Horses are Horses, not Barbie Dolls
When we treat our horses like the strong, outdoor animals they are, their health explodes. If your horse has thrush, rain rot, hives, is lame, has long cat hairs in her winter coat, has scratches on her legs, displays “vices”, trips, hates being groomed, saddled or ridden, then something is seriously wrong.
To the right, former steeple chaser from Jonathan Sheperd’s racing barn, Big Band Show (Banjo), proves that a good role in the pond slime is the very best bug protector.
Review your animal husbandry, do a fecal check for worms, have a chiropractic exam and consider the following:
Turnout:
Movement with a herd is the Holy Grail, the Mantra, the Alpha and the Omega of healthy, natural feet. If I could trigger the Alleluia choir to sing at this moment, I would. I have experienced it with my Sunny who has been on 24/7 turnout for 2 years. When “Mirabella” and polo mates stayed in the adjoining pasture for 3 weeks, Sunny walked and trotted (ie movement went way up) the fence-line calling for his love. (He’s a stallion wanna-be.) His already concave soles sucked up to a whole new level with thicker sole support. With movement, the structures within the hoof can develop optimal shape, strength, flexibility, resulting in optimal function.
Diet:
It should be mostly free choice grass or timothy hay for this area. I won’t get crazy about diet, unless your horse is insulin resistant (IR), has Cushings, has a cresty neck or is obviously obese. Overloading the system with non-structural carbohydrates leads to a cascade of events resulting in laminitis and founder. The frickin’ hoof wall detaches from the coffin bone.
Blanketing:
Sunny and Herschel (and the rest of the herd) never went into the shed during a winter storm. It didn’t bother them a lick!
I really wish you wouldn’t blanket your horse in any season unless she is debilitated, thin, sickly or really aged. I have written a piece on the bad effects of blanketing. I think this is a human/owner issue not a horse issue. If you blanket because you like a clean horse, I will now let you off the hook. “It’s ok to clean the saddle area and go! Honestly.” By the time you return to the barn all the mud will have flaked off, just in time for your horse to roll again. She is a Horse! I will plant this seed on blankies and hope it grows. In other words I will take horses that are blanketed, but I will growl at you and I may kick or bite.
Here are some more disservices we do to our horses.
Please reconsider:
- Feathers at the pastern direct water to the ground away from the back of the pastern. Try letting them grow out so they can do their job. If you must, tidy with a scissors rather than clipping. Leave a path for the water.
- Mane pulling hurts most horses. If your horse doesn’t like it stop tormenting him. Thinning shears, professional stylist razors and razor combs sold in tack shops do a fine job. Consider letting the mane growth out in the summer; it’s a wonderful fly-swish.
- Horses need the long hairs on the face to sense when things are very close. Please don’t clip. I will admit it takes a while to get used to “the grubby look” if you are used to the English show style, but your horse and I will thank you.
- Do I need to address body clips? You are wrecking your horse’s thermodynamic system. You better have a damn big closet of blankets to address all the various temperatures your horse has to deal with while looking like a hairless cat i.e. one blanket for the stall, another trail riding, arena riding, turnout on an overcast day, turnout on sunny day, turnout on windy day. Guess you get my point!
- Please consider training so that you never have to twitch your horse for basic care. Ever reverse roles? I would kick the crap out of anyone who did that to me. Isn’t amazing how stoic our horses are? Try training beforehand.
- S.R. reminds me that owners of QH pleasure horses cut the tail nerve so the horse appears calm. And to insure it can’t get flies off its body.
- and that Some Competitive Walkers are stalled in a harness that keeps their cut tail bone sticking up; shod in Big Licks that will ruin the coffin bone slowly, putting the horse in extreme pain; burn the bottom of their feet and put chains around their fetlocks for bigger leg action. Most of these practices continues even when a stallion is put to stud and no longer competes.
A final note from the soapbox. I know you competitive owners are saying, “But my horse has to be (clipped, shod, trimmed) in order to compete.” May I suggest that you and your horse-oriented friends begin to lobby the appropriate organizations to get the rules changed? Someone got those horrific, deforming procedures outlawed in the gaited horse world. Isn’t it time to change the way we treat our horses? Threaten to leave the discipline. After all, it all runs on moola.
Let’s do this thing, for the horses we love.
If you enjoyed this article please consider making a donation via Paypal.
Posted in General Articles, Hoof Articles | Tagged barefeet, blanketing, diet, examples, herd life, natural lifestyle, photos 4 Comments
Do you guys have a facebook or myspace fan page? I looked for one on facebook or myspace but could not locate one, I’d love to become a fan!
R U Kidding? This is more than enough to keep up. I spend most of my time with the horses!!!
So come back and see whats new. I am in the process of writing about my latest discovery, Therapeutic Training for the Horse.
D
Thank you so much! I get so tired of defending the fact that my lovely QH gelding lives in a pasture 24/7, goes around barefoot, and eats only grass, hay, and forage (and okay, I’m a softie…I give him occasional apple slices as a treat). I figure that God designed horses to live in nature, so how could mere mortal men think they could improve on that? But my horse comes willingly and gladly to me whenever he sees me (no chasing him around to catch him), and is perfectly calm whether I’m grooming, tacking, performing hoof care, or whatever I’m doing to him. He trusts me because I let him be a horse. I am so glad I found your site so I know I’m not the only one who prefers horses to be horses. You are an amazing person. And BTW, I found your hoof trimming instructional videos on Youtube, and I can’t wait to get started learning my own hoof trimming!
Cindy,
Whoa is that nice to read your note!!!
I know just where you are coming from. You gotta get away from Traditional Barns. I can’t even stand watching those poor horses. They are in pain and the owners blame their attitude. It makes me cry, really!
Fortunately my horse now lives on a natural farm run by an 80 year Young woman who has figured this all out on her own. Her entire herd of mostly OTTB rescues are barefoot. She does stall everyone (but my horse and one of hers as a babysitter) in the winter nights, and blanket (not my boy though) but the rest is so PRO horse.
I moved to her place to learn about her training which actually rehabs the horse! I have been riding off a noseband and really Get It about riding the rear and not the front. (I am working on an article and if there is any interest I will post the lesson plans as best I can.)
Jill knows I am right on blankets and stalls but I understand her view. She can’t be up all night worrying about the herd and cold weather. Of course they have a HUGE arena in the middle of their pasture …. but I don’t want to bother her. The boys actually use the indoor in the summer but only go in in the winter when the winds are very high like 40-60. As long as my Sunny can get in and out of the weather and wind I don’t care. I do throw a sheet on him for rain or snow as its harder to stay warm. If he were a fatso, I wouldn’t but his weight is usually very close to perfect.
Fortunately she has great hay so he hasn’t lost much weight, maybe 50 at the most…but horses naturally go up and down in the wild, so that isn’t a big deal to me. I am also a clicker trainer and he gets lots of treats. I have analyzed the hay and grass (See link on Dr. Kellon) and supplement him based on what he eats. He gets that in some grain-free, molasses-very low feed with a cup of cooked flax seed “snot”. LOL Well that’s what it looks like.
If I can help you in any way with trimming don’t be a stranger. I can work off photos. And ask for whatever donation you would like to give. I want to share the info. I have trained about 50 women and some of them have either gone on to trim professionally or at least help their friends learn to trim. I am very excited about the impact I had as I started all this when I was 52.
I actually gave my business to a student over the summer so that I could devote more time to equine healing, body work and the training I mentioned. I am just fascinated by what I am learning. Still I want to keep adding to the site for educational purposes. I find there aren’t many sites that speak to the newbie with basic trimming info. You can make this rocket science. But you can also trim and rehab your horse and ride ride ride! I obviously come from the second school.
I need to do a video on assessing the feet. In 8 years of pro trimming I saw exactly ONE well trimmed pony. And you have to understand I am 20 minutes from Olympic land aka Unionville, Pa. home of New Bolton Center, Bruce and Buck Davidson (eventing), Philip Dutton, (ditto), Jessica Ransenhauseen (dressage coach) and daughter Missy (eventing) and on and on. Traditional Hoof Care mostly sucks! I don’t know why? Grow a good foot and nail a shoe on just for your season of competition if you think you need it. (I have one friend eventing at a pretty high level with Phillip and so far she is doing fine in barefeet and boots; so I doubt anyone needs shoes. My feeling is that if you need shoes, maybe you shouldn’t be doing what you are doing with your horse. Because clearly they hurt the horse.) As boots get better and better, I hope the high-end folks will hear about us. In the meantime, let the grassroots people heal their horses!
Just for fun, Sunny and I are going to Training Dressage Shows this year: barefoot, with whiskers and fetlocks. The only thing I still do is shorten his mane with a razor blade; I don’t pull it. I just hate the long mane on a TB! It covers up what little neck he has! But if I had any other breed, I would let it go.
Well off to the barn.
Thanks again for your kind words and stay in touch! If I can help in anyway just drop me a line. I have Skype too!
Dawn