Since 2004, Dr Quick has been running her own business working on sport horses and racehorses with lameness, chiropractic, foot and behavioural issues. During this time, Melanie has also been researching foot problems in horses and can produce profound results for laminitis and navicular syndrome horses.
This research has involved travelling all over Australia studying feet on domestic horses living in various conditions with a variety of management techniques. She has travelled into outback Australia several times to examine the gait and hooves of wild brumbies living and travelling over all types of terrain. Since 2004, Dr Quick has reviewed approximately 12,000 (48,000 feet) horses from a gait and hoof perspective.
Melanie mentors and reviews the results (from a soundness perspective) of the work of over a dozen trimmers who trim a total of around 1,200+ horses a month, and also reviews the soundness results of the work of half a dozen local farriers.
As a direct consequence of being a lameness veterinarian, combined with her hoof research, Dr Quick has been able to work out the reasons behind challenges people have with barefooted horses, and naturally, the reason so many performance horses end up either lame or performing poorly when shod or barefoot.
Dr Quick has assisted owners struggling with refractory hoof related lameness for horses in England, Ireland, France and all over Australia. She has lectured for RMIT University, teaching hoof function for the Animal Chiropractic course and was involved in the panel discussion between Professor Robert Bowker and Professor Chris Pollitt at the Australian Functional Hoof Conference in 2011.
Currently Dr Quick is working on perfecting the hoof care method to allow racehorses to train barefoot. So far, after nearly a decade and over a dozen horses, the results in improving soundness are outstanding. She hopes to bring these methods to the racing industries as soon as possible.
Dr Quick is also on a mission to teach the Sporthorse industry worldwide how to maximise hoof function and hence soundness during training and competition. Her Performance Hoof Care Clinics have been highly successful with participants ranging from the beginner to the professional trimmer or veterinarian. Attendees have been extremely pleased with the knowledge and skills gained from the workshops. Fellow veterinary colleagues have been astonished at the results achieved with Dr Quick’s methods.
At this stage in her career, due to Dr Quick’s unique depth of experience in so many areas relating specifically to performance, she is able to assess, diagnose and treat a horse for problems relating to lameness, spinal or musculoskeletal pain, hooves, saddle fit and behavioural anomalies to achieve long lasting and satisfying results. The quality of results achieved with her methods compared to traditional therapies, continue to surprise her on a daily basis.