When you think of a domesticated horse, how do you picture it? What does its surroundings look like?
The average person may picture a healthy horse in a comfortable stall sticking her head out the door to say hi. The barn she lives in is immaculate and doesn’t even smell like horses live there.
Or…
You may picture horses grazing on lush green pastures where they look happy, fat and perfectly content.
Traditional boarding situations that include keeping horses in stalls, small paddocks or grazing on lush green pastures, is very different than natural boarding.
What does “healthy as a horse” really mean? If you want a healthy horse who do you believe?
Just imagine yourself in a situation, like Scrooge, in the movie A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. No… I don’t mean imagine being “like Scrooge”, in the beginning he was not very kind, but imagine you have the ability to see the past, present and future when it comes to horse health… and so your journey begins.
Are you looking for Natural Horse Care Tips? You’re in the right place!
Putting a natural horse care program in place can feel a little overwhelming in the beginning, however, in the long run, it can actually end up simplifying your horse keeping practices as well as saving time and money along the way.
In my opinion, the biggest benefit is a healthier happier horse that is “thriving” verses just surviving in domestication.
The title seems harsh, we know. And we apologize up front in case the following video offends. We’re simply trying to get the attention of horse enthusiasts who, we know, generally have nothing but the best intentions.
Since these two common mistakes endanger not only the lives of our beloved horses, but our lives as well, this subject is not to be taken lightly.
In a previous article called The Scoop On Horse Poop, I discussed the importance of manure when it comes to relative dominance in a herd and how you can utilize a horse’s natural behaviors to your advantage for managing manure. This article continues to provide information on bridging that gap between the world of the wild horse and the domestic horse.
Closely mimicking a more natural environment for our horses, by default, can result in a healthy equine partner that will live a long quality life. As an added bonus we may even see a decrease in our veterinarian bills. 
Over the years I have noticed some common reasons people hire me as their natural horse care consultant and coach. Hiring someone to help you with your horse care practices may seem strange, but knowing some of the reasons people seek help may cause you to think again.
Taking that first step to begin something new can be scary. Especially if it has to do with subjects such as being a first time horse owner, taking charge of your horse’s care, switching from a more traditional to a natural horse care mindset, or learning more about horse behavior so you can improve your horse-man-ship skills.
This article is somewhat similar to one of our previously published articles called What Does Non-Traditional Really Mean? It’s “outside the norm“… depending on what “the norm” means to you.
Putting a natural horse care program in place when first starting out can be a challenging task. Like most industries, everyone has an opinion. I have come to find that the horse industry can be pretty extreme when it comes to most any topic. The “extreme” aspect usually resides on both sides of the spectrum.
In this article, I introduce you to another product as part of our 2010 Product and Service Review Series. I’m excited to bring this review of Acres USA to you. I hope that after reading this article you will understand why I feel so strongly about their overall mission.
Many years ago when I started on my path of learning about improving my health through proper nutrition, I never realized what would be involved. I started down this path for somewhat selfish reasons as a young woman in my early twenties. All I wanted was to find ways to improve my athletic performance during a time I was playing college basketball.
Although I was doing most everything wrong from a diet standpoint, I learned at a very young age that feeding our bodies “correctly” and staying “healthy” can be challenging.
In an article I recently published called Natural Hoof Care For A Healthy Hoof – Six Ways To Read Horses’ Hooves I listed some “general” guidelines you can use to identify healthy hooves in domesticated horses.
It is important to understand that there are no hard and fast rules and that most any rule has an exception…especially when it comes to an animal such as the horse who has survived for millions of years due to their adaptability.
One of the most important lessons to take away from this series on identifying a health hoof is that there IS more than one “wild horse model”. Hoof Form is all about adaptation and it varies significantly from biome to biome.
I love the saying “our eyes are the windows to our souls“.
Lets take that a step further and say “our horse’s hooves are the windows to their bodies“.
In a series of articles I published on getting started with natural hoof care , I discussed the importance of looking at the horse from a holistic / whole-body standpoint.
I mentioned that the hoof is a by-product of most everything else that is going on in the body.
