What’s the first horse keeping practice that benefits the overall health of the horse?
Imagine that you’ve just walked out to your barn or you’ve arrived at your boarding facility excited to spend time with your horse. She whinnies for you and as you approach her stall she tries so hard to stick her cute nose through the bars to greet you.
As you pull her out of the stall, she steps out somewhat stiff as she usually does. You don’t think anything of it because you’re use to this and you may even think it’s normal.
As equine caregivers, we often wonder if what we’re doing for our horses is really in their best interest.
Could it be possible that your horse keeping is inferior and your horse is really trying to tell you something? What your horse is probably trying to tell you is that you’re breaking the first rule of natural horse care.
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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.
When your horse has thrush, it can seem almost impossible to get it under control. Most people think it’s just a matter of applying some over the counter and sometimes expensive “thrush treatment” when in reality there are many factors that can be responsible for ongoing thrush issues.
In my review of a DVD set by Pete Ramey called Tools of the Trade, I mentioned that Pete shares with us in that DVD set a simple but effective solution that is easy to apply for both you and your hoof care professional.
In part one of this series on learning to trim your own horse, I covered in detail practical guidelines to consider before fully making a commitment to such an endeavor. For those diehards who would like to make the leap and learn how to trim using the wild horse as their model, you’re in the right place.
However, if you haven’t read my last article, I would highly recommend you read it first.
Many of us have experienced waking up in the middle of the night thinking about our horse’s soundness. Are we doing the right thing? Is there a better way? You think about all you’ve learned from reading information on natural hoof care and about learning the wild horse trim as well as watching some great videos & DVDs. You may have even attended a natural hoof care clinic.
If you’re like most people in today’s economy, you’re trying to find ways to save money without compromising the health or safety of you, your family and your animal companions.
Sometimes it seems that costing less and being good for you are mutually exclusive, but today we have great news! Pulling your horse’s metal shoes is not only a good way to save money, but it can also be good for her health and safety as well.
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.
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.
