The Horse First: A Veterinary Sport Horse Podcast

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 straightness issues to help you and your horse become more aligned. 

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. 

In previous episodes, Dr. Audrey DeClue has discussed recognizing lameness at a walk and at a standstill. In this episode of The Horse First, she brings back veterinary student Mikala Vig to discuss recognizing lameness at a trot and what she has learned while working with Dr. DeClue.

It's the episode many of you have been waiting for. Dr. Audrey DeClue discusses how she discovered the treatment for Equine Shivers and offers hope to riders, owners, and equine veterinarians. We owe it to our horses to take a closer look at a treatment that has been otherwise believed to be impossible.

"If you see it...feel it...or hear it, it's there." Dr. Audrey DeClue is back on the topic of lameness as she follows up on her last episode (Recognizing Lameness at a Standstill).

In this episode, she gives advice for recognizing when your horse is lame by it's walk - whether alone or under saddle. 

Todays episode is about recognizing lameness at a standstill. Dr. DeClue explains how to recognize a lame horse by identifying and diagnosing lameness without modern technology.

In this episode of The Horse First, Dr. Audrey DeClue goes back to her trusty Anatomy of a Horse book to discuss DSMD. She stresses the need to understand that all horses can improve with the correct measures. 

Armed with her trusty "Anatomy of a Horse" book, Dr. Audrey DeClue goes takes you down the rabbit hole of what front limb lameness is, what's causing it, and how to address it.

Dr. Audrey DeClue describes a diagnostic process she has developed over a decade to understand why horses start to develop pain.

Dr. Audrey DeClue takes this episode to emphasize the need and value of lunging your horse when going through rehabilitation of the back and pelvis. She also discusses the nuance of that process and how to be consistent in rehabilitation without ignoring the needs of the horse, itself. 

in part two of this series on rehabilitation, Dr. Audrey DeClue discusses lunging for the purposes of back and pelvis rehabilitation. You'll learn how critical lunging truly is to the process.

Dr. Audrey DeClue is back and starting a very important series on the rehabilitation of horses as it relates to their back and pelvis. If you're ready to start down this journey, Dr. DeClue is ready to help.

Back injuries are a significant concern in the sport horse world. In this episode, Dr. Audrey DeClue talks about injuries she's seen, some common causes, and the variety of treatments involved. 

There are several reasons your horse could be experiencing back pain. But making a priority of recognizing and diagnosing those issues can stave off a number of issues down the road. 

You might not have thought much about it, but the type of saddle and saddle pad you use on your horse can have a profound impact on their comfort and how they ride. Dr. Audrey DeClue explains why it is so important to choose the equipment that best fits your horse.

Neck issues will always affect the performance of your sport horse. In this episode, Dr. Audrey DeClue shows how cervical issues can show, the cascade of effects that can follow, and how to rehabilitate.

Dr. Audrey DeClue presents a candid approach to the process of rehabilitating sport horses and the dedication required to ensure the treatment is most effective.

With everybody looking for a quick fix these days, Dr. Audrey DeClue explains why it's important to have realistic expectations in terms of outcomes and timing when treating your horse.

Dr. Audrey DeClue discusses common injuries and the common misconceptions often associated with them.

Dr. Audrey DeClue explains how being an advocate for the horse can help with performance issues and offers six steps to approach diagnosing lameness. 

While it's common to simply discuss "limb lameness" in horses, today's episode offers listeners new insights on how to determine the true source of lameness in your horse. As Dr. Audrey DeClue will point out, it may be very different than what you've been told.

Dr. Audrey DeClue starts today's episode with two options - the red pill or the blue pill. If you keep an open mind, you're likely to learn a lot about how to better diagnose what's wrong with your horse.

In episode 3 of The Horse First podcast, Host Audrey DeClue interviews her Veterinary student, Mikala Vig. They discuss the things Mikala has learned from her experiences working with Audrey and how keeping the horse first is the key to productive treatment.

Host Audrey DeClue shares her experiences working with horses, trainers, owners and more who often use the term "that's just normal" when describing abnormal conditions in their horse. In this episode, you'll learn why it's probably not normal and what can be done.

Host Audrey DeClue gives an overview of her experience working with horses, and the purpose of The Horse First podcast.