UK ELPO Examinations 2009

The Equine Lameness Prevention Organisation, (ELPO) recentlyheld its second annual UKexamination programme in various venues cumulating at final examinationsequence at the equine facility of ChichesterCollege, Brinsbury Campus, Pulborough,West Sussex. ELPO, who has been recently granted charity status in the USA,has seen a steady growth in membership since it’s conception by founder GeneOvincek.

Candidates who completed and all successfully passed thisyears three phase examinations were, Mathew Staples, John Stern, Ralph Rennison,Gareth keevil, Tim Dunning and Chris Wiggins.

Gene Ovincek is the ELPO examiner who has aided by assessors,Steve  Foxworth, (USA)David Nicholls, Beckie Mabbiut and Mark Spriggs

Day one, Monday, consisted of firstly practice session ofbare foot trimming that was hosted at Jennies’ farm, one of Beckie’s clients.Following lunch the venue change to Tina Pendle’s home of retirement forelderly horse and this tine the action was for real as the candidates wereexamined for the barefoot trimming element.

Tuesday, a new day and a new challenge presented, moving onto the Equine facility of BrinsburyCollege, candidates practiced and preparedfor the shoeing phase of the examinations. Training was given to the procedure of hoof mapping.  Hoof mapping involves accurately locating andmarking the internal structures of the foot by utilising external visiblelandmarks and reference points. Once this simple procedure is mastered it ispossible to score and record various hoof distortions as well as locatingessential internal structures such as the distal interphalangial joint, thedorsal tip of P3 and thus the optimum point of breakover.  Hoof mapping and scoring then becomes auniversal vehicle of communication when preparing the hoof for either trimmingor shoeing.

Big Wednesday, the final Examination day, the pressure wasnow on and it may have been some time since some of the candidates would havebeen placed in a strict examination situation.  The pressure was on, good humour prevailedthroughout the day, Anglo American relationships were forged throughout thecourse by the ubiquitous ability of the English to extract the Michael of ourformer colonial cousins!  Shoemodification and adaptation of readymade shoes and a final written paperfinished off he day and also most of the candidates.

All candidates successfully passed, Chris Wiggins who is oneof only two people to have achieved honours in his WCF Associate examinationclaimed another honour by attaining the highest score ever in the ELPO examinations.  Chris scores an amazing 99 out of theavailable 100 points possible, a new world record.  Well done Chris!

The Examinations now out of the way, day four was an ELPOmembers day including the newly qualified course participants.  This was held at the TFP facility satSlinfold, West Sussex. After initial presentations and matters arising, Gene gave practicaldemonstrations through the day on two very different but obscure lameanimals.  Gene’s demonstrations bothutilised the new Leverage Testing Boot. This new diagnostic tool is the first tool professional have had toallow the equine to nominate the most comfortable and optimal position andangle of limb for comfort and ultimately soundness.  Both animals were tested before and aftertrimming, again utilising the hoof mapping technique described earlier.  The results were recorded using a very simplescoring system and a shoeing prescription was formulated using the saidresults.  With some adaptation andrefining both cases showed marked improvements.

BBC south today, a localnews programme came and filmed some of this event, the result of this can beseen by visiting this URL  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/8206218.stm

Moreinformation on the work of the Equine Lameness Prevention Organisation can befound by visiting their website www.e-hoofcare.com