Tag: performance barefoot

How much grass do horses need?

How much grass do horses need?

As some of you may know, I have just come back from Mongolia, the original land of the horse. I was fortunate to be part of a scientific expedition to a mountainous region in the West of Outer Mongolia.

You can read the official trip report here

https://www.nelipotcottage.com/the-mongolian-baatar-expedition-2018/

Horses were our main form of transport, and our expedition team included a zoologist, a botanist, and an archeologist as well as the herdsman and grooms who looked after us and our trusty steeds. Amongst other lessons, this was a unique opportunity to learn about the incredibly bio-diverse plants of Mongolia, in the context of fodder for the sturdy little mountain horses.

How much grass do horses need?

When you look out across the steppes, mountains and plains of Western Mongolia, it all looks really green.

However, when you get closer to the green, it’s actually sandy, rocky, shaley soil, with a patchy smattering of plants; mostly succulents. This part of the country is really arid, with very little ground moisture, so succulents and hardy herbs and weeds do best. The plants were often tiny, yet with really complex, swollen, almost tuber-like root systems.

Trees were a rarity, growing only by oases or rivers.  Winter had been late this year, so the flowers weren’t really out when we arrived, but did start to appear later in the trip when there had been some rain. We flew into and out of Khovd, the small domestic airport that serves Western Mongolia, and we could see a definite difference in the green cover between arriving and leaving, 2 weeks apart.

There are over 3,000 plant species described in Mongolia, with over 975 having a use in traditional medicine. On the lower slopes of the Altai mountains, our botanist told we should expect to find 14-18 different species of plant within a metre square. None of these would be species that you and I would recognise as grass. There were lots of varieties from the pea family, a Mongolian thistle, Mongolian chives (delicious as a snack when travelling),  bellflowers, Iris, Ephedra, and Artemesia or wormseed. My olfactory memory of our trip will be a perfume made up of Artemesia, DEET, leather and horse sweat- a heady combination indeed!

The horses were tough little buggers; approximately 13-14hh. They were all barefoot, obviously. None of the horses are trained to pick their feet up and none of the herdsman owned a rasp, so they are all self trimming. Feet varied in shape; although the majority were very similar to the mustang hoof we see in the Pete Ramey and Jaime Jackson books, there were some with flares, and slightly longer toes. The feet were all incredibly tough, and highly functional.

We travelled across boulder fields, up and down stony mountain tracks, across steep scree slopes, as well as across the green(ish) foothills and the more gravelly steppes, and the little horses picked their way confidently over all terrain, for 20-30 kms a day, and were still keen to charge into camp at the end of the day.

We gave them a day off after a few tough days, and then an easy day on the last day which the herdsman must have cursed us for, as it took them two hours to round them all up for their night-time trip back over the hills for their next clients. Even in hobbles, some of them could move pretty fast!

They were lean, but very fit. During the day, they got a snack at lunchtime, grazing around in hobbles while we ate our little picnic boxes of pasta or cracked wheat with chewy beef, and they were sure to drink copiously from every stream we crossed.

At night, the bits were slipped from their mouths,  although the rawhide bridles were left on, and they were hobbled and turned loose around the campsite. In the morning the herdsman would jump on the nearest horse and go and round up the others, ready for action.

How much grass do horses need?

Not much, apparently, in the high mountain country. The herdsman and the botanist knew which plants contained the minerals and vitamins the animals needed for good health, and the horses self selected at every opportunity. At stream crossings, while waiting their turn, they took the chance to grab mouthfuls of more lush reeds and grasses. If we stopped to take photographs of a new variety of herb or plant, the horses also checked out what we had found and had a quick munch.

In Hustain, back in the East and South of Ulan Bataar, there is a reserve where the Przewalski horses thrive in the wild. Here, at lower altitudes, the plains were greener and lusher, but we still counted 18-25 species within a square metre, and over 90 varieties of plant just in the small valley where our campsite was situated. There were more grasses here, as well as numerous wildflowers and herbs.

The Takhi, or Przewalski, were very plump, but they get a very short summer and a long harsh winter, so presumably were layering up fat for the cold, None of them seemed to have pathological or sore feet.

Back home.. I looked at a few scattered metre squares in our field. I got up to 9 species of plant in the best one, and have about 20 species of plants altogether if I count the hedgerows and the low hanging tree branches. We have this little lovely- Prunella Vulgaris or Selfheal. What a useful weed! 😍

Below is a bouquet of grass flowers from our re-wilding area,

https://www.nelipotcottage.com/grow-your-own/

over-seeded with gifts from a friend, who inadvertently bought one of the last remaining areas of Upland Hay Meadow in the UK with his retirement cottage.

So how much grass do horses need? The answer seems to be, not much grass at all actually. As long as they have access to a wide variety of plants including grasses, herbs, weeds and trees they should be able to meet all their nutritional needs. The key to whole horse health is surely preserving the biodiversity of the fields they graze in, and also their own hindgut micro-biome?

The Mongolian horses were very skilled at self selection.

In human nutrition, we know that almost everything in moderation is good, while anything to excess can be bad, even celery!

Why would horses be any different?

We “know” that bracken is poisonous to horses. But bracken contains an insulin like compound. Eaten to excess (12kg, the research says) then yes, too much insulin like compound would be toxic. But in Spring, when the lush grass comes through, a little bit of bracken can help the horse cope with the sugar- rich grass flush and protect them against laminitis.

Likewise, oak trees are supposedly poisonous to horses. But oaks contain tannins, which have an anti – helminthic effect. Our horses choose to browse the low hanging oak branches in the field, and love to drink out of the tea- coloured stream that runs through the peat bog in the forest. Are they doing their own worm control regime?

Or even better, their own pro-biotic? I’m now buying EM1- Effective Micro-organisms, a suspended culture of live bacteria for hind gut health. Drinking from a muddy puddle may well provide the same bacteria, in a handy suspension, at no cost?

Maybe, when horses gorge on acorns, escape from fields or break into feed rooms, it’s because they don’t have sufficient to meet their needs? Was their paddock bare, had the haynet run out, or are they craving a vital nutrient that cannot be obtained from grass alone?

Our horses only break into the middle grass, off the track, if the Haylage feeders run dry and there isn’t enough on the track to interest them. Last Friday, the Haylage finished overnight but the hedgerow is chock full of fun stuff like blackberries and fresh hawthorn, and the track is now covered in tiny bits of green- they didn’t beak through the electric despite the battery being low.

So much grass do horses need?

I guess it all depends on the quality of your meadow-

Maybe a better question would be how many grasses do horses need?

Here’s a challenge– how about you go and measure a rough metre square in your grazing and count how many different species of plant grow there?

here are some links to other accounts of the trip

https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/aberdeenshire/1538375/adventure-seeking-castle-keeper-takes-trip-of-a-lifetime-with-mongolian-horseback-expedition/

https://www.caymancompass.com/2018/08/12/cayman-resident-explores-the-steppes-of-mongolia/

https://jerseyeveningpost.com/news/2018/08/18/rare-sights-for-mongolia-team-led-by-jersey-adventurer/

Big fit horses in reasonable work can get laminitis too…

Laminitis is not just a disease for small natives: big, fit horses in medium work can get laminitis too, as I discovered to my chagrin a few weeks ago.

I was chatting about our recent troubles at the area 20 qualifiers yesterday and the lady I was chatting too said “Oh, he’s a big horse, we forget they can get laminitis too” as if this was rare?

It had never occurred to me that laminitis was mainly a disease of small ponies, although I do associate it mostly with good doers. Cal is a good doer, but he is also a big, fit horse in medium level work and had been eventing the week before he showed that big fit horses in reasonable work can get laminitis too.

The causes of laminitis are now known to be metabolic, either associated with Equine Metabolic Syndrome ( a sort of type II Diabetes for horses) or Equine PID, more commonly known as Cushing’s disease. Metabolic causes means that laminitis is a disease of the whole horse, the cause and the treatment are not limited to the foot.

I’m pretty sure Cal has EMS, although I’ve never tested him properly. How do I know this? Because he has been such a tricky barefooter over the years. For those of you who do not fully embrace the barefoot concept, let me share with you my paradigm.

Any horse with the correct diet, environment, exercise and trim should be able to go barefoot and work hard barefoot.

Those 4 simple sounding words are not simple things to achieve in the U.K. Cal is an Irish Spirts horse, so he is half Irish Draught, and he looks like he got quite a lot of Connemara in the mix, so a dose of Spanish blood too. He didn’t get much TB in his phenotype, that’s for sure.

Diet-  Cal is finely tuned to survive in the Irish peat bogs, or possibly also in Spanish scrubland. He doesn’t get much green grass, a sniff makes him footsore so a good bellyfull would probably kill him. He is the main reason our horses are track dwellers, and his story is partly why we bought our house and land, because traditional livery yards simply could not cater for his needs. This horse loves fresh thistles, bashes down nettles to let them wilt, eats a bit of bracken for the insulin like compound, goes for ivy, again for the sugar busting properties. He is pretty good at managing his own condition, as long as he is offered the variety of herbs and plants he needs to offset the green posion. He gets a small bucket feed which contains salt, Phytorigin GI, a hindgut balancer ained at feeding the good bacteria, Phytolean plus, a plant based supplement with lots of anti-oxidants designed to support the immune system and homeostasis of tricky metabolic horses.

Environment: he on a track system or paddock paradise. His main needs #friendsforagefreedom are met as best we can. He lives out 24/7, in a stable herd with his mates, to groom, play, commune with and boss around. They have access to constant ad lib forage, and are safe from stress. As he is pretty dominant he is the safest of all from stress, especially as Paddy is the lookout.

Exercise: he’s my main horse. He lives on a track so does about 5 miles a day mooching around on there, he also gets ridden 3-4 times a week, a mixture of hacking, schooling, jumping and fast work every 10 days or so. Of course he could do more, if I had more time.

Trim: trim has always been tricky. But that’s mainly because Cal has been tricky. The more I learn about feet, the more I think there difference between a good trim and a bad trim is a bit like a clip: two weeks!! Bad feet are impossible to trim into a healthy shape and function, and good healthy working feet are really hard to trim into bad shape because they just wear themselves correct again with work and movement. Cal has been footy on stones for his entire barefoot career. We use nice little euphemisms but make no mistake, a slightly sore foot is a slightly weak or a pathological foot. That’s why I would never call a horse sound unless it was truly sound without shoes: if the horse is sore when you take the shoes off, the shoes are disguising a problem. It took me a few years of looking at hoof photos to realise that Cal was a sub-clinical laminitic.

When I bought him his feet ran so far forward the whole foot sat in front on his legs, but he was sound as a pound in shoes! When he broke his carpal bone and we took the shoes off it took 3 full years to get a hoof that actually had hoof under the leg bones, and 4 years to get the heel bulbs in line with the middle of his cannon bones. The under run heels, the slipper like toes, the occasional growth ring, these were all subtle laminitic stigmata. Yet he had worked hard, team chased, hunted, evented, with the only sign of challenge being on very stony ground. So many people said I should just shoe him, as if that would solve all our problems, and that advice even came from some barefoot trimmers and vets.

Had he been shod, I might not have spotted the mild attack of laminitis until it was a full blown disaster.

I had brought him down to the house ready to compete at the weekend. I had ridden him in the school, bathed, cleaned tack and left him in the stable at the house for an early start. Normally when at the house they get Horsehage HiFi Haylage,

but our local shop had run out so I had bought some West Lancs Haylage instead. I gave him a good feed and a good big section of Haylage to last him overnight. The next day he was pointing a foot at me, and shifting around behind.

It took me a few days to twig what was going on: because one foot seemed to be worse I thought abscess first of all. And I was still feeding the West Lancs Haylage. It was only when I realised it was pure Ryegrass Haylage that I put two and two together. After a few days at the house no abscess had appeared and he wasn’t actually a welfare case so I moved him back to the field. He got better there but after 10days was still not looking rideable. He had palpable pulses in all 4 legs and was moving very slowly and appeared miserable.

I got the vet out, who agreed with me that it was laminitis, but very mild, to the extent that, I quote, “a lot of owners wouldn’t have noticed there was anything wrong”. He gave Cal a shot of i.v. analgesia which allowed me to get hoof boots on his front feet so he was comfortable enough to walk back to the house, and then to march him up the big hill. I kept him at the house, rationing every mouthful: no grass at all, a section of Hifi or a tiny feed very 4 hours and walking up the hill once or twice daily. All this strict diet and exercise was aimed to sharpen his insulin response again. He had Phytorigins Rescue Remedy which is a 5 day course, double dose PhytoGI, double dose Phytolean Plus for maximum antioxidants and a sachet Danilone twice daily.

http://phytorigins.co.uk/Phyto-Rescue-Remedy

After 4 days he was much improved, back to hacking out and schooling again at 10days. He went back to the now very dry sandy grass free track (thanks weather) on about day 5 (more to do with work than precise symptoms).

The vet offered to do a glucose stimulation test to see if it was definitely EMS- I have declined this. The blood test says it’s not Cushings, there is no really effective treatment for EMS other than really tight management which we do already, and there is a significant risk of laminitis from the stimulation test.

I now know that every mouthful counts, that I will never switch Haylage again for my own convenience, and that this horse needs to work every week, no matter how busy I am with my job.

It’s been a bad spring. I have another medical friend whose horse got laminitis because she was a bit busy with work and didn’t ride for a week: nothing else changed. And I have heard local tales of other big, fit horses in reasonable work who have succombed to the condition after a seemingly innocent change in diet or management. The grass this spring has been bonkers, wet and warm and then sunny is a great combination for really rich Cheshire cow grass. Our track looks totally bare now but it’s the scorching sun that has killed the green stuff the last couple of weeks, before that it was the horses munching away that kept the grass looking poor.

Do you check your horse’s pulses every day?

http://www.ironfreehoof.com/equine-digital-pulses.html

Shod or not, a palpable pulse might be the first sign of impending laminitis and feeling a change early might just save your horse from a full blown attack.

https://thehorse.com/111374/10-early-warning-signs-of-laminitis/

Do you watch every mouthful your horse eats?

Keeping a tricky barefoot horse sound, healthy and in full work is a sure way to turn into a feed geek; Paddy could eat more or less what he liked and still trot and canter on any stony surface in the forest.

Since having Cal my rudimentary knowledge of horse physiology and nutrition is now more or less at degree level; of course it helps that I am already an expert in human physiology so the proper equine textbooks are legible to me. I have tried every supplement on the market, tried every supposedly healthy bagged feed and have come around to the acceptance that maintaining a healthy hindgut is key, and that all is really required is hay, water, salt and enough variety in their environment to allow them to forage for what they need. in the absence of variety, supplements might be required and it’s the Phytorigins approach that makes the most sense to the cynical scientist in me.

Do you reduce the bucket feed if your horse is doing less work?

Cal isn’t on anything rich or high in protein or sugar, we use Agrobs, but I have cut down significantly from what I was feeding and will cut down even more if he has a quiet week. He wasn’t fat, but his condition hasn’t really changed on less food so I think feeding the minimum required to keep him fit is definitely the way to go. Even in a busy month, he will never be in hard work like a polo pony or a racehorse.

Cal fully recovered at BRC area qualifiers

Change is inevitable

Change is inevitable in life- we are never static. With horses, we are either building them up or breaking them down (Charles de Kunffy).

Photos are an important tool to chart our progress, in either direction.

I found this old photo of Cal in my memories today- what struck me immediately was how weedy his chest looked then compared to nowadays.

Change is inevitable.

This photo was taken on the Whitegate Way when he would have been 7. I bought him at 6, he fractured his carpal bone that winter. This photo was taken the winter after, when he was just back into work but we hadn’t yet met Patrice and started our Classical training journey.

I think this was the snow that disrupted the first Patrice clinic I was due to attend. I’m pretty sure this was the day we were meant to be at Stafford Horse Trials- funnily enough it was cancelled that year!!

 

 

Change is inevitable, and its lovely when it’s good. The photo below was taken late summer this year. Look at the chest on it now! He is every inch the magnificent draught in this photo.

So for those who don’t believe that horses grow both taller and broader with correct training- here is some evidence 🙂

Change is inevitable, but you can choose which change to pursue.

I’m hoping the TB half will be more obvious when he is eventing fit…but then again… I quite like the magnificent charger.

We get the horse we need for the next stage of our learning, not necessarily the horse we think we want.

Bring on 2018 🙂

 

The best thing about competing

The best thing about competing is that entering competitions makes me focus on my training goals. The best thing about competing is that entering competitions gives me a concrete timetable to direct my work towards, and when eventing is your main discipline, that timetable has to include basic fitness, fast work, jumping practise and cross-country schooling

as well as flatwork. We have had a great winter mostly working on our flatwork, as always with the help of the amazing Patrice Edwards, and Cal has been feeling stronger and better than ever, with a good canter (finally) that feels effortless and adjustable. So the best thing about competing is that it forces me to test the training.

 

The best thing about competing, and training for competing, is that we get to catch up with old friends. Winter can be dark and dreary, especially with working full-time and having horses living out; some days it just seems too much effort to ride, let alone enter anything. This winter my surrogate pony club mum, the lovely Judith, has organised regular riding club jumping clinics with Richard Carruthers. These have been great fun, watching combinations develop, and the camaraderie, thrills and spills and banter have been inspirational. A bit of continuity has also allowed Richard to be inventive: in this lesson he put Cal in a hackamore to see if less inadvertent clutching rein action might improve his way of going. We still had a couple of stops but it did make me realise where I might possibly have been tightening my hand when thinking “oh heck”. My current tasks is to retrain myself to kick every time I think “oh heck”!! The hackamore won’t stay in for ever, but it has been a useful exercise, and doesn’t allow me to micro manage at all, so all I can do is keep asking for forward, which is very much what Cal needs.

The scariest number I ever heard is 4000: this is the number of weeks in an average 80 year lifespan. 80 years sounds like a very long time, 4000 weeks by contrast sounds surprisingly short. It’s so easy to let a week drift by, or a month, when one isn’t focused. Horses set their own timetable, for sure, but a sense of time passing is handy for those of us with busy lives and other distractions, like a full time job and a home business on the side.

Rocky set his own timetable this month; no sooner had I ordered his new saddle then he developed an abscess and was waving his front foot around like a dying swan. He came down to the house for a few days for poulticing, which was quite testing. Note to self, must handle him in more inventive ways, rather than just doing basics, as nappies went flying across the yard and he did pirouettes and levade whilst the tape was going round his foot. After 8 days there was no real improvement so we took him to Brownmoss for x-rays. The x-rays showed a tiny abscess, quite deep in the foot, so no point digging and no point poulticing. We chucked him out in the field again for it to work its own way out. This took another week; he got really good at chasing the dogs on 3 legs and doing perfect pirouettes to turn around. It was all good hind end strengthening. He finally looked sound the evening before we went away for Easter weekend, so will get ridden out tomorrow.

Rocky handing in his note excusing him from games

The best thing about competing is that it makes me clean my tack properly! I’m quite good at looking after my tack for durability and checking stitching for safety, as most of it is second-hand, but it rarely gets a full buff and polish unless we are going out somewhere. Rocky chewed Cal’s leather reins, so I have the choice of looking scruffy in lightly chewed leather tomorrow or doing dressage with rubber reins that don’t give the same nice elastic feel…we’ll see.

The best thing about competing is that it forces me to tackle Cal’s mane so that it can be plaited; as a friend once said, he has two good manes, one on each side, that take quite a lot of taming. He also hates having his mane pulled, so we have to do a few handfuls at a time, or do it really quickly before he gets too cross.

Cal showing off his two manes

After photos tomorrow LOL.

The best thing about competing is the anticipation. To keep ourselves moving forwards, we are told to do something every day that scares us. You can’t grow in your comfort zone, only in your stretch zone. Well, having not competed properly i.e. jumping, since last summer (I don’t count dressage as competing because I am now so detached from the outcome), I am indeed feeling stretched! Here’s to growing!

The dulcet tones belong to Richard Carruthers, videos courtesy of Brent Sansom, many thanks Brent.

And finally, my stepson Barney stomped way out of his comfort zone this weekend, walking 100 miles in less than 48 hours, raising over 4K so far for Cancer Research UK and St Wilfred’s Hospice, in memory of Pam, his dear and wise friend. I am uber proud, and would ask you to consider donating to the 2 very worthy causes.

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/SomeoneSpecial/PAM

 

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.

 

My motto for 2017

My motto for 2017, thanks to a Facebook friend I have not yet met: it is to “Shout Louder in my Own Space”.

My motto for 2017 is a reaction to recent online experiences. We have all been subject to the effects of the Echo Chamber recently. Modern media allows us to connect with people with similar interests all over the world. I have barefoot and Classical Dressage friends all over the planet now with whom to discuss issues and ask for advice.

A peculiar phenomenon has occurred. Humans like to belong, so we naturally select friends with views and interests similar to our own, and although we feel very connected, we may actually be isolating ourselves in a virtual bunker where everyone agrees.  This is not good for learning, or for discussion. To expand our consciousness and knowledge we need challenge, not reassurance.

It was  a great surprise to me when Hilary Clinton won the Democrat nomination my US friends all supported Bernie Sanders. It was a terrible shock when Trump won; from my Facebook feed that seemed inconceivable, as did Brexit prevailing in the UK referendum.

Facebook groups are a funny beast. There can be such great discussions, and also such emotive howling between people who disagree. I have been personally attacked, belittled, stalked and ridiculed for disagreeing with eminent media commentators who frankly should have better things to do with their time. I regretfully left one Classical Dressage Facebook site when it became apparent that the “owner” of the page had views diametrically opposed to my own experience and learning. It seemed rude to be on their page constantly questioning their ‘expert’ opinion. Unfortunately the person in question only intreacts on their own site so there is no way to have a rational discussion in a neutral space where questioning their views in a friendly and enquiring and educating way would seem less disrespectful.

And therein lies the rub- how do we discuss without dissing, how do we discuss training and husbandry in a non combative way when people insist on taking different viewpoints as personal attacks and seeing criticism when questioned?

Maybe I need to learn to ask better questions?

Or maybe I need to save my energy for furthering my own knowledge, concentrate on my own learning, and listen most intently to those that never lie; the horses themselves.

Classical training as a journey is about so much more than just dancing horses. The mindset required is one we might recognise more as a martial art: absolute humility,  self-control, responsibility for oneself and an understanding that every action has consequences. We cannot choose how others react to us, we can only control how we react to others. Each challenge is an opportunity, from every difficulty comes the chance to change.

Hence my motto for 2017- Shout Louder in my Own Space.

The purpose of this blog is not to preach, or to bang about how great barefoot is for horses and how Classical Training is the only way. The purpose of this blog is to share my journey, and that of our horses, abscesses, warts and challenges and all.

When we arrived at out what was our last livery yard before we got our own space, we were the odd ones out. Our horses were barefoot, on a funny diet, and we were training with a strange foreign lady no one had heard of, who didn’t compete anymore, and who had us doing strange self lunging exercises at the slowest trot imaginable. We were learning about biomechanics, and the correct seat, and had inadvertently enrolled on a 4 year programme that I now liken to a Master’s degree in Classical Equitation and Dressage Training.

We didn’t preach, or gush, or bore, we just quietly did the do. The old black horse should have been crippled with arthritis, but looked better and better as each month passed and his crooked body blossomed with the application therapeutic gymnastic training. The grey horse went from nearly having kissing spines to eventing up to BE100 and filling his draft frame with the appropriate muscle. And the baby bay horse got the best start as a riding horse that one could wish for.

It hasn’t all been easy.

Cal the grey has continued to be plagued by difficult feet syndrome. He has X-rays due tomorrow I hope to report on vast improvements in his sole thickness with targeted consistent boot use. He is sounder on tough surfaces but the pictures will tell the unadulterated truth.

The baby bay had me on the floor a couple of times and went through a mild napping stage. A week treating his hindgut and a saddle fitting seemed to sort that out. He hacked out beautifully on his own on walk and trot on our last jolly a week ago. He’s now on a growing break and I can’t wait to get him into work again once the nights get a bit lighter.

However Gary’s new horse Beat the ex -racer responded quickly to a short lesson on rein aids and working on the connection forward to the bit. The relaxations and improvements in his walk achieved in two short lessons illustrated yet again how quickly correct training works, and how beneficial it is to the horse’s body and mind.

So this blog will be my effort to live out my motto for 2017. I will shout loudly in my own space, about our problems, challenges and solutions, doing my best for my horses in the best way I can do now, on every new day, with what I have learned to date. I will continue to learn and to study and to seek and to question, and if the answers I find can help any single one of you to solve a conundrum on your journey with your horses, or your life outside of horses, then that will be worth it.

Whatever else happens, let’s have some fun doing it too, because horses are meant to be fun. They are such noble and sentient beings that they should bring out the best in us, if we could just stop to listen and learn, and not allow ourselves to get caught up in competition and ego and ambition.

So thanks to Max for my motto for 2017.

Not the best photo at the end but look at the changes in his balance…

Getting ready for a barefoot winter

Getting ready for a barefoot winter- are you ready?

Getting ready for a barefoot winter; because it can be a gruesome time when your horses live out in a herd in a field. Last year there was a fortnight when I didn’t actually see the horses in daylight at all; luckily we have a lady who pooh picks, necessarily a daytime actvity, and she helped to keep an eye on them. I remember taking flash photos on my phone at feeding time to check them over, as well as making good use of the phone torch option.

Getting ready for a barefoot winter; we have promised ourselves to be better prepared this year. We have put some pea gravel down around the hay feeder so Gill doesn’t have to do the gloopy mud dance with the wheelbarrow. We each slipped at least once in the mud last year, although there were no full festival style face plants. We have made a short track going onto the field from the gate for the haylage deliveries; the truck can drive on, drop the bales and they are stored in an electric fence square next to the gravelled feed area- luxury indeed. There is still a churned up area in the corner of the field from the tractor deliveries last winter.

We have done our autumn worm counts and saliva tests. Four horses had four different results. One clear, two weakly positive for tapeworm, one with a medium redworm count. Typically Con, the loan horse who was due to go home, was the clear one, and it was our three that needed treating. So two wormed with Equitape and one with Strongid- P. They will all get wormed again for encysted redworm once the temperature drops and we will worm count and saliva test again in Spring. Since we started doing targeted worming 3 years ago, I have only had to worm for tapeworm once about 18months ago and the two old horses have consistently low faecal egg counts. We saliva test twice a year and egg count three times a year. We use Westgate labs for all our test kits, resonably priced, fabulous service, very prompt resuts and great advice over the phone.

http://www.westgatelabs.co.uk/info

Rocky is 4 now and still seems to have a susceptibility to redworm; I guess he will be the one in the herd that often needs worming. By testing and doing targeted worming we are doing our bit to slow the spread of drug resistent parasites in our area.

Apparently there is an ELISA test for encysted redworm in development: in theory we could get to a situation where none of the horses need worming for years at a time once that is available.

We have also weight-taped all the horses and, a great suggestion from a friend, I also have a selection of condition photos to allow for comparison as winter drags on.

And finally, we have acquired a new horse. Gary has an ex-racer called Beat to go hunting on. He tried him with 3 shoes on, the horse then arrived with no back shoes and actually seems to be coping quite well. We will aim to transition him in Spring once hunting is over, as Gary wants to crack on and have some fun first.

Rocky is cantering under saddle and stomping around the forest. Cal has had some foot X-rays and a combined consultation with a trimmer and a holistic barefoot friendly vet. I’m still porcessing all the information and gathering more advice to see if we can come up with new ideas to get his feet going better.

img_3244img_3243

Spot the shiny new Scoot Boot on the other foot 🙂

And the super  Equisafety Mercury jacket- my favourtie piece of equatrian clothing. No one can say they haven’t seen you!!

So lots of stuff to report on over the next few weeks I hope.

Getting ready for a barefoot winter- bring it on!!

img_3247img_3242

 

Barefoot Brain-ache

Barefoot brain-ache is an annoying condition, well-known to the owner of the barefoot horse. Barefoot brain-ache occurs when the answer to a supposedly simple question is no longer simple because certain dogmas are no longer taken as truth.

My barefoot brain-ache is caused, again, by the fact that Cal the gorgeous grey is completely stomping-around sound on a surface, on grass, and on smooth tarmac but not on stoney surfaces. In the last fourteen days he has stormed around the farm ride at Somerford, jumping everything, raced around the Stafford Horse Trials at 80(T) level, competed in the Delamere Forest XC jump training at 90cm, had a day of SJ and XC training organised by Equine Adventures at Somerford and done about 25 miles hacking around Delamere Forest.


Yet had you been there watching me walk him onto the truck for any of those days out you would have pulled him off the lorry and put him back in his stable (oops he doesn’t have one). Our Tarmac is quite rough from the paddock gate to the truck parking place and he tiptoes across it. The yard at Crossmere Livery where we had the SJ training is hard-core- he teetered into the arena and then jumped like a pro. The landings at Somerford XC are gravelled and prepared, none of those bother him but we have to walk down to the XC course on the grass verge because the hard-core track is too rough for him. Although to be fair he would walk on the stones now, but very slowly and carefully like an old man. His ears are still pricked, he doesn’t wear a pain face when he’s creeping down the gravel road, he just really takes his time and care. Then he steps onto the grass and sets off like a pocket rocket. He was jumping out of his skin the other day; so much so we are now on the waiting list for Skipton BE90.


So if any other barefooters out there have any tips or tricks to share, I would love to hear them.
Barefoot brain ache answers to date:

We are building a hard-core feed area in the field to counteract the winter mud; hopefully this will help to toughen up his feet and get him used to rougher surfaces.

These symptoms can reflect low-grade laminitis: the laminar connection at the coronary band and the top inch of hoof always looks good and tight but by the time the hoof wall hits the ground, the white line is a bit stretched and the toes are a bit like slippers. I can counteract the slipper tendency by light trimming with a radius rasp every couple of weeks, so his feet look very good most of the time now. I have tested for all forms of metabolic compromise, he has never been positive for insulin resistance, his ACTH was borderline for Cushing’s once but a trial of treatment with Agnus Castis,  Freestep Superfix and then Pergolide for 3 months didn’t make much difference so we have now stopped.

We changed the haylage to organic with a much better mineral analysis profile, as described in a previous post, and the foot sensitivity definitely improved but hasn’t vanished. Other parameters are vastly improved after the haylage change though; muscle tone, coat quality, general well-being.

His sole is thickening up nicely- he shed a load of sole at the end of winter but still has a good toe callous. He does have some minimal thrush around his frogs but nothing too horrible, and this goes altogether when the ground is dry.

So continues the barefoot brain ache: is Cal lame? What does lame mean?

Definition from Wikiepedia

“Lameness is an abnormal gait or stance of an animal that is the result of dysfunction of the locomotor system. In the horse, it is most commonly caused by pain, but can be due to neurologic or mechanical dysfunction.”

So he does have an abnormal gait that is likely caused by pain but this only occurs on a very specific surface and resolves immediately when the surface changes with no lasting effects. It can also be prevented by wearing boots.

When is a horse lame?

So to be lame, I would guess the change has to be persistent, occur on different surfaces, and I suppose on both reins because we all know now that uncorrected crookedness can look like lameness on one side on particular, and in fact used to be called “bridle lameness” before slow motion film made this dysfunction really obvious in Olympic dressage horses.

When Paddy and I were doing our tour of polo yards with Mel, one place we were at had an arena where they had simply scraped the grass off the top and left the soil as the surface. This “arena” grew stones every time they harrowed it. Now Paddy has always been a rock cruncher but if he stepped on a big rock whilst schooling he would hop off it and carry on. Our host, a vet and barefoot sceptic, used to say he was always lame…but the mis-step was a protective mechanism and only lasted for a stride; is that really lame or just sensible?

“A sound horse is a one who has no lameness or illness.”

So a rock crunching barefoot horse is most definitely sound, because if we accept that the feet are the barometer of whole horse health, (no foot no horse) and if they are functioning correctly, the rest of the horse must be pretty healthy too.

So is a gimping barefoot horse sound?

“The horse is sound for the service intended by the owner or rider. By sound, I mean the horse is comfortable: He’s not going lame from performing his job (barring accident or acute injury).”

Said Phillip Dutton in a fab article “What is Serviceably Sound? “

http://practicalhorsemanmag.com/article/what-is-serviceably-sound-11664

Cal is definitely serviceable sound. For what I want to do (eventing on mostly grass), his feet are good enough. He is not going lame from performing his job.

If we wanted to do endurance we would have to boot, but that’s fine, many of the winning horses in the Tevis Cup are booted. Unfortunately Renegades aren’t made big enough for half Irish bog ponies. We have had two pairs of Old Macs in 5 years, although these have had a tendency to fly off at speed. I’m currently road testing a pair of Cavallo Trecs- they flap around a bit but stayed on cantering around the hayfields last night.

So my conclusion to the barefoot brain ache is that Cal is serviceably sound, and in fact is perfectly sound, according to those definitions I have found.

Would he pass a vetting?

Only if the lungeing on a circle on the hard was done on super smooth tarmac.

How then do you vet a barefoot horse?

 

 

“My horse won’t cope barefoot..”

“My horse won’t cope barefoot”…I would like a pound for every time I have heard this statement. I’m sure every horse can cope barefoot, and indeed I personally am running out of reasons why I might ever put a metal shoe on a horse, but I know not every owner can cope barefoot.

Barefoot can be a hard choice. It would have been very easy with Cal for me to believe that my horse won’t cope barefoot. It’s been incredibly hard for me to keep looking for the metabolic issue, to get to the diagnosis of the systemic problem that is stopping him from being a good rock crunching barefooter. It would have been so easy for me to slap shoes on it and just carry on but then I would have missed the ulcers, had even less warning about the COPD and would never have treated the boderline Cushings, luckily getting his ACTH levels down with herbal supplements. It is difficult for someone who hasn’t read about barefoot properly or thought to question the status quo to understand that everything they know about horse husbandry is designed to wreck the healthy hoof. Most of the ways that we choose to look after horses are for our convenience and not for the horse’s health. I know this, I have been there. I had the “best” looked after polo ponies within the M25 when I was grooming all those years ago. I hated some of the Argie methods but I learned a huge amount from the polo itinerants, and from other horseman in Australia, Scotland, Germany.  I have continued to listen and learn ever since, with a completely open mind. And I have checked the science, the research and the evidence, as I would for my human cancer patients. We should be in a Golden Age of horsemanship. We have rigorous scientific methods, amazing equipment and skills to analyse and interpret data. We are in a position to test every aspect of horse care and the effects on the horse’s health and mental wellbeing. Unfortunately much of the science is paid for by those with vested interests, and those who belive they know horses the best don’t feel the need to question their knowledge.

Horses are designed to move, 12-15-20 miles a day in the wild. Horses are built to trickle feed on a variety of poor grasses. They would choose outdoor life in stable social groups with a reassuring hierarchy and plenty of  space to get away from the dominant bully. They are not meant to stand overnight in shavings soaked in their own urine and faeces, eat too much sugary starchy food, go out for a few hours a day in an individual turnout paddock, deprived of crucial contact and rituals such as mutual grooming, stuff themselves full of lush grass and work for only a few hours a week.

A friend today told me how their half TB horse won’t cope barefoot because she has typical thoroughbred rubbish feet. I understand where she’s coming from- I used to feel the same way. Paddy had the worst feet in Cheshire: despite industrial amounts of farriers formula, he could never hold shoes and his hoof wall was thin and crumbly. Plenty of other people have felt the same way, watching their horse with his unconditioned hooves gimping across the yard when he loses a shoe. You would gimp in exactly the same way if I took your shoes off and asked to  you to walk on hardcore or gravel straightaway.

When I took Paddy’s shoes off, many people, including the vet and the farrier told me that I would find that my horse won’t cope barefoot. However, Paddy forced me to try barefoot, by nearly killing several farriers, including the horse whispering blacksmith, and what I found was that his hooves and his brain improved immeasurably. He became sure-footed, confident and healthier. He stopped rushing his fences and I could feel him balancing his body underneath me. It took time; in Paddy’s case about three months, to get him to rock-crunching go-anywhere status. Now at 20 he is sound and still going strong. He had four fantastic seasons eventing barefoot, then taught my husband Gary to ride, hunt and team chase and is now giving my step-daughter Lizzie the confidence to explore the forest.

Paddy is 7/8 TB; it’s nothing to do with TB genes. There is actually no significant genetic difference between all the modern horses around the world. Traits, yes, genetic alteration, no. The only exception is the recessive Hoof Wall Separation Syndrome in Connemaras, a recessive syndrome. This tragic syndrome would cause early death in the wild and therefore the aberrant gene would be weeded out as it is a disadvantage to survival.

The reason thoroughbreds are thought to have rubbish feet is that they are kept confined from a young age, fed starchy food and shod regularly  from the age of two. The hoof doesn’t finish developing until the horse is about 6; if it is compromised from an early age of course it will be sub-standard. Alois Podhajsky recommends that mares and foals  move daily from night pasture to day pasture a couple of miles down a rocky track to help the foals’ limbs and feet develop. In the wild foals hit the ground, stand up, suckle and immediately start travelling with the herd, quickly averaging 12 miles a day in their early lives. There are trainers successfully racing thoroughbreds barefoot

http://www.simonearleracing.com/how_we_train_our_horses.html

and many stories of off the track thoroughbreds being successfully rehabilitated to new lives barefoot.

http://blog.easycareinc.com/blog/notes-from-the-field/off-the-track-thoroughbreds-all-with-beautiful-rehabilitated-feet

Stacey, my neighbour, http://www.forestholidaycottages.co.uk/ put it beautifully today. She said “what we call footy, a person who didn’t understand barefoot would call lame.”

Better qualified people than me have answered the same question

http://www.unshod.co.uk/articles/guide_healthy_hooves.php

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1715697055340441&set=a.1715697018673778.1073741985.100007004891239&type=3&theater

So Con today was great on smooth tarmac, striding out beautifully on fine gravel and small stones but picked his way carefully and a bit more slowly over larger stones and hardcore. His ears never went back, he never made a pain face, if his foot landed on a sharp stone he hopped off it like a sensible pony and occasionally he chose to use the soft ground at the side of the path on the very challenging ground. Some might say that this means my horse can’t cope barefoot. We hacked for 45 minutes around Delamere and had a couple of good trots and a short canter. Once we turned for home he positively marched back to the house. Is he lame???

Which then leads me to more questions-

how do we define lameness?

how do we do a full five stage vetting on a barefoot horse?