Sometimes common sense trumps empirical evidence.
- Dr. Mercola
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.
Horse Health – The Past
Your first stop is in the past and you find yourself watching our noble friends, the wild horses, in their most healthy state… roaming freely. Their soundness is beyond anything you’ve seen in domestication as they float across the terrain seamlessly feeling the ground under their bare hooves with every beat. Their highly structured society demonstrates their need for interaction as they play, compete for dominance and rest in the sun.
Their beauty and healthy state takes your breath away. You’ve never seen anything like it.
Horse Health -The Present
Your next stop is in the present. You suddenly realize you’re at one of the Bureau Of Land Management (BLM) holding facilities and you notice groups of horses that once roamed freely now standing butt to butt in enclosed quarters with limited movement.
You approach the pens to get a closer look. What you see is astonishing. The once beautifully shaped sound hooves are now overgrown and chipping away. Those wild horses that once floated seamlessly across the terrain are now at a standstill.
As you sadly look on, you note something is missing and you have trouble putting a finger on it… then you realize the spirit and dignity that once radiated off of these magnificent creatures is gone.
Some of the horses have become ill from the BLM round ups and some have even died. How could this be?
How can we take something so healthy, strong and vibrant and mess it up so badly?
You can’t stand to watch anymore so you decide to move on to the future hoping that something has changed… surely someone has done something to help these horses.
You keep thinking that someone has to step in before these beautiful animals become extinct. After all, these wild horses are a symbol of our American heritage and freedom.
Horse Health -The Future
Thankfully, you step into the future only to find yourself faced with a grim reality. Not only are the wild horses extinct, but our domesticated horses are experiencing more health problems than ever before.
We no longer have a way of truly knowing how the wild horse stayed so healthy for so long without human interference. Our treasured wild horse models are gone.
Truth Revealed
Back to the current day and what is happening with our horses. What is the truth about our horses’ health?
Unfortunately our horses today are sicker than ever before. As we continue to address symptoms, causes are often overlooked. As we ignore Mother Nature, intuition and common sense and instead focus on statistics and studies, our horses suffer.
The wild horse is nature in its finest form and we should treasure it and learn everything we can from it… and that’s the truth revealed.
How Does This Apply To Your Horse’s Health?
Is it about saving the wild horses? Is it about humans doing a lot of unnecessary “stuff” to our horses to keep them healthy, while unknowingly causing them to become more and more unhealthy? Is it the human needing to accept that sometimes common sense really does trump empirical evidence?
What do you think?
If this article resonates with you, please share your thoughts with us by leaving a comment.
Non-traditionally yours,
Stephanie Krahl
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Photo Credit – Wild Horses In Carson City, NV
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About Stephanie Krahl
Of course one problem with today’s horses is that breeders don’t breed with the “whole horse” in mind. They want a specific trait – speed, agility, whatever and they breed for that and ignore other things about the horses. I think the quality – or lack thereof – in the hoof horn of many of today’s Thoroughbreds is a good example of this, and also the navicular problems in so many Quarter Horses conforming to the show fad of huge bodies on tiny feet.
Also agree that the lifestyle of domestic horses is very detrimental – SO unnatural. I’ve read that the number one risk factor for colic is the number of hours per day that a horse must spend in a stall. Considering that horses in the wild are always on the move, it shouldn’t surprise us that keeping horses confined in a tiny space would lead to problems. It’s a wonder they do as well as they do.
I don’t think most people realize how close horses are to their wild ancestors. Domestication is what they call “shallow” in horses, and they still have the instincts and needs of the wild ones. The life domestication forces on them is literally as different as night and day compared to the way they evolved to live.
The free exercise, the ability to choose different foodstuffs according to their needs, the natural wear on the feet, the family units, and on and on. It’s not something you can replace out of a bottle or some such. It’s truly a tribute to the horse that they are so incredibly adaptable that they can remain – usually – reasonably healthy in this alien environment.
Hello Suzanne,
Thank you for sharing some of your thoughts on horse health as it relates to domesticated horses. You have brought up some very good points… all which are “man made”.
My personal goal is to encourage horse enthusiasts to change their way of thinking when it comes to how we care for our domesticated horses. Regarding the subject of small feet in Quarter Horses, navicular and poor quality hoof horn in Thoroughbreds, I believe that most competent natural hoof care professionals would agree with me that this is something that can be turned around and is not necessarily an issue of how the horse is bred. I know this from clients’ horses that are under my personal care. However, we humans CAN cause so much damage that those issues may be irreversible depending on the case.
Hoof form is all about adaptation and it varies significantly depending on the horse’s environment and lifestyle.
Even though horses are one of nature’s most adaptable creatures, we shouldn’t stray from what’s natural to them just because the horses are domesticated – which I feel you agree with.
Thanks again for stopping by and taking the time to leave a comment.