Category: Holistic Horse Care

Looking after horses in a way that honours their species specific needs

Books I am glad I found 

Books I am glad I found!! Those who know me know I am an insatiable reader. I read the cereal packet at breakfast. As soon as I could read I believed the answers to life the universe and everything had been written- we just had to go and find the answers. A lot of crap has been written too, and I’ve read most of that also!

Books I am glad I found. The road from quirky unhappy horse with terrible feet to barefoot supremo, Schoolmaster and now herd leader wasn’t easy for me or Paddy so the books I am glad I found were a comfort, a guide, a textbook and an inspiration.

So what are the books I am glad I found?

buy Feet First here

The first book I read about barefoot performance horses and still my go to text for simple logical explanations. Mine, Sarah’s and I’m sure Nic’s,  knowledge of nutrition and training has moved on immensely since this book but it still stands as a great starting point to your barefoot journey.

buy Paddock Paradise here

The next logical step in the pursuit of barefoot understanding.

Simple truth- horses are absolute, emotionally congruent and live in the moment. You can’t fool a horse. What you are receiving is what you asked for, always. That truth is too much for some. Once we allow it it to be the truth, riding and training becomes a martial art, with the Centaur as the goal.

buy Barefoot Horsekeeping here

Our understanding evolves as we learn and study. For me now keeping a horse barefoot is just keeping it healthy. If it’s not right without shoes it won’t be right with shoes. Anni’s beautiful book is scientifically referenced and is bang up to date. She writes about the whole horse-husbandry, trim and training correct biomechanics for barefoot success.

The first book I read about classical dressage. Beautifully written and illustrated, with a good dose of Zen too, it opened my mind to the possibility of a horse made more beautiful and more magnificent by correct and sympathetic training. No subjugation or coercion.

buy Dressage for the 21st Century here

Then the opposite. Anyone who thinks a bit BTV or a bit of LDR is OK should read this book. I did it to Paddy, ignorantly, on the instruction of trainers who didn’t know better, who wanted a nice pretty correct outline for that dressage test. I’m sure we didn’t know the physical damage we were doing then. But I know how, I have the arthritic horse to prove it. And we should all know, the evidence is out there for all to read and see with their own eyes. Totilas being the most famous example.

buy Tug of War here

These books are the antidote to the ugliness of modern dressage. We should all feast our eyes on these pictures, blaze on our brains what correct training and free swinging backs and natural movement looks like and the never look at photos in H&H or BD magazine again lest our eyes be polluted or seduced by the overbent toe flinging marionettes doomed to lameness in their teens.

It can’t all be about flatwork!! I love eventing so jumping has to feature, although I have learned that a horse “doing dressage” correctly should be able to jump a four foot fence at any point in the test…  Reine Klimke is possibly the best remembered of the old style competitors  who won with classically trained horses. His victory lap of one handed changes is another piece of eye training and recalibration I treat myself to regularly.

Watch the victory lap here

And the most important of the books I am glad I found, or even the most important author and inspiration I am glad I found. Charles writes clearly, simply, succinctly. If I memorised every word of the 3 books and applied the wisdom, I would have beautiful, fit, willing, and magnificent horses, with all the moves and all the athleticism one could ask for.

Patrice quotes CDK as her most important mentor, I hear his words in her voice when I read the books. He comes to the U.K. To teach twice a year still and we should make the most of that- he is getting on a bit and won’t travel for ever!! I have 4 days of spectating booked for the March visit and dream of having my “peasant pony” advanced enough to present to him for a ridden lesson.

So there you have it, the books I am glad I found. If you only read one, then please read Charles.

buy Charles here

Top Ten Lessons from 2016

Top ten lessons from 2016- some hard learned, some not so tricky 🙂

  1.  Number 1 of the top ten lessons from 2106- Always have more feed stations than horses. For us this meant apertures on the monster hay feeder. We had 4 horses and 4 apertures…but one was always getting chased off. To get more apertures we had to buy another feeder. Which led to
  2. Number 2 of the top ten lessons from 2016- Don’t have the feed stations too far apart. In our experience, the horse at the bottom of the pecking order will starve rather than eat separately too far away from the others. So the extra feed station has to be near enough to feel inclusive but not so near that the bottom horse gets chased off all the time.
  3. Number 3 of the top ten lessons from 2016- Don’t overstuff your feeders with haylage. Labour saving we thought, 2 giant feeders, 2 bales in each, chore down to once a week 🙂 Except that the weight of the haylage in the nets led to compression and fermentation and they didn’t eat it. 2 bales wasted 🙁
  4. Number 4 of the top ten lessons from 2016- (I’m sorry if the repetition is annoying but I think the SEO programme is happy now LOL) – Objective evidence is good. If you think your horse has ulcers- scope it. If you think your horse has RAO/ heaves/ breathing trouble- scope it. If you think your horse’s feet aren’t as good as they might be- X-ray them. If you think your horse might have Kissing Spines- do the scan. 3 out of 4 apply to us. And be there for the investigation, asking questions and getting it all straight in your head. I didn’t learn anything new on the investigations but SEEING the results allowed me to believe and quantify the problem and ACT on it rather than dithering / supplementing / tickling the surface of the problem. Answers we chose- Ulcers= generic PPI, RAO= steroid inhalers and herbs, thin soles= boots and pads. You don’t have to do exactly what the vet recommends but you do need to know exactly what you are dealing with to make informed decisions. And if you don’t feel you know enough to make informed decisions then either get informed or trust your vet.    (I’m not sure our vets like having a colorectal surgeon with an MD in Biomolecular Medicine and barefoot, holistic, classical leanings as a client but there we go)
  5. Number 5 of the top ten lessons from 2016- you can never do enough groundwork with a young horse. Rocky is walking trotting and cantering under saddle and hacking on his own but I wish we had done more in hand work. It’s the basis of everything and it doesn’t need to be much: a few minutes sometimes was enough for the lesson to go through. I will do more when he comes back in to work after his growing (dark nights) break, as well as cracking on with his general education.​​
  6. TWO EQUAL REINS. Such a simple thing, so difficult to achieve. MORE RIGHT LESS LEFT. This rule applies to 99% of riders and horses.
  7. Just do the ff=ing homework. I thought I worked hard until I saw the difference one of the “Patricelings” achieved in a short month. One week she had straight arms, low fixed hands and an unhappy horse although in a “pretty” (false) outline, the next month she had elbows that were part of her back, steady yet allowing hands and a very happy horse. She hadn’t fully understood the why,  she had just gone away and done the work and the why appeared; the contact she was offered was soft and reaching and the horse’s topline looked terrific as a result.
  8. But do get decent tuition so you get good homework. Bad training is damaging to horse and rider. Classical principles work, they have been developed and proven over centuries. There are no short cuts that do not compromise soundness, equine well-being or worst of all progression to the next stage of training. Unless you want to do BE90 for ever and just keep switching horses every time you break one. Why learn to do something quickly and badly? It will impact negatively on everything else you do from that day onwards. Like turning with the inside rein- it’s a great tip for beginners who need” whoa, turn and go” but in the long run all it does is unbalance and constrict your horse.
  9. Don’t limit your expectations or your dreams. Your horse doesn’t know that you “only” want to do prelim and BE80; why not do that as well as you can, classically, correctly, happily? I only wanted to event up to BE90, possibly 100 on a brave pants day- suddenly with good luck, great advice and fabulous training we have a youngster potentially capable of much more, an Irish Sport horse a smidgeon off changes and baby piaffe, and an ex racer that will jump the moon once it can trot in a circle.
  10. and number 10 of the top ten lessons from 2016- Never under-estimate the importance of species specific diet and lifestyle. I cannot emphasise enough times how happy our horses are, living out in a herd, woolly and muddy, grooming, rolling, grazing and playing as part of a natural equine lifestyle. Their bodies look fab, their coats are amazing (when we knock the mud off), their feet are fabulous and their brains are superb, alert, inquisitive, willing but with no anxiety. We do have challenges, the ex racer thinks he’s still racing when in company, the baby has a sense of humour, but overall they are a very cool bunch of horses to be around.

So there we have my top ten lessons from 2016. Funny how two people can be in the same life and have completely different viewpoints, so I asked Gary too.

Gary’s top three (in his own words)

  1. Good advice is what we all crave. Reliability: we’d all like to delegate the real responsible decisions we have to make to others, those seemingly far more qualified. There are so many well meaning people but often I’ve found theirs isn’t the best advice. Take all information on board – all information is good information but the trick is sifting though the information to work out what will work for your horse. Cal has been the perfect example, or more precisely, his feet issues that Fran has documented in her blog for all; warts an’all. Many people I highly respect have offered their comment. We took it all on board and sifted it through our present knowledge. We were fortunate enough to find the right direction; a culmination of that valued advice, but ultimately our own decision. The decisions were ours, and on that day, we’ll stand by them. Delegating your responsibilities is not an option.
  2. A situation occured earlier last year which led to my biggest set back. It culminated in an inappropriate confrontation, bitter comments and almost divorce! Without further detail, I believe the root cause was a lack of attention to my horse’s tack, in particular his saddle. I rue this day. I deeply regret the consequences because I was fully responsible for that moment. My deepest regret is to the horse I placed into the middle of this. My lesson is so simple, but so often neglected – ensure your horse is correctly prepared!
  3. My experience, and those who know me will concur, is not vast. One signficant lesson though has shone through. All horses are magnificent, but not every horse is right for you. I loaned an incredible horse last year, a truly talented being that could have taught me far more than I allowed. But like love; like a passion, if the spark is not there, you are not soul mates. I eventually found mine, an ex-racer, and my passion for our horses was ignited again. For me, this has been fundamental. The relationship is hugely important. This feeds desire, inspiration, imagination, and most importantly hunger for more learning. P.S. And 3a! Knowing that these ideas and thoughts will develop and change……
  4. Because she asked me to give 3. Surround yourself with those who believe in what you believe. You will become the average of those closest to you, for good or for bad. Fran’s blog has genuinely inspired me; giving most what she most desires.

 

Targeted Equine Worming Programme in action

We have had a targeted equine worming programme in action since 2010. In 2013 a cool phone app was released that has allowed me to monitor my targeted equine worming programme in action. Following on from my last post, I thought it might be interesting for readers if I shared just one of our horse’s worming record over these last few years.

Paddy- 17 year old ISH

March 2013- new yard                               Ivermectin/Praziquantel

June 2013                   test 50 eggs              NO DOSE NEEDED

Sept 2013                    test 150 egg

Tape weak pos         DOSE DEFERRED to wait for frost

Dec 2013                     encysted redworm Moxidectin/Praziquantel

March 2014                test 0 eggs                  NO DOSE NEEDED

Aug 2014                     test 0 eggs

Tapeworm neg          NO DOSE NEEDED

Dec 2014                     encysted redworm  Moxidectin

March 2015                test 50

Tapeworm neg          NO DOSE NEEDED

July 2015                     test 0                            NO DOSE NEEDED

Nov 2015                     Tape positive             Ivermectin/Praziquantel

Feb 2016                      encysted redworm  Moxidectin

May 2016                     test 0                            NO DOSE NEEDED

Sept 2016                     test 0                            NO DOSE NEEDED

Tapeworm pos           Praziquantel

DEC 2016                  Will need worming for encysted redworm-

I will use Moxidectin as only moxidectin or febendazole deal with encysted redworm and there is well documented resistance to febendazole.

So there you have it- a real targeted equine worming programme in action. My testing dates aren’t perfect; life can get in the way for all of us.  Looking at this record also made me realise that I have used a lot of Moxidectin (Equest). As this is the only wormer left for Strongyles with no recorded resistance in the UK or Ireland we should probably use it as sparingly as possible to preserve its’ effectiveness for the future.  So I should use more straight Ivermectin, or even Febendazole or Mebendazole with a resistance test following dosing. By testing more or less regularly for tapeworm I have given 4 worming doses for Tapeworm out of a possible 8. By doing regular Faecal Egg Counts I have avoided 8 doses for redworm.

Why bother? Why not just worm and be done with it?

Well, wormers are essentially a poison- they are designed to kill worms but do also have other deleterious effects on the gut flora and the immune system. The horse’s hooves show event lines after worming, particularly with combination wormers, a sure sign that there is a systemic inflammatory effect reflected in the hooves.

Most horses don’t need regular worming. In a stable herd, 2/3 at least have a basic resistance to redworm and don’t build up high intestinal populations quickly. Why worm the horses that don’t have worms?

Emerging resistance will be a problem for all of us. In modern hospital there are superbugs which only a few select antibiotics can beat. Some of those select antibiotics were released years ago, unpopular initially because they were not particularly effective,  and are now back in favour because their lack of widespread use meant that the common bugs didn’t get over-exposed to them and so didn’t mutate to resist their effects. Once resistance becomes a problem drug companies are less incentives to release new drugs 15 years ago a newly developed antibiotic would quickly sell a billion doses, now a new antibiotic is kept in reserve, to prevent resistance and to save the lives of those infected with multi-resistant organisms. There may well come a time where bowel cancer surgery becomes high risk again despite amazing technical advances because we cannot eliminate infection. The same will happen with wormers- new compounds are likely to be kept for best and as such are much less profitable and therefore slower to be developed and released.

Testing can be expensive. I pay £11.50 for FEC and £17.50 for Tapeworm saliva tests. If the horse then needs worming that month is expensive. But most of the time, testing is cheaper than just worming. It’s very unusual for more than 1 horse to need worming after testing. This year none needed worming in May, two of 4 didn’t need anything this time and the other 2 needed a dose for either redworm or tapeworm but not both.

I hope I have demonstrated that it’s worth thinking about a implementing a targeted equine worming programme.

Albrecht and the agronomist

One of our first jobs when we acquired our own land was to get the soil analysis done according to Albrecht principles. You may not have heard of Albrecht: we hadn’t a couple of years ago. Nor, it would seem, is Albrecht a name familiar to the local Cheshire agronomists.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Albrechthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Albrecht

Albrecht was a pioneering American scientist who surmised and proved that mineral balancing the soil so that it could support an entire ecosystem rather than just the crop being grown would lead to healthier crops, healthier animals and healthier humans. In the long run, healthy mineral balanced soil supports a multitude of grass species with a good root system and so doesn’t get washed away, supports varied species including microbiota, flora and fauna, and can remain healthy in homeostasis ad infinitum. His writings are freely available and make really interesting reading.

http://www.amazon.com/Albrecht-Soil-Balancing-Papers/dp/1601730292/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=1W4FTAMTQV7AXVXCQA26

Oner of the perpetual joys of the barefoot journey is the voyage of discovery towards scepticism and self-sufficiency. Once you take the leap of faith and pull the shoes from your first barefoot horse, with the vet and the farrier and half your friends telling you it will never work and that you must be mad, you have to do a lot of reading, experimenting and research to understand enough about barefoot to deal with the initial difficulties and transition successfully. For Paddy, I had to learn about diet and exercise, then ulcers, with Cal it has been Insulin Resistance, Cushings, thrush, COPD and finally tidying hooves a bit in between trimmer visits to keep his toes in check. With buying our own land came the concept of naked ponies through a working winter, track and hard standing design (ongoing) and now learning about mineral balance in soil.

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Why do I need to know about soil? Because soil influences grass, and horses eat a lot of grass, so the healthier the grass,  the better their feet, coats, breathing, itching, you name it, nearly every horse ailment under the sun could theoretically be improved by correct diet. And I need to know it because the agronomist, let’s call him Dick, has never heard of Albrecht, barefoot horses, or healthy soils.

Humans disturb natural balance. Humans want yield, we grow single species grass selected out for quick nutrition for animals destined for quick slaughter. In Cheshire we grow ryegrass for fattening and milking cows. Cows are ruminants, horses are not. Horses are not food or milk providers but animals evolved to survive in the desert and the steppes; poor, arid, varied grasslands.

So when we got our soil analysis done, according to Albrecht principles, there were certain recommendations. We needed Calcined magnesite (for the magnesium), Potassium sulphate (for the sulphur) and DAP (for the Phosphate not the Nitrogen). I rang up our local supplier, they very helpfully said I would need to talk to Dick the agronomist who would work out the best products to give us what we needed.

Dick had never heard of Albrecht. He looked at the soil analysis report and suggested Paddock Royale, a common fertiliser suitable for pony paddocks and readily available at reasonable cost. It would give us the elements we needed, albeit not in the perfect ratios.

Great, I thought, good land, doesn’t need much, winner.

Then Stacey (of Forest Holiday Cottages fame) got him to look at her soil report. Now I happen to know hers is completely different to mine, with very different issues and mineral requirements to balance her soil.

Dick recommended exactly the same product for Stacey as he had for us… at which point alarm bells rang.

Then followed two weeks of wrangling. I had to brush up my A level Chemistry to check my organic chemistry in order to effectively argue the toss with Dick the misogynist agronomist who eventually said “I’ll sell you whatever you like” (THANK YOU). Eventually he has mixed our product as instructed and delivered it to the guy who will do the spreading, covered in labels warning of risk of laminitis if he spreads it at our required coverage!!

Obviously Dick didn’t listen to any of the stuff about ratios, mineral balance rather than fertilising, or in fact the idea that the horses will be on a track system not on the grass in the traditional sense at all over summer. He didn’t look up Albrecht because obviously he already knows everything he needs to know for the rest of his life.

Oh well, another learning opportunity missed for Dick, embraced fully by the Nelipot team.

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I’ll let you know how it all goes, we are waiting for the weather now to spread, after which once the stuff has gone in, we can finally put our summer track up and get the boys moving more every day.

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In between all this, schooling homework has been done and is paying off 🙂 Cal came second at Southview Competition Centre Combined Training today- 2 lovely tests and a pole down at 70 and 80 but no stops and very little hesitation- hurrah.

http://www.southviewarena.com/events.asp

And Rocky had a Birthday : here is the baby photo, see above for recent picture.

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Training, not Taming

Training, not taming, the horse to be ridden. A recent post on social media showed a photo of a beautifully marked wild mustang stallion posturing. The caption asked “is this the self-carriage that we seek?” And one of the replies was “I’m not sure I’d like to be riding my horse if he was in that mode…”

And this got me wondering. Looking at the photo, the horse’s back is beautifully lifted, and at maximum length from tail to poll, the overall balance is uphill, the suspension and ground cover breath-taking, the throat latch is open but the poll is absolutely the highest point. In short, if one added a rider to the photo, it would be the most beautifully correct passage, and the rider would be invisible because the horse would steal the show.

So for me, yes, absolutely, this self-carriage is a good example of what I would seek. As Charles de Kunffy says, the purpose of dressage training, in keeping with the Renaissance ideals, is to transform a random act of Nature into an edifice of Art. Training, not taming.

The purpose of training, for me, is to strive towards a quality of symbiosis that makes me and the horse feel like a Centaur, one body, one mind, working together effortlessly and invisibly. I love eventing so ideally for me that would be true on the cross country course, show jumping and also in the dressage arena. I want my horse to be a willing partner, thinking for himself, our brains attuned to each other but working in harmony. I certainly wouldn’t want to canter towards a big solid cross-country fence with a horse that isn’t looking after himself and, by extension, me as well. Training, not taming.

SONY DSC

Now please don’t get me wrong, I am not boasting here: if you saw me ride, you would see that I am a long, long way away from that ideal. But it is important to know what we strive for, for how else might we take steps to achieve it?

Achieving a classical seat is an incremental process
Achieving a classical seat is an incremental process

So would we like to ride a horse with the amount of energy and pizzazz of the posturing stallion?

Who wouldn’t?

Surely the whole point of riding a horse is to have two bodies and minds working together to achieve more than either can separately? The human becomes more majestic, more imposing, more powerful, on board a horse, leaping huge fences and traveling at tremendous speed. The whole point of riding is to harness the power of the horse and use it for our purpose; be that enjoyment, labour, display or battle. Why would you get on a horse and ask it to diminish itself?

SONY DSC

Many horses are “energy efficient”. Many horses have no idea how powerful they can be! My own gorgeous, sleepy, gentle Cal, scares himself silly when both hind legs work equally and he realises how much power there is behind him. When he hits that point, we have had Pesade and Capriole, when all that was required was two hind legs, equal, underneath you, lifting please! The baby Rocky is right hand crooked: when asked to lift his bum with his left hind, we have had kicks and twists and inside outs just to avoid a bit of new weight bearing. When they find the feeling though, and play around with the new body you have just introduced them to, that is truly an amazing moment.

One of my most treasured memories is when the black horse, Paddy, old, arthritic, stiff and resistant, spontaneously offered the most beautiful canter in a lesson where we spent a bit of time doing walk pirouettes and helped him to unlock his back. The canter was a really cool reaction- “ooooooh that feels soooo goooood”

The novice horse loses the new balance again two strides later of course! But if you can show them that place, again and again, the balance becomes better and stronger and then they choose the new muscle usage because it feels good, and then they offer the correct posture because it feels good. And then they blossom and grow in confidence and stature.

This can’t be forced. For the horse to choose, it has to feel physically better. And good training, that sticks, where the horse is a willing partner, has to be based on offers not coercion. The best training is where we set up a question or exercise where the only logical physical answer employs the new muscle usage that we seek. The horse experiments, tries a few things, works out the required offer and then is rewarded for the try. The exercise is repeated, the try gets quicker, more confident, stronger. Eventually the horse learns that this exercise creates that feeling, and the aids become invisible and the try becomes an immediate response. And that is training, not taming.

There is no “control” required because there is no resistance and no fear. The horse is on the aids, working on suggestions and signals. The horse is not diminished mentally because his mind is respected and employed to his advantage during the training. The horse is not diminished physically because the training is built up slowly, layer upon layer of incrementally tougher demands on a body that has been gradually prepared for the higher demands of collection.

This takes timing, and tact, and humour, and skill. And it takes lots of time. Podhjasky says 4 years to prepare a horse for the high school movements. Four years after they first start school work, which the SRS horses do at 6. Years 4-6 are spent hacking out, in straight lines, developing bones and tendon and bodies, seeing the world and learning about life, not in the arena.

But when you have an advanced well horse trained in this manner, that will spontaneously offer every ounce of half a tonne of muscle, to make the pair of you majestic, why would you not want a piece of that? And why would you not want it to last for ever?

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That’s what I’m striving towards. And if it takes me a whole lifetime of learning and training to achieve it with one horse for even one minute, it will have been worth the journey.