come about in the field of oral health for horses. The section on EOTRH comes from finding an osteopath on Facebook who questioned the validity of removing all incisors affected by this disease. The other two sections are good-looking papers discussing the titled subjects but raise more questions while avoiding other reasonable points.
As usual, I discuss the ideas and observations honed from experience and question some of the authors' and FB posters' conclusions. This rebuttal is needed because well-done articles published in prestigious journals by sincere and experienced authors may erroneously persuade readers to accept the findings without question. Facebook posts often receive unwarranted validation just based on their online existence. Worse, this information may cause acts on horses (extraction of incisors, extraction of cheek teeth, not feeding enough protein) based on this information without a rebuttal argument to the conclusions stated, which is not in the horse's best interest.
More data is needed, which will never happen because of the cost of studying these problems with no return on the investment. All we have is experience and observations. We need an open conversation without fear of challenging rebuttal to find what is valid.