Rainier Equine Hoof Recovery Center

How My Horse Changed My Life Contest

2011-10-19T14:20:00.000-07:00

Hi all!

I haven't uploaded a post in awhile as we have been super busy! We've taken in several horses, Rudy, Roxy, Captain, and Star. Captain and Star both suffered from severe hoof neglect, but they are doing much better. Captain is on the REHRC website, but I have a few pages I need to upload for the other horses.

But this post is a request for your votes! Recently, I entered the story about how my horse, Missy, changed my life in a contest that Horse and Rider magazine is hosting on their website. I really want to become one of the finalists. Not so much to win prizes, but to get the word out about our hoof recovery center. If we should win prizes, we could raffle them to purchase hay and feed.

So I'm really hoping you could go to the H&R website (that link will take you right to Missy's story) rate the story and vote for us!

Please vote once per day until the deadline. This would be a great way to help out our horses without leaving your chair or spending a dollar!

The true story that I submitted for the contest is below if you'd like to read it here and then decide if you'd like to vote. Thank you so much for taking the time to help us out!

In 1996, a scruffy little 8 year old quarter horse came into my life. Within months, I dropped a twenty year smoking habit and fifty extra pounds, while Missy developed into a beautiful bay mare. We earned awards and were pictured in an AQHA publication for riding hundreds of miles together. But while I worked in a basement office, I yearned for an occupation involving horses.
Then at 15, Missy came up lame and I was hurdled toward the emerging changes to traditional hoof care often referred to as bare hoof trimming. Missy’s unnaturally shod hooves led me to my new profession as an Equine Hoof Rehabilitation Specialist and the owner of my own business, Heel First Landings, Inc.
Before this sweet mare came into my life, I had rarely traveled, but my quest to learn more about equine lameness and corrective hoof trimming took me all over the US to mentor with other trimming instructors.
Overwhelmed with customers, I began offering workshops teaching the craft to others, and published a professionally filmed DVD, Discovering Your Horse’s Natural Hooves – How to Trim the Barefoot Horse.
Missy, at 23 has seen many horses move into her pasture, most with hoof ailments that destined them to be euthanized - each rehabilitated back to soundness without shoes.
Helping horses has become a passion that evolved into an official non-profit equine rescue called Rainier Equine Hoof Recovery Center. My horse saved my life so I could save the lives of many equines!

Rainier Equine Hoof Recovery Center

2011-09-25T14:28:00.000-07:00

Hi! Just letting you know I updated our horsemanship camp page on the REHRC website and added lots of pictures from this summer's camp! Which was a lot of fun for the kids and for me! Check it out!

September 2011 Hoof Trimming Clinic

2011-09-12T11:30:00.000-07:00

The Classroom!

Watching Captain's trim closely.

What a great three days we had together! Everyone was a joy to meet and spend time together. It wasn't all one way, we shared so much important information. We're going to do offer the next clinic at the end of October. Go to our website or send an email for more information!

Rehabilitation of OTTB

2011-08-21T13:05:00.000-07:00

We like to share our story of Captain (Really Unique) a 10 year old Off Track Thoroughbred gelding who has been having a very hard life for the past few years. He is listed with a few of our other rehab cases at www.rainierhoofrehab.com.

My Advice for the New Trimmers:

2011-06-23T10:58:00.000-07:00

Recently I was contacted by someone interested in becoming a professional barefoot trimmer. I responded with this email only slightly modified for blogging.

I applaud you for removing yourself from that shoeing course. People are so interesting when it comes to shoes. Yesterday, I attended a local barrel racing competition. I was there to trim a customer’s horse who lives a ways from me so we met there for this appointment.

She had sold one of her horses to another competitor some months ago and that horse happened to be there as well. I was introduced to her former horse’s new owner and the horse had shoes on. That owner smiled in my face and bragged about how he fixed his horse so its feet never hurt and he could ride him anytime he wanted.

My customer and I walked away and under my breath I muttered, continuing his line of thought, “Screw the horse, it’s about me getting to ride, right!”

We had just been discussing how ALL farrier reference books recommend frequently allowing the horse some time out of shoes. Why would that recommendation be in those books? Because it's well documented that shoes damage the hooves over the long term.

I get so tired of hearing, “My horse can’t go without shoes.” Well, could that be because the shoes have wrecked your horse’s hooves and now they are too weak to support themselves?

I often hear that the walls of hooves left unshod will wear faster than the hoof can grow it. That's true when the hoof is trimmed incorrectly which most are, but not true if the hoof is correctly trimmed and growing at a healthy angle with healthy connective tissue (laminae).

I saw an ad recently showing 3 different hooves, all very poorly trimmed and 2 shod. The ad was for this band that is tacked around the outside of the hoofwall to relieve pain. But the hooves wouldn't be in pain if they weren't so poorly trimmed and shod. And the band does nothing except mask the pain caused by the condition the hooves are in. Why not just fix the hoof with the trim? I never can get that logic. Wreck the hooves and use "this product" to mask the pain so you can ride the horse which will continue causing damage to the hooves until the horse can't even support its own weight, then put it down. Common Scenario.

The same can be said for some shoeing systems-such as NBS. I've heard that even the developer of that system wished he'd had never shared it because it's so unnatural for the horse. The few farrier's who are competent at applying those shoes do okay, but there are so many out there applying that systems who really botch the hooves up horribly and leave horses in serious trouble. I've pulled so many of those NBS shoes off dead lame horses, I get angry just catching a glimpse of one of those shoes on or off a horse!

So where you live tells me you are up against more peer pressure to go with shoes than I am in my area. We do have quite few open-minded horse owners in this region. Unfortunately not enough compitent trimmers to care for all the owners who want to go barefoot, but that's a good problem to have in some respects.

At that barrel racing event, I ran into 4 of my customers whose horse are barefoot and all raved about how well their horses are doing without the shoes. That’s always nice to hear. And other’s here it as well and begin questioning their line of thought regarding hoof care.

There is a lot to learn when considering to trim professionally. Not just because you’ll need to know and understand everything that can go wrong with transitioning hooves from shod to bare, but because you’ll have lots of questions to answer.

My DVD shows the natural maintenance trim from start to finish on several horses and a donkey. So it is also a good place to start. It’s professionally filmed in High Definition and I’ve been told that it is one of the best (hoof trimming) teaching DVD’s available. DVD's by other professional trimmers are packed with great info, but it’s difficult to see exactly what being done with the tools on more "homemade" DVD’s.

Much of what I feel I know to be right about natural hoofcare, I learned from Pete Ramey, and from my own research. I was able to get into a trimming clinic with Pete when he visited our area back in 2004, I believe it was, and then I went to Georgia the following year to learn from him directly. With only 2 students (one from the U.K.) we were fortunate to get one-on-one instruction. That will not be a part of any other professional trimmer's training as he only offered a couple of those clinics that I know of. I realize how priviledged I was to be part of one of them.

To really become the best professional trimmer you can be, I recommend avoiding any organization that dictates your trim and threatens to toss you out if your trimming methods don't adhere exactly to what they teach. Different hooves call for different trimming strategies. Learning to read hooves and knowing how to approach each one with your tools is the better than a one-size fits all trim when you're rehabilitating hooves.

Apply for a membership with the AHA American Hoof Association so you can be in contact with many other experienced trimmers. As you go, you can work on getting certified by that organization. It’s not a school, it's a screening organization to filter the hacks and only certify the true professionals and list them on their website.

Take everything you learn from each person and toss out what doesn’t seem right and stick with what does. Just like horse training - which you'll want to also become adept at. In most cases, you can't trim a horse who refused to allow you access to the bottoms of their hooves. (Although there are times when you do have to trim a horse without gaining access to the bottom of his hooves.) Let me just say, you will have to weed through a TON of misinformation.

You don't have to agree with every trimmer out there. You have to do much of your research on your own. I don't agree with some of the trimmers for whom I have the highest respect.

Take abscesses for instance. I honestly believe I’m one of the few professional trimmers out there who really understands abscesses. I don't believe they are caused by trauma/bruising. And there is no such thing as white line "disease" or "infection." Those terms imply that there may be a cure. Laminae is either live and healthy or dead and gone and there is no cure for what is no longer viable. So soaking in chemicals in our attempts to cure WLD is probably only going to damage the healthy laminae attachement that is trying to grow to the ground with new hoofwall.
WL separation is that is caused by flare. Flare walls cause stretching of the white line which can lead to separation of the white line (dead laminae) and then leaves the hoof vunerable to abscessing either in the wall or the bar. When I trim an abscessed hoof, I see what we have come to term as WLD. But as I said, it's not diseased, it's dead.
When a hoof is affected by an abscess in an overgrown bar (bar is an extension of hoof wall) the abscess often invades the much of, or the entire hoof. Abscesses can cause problems in a hoof for years if the horse is shod and even after it goes barefoot can take years to completely fester out. Not usually, but I have seen that situation and the cause if typically flare.

Review: Flare, (not "flair" as some trimmers spell the word:0) stretches the white line to the point of separation of the white line, then abscesses get their start either in the white line of the hoofwall, and/or the white line of the bar which is an extension of the wall.

An abscess in the bar can affect the entire solar papillae, which causes the sole to separate from the hoof, but new sole develops underneath the sloughing sole - like a blister. Simple!

Bar abscesses are so often misdiagnosed as navicular, founder, white line disease and a myriad of other hoof disorders which then puts a horse into corrective shoeing or an early grave. So sad. But we are here to fix that!

All my best in your journey into a profession that is basically not accepted by the majority of horse owners, farriers, or vets, because we humans get so stuck in what they do because it's been what they've always done.

My best advice is to try to get to the horses while they are still young. Before the damage has been done...

...and have fun!:0)
pat

Hoof Care Professionals and You

2011-03-23T10:25:00.000-07:00

As barefoot horses become more popular, which is awesome for the horses! More and more barefoot trimmers are getting into the business. Most have had lots of training and experience and are very good at what the do. Some are not as well trained or experienced and not so good at what they do. It's a horse owner's responsibility to pick up their horse's hooves and examine them frequently and ask questions if what they see doesn't appear to be right. Just as there are good and poor farriers/horseshoers, we are all hoof care professionals and some don't have the knack for it that others do.

Some don't recognize hoof issues like founder and abscesses and hoof ailments are often misdiagnosed so it's the owners responsibility to determine when a veterinarian should be called in to check their horses.

Hoof care professionals, in some cases may know more than your vet about hoof related illnesses, but we are NOT veterinarians and it's not even legal in the state of Washington for hoofcare professional to diagnose problems like laminitis/founder. If we suspect serious hoof issues, we need to recommend a vet be called in.

I have to write this because I'm seeing so much of the opposite going on and walking into cases with horses who have been under a farrier or trimmers care for months even years and finding issues that are usually associated with serious neglect.

Ultimately the horse's hoof care is the owner's responsibility. If you don't like what you're seeing call for a second opinion. If that bothers your hoof care professional, replace him/her. Second opinions are typical in other fields and we shouldn't feel guilty about making sure our horses are getting the best care possible and that our money isn't being wasted on anything less. If your trimmer/shoer objects, get's angry and quits, or assures you that they already know it all, then they don't know what they don't know and they are the most dangerous ones to have working on your horses!

Hoof Trimming DVD Now Selling

2010-12-09T09:49:00.000-08:00

Easycare Inc. is now distributing copies of our barefoot trimming DVD, Discovering Your Horse's Natural Hooves.

And it is also available on our non-profit website Rainier Equine Hoof Recovery Center

along with a few trimming tools that we are offering as a fundraiser for the horses here at the center.

Great gifts for the horse owners in your family!

Hope you all are having a happy Holiday Season

Pat Wagner

DVD Reviews!

2010-07-26T03:23:00.000-07:00

We're happy to be receiving some greaet feed back from people who have purchased and watched the DVD.

Here are a few viewer testimonials for Discovering Your Horse's Natural Hooves - How to Trim the Barefoot Horse:

The DVD arrived yesterday and I watched it immediately. Twice! The DVD is terrific! Very informative, great quality, and just the
motivation needed! It is exactly what I needed. I've visited all the websites, I've read many of the books (including Pete Ramey's), but what I needed was a visual presentation that would give me the confidence needed to try that first trim. You're DVD was perfect! Eric, CA

We are extremely impressed and excited about practicing and learning to trim our horses. It isn't nearly as intimidating as we learn more about the goals. Keep up the great work and please realize that you are a prayer answered for so many horse owners. Dan, WA

What a very good DVD you made! It was easy to understand and done in laymans language. I've watched the trimming twice. It was nice to be able to see exactly what you were doing. Other DVD's are not as professional as this one and it's difficult to see what exactly what he's doing! Debbie, WA

Great DVD! Very professional. My wife is a teacher and she was very impressed with your teaching style. Cliff, WA

Pat, your DVD is awesome! It is wonderful. I love how it repeats so I don't have to replay what I want to hear again. It is totally, totally,totally too cool. Linda, WA

Okay, so going out to my barn now to make a few changes to my trims recommended on your DVD. I finally feel like I've found the answers I've been looking for! Thank you SO MUCH! Sara, OR.

DVD's are in!

2010-06-10T21:31:00.000-07:00

Order yours today at Rainierhoofrehab.com. I'll have them with me if you want to buy directly from me also.

Having a Great Time on Their Barefoot Ponies!

2010-05-11T19:35:00.000-07:00

Tawna and I and our girls are going great! I attached a photo from this weekend after a 1 hour ride on the road in our easy boots! Both horses did great and had no problems! We had a REALLY good time and thought of you when we were headed home!

Thanks again for all your help!

Rachel & Tawna
Cashmere, WA

Update on DVD: Expected shipping date: 5-25-10. I apologize for the delay. Thanks for your patience!

Hoof trimming video trailer

2010-05-02T11:28:00.000-07:00

Here is the youtube link to the DVD trailer!

Discovering Your Horse's Natural Hooves

How to Trim the Barefoot Horse.

Give us another week or so and it will be shipped to those who have preordered. And Thank you to everyone who has ordered their video.

To order a video, go to rainierhoofrehab.com

Thanks!
Pat

Hank's Back

2010-04-27T11:03:00.000-07:00

Regarding Henry whose story is on our blog, healinghenry.blogspot.com

Update on Hank: As of 4-25-2010, pre and post-trim, there was no sign of lameness in the arena while at a trot, under a rider. We will continue to watch changes in Hank's hooves such as sloughing of retained sole and if he continues to improve, he will be moved from the rehab list to the list of horses in recovery! Go Hank!

For more information on Hank and all the other horses at the Rainier Equine Hoof Recovery Center, please go to rainierhoofrehab.com

DVD Ready for Pre-orders

2010-04-10T09:08:00.000-07:00

Dear Fellow Horse Lovers!

For information on order our hoof trimming DVD, please go to our website!

Sincerely,
Rich and Pat Wagner and all our horses, donkeys and mules!

BUSY! BUSY! BUSY!

2010-04-05T21:52:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm finally almost finished with the new website for the Rainier Equine Hoof Recovery Center ! Yay! Along with that I've been working on the DVD, "How To Trim Your Barefoot Horse".

With my hubby's help, I've been taking care of 20 head of equines, helping with my grandkids and working on customers horses! Whew! I have been a busy gal!

I got to help out with a cute little rescue pony, Jake, who is at Wildwood Pony Rescue in Fall City. I will be seeing him again on the 10th when Pam hauls him to meet me at Dr. Dick and Kathy Vetter's new clinic in Buckley. I sure hope we can get this little guy back to normal after a few trims.

The completed DVD is in the mail to me and I will be shipping it soon to the packaging company along with my artwork. And that should be about a 7 day turnaround. Then I will publish the page of my website so it can be purchased on there through Paypal. Currently I'm considering the cost of the DVD to be under $70. Proceeds from the DVD will benefit the horses we are caring for here at the REHRC, as well as cover some of the production costs.

Old horses that are wonderful with kids are worth their weight in gold. I never thought I'd be calling my amazing trail horse an "old kid's horse" but she's 22 now so I guess I have to face facts. She and I have been together since she turned 8 years old and we'll be together until one of us kicks the bucket.

Thank you so much for your support. I’ll keep you posted.

Pat

Okay so coming to the farm isn't all about the horses for these guys!

Seriously, this needs to stop.

2010-03-09T12:06:00.000-08:00

How to Perform Surgical Tail Docking in Draft
Horses

Draft horse tails are commonly docked. The need to dock the tail of an adult draft horse occasionally
occurs. Surgical amputation will produce a cosmetically docked tail.

1. Introduction
Custom dictates that tails are docked in many draft breeds. A high percentage of draft horses shown in halter and hitch competition have bobbed tails. Commonly, breeders will dock the tails of foals within 2 weeks of birth using elastrator bands, allowing the tails to necrose and fall off. Occasionally, a client will present an adult draft horse and
request cosmetic tail docking. In this case, surgical tail docking is performed on the standing horse as opposed to banding the tail. This procedure is also effective when surgical amputation of the tail is warranted because of trauma and/or infection.

2. Methods
Surgical tail docking is performed on a standing horse within restraint stocks. Heavy sedation is achieved throughout the procedure using detomidine 2.2 to 4.4 μg/kg IV. Anesthesia of the surgical site is achieved by an aseptic caudal epidural using a combination of xylazine 50 μg/kg and 2% lidocaine q s to 6 ml. A tourniquet placed high around the tailhead serves as the best means of controlling hemorrhage during the surgical process. Determining the desirable length of the tail can be the most challenging aspect of the surgery; however, the following technique has proven to be the simplest and most efficient method. The tail is firmly grasped at its most proximal portion. The intercoccygeal space approximately 15 cm from the tailhead is palpated, identified and marked. This landmark will become the last coccygeal vertebrae of the docked tail. If the determined length appears too short, the next intercoccygeal space is identified and will become the end of the docked tail. Tail hairs are clipped 3 to 4 cm cranial to the marked intercoccygeal space and as far caudally as needed, being certain to leave adequate tail hairs above the surgical site for cosmetic purposes. These hairs are wrapped up and kept out of the surgical field. After aseptic surgical preparation of the site, the favored intercoccygeal space is once again palpated. A surgical incision is made on the dorsal surface of the tail in a U shape beginning at the level of the intercoccygeal space and extending approximately 4 to 5 cm from each lateral side of the tail toward the center while still remaining on the dorsal surface. This procedure creates a flap of skin that can then be folded over the end of the tail toward the end of the
surgery. The soft tissue underlying the skin flap is bluntly dissected, permitting the flap to be displaced out of the way. The ventral surface of the tail is incised in a circular fashion extending from each lateral side toward the other.

A no. 10 surgical blade is then used to incise the intercoccygeal space on the dorsal surface; at the same time, bending pressure is placed at the point of the intercoccygeal space. With the intercoccygeal space exposed, the remaining soft tissue, including muscles, nerves and blood vessels, is sharply incised to permit complete removal of the caudal portion of the tail. Ligation of blood vessels is not necessary if skillful tourniquet placement and postoperative bandaging techniques are implemented. The skin flap created earlier is then folded over the end of the tail and sutured to the ventral skin surface using no. 2 nonabsorbable suture in a simple interrupted pattern. The skin edges generally come together neatly, and the surgical incision heals exceptionally quickly. Before removal of the tourniquet, the surgical site is bandaged with gauze 4 3 4s, vetrap, and 4-in stretch tape. The bandage should be changed at least once during the first 48 hours of postoperative care.

3. Results
The result of surgical tail docking is a clean incision that heals by first intention, resulting in a cosmetically docked tail.

4. Discussion
The draft horse community is a small but thriving part of the equine industry comprising multiplegeneration breeders, exhibitors (at both hitch and halter), pulling competitors and hobbyists. The draft horse functions primarily as a work horse but also serves as a companion animal in parades, weddings and exhibitions. The draft horse industry has seen steady growth in recent years, as indicated by increased sales and transfers of horses.

First-time horse owners and long-term equine enthusiasts alike are buying draft horses because of the breeds’ gentle nature, versatility and popularity. Not only is our practice composed of at least 50% draft horses, but all three veterinarians within the practice are actively involved in the draft horse industry through breeding, exhibiting and promoting. Therefore, we are familiar with common practices and norms. In our experience, draft horse clients, especially show horse people and breeders, tend to consent to commonly accepted procedures. More than likely, especially if you practice in the Midwest, you will have some clients who own draft horses, and you may be asked to dock a tail. As in many instances in equine medicine, your ability and willingness to perform particular procedures may gain you a long-term client. Surgical tail docking in draft horses by this method has provided our practice with quick, efficient and successful results. We certainly hope this insight will do the same for others’ practices.

This is something that has been bugging me for a long time. Docking draft horse tails is wrong. It is just another in a laundry list of unnecessary, cruel and inhumane procedures that is performed out of tradition and because somebody stands to make some money from doing it. Whether it's tail docking in young horses or old horses - it needs to stop!

JMO
Pat

Basic Barefoot Trimming DVD progress

2009-12-12T18:15:00.000-08:00

Just an update on how we are doing on the DVD. The packaging is being developed and the title of the DVD is currently:

Discovering Your Horse's Natural Hoof.

Learn to Trim Your Barefoot Horses.

You will be able to purchase the DVD through the Rainier Equine Hoof Recovery Center website. The original site has been replaced by one I'm working on myself and is still under construction.

And of course, all proceeds from the DVD sales go to the REHRC non-profit i.e. hay for the horses we are rehabbing.'

I'm hoping that we'll be distributing the DVD this Spring. Just like natural hoofcare, it's a process! But don't give up...it's just a very busy time of year.

Thanks!
Pat

Missouri Emergency Response Service

2009-12-06T09:47:00.000-08:00

Hey, I just wanted to share this website with you all. These folks are awesome! I wish every state had an organization like this in place and was funded, at least partly by the state. How much better off our large animal residents would be.

I copied this from their site:

Donations
GOOD SEARCH.....You can help support MERS every time that you're on your computer doing a search, without it costing you any money!! Rather than go to Google each time, there is a search engine called www.goodsearch.com . The neat thing about this is that GoodSearch is powered by Google, so you get the same fast service while you are helping MERS. Every time that you go to GoodSearch, MERS receives a donation. All that you have to do is go to www.goodsearch.com, under charity type in "Missouri Emergency Response Service"' then do your search. After the first time, it should be set up. If you put it up on the top of your computer on your tool bar, you are good to go every time that you want to do a search, and MERS benefits, each and every time!

MERS does not charge any money for our services. All of our expenses (fuel, etc.) come out of our own pockets, and the operating costs to keep the organization running relies entirely on corporate and private donations.

MERS has no paid employees. The 4 board of directors receive no compensation of any kind.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

How cool is that!

For want of a horseshoe nail

2009-11-30T09:50:00.000-08:00

For want of a nail the shoe was lost
For want of a shoe the horse was lost
For want of a horse the rider was lost
For want of a rider the battle was lost
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail

Too bad they weren’t aware of what a healthy, perfectly trimmed barefoot hoof can accomplish. A win for the hoof, a win for the horse, a win for the rider, a win for the battle, and a win for the kingdom.

But most importantly it's a win for the horse!

Hoof Watchers

2009-11-24T10:09:00.000-08:00

I had to share this comment! It's such a great topic. And my reponse was getting so long I had to post it. Thanks Desiree!

Hi Pat, I live up in Port Townsend. I do CMO rides so we go over lots of different ground. I do the trimming on my horses. It's interesting (scary) to be in a large group of horses and look at all of the different feet that they have to live with. I find that the feet are the first thing that I look at when I meet a horse for the first time! LOL!! Any updates on Whiskey? Desiree.

Desiree,

That's funny about the feet. I think we all get that way when we start working on our own horses. We spend so much time scrutinizing our own horses feet asking ourselves, "Is that angle getting better?" or "Is the foot coming down on the medial or lateral side or on the toe first?"

So as we really start seeing wonderfully healthy feet on our own horses, we can't help but look at others and wonder why their owner can't see everything that is way off.

One day after I had just gotten done trimming the hooves of one of my clients at a big beautiful boarding facility I was sitting in my car putting away my calendar and reshuffling the mountains of stuff on my front seat. (Stuff that flies onto the floor every time I have to make a quick stop. Drives me nuts!)

A horse came walking toward me being led by an attractive young woman in her twenties. Her horse was slender and black and beautiful. I looked down at the horses feet. Not intentionally, just that my eyes were drawn to them, just like the eyes of passers-by are drawn to my husband’s prosthetic hand.

Disbelief at first and I just settled on the horse’s hooves and watched her walk by. It was a little like watching a person walking in swim fins, but not as exaggerated. The heels were very underrun and the toes incredibly long.

Her poor mare’s hooves reminded me of glam finger nails that I sometimes see on people. Fingernails beautiful contoured and painted, but crazy long and causing their fingers to be nearly useless.

I think this owner was feeling proud of herself, walking past a barefoot trimmer with her barefoot horse.

Okay, I'm aware that there are some wild bands of horses who grow very long toes and very effectively use those toes to dig through snow, sand, dirt in search for the sparce food in their environment, but this would not be the case at a fancy boarding stable.

I wanted so badly to get out of my car and stop her and tell her what I saw about her horse’s hooves that could be corrected to make her horse so much more comfortable.

It is possible that the owner was trimming her horse herself. If so, bravo to her! I really think it’s great when owners get involved with their horse’s feet. If she pays someone for the service, I had to ask myself, how could a hoof care professional do that to a horse and not know it was really harmful and even dangerous, especially when she was riding her horse.

Horse’s trip and fall and roll over riders when their feet aren’t functioning properly. I believe that is why Linda Parelli recently took a bad spill on her horse Remmer. I bet she never even considered it might be his feet. His feet were the first thing I thought of when I heard about the accident.

It’s kind of like have bad tires on your car and expecting it to get you safely around. It can most of the time, but at some point…well, people have gotten killed.

And even more recently Remmer has abscessed and had to sit out their trip to the UK. Linda sounded okay with giving her lovely horse a break and she was happy that in a few days, the abscess would rupture and he would be good as new.

That tells me that neither she, nor her “genius farrier” understands the cycle of abscesses. Or that separation in the white line of the hoofwall and/or bars is the cause of abscessing. And there should really be no separation in Remmer's feet since he's been under the care of a genius farrier for awhile now.

Of all the horses I know, I feel so sad for that horse. He’s has an owner who loves him with every fiber of her being and would do anything for him no matter what the cost. Sadly he has some of the worst hoof care money can buy.

What can you do though? I never stopped the gal with the horse who had the super long toes to offer advice. I figured it would likely fall on deaf ears. People are not ready to hear it until they are ready to hear it.

Thanks for the comment Desiree. Wisky is doing as best that she can. Her hooves are really improving and she has a great trimmer working on her at home and we are constantly brainstorming on ways to keep her comfortable while she is growing new hoof capsules. I learned a lot from working on her. So I’ll always owe her that.

Horse Poem by Jessica

2009-11-23T23:12:00.000-08:00

This is a lovely poem my young niece wrote and her mom sent to me. I had to share with you.

A lonely barn

On a warm, cloudy day

Right before the sun sets

Stomping hooves
Wind flying through my hair
Running horses
The beautiful animals
I ride in the wind
I play with the horses
On a lonely weekend
I will be happy

Thank you Jessica! You look great on Pearl.

I've Been Polled!

2009-11-21T19:39:00.000-08:00

Well, no one has ever accused me of being opinionated.

That's not true. Really a few hundred people have accused me of that. Haw Haw! It's true.

But here's another opinion of mine that probably won't matter much to anyone else, but it might.

I think we should band together and rise up and demand more informative horse magazines! If they are going to whittle the pages down in horse mags today, the information should be more user-necessary and less user-fluff.

Okay, let me back up a little bit.

I was just over on the Eclectic Horseman site where I ordered a DVD set called
Four Strands of Rawhide with Randy Rieman and Bill Dorrance. Because I want to learn to braid Raitas (or Reatas) just like Bill Dorrance used to. That was the only website where I could find any instructional material with him.

On that site they have an ongoing poll where you can vote on different horse related topics. One of the poll questions really surprised me when it came up and the results REALLY surprised me!

In general, when your horses are in use do they go:

barefoot
166 49.7%

shod all around
125 37.4%

shod on fronts
35 10.5%

in easyboots (or similar product)
8 2.4%

(334 voters)

I was so impressed with this site and the topics that I signed up for their magazine. Which is what got me on this topic!

Over the years I've subscribed to many of national horse magazines or nag mags as some refer to them. Equus, Horse & Rider, Horse Illustrated, Dressage Today. I love to keep abreast of everything horse related. (I don't do any dressage riding, yet. But you know, someday maybe. And my dressage horse is a beauty! He just doesn't know he's a dressage horse, yet. But you know, someday maybe.)

My first poll question:

Have you noticed lately that horse magazines have been shrinking?
a. Yes, but at least the prices haven't gone up as they have with everything else.
b. Nope, and don't care about this stupid poll question.
c. Get real! The only thing that hasn't been shrinking is my waist line.

Once you pull-out all the extra subscription cards, what remains isn't much. A front and back cover and 10 pages of ads and 5 pages of articles. Okay that's a tiny bit exaggerated, but it's getting like that.

I think they should combine all those mags, Equus and H&R (which are printed by the same publisher anyway), along with a few others and create one new mag.

Would you subscribe?
a. Yep
b. Nope
c. Maybe

I let all my subscriptions drop (as did many others I'm assuming, which explains the reduction in pages) except two Equus and Horse Illustrated.

The next one I may drop will be Equus. That's because Horse Illustrated kind of is that magazine that combines all topics and I don't see as many really lame trainers in that one as I have in the others.

So in Equus recently I came across this picture. The article is titled Hoof Supplements on page 27 of edition number 387.

I looked at that photo and was instantly upset. Someone has once again cut into a healthy frog! Dang it!

That same person cut into live sole! Do you know that the hoof reacts to this assault as an injury because that's what it is?! That's a fact, not a poll question.

But this hoof is ready for a shoe. It needs the protection of a shoe now because every bit of protection that it's been busy growing over the past 8 weeks has just been hacked out of it.

One thing about this picture is that you can clearly distinguish the white line ( that yellow line around the outside of the sole) and the waterline just to the outside of the white (yellow) line. Then nail holes and outer (or pigmented) wall. Sometimes the waterline is referred to as the unpigmented wall.

If your horse should start limping right after being shod, usually that's because of what is referred to as a "hot nail." The nail was driven into the sensitive laminae above the white (yellow) line.

What would I have done differently with this foot?

1. I would have left the protective outer layer on the frog so it could function normally. I would not have opened it up to the horse's world of manure, urine, bacteria and most likely thrush which can and will damage that foot to the point where the horse would be mildly to seriously lame without shoes. If this type of damage continues with every shoeing eventually that frog will just give up trying to heal itself. Two more poll questions: Do you see shriveled up, atrophied frogs on your horse? Do you know that frogs aren't really supposed to shed every year? They only go through that cycle when they aren't healthy and they are attempting to self-repair.

2. I would not have attacked the sole and hacked any of it out unless there was a layer of dead, flaky sole that was trying to exfoliate because it was ready. Then I might help it, if that what the hoof seemed to be calling for. I'd leave it alone if it didn't. A hoof on natural maintenance trims usually needs nothing done to the frog, bars and sole.

3. I would NOT put a shoe back on this foot because I wouldn't have damaged to the point that will take weeks to repair itself. I would simply put the natural bevel around the wall and grow out those ugly nail holes and any flare. After the hoofwall was able to repair itself and the holes were gone, I would have a healthy foot the horse could use without shoes. Or if not, I could just pop a pair of Easyboot Gloves on the fronts and off I'd go.

I do all the time, still I hate to see these pictures in magazines. I wish editors would educate themselves in fields that have passed them by.

Two more poll questions:

Why is the white line termed the white line?
a. because calling it "the yellow line" made too much sense.
b. because calling it the distal laminar junction is too hard to remember.
c. because there are no blood vessels in the area of laminae that connects the wall to the sole, so it's white, rather than red as is the sensitive laminae, the area that connects the wall to the coffin bone.

Why is the water line termed the water line?
a. because that where the horse stores water in dry climates.
b. because it sounds almost as ridiculous as calling a yellow line a white line.
c. because that area of unpigmented wall is the most moist part of the wall drawing moisture from other areas of wall and is generally the area of wall that should come into contact with the ground first during a stride.

I have never seen those two questions answered in any nag mag anywhere. Have you?

I like my answers!

Well, I know I'm going to get some flake for both of those "c" answers though. I always seem to illicit at least a couple "you're so dumb" response when I try to sound like I know what I'm talking about. Haw haw!

And what is your response to that Eclectic Horseman poll question?

Just curious!

Thanks for reading!

Pat

Licensed Professionals!

2009-11-12T17:30:00.000-08:00

So I just came across this list of professionals on the Washington State Dept of Licensing website who are required to be licensed to perform their job.

For the past few years now, I’ve felt that hoofcare professionals, anyone shoeing, trimming or administering repair of any sort, professionally, to the hooves of horses, should be licensed.

What I found interesting about this list is the how some of the professions who are required to be licensed compare to hoof care professionals who are not required to be licensed.

It's nice for me that I'm involved in one of the few professions that doesn't require anything more than a business license, and that's not something many farriers require of themselves which resolves that whole tax paying deal, however I think that would be a smart requirement of us - as well as a way to help ensure that horseowners are offered some assurance that they are hiring a professional farrier who has a basic idea of what he/she is doing

Did you know that to be a professional taxidermist, you are required to be licensed?

It’s okay to use cutting tools on the hooves of live animals without a license, but not okay to cut into dead animals without one. Interesting? Well, morticians must be licensed and their profession involves the non-living.

Some of the professionals on the list that Washington State (and most other states) requires license for include: accountants, animal massage therapists, auctioneers, professional boxers, bulk commercial fertilizer distributers (Big BSers I guess) check cashers, crematories, egg handlers, explosives experts (I s’pose that one makes sense) recreational fishing and hunting requires a license, as well as game farming, interpreters, insurance agents, nursery owners, pest inspectors, plumbers, real estate agents, river outfitters, seed dealers, shellfish harvesters, shopkeepers, stock brokers, talkie tooters (not makin’ that up) timekeepers (for professional athletes – are you kidding me?) travel agents and professional wrestlers.

All those professionals need to be licensed, but those of us responsible for the horses ability to stay upright when needed, are NOT required to test for a pesky license!

That just blows my mind.

Just an observation.

pat

Pond Bridge

2009-11-01T11:13:00.000-08:00

These pictures might explain why our Barefoot Playfield is taking so long to complete. Rich doesn't like to do projects that don't involve heavy equiptment. Many thanks to our friends Jim and Don for all their help! We have a ways go but it's going to be one heck of a bridge!

See video of setting this beam.

Collecting Analogies!

2009-10-31T09:20:00.000-07:00

“If you aren’t planning on going hiking for awhile, do you stop trimming your toenails?”

Say, I had this idea. I want to collect some great analogies regarding horses and hoof care. I was hoping you all could help me come up with some good ones that I could post here.

Here’s one that popped into my head last night. I was trimming a customer’s horse at a boarding facility and I noticed another boarder’s horse’s hooves were getting a bit long in the toes and could have really used a trim.

The owner of the long-toed horse said her horse was just trimmed a month ago so it will be another month and a half before he’s due. AHHHHHHH!

I guess the incredulous expression on my face caused the next reassuring comment. “It's okay, he’s not being ridden.”

Seriously, I get that a lot.

The response I thought of much too late was:

“If you aren’t planning on going hiking for awhile, do you stop trimming your toenails?”

Last week, one of my students and I were discussing the fact the veterinarians get very few hours of education on hoofcare in college. When presented with horses that are suffering from hoof ailments, vets will generally refer those horses to horseowner’s farrier. They don’t often realize that some horseowner’s use farriers who haven't had any actual training or education in rehabbing hooves.

Many shoers out there have learned to tack on shoes from an older friend or relative who taught himself how to shoe (by trail and error years before) and hoof anatomy or ailments never becomes a part of their education or experience.

Hooves are pretty simple right. Just rasp and nail on a shoe.  If the horse doesn't limp, you did good!

After I explained this all too common situation (which can cause years, sometimes, of unnecessary pain and suffering for the horse) he said:

“That’s kind of like an MD sending a patient with foot problems to the Nordstrom’s shoe dept.   He’ll be fitted with a nice pair of shoes, but he won’t get help for his foot condition.

So true! And you never know. A well fitted pair of shoes might make him feel better for awhile, but is the problem solved? Likely not! That's what podiatrists are for.

I was yakking with oue of our better local farriers one day and he explained that he'd been shoeing for 20 years. The first 5 or so years, he was just shoeing using the skills his father taught him about shoeing. Then he decided to go to school and get certified. He said, that's when he found out how much he didn't know.   Cool that he was honest and great that he realized he could better serve the horses, but getting some education behind his work.

So anyway, just for fun, if you have any such hoof care or horse care analogies floating around in your brain, please share them with me either in the comments section or email me directly at patslark@fairpoint.net

Thanks!

Pat Wagner,
Hoof Elitist

What good are horse people?

2009-10-22T08:43:00.000-07:00

A thought, a question really, just popped into my head this morning while I was watching the Today show. What good are horse people? And the many answers to that question came flooding in to my early morning brain behind it.

I was listening to reports about the huge bonuses that bank and corporate executives who helped send our country into a deep recession are paying themselves and the controversy regarding whether they really deserve the millions they are receiving.

Who am I to care really, I’m just a tax paying horse person. And what good are horse people really? We don’t deserve huge bonuses for our work. Or do we?

I visit horse people nearly every day in my job as a hoof care professional. My definition of a horse person isn’t the big breeder who owns the facility that is worth millions, and breeds horses that sell for thousands. That’s a business person.

A horse person is someone like me. Someone who loves horses, and owns a few acres with more horses on it than it can support. Our every spare dollar goes into buying hay from the local hay farmer and who keeps the local feed stores in business.

A horse person is someone whose spouse or partner may not be considered a "horse person" exactly, but they've come to care very much about horses and often spends most his or her free time feeding the horses, then dragging a two-wheeled cart around and filling it with the outcome of feeding the horses.

Our partners may not be "horse experts", but may have expertise in many other fields, such as fence building and mending, gate adjustments, footing and bedding, mud and manure management, composting, and a host of other demands involved with horse care.

Horse people don’t own horses that are worth thousands usually. They own the horses that someone else has tossed aside. Tossed aside for being too lame, too arthritic, too old, too blind, or just one too many.

We feed those horses, groom them, pay for their hoofcare, dentistry, and medical care. We love those horses and will do anything to assure their peace of mind and comfort.

We do so much more for our beloved “throw away” horses than the poor horses who live on the million dollar farms could ever hope for. Very often, those horses feel the touch of a human only when they are being led to and from the breeding barn.

And it's not just horses we take under our wings and into our dwindling bank accounts, it's all the other animals who find themselves in need of food, shelter, healthcare and love.

But the most crucial aspect of being a horse person is our kids. Not just our own kids, but more likely our grandkids. As well as our friend’s kids, our cousin’s kids, and most often our neighbor kids.

Kids, who love horses and like to hang around the very horse people who spend most their time and all their money taking care of their horses. Yet are willing to take time out to tack up horses whose main job it is to be led around with a kid on his back.

We horse people influence those kids. We teach them how to care for and manage life for the animals we are responsible for. We teach them about safety, sharing, and play, not just for the horses, but for themselves, their family members, and their friends

Is it worth it to horse people to take all this extra time and do so much for kids that we probably would otherwise rarely see if we were not horse people?

Well, when I look over to see my 8 year old neighbor standing at my field fence waiting for me to notice her and invite her over, and I see her sweet face light up and watch her dance in the air when I ask her if we should get one of the horses out for her to ride, and when she jumps into my truck to ride with me to attend a lesson, or when she gets a little nervous when I ask if she’s ready to try trotting...I'd have to say yes...it's very worth that extra time.

When I watch my little granddaughter carefully extend her arm out to the Belgian draft horse, who was formerly abused and dangerous and whose head weighs more than her entire body, to offer him a corn

chip which he politely takes from her small hand, I wonder why those bank executives are getting millions of dollars in bonuses, when it’s horse people who really deserve to be rewarded for their lifes’ work.

But what do I know? I’m just a horse person and really what good are horse people anyway?

This good!

WHAT ARE THEY THINKING?

2009-10-10T22:35:00.001-07:00

Question: Would you use a wood sealer/preservative on your horses’ hooves?

Some of you have and some still do. Anytime you smell a little thrush and run down to your local feed store to purchase one of the most popular hoof treatments on the shelf.

That's what I discovered today. There is a wood sealer that you can buy for less than $18 a gallon and its main ingredient is 10% Copper Naphthenate. The other 90% called "inert ingredient" is likely petroleum products like kerosene. That's according to Rich.

Rich purchased several gallons of this stuff today to treat the lumber for our bridge over the pond in our playfield. While he was treating some of the lumber, I was outside and the aroma was so strong and so familiar to me, but I couldn't place it.

Then Scrunchy, the curly coated cattle dog, jumped up and sat her little curly white butt down on one of the beams and her butt turned very bright green.

As she turn and mooned me with her neon green bottom and wagging tail, it slowly dawned on me. That color! That unmistakable smell was the same as the hoof treatment that I've warmed so many owners NOT TO USE!

I checked and sure enough. Copper Naphthenate is the main ingredient in a popular hoof treatment, a product name that ends with the first syllable in the word “toxic" by the way.

The ads brag that it's antifungal, and it seals and preserves the hoof. Why yes it does. I find this stuff inside horse's hooves months, sometimes years after the owner has applied it.

It has the same affect on hooves that it has on wood! Only the percentage prescribed for wood (10%) is much less than what is prescribed for your horse's delicate foot - nearly 40% in some of the products I found on line!

And the price! You can get a whole gallon of wood preservative for a buck or two more than you’d pay for an 8 ounce bottle labeled "hoof treatment."

Whoever thought of using a “wood sealer/preservative” on a horse’s hoof?

Probably the same folks who are okay with suggesting old timey remedies like turpentine, acetone, aluminum chloride, formaldehyde, alcohol, bleach or Lysol, or Oxine/Citric Acid combinations.

And please allow farriers to use CS (copper sulfate) treated sole packs typically used under shoe pads. CS destroys thrush and frogs and sole.

Copper Sulfate treated hoof packing (commonly used with NBS - Natural Balance Shoes) was used under a pad on this hoof. It's not a clear photo, but trust me, the frog is missing.

Dang, as I list this so many "chemicals" come to mind that have been recommended to horse owners to apply to their horse's feet!

This has got to stop!

This only product I will recommend to soak a horse's hoof is Epsom Salts. I have no idea if it helps anything, but I'm pretty sure it can't hurt. It doesn't have any antibacterial or antifungal properties, but it helps the owner feet better about doing something to ease their horse's discomfort. That's important.

(This product can be found at your local farrier supply store or on-line.)

Mild iodine is all I will treat thrush with and lately I’ve been using Hawthorne Sole Pack to treat thrush (inside boots) and fill in large areas of separation, splits, etc. It’s a pine tar/mild iodine combination that packs like playdough. When it’s packed into large areas of separation it keep other foreign materials out and the horse can still go barefoot.

From now on, let's take time to read the labels on products we apply to our horses's feet. It could be harmful to their health.

Ain't That a Kick In The Head...

2009-09-14T19:55:00.000-07:00

Did I do that?

I just wanted to add a post today to remind everyone I care so much about, those I know and those I haven't met yet, to please be so careful around your horses.

Spencer has been getting so much better around people, but he can easily revert back to that unhandled stallion who joined our group last year. Occasionally, he expresses his annoyance with his feet! But usually, his aggressive gestures are directed at the other horses while he's eating. Not at me.

Still he sometimes lets me know when it’s me bugging him. Normally, I get after him for forgetting not to kick around me, but on Sunday, I wasn't paying close attention and probably could be in the hospital today, or worse, if I didn't have such a hard head.

I was clipping the hair around Spencer's gargantuan front hooves so I could get a better view of them. He doesn't always display obvious signs of annoyance, so they are easy to miss and Rich missed them as he was standing at Spencer’s head. Draft's are typically just so easy going that we can take their tolerance for granted without even realizing it.

And I was busy clipping away at his lower legs not realizing Spencer was getting bent about it. Guess where my head was while I was coming around behind his front legs with the clippers? He raised his hind hoof up and bam! To the moon, Alice! That’s where I felt like I was for a second or two.

First, I felt this:

then I saw a nanosecond of blackness, followed by this:

A couple pints of blood later, I decided I didn't want to go to the hospital and wait for 7 hours in the lobby with 87 sick people like we did a few weekends ago when Rich dove head first off a stack of hay bales and landed on his head on the edge of the utility trailer. His injury was worse then mine. He didn’t cry. I did.

This morning, I spent a couple hours playing with Spencer in the round pen. We just did some ground work, but I had my helmet on. From now on whenever I'm around him or any other untrained horse, I will be wearing my helmet. I don't care how silly I look.
Later I went to work and trimmed 4 unruly horses and 1 nice one. I felt okay, but I was so paranoid of my head that whenever one of the horses would lift a hind leg I'd jerk back, wishing for my helmet.

About a month ago, I was standing beside my beefy QH gelding, Danny, in the driveway. He was next to the fence and I was on the other side. Our dang dogs suddenly ran up to him and didn’t start yapping until they were right next to him.. He spooked and jumped into me, knocking me off my feet and sending me backwards onto the gravel. I HAD my helmet on then and could tell from the impact I would have gone to the hospital if I hadn't been wearing it.

Anyways, I know I don't have to remind you to be careful out there and protect your noggins even when you're not riding, and to make sure your guests who come to ride your horses are always wearing helmets even if they are just standing beside the horses. But I will anyways because I care about you.

Heads up!
Pat

Yes, it was me...Sorry.

Abscesses Revisited.

2009-09-10T08:19:00.000-07:00

I think I get it now and I'm so excited!!

I wrote an article last year about abscesses. But I’ve since had an epiphany about them, what causes abscesses, treatment and how to keep them from starting in the first place.

I once thought there were two types of abscesses: The kind that start in the white line and work its way up the hoof wall; and another type, subsolar that start under the sole and work its way up and out the heel bulb or rupture out of the sole.

That’s only partly correct.

Recently I read an article by a farrier who was certain sole abscesses start with stone bruises. The sole doesn’t bruise. The sole tissue has no blood as the farrier suggested, causing bruising. A farrier of all professionals should know that. Farrier’s, vets and trimmers often cut into the sole (even when they shouldn't) and it would seem to me that if the sole could bruise, the result of cutting into it would be a bloody mess.

Some suggest abscessing is diet related, but I don’t think that’s true either.

There is only one kind of abscess. And maybe “abscess” isn’t even the best word to use to describe what is happening, but for now, lets use it because that’s the word we are most familiar with.

Abscesses begin only in the whiteline of the hoof. I’ve only ever seen sole abscess start in the area of the bar. The bars of the hoof are an extension of the hoofwall and the bars have a whiteline, just like the outer hoof wall.

I didn’t put this together until I attended a seminar recently with Swedish natural hoof care practitioner, Ove Lind. Swedishhoofschool.com

So what I used to think was a very complex topic, I now realize is VERY SIMPLE.

When we allow separation of the white line to take place, we are going to get abscessing. Bacteria invade the white line and works its away up the whiteline/laminae until it reaches soft tissue where it can erupt and relieve the horse of pain. Abscesses that start in the outer wall, erupt at the coronet band and abscesses that start in the white line of the bar erupt at the heel bulb.

It’s that simple! Separation of the whiteline allows abscesses to start. Separation is caused by neglect or improper trimming whether a hoof is shod or not.

Shod hooves can abscess. But a shod hoof is locked down restricting flexibility and circulation. That conditions impedes the abscess from working its way to soft tissue were it can erupt - resulting in pain relief for the horse.

Shod horses with abscesses, I know, are very often misdiagnosed with mystery conditions like navicular and laminitis. Translation: Your horse is lame and we don’t know why.

Either the horse is put into corrective shoes, (more constricted) put down, or the shoes are pulled and the horse is put out to pasture where it very often becomes sound again on it’s own. Also a mystery as no one noticed the abscesses finally ruptured.

So now I believe I really get it! Correct and frequent trimming, as well as not allowing the bars to be weight bearing will keep your horse from abscessing. It’s just that simple.

When I hear my horse abscesses over and over again. I know that the hooves of that horse aren’t being trimmed correctly. That’s all there is to it!

Abscesses in the hind hooves often cause so little pain we don’t even know it’s happening until we notice a rupture site at the soft tissue above the hoof.

Or abscesses can be so painful, the leg swells, the joints lock up and the horse can’t put any weight on the hoof for days.

What is the correct treatment? There is none. Once the abscess starts, it must be allowed to run it’s course. It erupts when it gets to soft tissue and the white line it invaded on its way up is now dead and the rupture site must grow out. As for the abscess that starts in the bar, that very often means the horse may lose a large section of bar and sole in the heel area or even the entire sole depending on how much of the solar papillae was invaded.

We have to give the horse time to grow out a new hoof often times, before we see complete soundness again. As this is happening we often see off and on again lameness. No lameness at the walk, but lameness at the trot and this can go on for months even years of the horse isn’t allowed time for the abscess to rupture.

What is the worst thing we can do for the abscess? Dig it out? If we did at something that’s on it’s way up, all we are doing is giving the horse a secondary problem to grow out. And if the dig site becomes deep and wide, more debris is allowed to enter the hoof and possibly cause bone infection as a result.

So when your horse abscesses, make sure it’s barefoot, has time to heal and no digging.

That’s where I stand on abscesses now.

Subsolar abscess: This mare was lame in shoes for years with no obvious signs so she was diagnosed as a founder case. The owner's comment was that she should have been dog food long ago. Sad. We pulled shoes and abscess was allowed to rupture. She was slowly becoming sound again and owner was advised by her vet that natural trims cause abscessing. She was put back into shoes before she had a chance to fully recover. I haven't heard anything about her beyond that, but it wouldn't surprise me if she's been digested by a dog by now.

You can see the rupture site of an abscess that started in the bars, here just above the center sulcus between the heel bulbs. This horse was never shod, but he went too long between trims and separation of the white line resulted. I hate to admit this is my horse and he was a gravel cruncher before I allowed this to happen.

Lesson learned. A year later, he's much improved, but still not the cruncher he was. Boots solve that.

Rupture site at coronet band from abscess that started in the white line. Separation of the white line was the cause. This abscess started at the same time as the one that started in the bar so that tells me there was a large section of separation that went into the bars.

A horse will usually exhibit more pain if the abscess is in the front hoof rather than a hind. The leg and fetlock joint can swell and the no weight can be put on the leg without the horse exhibiting intense pain.

Does this resemble a founder stance? Yes it does. And a huge diagnositc mistake could have easily been made on this horse. Thankfully, I was certain it was an abscess and I was right. He was laying on the ground for 4 days before the rupture. I just allowed him to rest and the abscess to rupture and he gradually recuperated. It's been a long road for this poor guy. Due to the abscess, he foundered in all four feet. A full recovery has taken just over a year.

It's important to note that we probably won't even realize our horse is abscessing until it gets close to soft tissue where it can erupt. That's why digging at the abscess is a mistake. By the time the horse is experiencing pain, the abscess has made it's way so far up the hoof to get past it. NO DIGGING!

Ove Lind and the Swedish Hoof School

2009-09-06T20:54:00.000-07:00

I had the opportunity to attend one of Ove Lind's seminars last weekend. Wow! I had so many "Aha" moments listening to him. He's an amazing teacher of natural hoof care.

If you trim and want to learn from someone who really knows therapeutic hoof trimming strategies, you need to attend one of his seminars if you can catch when he's over here from Sweden touring.

I don't have any pictures to upload. Doh! A smarter woman would have pulled her camera out at least once while there, but there was just so much information to absorb, I didn't even think of it. Well, I did, but then I'd forget to go get the camera from the Jeep.

For some awesome info about slow hay feeders and articles on thrush and other important hoof issues, go to the website, swedishhoofschool.com

I would love to fly to Sweden and attend the school and tour the country and meet the barefoot horses. Horse owners there are way ahead of us in the barefoot movement. It's not new to them.

Meet Wisky

2009-08-26T20:51:00.000-07:00

This is the newest horse to come to us for help for her hooves. An 11 year old saddlebred mare whose hooves are in a similar condition as two other horses that came here for help and are doing well today, Hank and Amado (see previous post).

She will have her own blog up soon. Watch for her progress. I hope to be updating you on Hank and Spencer soon as well.

Itchie Horse Cured!

2009-08-16T10:47:00.000-07:00

Old Song - New Words!

This Butt was made for scratching! So that's just what he'd do!

If you weren't payin' attention...this butt would scratch all over you!!!

This butt is normally bald from scratching, but this year, I think we may have found a cure!

I want to know if anyone out there has a horse or knows of one who becomes so miserable in the spring and Summer, that he/she has trouble focusing on anything, except how much they ITCH!

Do you know of horses who scratch and rub themselves raw, rub out patches of hair?

Or what about the horse who will be strolling across the pasture or paddock, and suddenly drop to the ground, then using his front legs, gets into a sitting position and rub, rub, rub his belly on the ground?

My gelding, Danny, would rub his chest between until it callused over with a thickened layer of hide.

Sound familiar?

Since he was about 4 years old (10 now) Danny has been itchy and he'd find a new way to scratch himself with each season of itchiness.

Not only was there a cost to him as far as his sanity, but also the cost of lotions and potions and bath treatments I've tried in my vein attempts to find relief for my boy. Hundreds of dollars were thrown at sprays and chemicals guaranteed to give him relief that probably cost next to nothing to produce.

Many of the product required bathing the horse in them every few days. I have a family, a job, a herd of horses and live in the Pacific NW where the term “sun breaks” was a coined. And they expect mee to bath my horse every few days!

So basically, last year, I just gave up the battle of the itch. I felt bad for him that he was so distressed from Spring until Fall, but I was out of ideas.

I discussed the situation with MANY other owners of horses with his same symptoms. There were as many theories as to what causes this problem, as there are horses that suffer with it. Am I right? Those of you with an itching horse know what I'm talking about.

Allergic to the saliva of midges? Maybe. But who knows for sure.

But Danny didn't itch at all this year! He never dropped, rubbed all his hair out on his butt, never itched until his neck was raw or his chest was callused.

When I realized something had changed about him, that something was missing this summer, at first I thought, hmmm, he must have grown out of it. I've heard of kids with allergies growing out of them and one vet told me early on, that was his problem -- allergies.

Then I remembered something that I did early this year. I treated him for lice! For a couple dollars, I think I fixed his problem.

I noticed Spencer and a few of the other horses itching like crazy this Spring and I got to combing through Spencer’s mane and thought I was seeing lice. I wasn’t sure, but I wasn’t taking any chances.
"Who me? Lice?"
I know a breeder who treats her horses for lice once or twice each year whether they need it or not and when she told me that, I thought – over kill.

Lousy horses are nearly unheard of these days and doesn’t treating a horse with ivermectin for worms take care of lice? That’s what we’re told, but somehow I don’t think that’s true in all cases.

I treated Spencer and all the other horses according to the directions and all the horses seemed to experience some sort of relief from itching. You have to be careful to get their forelock treated though, or if your horse has bugs, they will migrate to whatever part of their forelock, mane or tail, that you didn’t treat and will drive the horse nuts in that one spot.

The treatment instructions call for treating all your livestock, 3 times, 10 days apart. That is going to be a part of my horsecare regime once a year no matter what. Mainly because equines come and go on my property.

So did Danny have lice? I don’t know. He has black mane and tail and you’d think I would have noticed at some point in his 10 year of life. I found them on Spencer who has nearly white mane.

These guys live right next door to my horses. Could lice be transmitted from cows to horses? I don't know.

So I’m wondering if there is something about the lice dusting powder that treated whatever it was he did have.

Whatever it was, he’s much calmer now that he can think about other things in the Spring and Summer besides how much he itches.

Water fun with the kids!

A few of my itchy horse customers are trying the lice powder and are going to report back to me. So I’ll update you on the experiment.

If you have an itchy horse and try treating them with the delousing powder, please send me your results. And remember not to expect lasting results until after the 3rd treatment.

I have a feeling you have to use it before the itchy season starts for it to be effective. So if it doesn’t work this year, try applying in February or March of next year.

Let me know how it works. And if that song gets stuck in your head...you're welcome:-)

Note: The product that I use is Horse Lice Duster III, by Farnam which contains Permethrin.

Don't try to sprinkle the powder from the top of the can. All you get is a mist that you end up breathing. Use gloves and a face mask and pull the plug from the bottom of the can, dump powder into your hand and rub it into your horse starting at the forelock and working your way back to and into the tail. Then from the chest along his stomach to his other business.

If weather permits, cover your horse with a sheet for a few days to keep him from getting powder him his mouth, although, I doubt that a small amount would hurt a horse, and I didn't use a facemask, but the powder doesn't taste very good.

I just used this on another itchie horse and she's itch free too! She just seems so much more relaxed and happy. It's amazing. Again, I don't believe she had lice, but I do know this powder also treats other parasites including, but not limited to, fleas, ticks and those small annoying face flies.

The Glove!

2009-08-16T10:13:00.000-07:00

Hey, just wanted to share with you all, my opinion of this fairly new hoof boot.

I LOVE IT!

This boot was developed with the input of Pete Ramey and the name he came up for it is right on. It has to be fit perfectly so you can't just go buy a pair off the shelf at the tack store, well you can, but chances is are, it won't fit perfectly enough to work well for your horse. There is only about 3mm (about the width of a dime) between sizes.

When you get a good fit, you have a wonderful hoof boot for your horse.

Power Strap for extra security.

The only drawback I've found so far is that they are so popular, I can't keep them in stock. And Easy Care, Inc., has them on backorder most the time because supply isn't keeping up with demand. Bummer. I hope that changes soon.

If you've ever considered going barefoot, but hoof protection options stopped you. Now is the time to try it! Easycareinc.com for more information.

Open House in Buckley

2009-08-15T21:29:00.000-07:00

Performance Equine Dental and Veterinary, Inc.
Vetter Farms, LLC BOARDING and LESSONS

Dr Dick and Kathy Vetter are inviting everyone who can to come visit their boarding facility to discuss your horse care, training, lesson needs with manager, Diana Painter.

Drawings for FREE VETERINARY SERVICES (equine dentals and large and small animal vaccinations)!
DOOR PRIZES! FOOD!
Educational Seminars
Saturday, Aug. 22 & Sunday, Aug. 23
9:00am - 4:00pm

Please stop by their open house on the 22nd and 23rd to say hello and give a couple of scratches to our resident miniature burros, Poncho and Lefty.

While at their new facility, take a tour, enjoy an informational presentation and participate in daily drawings for free services and products.

They will be giving away two free equine dentals done by Dr. Vetter of Performance Equine and two free fall vaccinations and dewormers.

Pat Wagner, a certified barefoot trimmer and instructor, will be speaking and also giving away a free trim .

Educational topics to be presented at the speaking sessions each day:

9:00 GATES OPEN

9:30 GERIATRIC CARE /NUTRITION/ ULCERS IN HORSES - Yes, there IS something we can do to help these old skinny horses!
10:15: OPTHAMOLOGY AND DERMATOLOGY - Could your horse have an eye problem? What you need to look for.
11:45: DENTISTRY: How quality dentistry affects performance and your horse's health
1:15: NATURAL HOOF CARE AND TRIMMING - Its advantages ..... Is it beneficial for your horse and your needs?
2:30: Table Questions of speakers by audience. (questions not covered in topics)

Times approximate

28512 112th ST E,
Buckley, Wa 98321
360-829-0500 360-508-0083

Lights! Camera! ACTION!

2009-08-12T21:21:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to share some big news! For a few years now I've been day dreaming about making a video (DVD) on the topic of How To Trim Your Horse Naturally.

Well, it appears that it's going to happen! Filming starts on the 24th of this month. I'm stoked! And very nervous!

This DVD will illustrate, on a variety of hooves, how to perform a maintenance trim on an average Equine Hoof - horse, mule and donkey, and focus mainly on the tools, tool handling, and correct trimming.

It will be affordable to most horse owners and it will be professionally filmed with a high definition camera, and edited by professionals, so you are assured that the quality of the DVD will be excellent if you choose to purchase it.

I can hardly believe my day dream is coming true and the film crew from Epona Producations will be coming to our facility!

How did this happen? Well, it started when one of my Natural Hoof Care Practitioner Colleges went on maternity leave and asked me if I would trim some of her customer's horses in her area (one being in North Bend, WA. Drive time with traffic? About 2 hours one way). Until she could return to work.

The horseowner that I got to meet in North Bend is an amazing woman and when I discovered that she and her husband are professional film makers, I had to share my dream with her about the DVD. One thing led to another and we started making plans!

Gayle and her husband own Epona Productions in Northbend. They travel all over the world making many award winning films!

Here is a sample of Gayle's work! Tree Kangaroo Conservation Program Interesting and well done!

I'll keep you posted and if you are interested in purchasing a DVD when it's ready, go to Rainierhoofrecovery.com (A website currently under construction) or send me an email.

Wish me to break a leg!

Pat

For Heaven's Sake - part two.

2009-07-26T09:38:00.000-07:00

So I just wanted to follow up on my post regarding the farrier who owns the blog Farrieritis (see post below titled "For Heaven's Sake.")

I'm convinced that farrieritis is an actual condition that so many horses fall prey to. I'm kidding...sort of.

In the post, I had put the question to Marcia asking how the farrier and vet working relentlessly on her horse was working for her. I was being a smartass and I apologize for that.

At the time that uploaded that post, I also sent and email to her asking how her horse was doing. They were doing all they could...was her response.

Today, she sent me a sad email letting me know that her sweet mare had been euthanized. I am very sorry to hear that she had lost her lovely mare.

But sadly, I'm not really surprised by the news.

I personally don't believe there is a such thing as coffin bone rotation as the equine medical community explains it.

It has long been thought that the laminae is the only connection of the coffin bone to the inside of the hoof wall and when it fails, the coffin bone is allowed to drop or rotate.

Please correct me if I'm wrong about this, but what about those two big tendons, the extensor and the DDFT Deep Digital Flexor Tendon? These are two big tendons that hold the little coffin bone in place!

These tendons are so strong that you could probably tow a Volkswagen with them. One, the extensor (with attaching ligaments) at the front of the coffin bone, and other, the DDFT, is attached, via ligaments, to the back of the bone. Both run up the leg and attach above. So how in the heck could a little coffin bone rotate completely out of position with this tendon/ligament apparatus stabilizing it?

(The above paragraph has been revised after receiving input from Mrs. Mom, see comments.)

The coffin bone might detach and leave it's tight position against the wall when the laminae fails, but not to the degree that we see in some radiographs or rads.

A rad may show what appears to be a tipped down coffin bone, but what is really happening is that the hoofwall has flared away from the bone due to poor trimming methods or due to neglect. The bone hasn't gone anywhere, but flared wall (poor trimming and shoeing) makes it appear that it has.

That is so common and I can't begin to tell you how common that is. When I point it out to vets in my area, you'd think I just poked a hole in their brain and poured in a smart potion.

The only possible way we can know for sure the degree a coffin has rotated is if we take rads of the hoof before the incident. We need a baseline. As well as pictures of the outside of the hoof to see if the wall has changed its dimensions.

Pictures of the outer wall are cheap and easy and we should ALL have them on our horse's hooves. When the hoof fails we can look to those pictures and see if there are any changes caused by among other issues, improper trimming.

Equine doctors are not to be blamed for situations such as Marcia's horse enduring because they don't know what they don't know. Vets get almost no education in school about the hooves of horses and defer much of the treatment to farriers. I believe that is starting to change as the field of natural hoof care emerges as a positive treatment for horses with hoof ailments that traditional medicine is losing.

Farriers are not to blame as they know what the know from going to farrier school and they are taught by professionals, some of whom have never been to farrier school themselves.

Or very commonly, they learn uncle Joe who learned to shoe horses by trial and error - and out of necessity when he was young. When Joe began crippling fewer horses than not, he went into practice as the local farrier and he was busy because most people couldn't or wouldn't do that dirty, dangerous, difficult job for any amount of money!

So Joe passes his skills on to others, but with no knowledge whatsoever regarding hoof anatomy or hoof function and so it goes. I've met a number of farriers who went into that profession after losing their job and needed a quick-to-learn skill to make some money to support their families. Not because they loved shoeing horses or cared anything about horses' hooves.

That's just how it is, but we are working hard to change how people think about traditional hoof care and how it might not be the answer to their horse's prayers.

Rehabilitative trimming and "different" rehab practices actually save the lives of many of these horses if they are lucky enough to fall into the hands of a natural hoof care practitioner and not someone like the author of ferrieritis.

For more info on CBR see http://www.nobenaho.com/CBR.htm

Pat

UPDATE regarding tendons:

Extensor Tendon: This tendon is attached to all the bones in the foot except the Navicular bone, it bears no weight and is therefore slim and generally trouble-free.
At the lower end of the long pastern bone it receives reinforcement on either side from the branches of the Suspensory ligament, which increase its width.
The function for the extensor tendon is to extend the bones of the foot and lift the toe.

Flexor Tendon: Running over the back of the knee in the carpal canal and held in position by a carpal check ligament. It then extends down the back of the cannon bone between the superficial digital flexor tendon and the suspensory ligament.

In the middle of the cannon bone the deep digital flexor tendon is joined by the carpal check ligament, known as the inferior check ligament. The tendon then passes over the sesamoid bones, before passing between the two extensions of the superficial digital flexor tendon.

At this point, the deep digital flexor tendon becomes broad and fanlike, passing over the navicular bone before inserting into the lower surface of the pedal bone. This takes some of the strain from the muscles situated above the knee in the forearm or above the hock in the gaskin.

Harley Find's a New Home!

2009-07-19T22:53:00.001-07:00

Harley was a great pasture pal and trailer riding buddy for many of our horses here. That was his job and he was good at it. However, he doesn’t care for human’s much and he can run really fast, so it was always tricky to convince him to stop long enough to be haltered.

Hard to catch!

But now we have Buster,
who is sweet and friendly little gelding pony who also makes a great pasture pal and trailering buddy and he likes to get caught. In fact, he’d rather be with people than anywhere else. He likes kids and he seems to have a great time taking the small ones for rides.

So recently, after much consideration, we decided that Harley would be a great new pasture pal for a lonely young filly owned by one of my customers.

And when it was time to take Harley to his new home, three year old Jake, was his trailer riding buddy.

Jakes Story
We had met Little Jake when he was a weanling about 6 months old and living in Tieten, in Eastern, Washington.

He was upset about the recent separation from his mom. She was a flea bitten gray Arab, but his coat color was more like that of his buckskin QH sire. Jake was in a tiny pen of tossed up wood fences and had been handled about as much as your average zebra.

We hauled the horse trailer over the pass with Harley inside so he could be a trailer buddy for Jake on the long ride back home. As most horse people know, when it comes to horses nothing goes according to plan most of the time. So it wasn’t a big surprise when the surprise snow storm blew in just as we got ready to haul the two little guys home. The pass was no longer passable with a horse trailer in tow. To be safe, we came home without the trailer, or Jake, or Harley. It would a few weeks before we could go back for them. So baby Jake, and mini Harley experienced their first Eastern Washington winter together in a round pen with the opened horse trailer for shelter. Harley was left standing in snow that was deeper than his legs were long, and Jake was afraid to go into the horse trailer. We hoped that by the time we returned, the horse trailer would be Jake’s second home. After most the snow melted though, the trailer wasn’t any more comfortable a place for Jake to be in than it was when we left. Jake was a wild baby, but it only took a couple hours of playing in the round pen to change him from a wild thing into a puppy dog,

which he’s been ever since. The two of them rode home safely together.

That was 3 years ago, so it was fitting that Jake would accompany Harley to his new home. We said our goodbyes to Harley and although I’ll still get to see him when I go to trim his hooves, he will be so missed.

Harley has been a pasture ornament here for about 5 years. He was the smallest horse in our field and he has perfect little mini feet, so he was great for student trimmers to practice trimming mini hooves. We miss him a lot and everyone who knows Harley asks about him. “Where’s that little guy who doesn’t like getting caught?

A good butt scratching!
Helping a friend learn the 7 games.
Teaching kids how to care for special equines.
His girl, Trudy, called for him for days after he left.

Jake says good bye to his little buddy.
Getting in the trailer for the ride to his new life.

He’s getting lots of attention with his new family and has a cute young girlfriend. What more could a little horse ask for?

“For Heaven’s Sake!”

2009-07-10T00:10:00.000-07:00

Okay, this post has been rattling around in my head for awhile now and a recently received email from a farrier whose website I’ve basically ignored for a long time, sent to me.

All he sent was a comment from someone who commented on his site. Yes, I made the mistake of commenting on his site one time awhile back, then I forgot about him.

I had commented on a post showing pictures of what appeared to me as a butchered hoof. I could not help myself. I asked why he would do that to a hoof. His reason was that he'd had many years of experience. So I guess that made it okay.

Yes, because he made no sense at all in his email conversations with me, I posted the pictures on my blog warning horse owners to protect their horses from anyone who would do that to their horses hooves. But if they do, the horse most certainly would need some sort of protection. Shoes being the preferred choice of hoof protection by that horse shoer.

It easy to figure out that a hoof that has been gutted will be a lame hoof. Enter horse shoes!

So after many months after I forget this guy exists, here what I received. So bizarre!

A comment regarding "Coffin Bone Rotations", an entry at Farrieritis, was written at 7/2/2009 6:25:36 AM.
________________________________________
Comment:
Hello John, You were to nice to Pat. lol
She is the kind that knows it all for heaven sakes. People are the reason for horses bad feet most of the time and then some are as you said just founder and with rotation. My daughters horse is now getting the shoes you spoke of and it all began with a virus, then colic and now rotation, and this was no ones fought, just happens and good folks like you can most of the time fix it. We now have the Vet and Farrier working relentless to fix this horse and keep her out of pain, Thanks for your comments I think you are a hell of a good farrier or you would not have been able to explain the problem with the hoof you showed and with the x ray.
Marcia
________________________________________

Ironically, the commenter states that her - quote “…Vet and farrier are working relentless to fix this horse and keep it out of pain.”

I only have one question for Marcia. “How’s that workin’for ya?”

Okay, so why was this sent to me? Oh, yeah, I figure if he can convince enough people that he is right, then he will feel good about what he’s doing to the hooves of horses -- backed by his many years of experience, doing this to horses, of course.

I’ve said it a million times, but I’m going to say it again here.

Why do we shoe our horses? The main reason we shoe are horses is for our own convenience. Period!

What's wrong with that? Nothing. If your horse isn't suffering from the shoes.

Going natural isn’t as easy paying someone to nail shoes onto their horse’s feet. Going natural means owners have to take a more interactive roll in their horse’s hoof care. They must educate themselves about the most important part of their horse's anatomy that let's face it most horseowners know as much about as brain surgery.

In the past years, for more and more horse owners whose horses are barefoot, their horses are worth the time and trouble.

Still, I keep hearing people blame bare hooves for every ailment imaginable - no matter which end of the horse is afflicted. From a blind eye to runny poop. "Oh, that must be caused from your horse being barefoot." What?

Everyone knows horses survived for millions of years without our intervention of nailing shoes onto their feet, but now that we’re involved in their care, they can’t get along without horse shoes being nailed onto them. For Heaven's Sake!

That sarcastic remark right there should tell us something about what we are doing wrong to their feet to cause a need for something as extreme as nailing iron to the bottoms of their hooves.

Horseowners are figuring out that there is a better, healthier way. The problem is they are figuring it out faster than the equine medical educational institutions and the farrier schools.

What is wrong with shoes?

The shoe isn’t so bad if the application is done correctly (9 out of 10 times, shoes are not applied correctly) AND if the shoes could be removed at the end of every ride, which we know they can’t be, unless we are farriers as well as horse owners.

What else?

Shoes create constant pressure on the hoof and

CONSTANT PRESSURE KILLS LIVING TISSUE,

CONSTANT PRESSURE KILLS LIVING TISSUE,

and

CONSTANT PRESSURE KILLS LIVING TISSUE.

The hoof IS held together by live tissue – the sensitive laminae.

The shoe supports only the outer edge of the entire hoof (peripheral loading) causing the horse’s entire weight to be supported by that living tissue this is connecting the coffin bone to the wall- the sensitive and insensitive laminae.

My horses were once shod. I remember my mare pulling her foot away when the nails were being driven into her foot. That alone told me, shoes were not a good deal. But it was when she tore a good portion of her hoof off when she stepped on her shoe with her other foot, (see the June 09 issue of Equus for an example of why you should grab the lead rope and runaway with your horse if you hear your farrier bragging that his shoes don’t fall off) was when I knew I had to figure out a better way for her than shoes.

That was over 5 years ago and she’s not worn shoes since nor will she ever be shod again. Funny, she is NOT lame.

So let me ask you something. If you’ve got a horse whose coffin bone has rotated, (if that's even a true diagnosis and it's usually not) how can you, with any compassion for your horse at all, look that horse in the eyes and say, “I realize you’re in constant, excruciating pain, and you can’t get off for aching feet for long, but I’m going to pay someone to pound nails into your hooves now too. So that your aching feet can locked up with these nice pieces of iron, until you start getting better or until you die trying.” ?

I, on the other hand, would look that horse in the eyes and say, “How about we put these boots on your feet with these soft pads in the bottom, so you can comfortably move around until you either get better, or it's determined that your condition is chronic and we chose to end your suffering.”

Who do you think that horse will thank later - whether it be from its pasture or from its grave?

When it comes to hooves, I’m the first to admit I do not know it all. I sure don't know much about hooves compared to people like Dr. Robert Bowker or Pete Ramey (hoofrehab.com) and others like them, but when I hear and read comments like the one emailed to me, I’m convinced that I know a hell of a lot more about hooves than most horse-shoers; more than some horse owners (most horse owners know more than their shoers) and a large percentage of veterinarians.

Especially the veterinarians who feel compelled to taking their hoof knife and gouging out an abscess. Why do you people do that? Leave it alone! How many holes do you have to make before you figure out you’ll never get past it. It’s working its way up the hoof to soft tissue where it will rupture. Digging out the hoof until you get to blood only opens the hoof up to infection. Isn’t it enough that the horse is already dealing with the abscess? Is it better that we add a giant open crater to the problems it already has?

Okay, sorry, I'll save that one for another rant.

Here is another experts take on "coffin bone rotation"

http://www.nobenaho.com/CBR.htm

Andrea commented on this post: Here are the pictures she sent. One is of her shod gelding and one is of her barefoot mare. Most of you can guess which is which. Andrea, we are all so very sorry about your gelding. He is the reason you're doing things so much differently with your mare. Bravo to you!

Happy Independence Day

2009-07-04T17:22:00.000-07:00

Today is the 4th of July. I'm so fed up with the Snaps, Crackles and Pops...coming from next door.

It's understandable though. Our neighbors have 5 boys. Boys and fireworks go together like summer and swimming. They just gotta do it.

Their sixth and youngest child is a seven year old cutie who LOVES horses! She helps me whenever I have a bit of extra time to zip around our common fence to pick her up in the J.D. Gator, so she can come over to play with the horses.

She will stand at the fence waiting some times for nearly an hour. I feel terrible if I don't have time to go get her. But she gets that I can't always do that. I wish I were on kid-time, that would be great, but I'm on horse time.

Here she is standing next to Spencer. He sure has mellowed since he's been here. I would have never let her get this close to him a year ago, especially while he was eating. He's a pretty good boy now.

It's hot today. I went out to feed the horses and Forrest came up to me and started rubbing on me. At first I thought it was flies bothering him. But he was insistent. Something just didn't seem right.

So I asked him to follow me back to the barn and I sent him into the stall and gave him his hay there, with a special grain treat.

Then we got busy across the street. Rich was on the tractor mowing the field that we use when our pasture needs a rest. I came back over in the Gator to find Forrest down in the stall. He got up and came out as soon as I slid the stall door open. I grabbed a halter, but as I tried to put it on his head, he turned away to bite as his stomach.

Panic time! Why is it the faster you try to do something - the longer it takes? The rope halter got all tangled up and Forrest took off towards a pile of dirt near the back hoe. He dropped down and laid there for a moment, then rolled. I went for his head with the halter again.

He got up took off toward a grassy patch and dropped again, then walked off before I could get to him. He headed back toward the barn. I got the halter on him finally and we started walking. I noticed that he had pooped several times in the stall.

I took him out to the play field and we walked around the pond. I needed Rich to come help me walk him so I could get something for Forrest's pain. I looked across the road at Rich on the noisy old tractor.

I couldn't believe what I happened to see, just beyond Rich on the lumbering tractor. A big black bear running across the field into the trees. Holy Cow or Bear rather!

That distracted me from Forrest who just dropped on the ground. This time in the soft grass of the field. I flapped my arms and yelled at him to get up! He did and then he pooped a couple times and stretched out and took a pee. Weird.

Then, he went down again, now I had to call Rich to help me. He came and we got our big boy up again and Rich walked him while I went to get something for the pain.

After we got the pain meds on board I asked Rich if he saw the bear. Nope. Since he didn't see it, I told him it was really huge.

Seriously...it was big. I assumed it was the fireworks that scared it out into the open in the middle of the day. I hate fireworks, I really do.

We took Forrest over to the hose and let cold water run all over him. He seemed to enjoy that. We kept it up for about 20 minutes. Allowing him to stand in the water was not only cooling his feet, (colic can lead to laminitis - keeping the feet cool is critical) the water was softening them as well.

I thought, "Good, when he starts feeling better, I can trim those softened hooves. We tried to get him to take a drink out of a nearby water trough. Nothing doing.

We went back to walking and cold showers. He stopped trying to go down and roll. So I let him stand in the shade, all damp and cool now, under the big willow tree.

While he stood, feeling better I think, I went for my tools.

As he stood gazing off at the neighbor's house, I pulled up beside him in the Gator. What a comfortable place to work.

Forrest, who is normally impatient with me and gets me upset when I trim, stood quietly in the shade of the willow and listened to the kids next door, squealing and having fun playing games out in their yard.

At that moment, I was evaluating Forrest’s hooves, listening to the pops and bangs all around us now, and loving life.

A song rattled around in my old head - "let freedom ring...let the white dove sing...something something...Independence Daaaay.

It's very cool how it doesn't cost me anything to keep my horses hooves trimmed and healthy. And I sure love the gratification of turning neglected hooves into sound hooves and making horses and their owners happy. I enjoy teaching people about what I do. But most of all I appreciate the independence of working for myself and answering to no one except me, my customers, and their horses. And sometimes, my husband:0)

As corny as it sounds, this truely feels like Independence Day to me.

After I got done trimming Forrest, I offered him water again. He wasn't interested. He peed though for the 2nd time. What can that mean? Should I be worried? They are like kids to us, aren't they?

I let him hang out in the field for a while longer, until he moseyed on back to the loafing shed to visit with his buddy Spencer.

They are cute together.

Since he seemed to be back to his old self, I sent him out the gate to the pasture and he took a big, reassuring for me, drink of water.

Later I saw him standing out with the other horses, gleaming in the sun from the cold bath he’d gotten earlier. What a sweet horse he is. I would hate for anything to happen to him anytime soon.

It’s starting to get dark and the fireworks are going off in earnest. Hopefully all the horses will stand around enjoying them as they have in years past only jumping when the big ones go off.

For me, I'll probably have trouble getting to sleep, worrying...about the horses, the dogs, the cat, the neighborhood kids...and that poor bear.

Happy Fourth of July!

Pat

PS: I'll be posting pictures of our last trimming clinic soon.

Barefooters Bash 2009

2009-06-16T06:41:00.001-07:00

It all started with a phone call from Lori Holliday and a suggestion, “We should try to get a bunch of local trimmers together for a day.

Okay! Let’s set a date. How about June 14 at 1pm?

Perfect!

Some time goes by and we decide it might be a good idea to give as many trimmers as we know of a heads up. So we gathered as many email addresses as we could and sent emails. Later I created a flyer and it was sent out to everyone we knew of (two times – the second time with the actual correct date) and was forwarded on to other trimmers.

A dozen bare-footers showed up! At first, we are pretty much all about meeting each other and...well, the food.

And the dogs were wishing they were invited to the party. Because they too were pretty much all about the food.

Scrunchie - eyeballing someone's plate.

Mae is trying to look as irresistible as she possibly can,

and Lucy, Murphy and Shiela were waiting for someone to open the gate and yell, "WHO LET THE DOGS OUT? WHO...WHO!?"

Dan Becker's mare, Cru, wonders why all these predators are staring at her.
But we'd already had lunch, so instead of the main course, she was our model for Lori's power trim demo!

How cool is THAT!

Next, Boomer gets his hooves trimmed up! Oops! A quick peek under the tail and we discover that Annie is actually the demo donkey!

Here comes the parade of equines (residents of the Rainier Equine Hoof Recovery Center) and the Co-Grand Marshals are Boomer and Annie! You have to admit, they look a lot alike.

Spencer and Minnie the Mule

Danny, Neenah, Buck, Spencer, Forrest

Hank, Pearl, Peaches and Missy and Buster Brown

Hank, Buck, Danny and Missy

The horses all get bored with our hoof yakking and leave us one by one.

Jenn Smith arrives with her beautiful son, and her gorgeous barefoot reining horse, Cedar.

Cedar gets a trim!

This is how ya do it!

Jenn's little guy finds something to play with. "Hey look! What can I do with this?"

A Bucket Buddy!

Sophie the barn cat was waiting to be entertained. Looks like she's thinking, "That's pretty good kid, but is that all ya got?"

Here is the guy who made it all possible. My hubmiester, Rich. He worked hard spiffing the place up. Thanks Hon!

I have a bunch of other pictures to post about our day together. Lots of discussion and basically getting to know each other. But time has gotten away from me, so I'm going to post what I have uploaded now and will add to this post later.

Suffice it to say, we had a great time! And plan to get togeher again next year. So if you missed this year's 1st Annual Barefooters Bash, come see us next year on June 19th! It will be bigger and better! Ah, dessert was the BEST! Thanks! Lori!

Barefooters
Advocate
Sound
Hooves

How To Tie a Rope Halter

2009-06-06T19:31:00.001-07:00

This has nothing to do with hooves, but I was outside today, dinking around with Peaches and as I was tying her rope halter, I thought of all the times I see people incorrectly tying their halters. So since I had my camera in my pocket, I decided to take pictures of how I tie a rope halter, just for fun!

On my visits to trim horses, I've noticed that many horse owners are switching over to rope halters, which is great! But the halter has to be tied correctly because an incorrectly tied halter can cause big problems in a pull-back situation.

If a horse that is wearing an incorrectly tied rope halter, should step on its lead rope and pull back hard, or go into panic mode and pull back, the knot you just tied will tighten and about the only way get the halter off will be to cut it off.

If a rope halter is tied correctly, it should never tighten to the point that you can't untie it.

So here is how I teach people to tie a rope halter:

First, I refer to the loop on the side of the halter as the "post" and the piece that comes over the top of the horse's head, as the "wire." If you were to tie a horse to a fence, you would tie his rope to the post, not the wire. Right!

This is a correctly tied halter. The rope is tied to the post, not the wire above it.

First, bring the wire down behind the post and bring it through the loop then pull the wire toward the horse's eye. (At this point, you can use your other hand to adjust the rest of the halter so that it is fitted under the chin and not hanging down the horse's nose. You can see I was concentrating on the knot here and didn't adjust the halter very well.)

Bring the tail of the wire back (in front of the post) toward the tail of the horse, leaving a loop in the wire on the head side of the post. Then run the wire behind the post and back out through "your" loop on the the head side and leaving another loop on the tail side of the. (That's all in this one picture.)

Next, I've grabbed the tail of the wire and brought it back through my loop that I made on the tail side of the post. And pull tight.

The end of the wire should end up pointing in the direction of the horse's tail. If not, you made a mistake. If your knot is above the post up on the wire, start over.

After a bit of practice, you can tie a rope faster than buckling a nylon halter.

If anyone would like more (better) pictures of this, let me know. I'll take and upload a few more.

Some rope halters are better than others though. The stiff ones, just don't have a real good feel in my opinion and I don't like more than 2 knots on the nose. Their are only 2 main pressure points on the nose and the extra knots serve no purpose really than to rub the hair off the horse's nose.

Of course my preference is the more flexible, lighter weight, Parelli halther and lead ropes. And speaking of lead ropes. there should be a snap between your halter and your lead rope. It's an extremely dangerous situation for your horse if you have the lead rope tied directly to the rope halter. If you're okay with the possiility of your horse breaking its neck, forget about the snap.

Our lovely model is 6 year old Santana Peaches. Peaches was originally rescued from a feed lot in Eastern Washingon as a weanling, along with a bunch of other weanling similar in color to her. A large group of babies going to their death because a breeder, possibly PMU breeder, had no use for them. Thankfully this group was saved, but I can't imagine how many others don't make it.

She was brought to Rainier by a neighbor who wasn't able to keep her so she came here as basically an unhandled yearling. Peaches is wonderful mare!

Barefoot Cutting Horses! An Interview with Wylie Gustafson

2009-06-04T10:10:00.000-07:00

I just had to share the article with you all! This was sent to me by my friend Carolyn Kiesz. She and her husband, Rick, interviewed Wylie Gustafson for the publication, "2 1/2 Minutes - Celebrating the Cutting Horse in the Northwest"

This is an interview with Wylie and Carolyn tells me that at that time (July 2008) Wylie and his horse Irish Whiskey Sugar had won $80,000 and by now he's won much more. Enjoy!

Wylie Gustafson on Irish Whiskey Sugar

A Non-Pro’s Opinion
FROM MY VANTAGE POINT
~ Wylie’s World ~

2-1/2 MINUTES caught up with this month’s featured Non-Pro, Wylie Gustafson, and sat
down for a spell between herds at a Cascade Cow Cutters show in Ellensburg,
Washington. We peppered him with questions and below are his responses, which he
fired back, straight from the hip, without hesitation. Wylie’s achievements in music
and in the cutting pen are well known. In this interview we took a different approach.

Can you give us a little background on Irish Whiskey Sugar (Whiskey)?
In 1999, I went to the John Scott sale in Billings, Montana, just hangin’ out with some friends. They were all going to buy some John Scott-bred horses and I didn’t go to buy a horse, and I was the only one who ended up buying this horse.

I had some friends, Dale and Karla Camp, who were the ranch managers and they were helping with the sale and ridin’ the horses; so I went up to Dale and asked him, “What’s the best horse, 4-year-old, you’re ridin’ right now?” He said “The horse I’m on!” I asked, “Who’s the dam?” He said, “number so-and-so.” I went and
looked at the dam and looked at all her colts and I saw that they had a yearling, so I bought Whiskey as a yearling. Then I got him going as a long yearling and two-year-old.

In the spring or summer of his two-year-old year, we sent him up to Billy Speight in Canada. Bill had him for about a year, or maybe a little more. Then he came home and John Paul had him for six months.

So you’ve kept him going since then? From what you’ve told us, he’s not that hard to get show-ready. Anything in particular that you do before a show?
Yeah. I try to give him different things to do. We do big outdoor rides and climb hills ~ just odds and ends types of jobs and I try to mix it up all the time. I have a regimen where I measure his heart rate and make sure he’s in shape and his wind is good. We do a little program where he doesn’t have to look at cattle, doesn’t have to look at a string, doesn’t have to look at a buffalo. We do sprints and climb hills and things like that; and then every once in awhile I work him on the
string and work him on buffalo and very rarely on cattle.

So when you’re at a show, you don’t necessarily take him in the practice pen?
No. He’s the type of horse where I find that he just doesn’t need to see a lot of cattle. He’s such a great horse that way. Such a great-minded horse and I can almost tune him during a “go.”

If I feel like he's not getting through that cow enough, I can kick him hard and he just buckles down instead of losin’ his air . . . he just starts to really buckle down. So, I can tune him a little bit during a run.

Would he be like what you’d call a “once in a lifetime” kind of horse?
Absolutely! You know, I used to think that maybe it was me being a good rider, but then I started riding young horses and found out that I was a crappy rider and that it was purely a good horse that was taking care of me. It didn’t take me to ride too many other horses to figure out that “no, I’m really not that good”!

Is Whiskey still barefoot?
Yes,Whiskey has won close to $80,000 barefoot. You know, I don’t think that every horse should be barefoot, but in some situations, and especially cutting, it can be done and I think my horse has an advantage being barefoot in a lot of pens. He’s learned how to deal with it and I think that in the next ten years we will see more
disciplines, not only cutting, going barefoot; with the exception of reining
because they need the plates. (Pat: Boots with plates are in the developmental stages.)

Are most of your horses barefoot?
Yes, I’d say 90% of our horses are barefoot. Every once in awhile we’re doing some correctional shoeing or we get a horse that’s had shoes all his life and it takes us about two years to get him going barefoot.

In cutting, what do you think is the advantage of being barefoot?
I think he feels the ground better and handles the ground better. If it’s too hard or slick, he can do it better barefoot. That’s my theory. You know, you have to question everything ~ and that’s why we went barefoot. We asked ourselves, “Do they have to have iron on their feet all the time?” We’ve seen a hoof grow one size by taking them out of shoes. Their hooves can actually grow one size! I have seen with
my own eyes how much healthier and more sound they can be. The soundness of our horses is so much better since we’ve gone barefoot.

When did you start cutting?
In 2002. I was a team roper for several years, then I drove my wife Kimberley around to her cutting clinics and I’d turn back. So, I saw a lot of cutting starting in 1998 when I was Kim’s chauffeur, and that helped me.

How long did it take you to get out of the Amateur into the Non-Pro . . . to get your first $50,000?
Actually, they kicked me out of the Amateur in 2006, but let me back in in 2007 because they changed the rules. It had to be cumulative; so they let me back in that year and now I am out of the 50 Am weekend show, but still think I can show Amateur in the aged event because I haven’t won $100,000 total . . . and that’s all due
to Whiskey. I don’t credit anything other than having a horse that takes care of me, time and time again, on a consistent basis.

For the beginner, what do you think are the most important things? Buying the right horse?
Practice time?
Getting the right help?
Learning how to read cattle?
It’s a combination. I think it’s finding the right trainer, team members and environment where you can enjoy it; where you can work at it and build confidence. It’s just like building confidence in colts. I think young or new riders have to have that same confidence built into them. It’s really finding the right trainer who they can communicate with, so they can get the idea of cutting. Then going to as many
clinics, watching as much cutting and videos as they can. We do everything.
We work really hard at it. Cutting is the type of thing where you get out of
it as much as you put into it. If you put lots of time into it, chances are
your success rate will be a little better.
Finding a good horse; if you don’t have a lot of time for the practice pen, then find a horse that will take care of you. There are all these things and there’s no “one magic formula.” You know, I bought a four-year-old horse my first year cutting ~ that doesn’t usually work out, but I worked really hard at it and had good trainers. John Paul was a real blessing to be with for the four-year-old year. Different things work for different people.

By Rick & Carolyn Kiesz - written for their publication "2-1/2 Minutes". There is more to this article regarding cutting...

Lee the Horselogger!

2009-05-23T21:19:00.000-07:00

Hey, check this guy out!

His draft horses are pulling his homemade wagon across the country...barefoot! Awesome!

http://leehorselogger.com/

Pat

Are Horseshoes Good Enough?

2009-05-21T12:50:00.000-07:00

Well, we got back early (3am) Monday morning from the Parelli conference in Reno.

We had a great time! Learned lots! The 3-day conferences are so different from the weekend-long tour stops. There is way more showing-how, than just showing-off. Of course, the tour stops were free, and tickets are purchased for the Conferences, so that makes sense.

The Reno Livestock and Events Center is HUGE!

Students came in to audition for Pat and the other Professionals who were there to learn to assess the Patterns auditions. We learned a lot from their experiences.

The Parellis have partnered with the Humane Society of the United States, Equine Division. Rather than working with a horse owned by a local horseperson, they brought in a rescue horse and Pat worked with it, all three days, showing some real breakthroughs for the horse. It was awesome.

So since the Rainier Equine Hoof Recovery Center is also a non-profit entity created to rescue and help horses with hoof ailments, we too have partnered with the HSUS, Equine Coalition! We’re excited about that!

Linda came out 2 times. Once to compare the horsenalities of Remmer and Allure, and once to take a dressage riding lesson from Walter Z.

Her horses seemed to be moving pretty well at liberty. Remmer looked good. I couldn’t get a close shot of his feet, but I could see that his hooves are still run forward and his heels are still jacked-up with pads, and his toes are squared off. That’s pretty typical of how run-forward hooves are corrected with shoes. As far as I know, their genius farrier isn’t doing anything with the shoes that is new.

I had all sorts of things I would was going to say about the Parellis and their choice in hoof care, but then I asked myself what the point would be of doing that. People know what they know and do what they do and that's just how it is.

Then I realized, Pat Parelli himself, kept saying everything for me! All I had to do was replace the word "horsemanship" with "hoofcare!"

He said, he’d rather not invite people into his program who were not ready for the journey that natural horsemanship is. Those people are looking for a quick fix.

It’s interesting to me that the Parellis are happy with the work being done on their horse’s hooves. Linda mentioned that whenever a new hoof related issue crops up with one of her horses, their “genius farrier” simply adds a shim here or there and Presto! The horse is fixed!

Neat!

Funny, how Pat says the definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over and expecting different results. They must not wonder why so many of their horses need corrective shoes and have issues that constantly need fixing.

The highlight of the weekend for me was when a long stock trailer backed into the arena. The doors opened and 13 Atwood Ranch weanlings piled out of the trailer and behind them came Kallie the Cowgirl riding her gelding!

She was playing with them in the arena with a flag. That reminded me of a post I had recently read on the FUGLY blog. The opinion was that flags were a stupid training device for horses.

But I watched as this master horsewoman sat on her gelding, gently flagging these babies using approach and retreat, and passive persistence, patiently loaded all 13 weaners back into the trailer. How many people have trouble loading one horse into a trailer?

My opinion of flags? It's never the tool that's at issue, it's always the tool-handler.

It was breathtaking to watch her technical care and patience as she did this. She got a deserved standing ovation. I wish I had a picture to show you, or a video, but I need a new camera.

At one point during the celebration, I was walking out to our car and I was stopped cold as I passed the corral that the Atwood Ranch weanlings were hanging out in. Kallie’s gelding was in the corral with them and he was lying down flat-out on his side and I could see that he was wearing shoes. The site of what had been done to his feet nearly caused me lose my lunch. (Which might not have been a bad thing.)

His heels were severely contracted on his fronts and he had eggbar shoes on the hinds and pads on all four feet. Wow, I thought, eggbars on the hinds! Are you kidding me! How, I wondered, could her horse need so much correction on the hinds that they would apply eggbars? Incredible.
I simply cannot understand why the motive of some farrier work is to completely eradicate any feeling the hoof has of the ground. Horses hooves were meant to feel the ground. For the best performance possible, hooves need to feel the ground.

People look at me funny when I tell them that. "Hooves can “feel?”

Yes, they can feel just as nature intended. If not, why does a tenderfooted horse flinch going over rocks? The object of natural hoof care is to help transition the hoof so it can negotiate and feel rough terrain without feeling pain. Just like I once could do as a kid when I rarely wore shoes outside.

Pat has a lot of sayings that he uses over and over. I used to wonder why he said the same things over and over again, at every event. Now I know. So we will commit them to our memory just as he has. It has worked for me. And I like being reminded of the sayings I sometimes forget.

Idle hooves are the devils workshop. Wow, is that ever true. Lack of movement is the biggest culprit for destroying hooves.

Pressure motivates and release teaches. I know that pressure and release creates healthy circulation and constant pressure kills living tissue.

Confidence, Acceptance, Understanding gets results. Yes!

It’s a matter of trust. Yes, it is. Owners who have doubts about me and my experience, make me very uncomfortable to work for. I’d rather they call someone else.

Flat halters are NOT part of their program. Yet, ridiculous corrective horseshoes are.

Pat also said that “Today we are judged on things that are superficial and artificial.” What are horseshoes?

At any rate, I could go on and on and many of you, I know, don’t agree with me. But that’s okay.

People come to natural hoof care when they are ready for the journey and tired of seeing the short-term quick fixes cause long-term damage.

There is nothing anyone can say or do to grab horseowners and drag them into natural horsemanship, which Pat describes as simply learning to communicate with the horse in their language.

The same is true for Natural Hoof Trims. We don’t try to force the hoof into an artificial or superficial situation that just keeps the horse from limping. Natural hooves are allowed to function properly. Natural trims are healing trims, not fixing trims and natural hoofcare is a journey that I’d rather not invite people into if they aren’t ready.

So, the answer is yes, if all you want is for your horses not to limp, than horseshoes are good enough.

PS: The next thing on my wish list is a real camera!:0)

Updates on Fancy Hoof Injury

2009-05-18T09:24:00.000-07:00

Fancy has her own blog now. For all future updates on Fancy recuperation, please see her blog, Fancy's New Foot

Horses in Need of Intervention

2009-04-28T13:00:00.000-07:00

I take agility lessons with my dog and trade caring for the instructors animals when she goes out of town for the lessons. Her horses are in DESPERATE need of a trim. It's at the point of neglect. The horses belonged to her husband who recently died, so I have a feeling she's not intentionally neglecting them, but that it's just too painful a reminder to get them a lot of TLC. I suspect she simply feeds them and doesn't do anything other than that. The feet are TERRIBLE. I mean bad bad bad. One of the girl's feet are so long that they are cracking up and chipping on the edges. When she walk she trips on her toes. The other isn't so bad, and I think it's because her hair seems to not grow as fast or as long as the one who has the chips and cracks, and so her hoofs just don't grow as fast (my poodles hair/nails grow much faster than my mothers- so that's just a guess, I am NOT a horse expert- I don't even have one!). I can't keep sitting by praying she'll call somebody out. It's to the point where I have to say something, even if that means offending her and losing my agility lessons. So my question for you as the hoof expert and someone who deals with these situations is, how should I approach this? I have class with her on Wednesday and plan to talk to her then. So what's the best way to tell her that it can't wait any longer without being rude? I am embarrassed I haven't said something sooner but it's a tough situation. I am really bad about confronting people anyway, and this is more personal than just some random person who isn't taking care of their horses- this is someone I know loves her animals and wouldn't intentionally hurt them. Sorry this got so long! But thank you so much in advance. I love your blog and get excited when I see a new one on my reader! Thanks again!

Kosicle
I'm really sorry for the horses you mentioned and for you for finding yourself in this position. But really, you are likely the only one who can help these horses, so I'm putting the pressure on you to do something. Sorry:0)

Because this isn't an unusual situation, this is a really good question. I thought I would post my response here to insure that you get it.

I’m sure you’re correct that this likely isn’t intentional neglect. I’ve come upon this exact situation myself a couple times. The owner of the horse dies, and the spouse, who knows nothing about them, becomes the caretaker. It’s too difficult to sell the horses, so they end up being neglected.

Since those were your friend’s husband’s horses, she is likely purely ignorant to the fact that horse’s need pedicures occasionally, just like dogs and people do.

If I were in your shoes, I would simply ask, in a sincere way, if she has noticed her horse’s hooves lately. That will give you an idea of what exactly is going on with them.

If she says she hasn’t, then you could ask her if she is aware that horses need regular hoofcare, (not necessarily shoes – but trims) or their hooves will deteriorate to the point where it becomes very painful for the horses to move around, and it can get bad enough, in some cases, that the horses may need to be put down.

If she responds that she is aware of the condition of their hooves, but hasn’t had time (or finances) to get them on the schedule of a hoofcare professional, then you could again let her know that this could be a very painful condition from which it will be difficult for the horses to recuperate.

Maybe you could offer to help her out by calling someone who can help with their feet, and schedule a trim and let her know how much it will cost. Would you be willing to do that? I can provide you names of people to contact in your area.

I don’t think asking her questions in this way and offering to help make a few phone calls would become confrontational at all. She just may not be aware. It’s easy to toss hay to horses without even glancing down at their feet. It happens more often than we’d like to think.

But if you, as a non-horse person, are noticing the condition of the hooves of these horses, then I agree, they must be in dire straits.

Maybe, she would like to get the horses into new homes so she no longer has to worry about them. Again, you could help with that by listing them on craigs list for her. Not as free horses, but as inexpensive horses. Owners of free horses that are listed on craigslist.org run the risk of the horses being sent to slaughter by fraudulent adopters who portray themselves as someone looking for a horse to provide a good home to.

I hope this helps. Please keep me posted on what happens with these horses. My email address is patslark@fairpoint.net

All my best.
Pat

Flare Part 2

2009-04-25T13:44:00.001-07:00

Since a few of you commented that hoof in the last post with the splits. I thought I would follow up so you could see what natural trims can do in cases like that. This horse's coffin bone was on the ground. There was no sole protection for it as his soles were stretched paper-thin.
Here are a couple after shots. These were taken after a few trims, but his original problems developed mainly because he was a thoroughbred, and the knew of his opposite leg was blown out. So he put all his weight on this foot. The other foot really didn't look so bad, because he wasn't putting much weight on it. Of course, this hoof never should have gotten to this point so yes, he had gone out way too long between trims, but it was a cool case study.

Often horses that find them in his situation are put down, when they can be fixed.
But I didn't continue with him until we had him all the way back as the owner couldn't afford to keep him on as tight of a trim schedule as it would have taken to get that foot solid again, so I was always chasing those splits.

So this wasn't just a hoof problem. I see so many OTTB's (off-track thoroughbred) with the exact knee condition. Also many Quarter horses who were used hard when they were too young. So we can only do so much at the hoof to support a warped joint.

Just thought I would share that! Thanks for following!
Pat

Question Regarding Hoofwall Flare

2009-04-23T21:27:00.000-07:00

Hi Pat, I have a question for you. I have a post about my horse’s feet and I talked a little about how her foot is flared out a bit. Pony Girl wanted me to explain more what flare is. I am not a farrier so I thought I would ask you, a barefoot specialist about it. Can you help us out? I don’t feel qualified to give her an intelligent answer. LOL

Thank you. (Blushing) I'm not so sure about how intelligently I can respond, but here goes.

My personal short answer: Flare is when the healthy (well-connected) angle of the hoof wall diverges due to stress - on the laminae – which creates stretching and separation of wall from the interior part of the hoof capsule.

So now for my long answer!

First, let’s look a healthy hoof. We see an angle that is the same from the coronet band to the ground. What we can say about that hoof is it has healthy well-connected wall from top to bottom. In other words, healthy tight laminae from the coronet band to the ground.(Boy, I had a tough time finding a picture of a healthy hoof on my computer. I only take pictures before they're fixed! This is Khessie's (an Arab) hoof after her first natural trim. Not perfect, but not bad.)

Next, if we look at a hoof that isn’t as healthy, we may see that the angle diverges at some point between the coronet band and the ground. That point on the wall where the angles changes is commonly referred to as DTA, divergent toe angle.

On some hooves you may see several different DTA's. This hoof isn't a great example for defining DTA as it's got so many other things going on, but you can see a definite DTA just above where the splitting stops.

I like the way Pete Ramey explains flare. If you take your hand and wrap it around the hoof just below the DTA, what you’ll see above your hand is wall that is connected to the coffin bone by healthy, tight, laminae. Remove your hand and you see is flare. Make sense?

It doesn’t matter if the degree of the divergence, or flare, is extreme or slight either. It’s all wall flare.

What does it mean when we see flare? It means that the laminae below the DTA is stretched and in some cases, stretched to the point of separation. When the laminae separates, that’s when we start seeing abscesses and white line disease.

What causes flare?
Usually incorrect or overly cautious trimming, shoeing or neglect (not trimming often enough.)

Remember from the last post that the laminae is the connective tissue that is the attachment between the coffin bone and the hoofwall. There are two layers. Think of it as Velco. The sensitive (dermal) layer is the coffin bone side, and the insensitive (epidermal) is the hoofwall side. It’s referred to as sensitive and insensitive because the sensitive laminae is alive and has a complex vascular (veins with blood flowing through it) system. And the insensitive layer does not have blood flow. That’s easy to consider. Right?

Well, let’s take it a step farther. The coffin bone doesn’t go all the way to the ground, does it? No. But the connective tissue that attaches the bone to wall does.

Still with me?

So between the base of the coffin bone and the ground, what’s the laminae doing? It’s essentially connecting the sole to the wall. That area where the laminae is connecting sole material to the wall is called the white line.

The “white line” is the yelowish colored "line or ring" that you see on the bottom of the hoof between the wall and the sole. Right?

If a hoof is neglected for months, even years in some cases, the wall gets very long. The wall at the ground, supporting the horse’s weight starts to grow “out” away from the coffin bone, rather than continuing to grow “down.” That’s flare.

As time passes and the wall continues to grow, it will continue to grow out and as it does it stretches the white line, (it also stretches the sole which can become very thin causing the horse to be very tenderfooted.)

The connective tissue (laminae) between bone and wall, now begins to stretch as well. In some neglect cases, where that situation lasts for an extended time, it’s not uncommon to see hooves that are flared all the way up to the coronet band. So there is no DTA on that hoof because there is NO healthy connection to the bone. It's all flare. Crazy, huh?

In many cases if flare is severe, the wall circumference can no longer sustain the horses weight and it will begin to split - sometimes splitting all the way to the coronet band.

Can that situation be repaired with trims? Yes, in most cases, it can. The key is to start getting frequent and correct trims going on that horse.

The other important components of a healthy hoof must be considered as well, diet, movement and environment. But the trim schedule must become often and consistent.

When repairing a hoof in this condition, you can’t expect to see results by trimming every 5 or 6 weeks. I personally would recommend starting with a 2 week trim schedule and working out to 5 weeks as the hoof is being repaired. I try not to let my own horses' go out past 5 weeks between trims. That schedule, in itself, alleviates hoof issues such as abscesses, white line disease, thrush, and more.

From time to time, one of my customers will say to me, “My horses’ feet are doing great! So I’d like to start extending their trim schedule out a bit longer.

To that I say, “No problem, but after a while you won’t be telling me how great your horses feet are doing.”

If a customer really wants to stretch their trimming schedule out for 7 or 8 weeks, or more, (and granted sometimes that just happens and it can’t be helped) but if that should become the norm, I will eventually refer that owner to someone else. I, personally, don’t want my name on the hooves of those horses.

Also, in that situation, I’m not performing maintenance trims. Every trim is a corrective trim, and corrective trims are more difficult and take longer to accomplish. Not only is my job continually more difficult, but the horses will never be able to prove how well their hooves could perform because their transition to healthy feet never actually occurs.

Every hoof I maintain is a reflection on my work as a natural hoofcare practitioner. I don’t want my name attached flared, split, hooves of tender-footed horses when it’s the length of time between trims that is likely causing those issues.

How’d I do with that answer?

This hoof looks pretty nice don't you think? It was just trimmed by a farrier. Pasture trim. But the hoofwall doesn't have a healthy connection from the coronet. It's all flare. The tri m isn't bad at all, but I would have gotten much more assertive with the trim so as to begin correcting the problem rather than allowing the hoof to maintain the disconnected growth.

Q&A Degenerative Tendonitis and Laminitis

2009-04-23T10:00:00.000-07:00

Question: chronic degenerative tendonitis and laminitis. Are they genetic? What causes them? My horses sire was put down because of these.

This is a question from Denali that was posted in the comments section of the previous post, so I thought I would try to address it here.

Interesting question!

So we are referring to two separate issues. First: Chronic degenerative tendonitis

I did a quick internet search for “degenerative tendonitis” and found that in humans, degenerative tendonitis is a gradual degeneration or deterioration of the Achilles tendon. A condition sometimes referred to as tendinosis or tendinopathy. The Achilles tendon like all the other tendons of the human body relies on a steady blood flow to stay healthy. If you suffer many tears in the Achilles tendon over time these tears will prevent proper healing and the tendon won’t repair, as it should. If the tendon does not repair properly than the blood supply will not be as it should and the tendon will slowly deteriorate. This causes a weakening and thickening of the tendon, which will prevent normal movement and can lead to pain and an inability to move and to perform normal tasks. Degenerative tendonitis in many ways is just like any other tendonitis with the difference that it occurs over a long time and that it gets progressively worse.

Degenerative tendonitis is treated pretty much like other tendonitis in that you are treating the pain and use physical therapy, stretching exercises, a brace or boot and immobilization of the leg for rest in order to minimize the damage and to help rest and then allow for a return to use as much as possible. The difference is that it is understood that the body part will not be returning to normal function, as this is a degenerative form of tendonitis.

Interesting huh! If the tendon is torn over and over, it doesn’t heal well after a while and builds up what I would think of as scar tissue that can inhibit how a tendon moves over the bone beneath. Just a wild guess!

So is it hereditary? Wow, I don’t know. But I’d be inclined to say no. It would depend in my opinion on how athletic a person is.

As for a horse, they are natural athletes, but we humans tend to destroy their body parts by overworking them when they are very young and their bodies are still developing and/or sending them into hard work before they’re muscles and connective parts (tendons and ligaments) have had a chance to “warm up’ – get the blood circulating.

Although, in the wild, horses can go from sleeping to super fast in a split second anytime a predator steps out of the bushes. But then those bursts of energy are typically short sprints, then rest. They don’t run and run for hours at a time. They zip across a meadow and look back to see if the danger is still too close for comfort. For any wild animal conserving energy means survival.

As all horse owners should know, the laminae connects the coffin bone to the interior of the hoofwall. When the dermal layer (coffin bone side) of that connective tissue becomes inflamed, the condition is referred to as laminitis.

A sudden onset of extreme inflammation of the dermal laminae is referred to as “acute laminitis.” When the laminae is damaged by inflammation, the sensitive or dermal layer of laminae gives up and the connection between the coffin bone to the interior hoof wall fails. That condition becomes long term, “chronic” and by then is generally referred to as “founder.”

So laminitis can be chronic, absolutely, and due to chronic founder, there is typically degeneration to the coffin bone, but not always. However, the dermal laminae is either alive and well with a healthy blood flow, acutely inflamed and failing, or dead as a doorknob.

I can only assume that the level of pain the horse was suffering with and how well his pain could be controlled would determine the decision to terminate his life. And how much effort and expense the owner was willing to extend to save him. Everyone has their own set of values when it comes to decisions like that.

There are so many things that can go wrong with our horses, I don’t think I would worry about these two conditions afflicting your mare just because the sire was diagnosed with them.

How’s that for an optimistic view?!:0)

My Thoughts on Alfalfa

2009-04-22T10:19:00.001-07:00

I just wanted to take a minute to talk about alfalfa. Alfalfa has probably been one of the most controversial, misunderstood forages for horses.

For years, like most of you, I fed alfalfa to my horses. But then, I’m going to say about 5 to 7 years ago, I started hearing all the rumors about how terrible alfalfa is for our horses. I didn’t look at my horses and think, “Hmm, but they seem to be doing well with it as part of their diet."

Nope! I listened to the rumors and took it completely out of their diet. Replaced with grass hay and watched as my horses’ energy, weight, coat and hooves began to lose…something. That healthy appearance, or snappy glow, just wasn’t there after awhile.

So, I went through a period when I recommended "No alfalfa" for any reason to any equine, ever! That was in my American Association of Natural Hoof Care Practitioners (AANHCP) and Zen Master, (note sarcasm) Jaime Jackson, days.

I've since learned that with nutrition, for horses especially, there is no cut and dried (PUN!), right or wrong, black or white, all or nothing way to feed. There are all sorts of shades of green and brown.

Many nutritionists recommend testing our hay. True, it’s really the only way to know how we should supplement the hay we feed, but…

…testing hay for me is difficult. I, like many of you have precious little storage space for hay. So we purchase about one ton of hay at a time, feed it out, and go purchase the next ton. I have several hay sources that I purchase from and I feed a variety of hays because equine bodies were meant for a variety of forages. Not just one type all the time.

Sometimes I get lucky and the hay I get is beautiful and the horses love it! And sometimes it's dusty, dirty, and not that nice, but the horses eat it if they get hungry enough.

The thing is, I had fed alfalfa, either exclusively or with other hays, over the years, but when I really got into “natural” horse and hoof care, I learned that alfalfa is not natural to the horse’s diet and that it is intended mainly to put weight on beef cattle and that was all it was good for. True, it’s great for fattening cattle…and horses!

So after hearing the rumors and banning the green stuff from my barn, I discovered Katy Watts! A scientist! Katy has done studies in her own back yard in her own lab on hays. You can purchase her DVD’s from her website safergrass.org and learn all about it yourself.

One of the main things I took away from Katy's research was that alfalfa is one of the only hays that has NO SUGARS. That may not be what she intended me to take away exclusively, but I did. Not only that, but alfalfa is loaded with calcium and protein and packs a real nutritional bang for my horse-feeding buck.

(Note: that picture has been altered:0)
I believe that over the past number of years, we horse owners got so caught up in limiting proteins and fat (needed for energy) from our horses’ diets that we totally spaced over on how bad sugars are for them. Note: I personally prefer my horses to have energy. If they really act out, I blame my training program, not my feeding program.

So now a-days, we are seeing so many EPSM, insulin resistant, cushings or some other sort of metabolically challenged horses, not to mention regular old chronic founder cases, that it’s kind of mind boggling. Why weren’t we seeing as many of those issues years ago when everyone was feeding…um, alfalfa?

Most equines will choose to eat alfalfa over any other hay. Some horses might get loose stools when it’s first introduced to them, but if it’s slowly added into their diet as any new feed should be, that issue usually clears up in short order.

I’ve heard that alfalfa will make our horses fat and will likely cause founder. It could make them fat, if "over-feeding" is part of your horse’s nutrition plan, but it is less likely to cause founder than when we allow our horses to graze on spring pastures during the temperatures when grasses aren't as efficiently respirating out the sugars that is manufactured during photosynthesizes during sunny warm days.

I’ve heard that it destroys the horses liver. Maybe, I’m not scientist, but haven’t seen evidence of that, yet, have you? Let me know if you have.

And that it shortens the life of donkeys. Huh! Who did that study? I haven’t heard about it. Donkeys can survive on just about anything and live to a ripe old age, so again, who did that study? It would take years to confirm whether that declaration is true or not.

Our own donkeys eat alfalfa everyday and they are still alive and healthier than when I wasn’t feeding alfalfa. Their feet are in great shape, their weight is pretty good, they are a little pudgy, and they usually have shiny coats in the summer. As do the mules. I'll make a note of it if they start dropping dead soon.

So because of the ribs I was seeing around my pasture, last year, I went back to feeding alfalfa. Slowly those ribs have been covered over, although, I’m pretty careful in trying NOT to allow my horses to get fat.

It’s not easy to keep minis from getting fat, but on the larger equines, I don’t like to see them fat. As we know, sugars and obesity can lead to laminitis, founder and insulin resistance.

A fat horse is no healthier than a fat person. I cannot figure out why, we prefer humans to be slim and trim - a few ribs showing is a good thing. But on our horses, we want them fat and sleek and we ask them to work very hard in that condition. If that were the case with people, I could consider myself in excellent physical condition! (I'm not. I'm right up there in weight, with my minis.)

(Again, altered picture! Do I really need to mention that?)
Anyway, I think there is much research to be done and much to learn about equine nutrition. I’m not an expert by any stretch of the imagination. I don’t believe there are many experts in that field, because not enough research has been done in that arena.

In my opinion, equine nutrition as we know it is mostly speculation. We mostly are guessing and that explains so many different diets, and the mind-blowing plethora of supplements we horse owners have to chose from.

This is one book that I didn’t care for at first, but had only skimmed it before making my initial (hasty) decision, is now one of my favorites on nutrition.

On the back cover is a horse leaning over a rickety fence getting into a pile of apples that had fallen off the tree. Crap! That’s not good. But there I was judging a book by its cover! Now that I’ve given this book a chance, I really like it and I feel it’s probably better than most books I’ve read on the topic. If you give it a read, let me know what you think. I’m always interested in other opinions – usually -and mostly if they agree with mine. Hee.

Pat

Update on Fancy's Trailering Injury

2009-04-22T08:36:00.000-07:00

April 15, 2009

Lisa: Fancy and I spent the day at the vet. Her orginal cast is removed.

Two cuts were made diagonally from each other and then the cast was split and pulled off. It doesn't sound like it would be, but this was quite an interesting procedure to watch.

The foot is healing nicely. There is so much granulated tissue that the doc had to scrape some of it off. It had grown all the way through the crack in the hoof. But everything is pink and healthy!

No bare cartilage showing and even though the vet didn’t say so, I am hoping that the white band that seems to be extending inwards from the coronary band is actually band tissue and her hoof will heal better than their prognosis. [I'm sure it will! Pat]

Fancy gets a brand new cast and I think this one went on much better and will be more comfortable than the first one. It isn’t up as high on her leg, and has more padding around the top. Fancy will be in this cast for 3 weeks if everything goes well.

Back at the barn Fancy is moving better but still depressed about being locked up.

On a happy note…I got a 3 horse slant! Yea! This particular accident will never again happen to us.
Lisa

501c3 Status!

2009-04-17T21:42:00.001-07:00

Good news! We are now officially a non-profit corporation in the business of rescuing, rehabbing and rehoming horses with hoof ailments!

YAY!!

One More Scary Horse Hauling Mishap!

2009-04-17T21:27:00.000-07:00

Live and Learn

I'm often asked whether I tie my horse's head or not when trailering. I think it depends on the trailer and the horse. But this is one situation where the horse was lucky his head wasn't tied. Read on:

Four young older teens in a hurry to trail ride. They hooked their older heavy 4 horse trailer to a small lowered half ton pickup. [That was their first and biggest mistake - Pat]

The pickup they usually use was in the shop for repair. They placed the two heaviest horses in the back end of the trailer. [Second, and nearly deadly, mistake]

They pulled onto the interstate [Mistake #3] and went less than 2 miles when the truck and trailer jackknifed blocking all traffic. Fortunately, two of the girls were following in another vehicle.

Those two girls could see the trailer swaying and actually held back the traffic with their car when the trailer started to jackknife. The horses were bruised and battered but okay. One horse went down under the other horses. The 1200 pound horse in the back of the trailer was flung around to where he was facing backwards. If he had been tied his neck likely would have been broken.

The police wouldn't let the horses unload on the freeway into the rescue trailers that arrived on the scene later. The rescue truck/trailers' drivers was directed to wait at the end of the exit ramp. They were going to unhook the wrecked trailer from the truck and tow the horses and trailer off the freeway. However they could not disconnect the trailer from the wrecked truck with the horses still inside due to the damage. Finally the girls were allowed to lead the horses off the freeway to the awaiting trailers.

The horse that incurred most of the injuries, was formerly owned by one of the drivers who came to their rescue. Imagine how that must have felt.

Beth's Trailer Experience!

2009-04-08T13:30:00.000-07:00

Pat,
Here's our story, thank goodness it's not injury-related! Prior to moving to Washington from Illinois in 2006, we purchased a new (off the lot) 2004 Sundowner 727 2 Horse slantload, gooseneck. Originally I was hunting for a Brenderup, but couldn't find a nearby dealer and would have had to travel two states away with a check in-hand. No thanks. I am not fond of separating the horses, so we pulled out the divider to allow the horses to move into a comfortable position. I also don't tie them when they are loose. Some people will gripe about that, but honestly, there is no SAFE way to truly haul livestock.
The only trailer issue we had was due to not having bars on the drop down windows. We had screens with sliding door windows (very small, who designed this?). I bought a screen from Professional's Choice and using zip ties, was able to make it work. It was much too small though. So, we drove with one window down. Even though we traveled the higher (cooler) roads, it was still too hot in the trailer. One of my horses (the Arabian, of course) refused to drink while on the road and only took water when we stopped at ranches for the night. We walked the horses into the trailer each day and they would get into position while on the road. The Paint stood facing forward, the Arabian faced backward. Each time. The only scare we had was when we stopped to eat one afternoon and the Paint laid down. He was fine, just decided to lay down, regardless if the Arabian was in the way.
In 2008, we had to move overseas, so the horses went to live at the ranch they had come from. This time, I ordered custom-made screens to fit into the drop down windows allowing me to drive with the windows down. However, I didn't need to do this until we got to Kansas since we had snow storms following us most of the way and it was quite cool. This time we drove with the divider up, horses tied. Both horses were fine, the Arabian drank more, but he was also 2 years older (5) and had more trailer travel experience. If I can figure how to include it, I'll attach or email a photo of the Paint drinking (water) from a Taco Bell cup.
I was convinced by the owner of the ranch (where I worked and bought both horses) to convert my F150 to haul a gooseneck. He has been training and hauling horses his whole life and was worried about me hauling a regular trailer cross country. My dad agreed, as he's had jack-knifed trailers happen. It was a great decision and we had absolutely no swaying or problems (like we had with our camper trailer). The Sundowner worked very well. It has pads on the divider and walls, as well as rubber up the half the walls. I wish it had a ramp and barred windows. Oh, my trailer also has the emergency & dressing room doors open on the traffic side. I think most have changed to the other now. Lessons learned.

Fancy Cast! Part 4

2009-04-08T09:40:00.000-07:00

Here are shots of Fancy's cast. Lisa has been reading your comments and she wanted me to respond to Laughing Orca Ranch that Fancy should be rideable by October according to her vet.

And to note that Fancy walked right into her trailer without a single hesitation. That's pretty cool. Lisa is trailer shopping these days.

That is an interesting cast. I wondered how far up the leg it would go, It's good see it didn't go halfway up her leg as I would have expected.

I know we all have some horse trailer hauling stories to tell and I thought it would be a great learning experience to hear your stories. If you have a situation you can tell us all about (with pictures - even better) I'd love to post here. My email address is patslark@fairpoint.net.

I have several stories to tell, but here are a couple that I will try to “briefly” share.

When I first got back into horses about 15 years ago, I bought my quarter horse mare, Missy. It had been 10 years prior that I sold my horse to try to survive as a single mom. During my early horse years, I had no experience hauling horses. If I needed to move my horse, I usually called one of my sisters to haul for me.

So shortly after purchasing Missy, I basically knew nothing about hauling horses and one day, I learned one of the most important rules of hauling. Do not tie the head of the horse to the trailer without first shutting the divider. (And do not open the divider until the head is untied.)

I know. I know, I see people doing just the opposite all the time, Some stock trailers are divider-less, or because of the way a trailer is built, it’s easiest to tie the head first, but I personally believe that is an accident waiting to happen. Just like mine did.

One day, as we were loading Missy for a ride home, my sister and I were yakking as we were loading and not really paying as much attention to what the other was doing as we should have been.

Missy' head was tied and started to walk out to close the divider behind me. Missy thought she was going to walk right out with me and when she felt her head was trapped, she went straight into severe panic mode.

Now, this horse was a solid-minded horse and a trailering veteran, but when she realized she couldn’t back out of that trailer because her head was stuck, her feet started going about 90 miles an hour up and down, up and down, stomping like crazy, on the tops of my feet.

I couldn’t get away from her because every time she lifted a hoof off of one of my feet, she'd stomp down on the other. Over and over. I was stuck! Scared and feeling the stabbing pain on the tops of my feet over and over again.

But it was happening so fast and I was so scary. Finally, my sister reached up from the outside of the trailer un unbuckled her head. Missy managed to unload herself without blasting over the top of me, and without flipping over backwards (something else we hear about all too often.)

My perfectly tenderized feet were two solid bruises for weeks afterward and I thought I had broken a bone or two in one of them, but I healed pretty fast.

Interestingly, Missy never hesitated to back into a trailer after that either. Some horses are amazing. But I personally will never tie the head before slamming that divider shut again.

In another incident, just recently, we were hauling a mare to her new home and we didn’t get very far down the road, and the mare was making a lot of noise in the back. So I got out to check on her and found her sweaty and scared and almost laying sideways. She was leaning on the divider and trying to climb the wall with her feet. She was in the first stall of our slant load trailer.

Although she had hauled pretty well previously, she was going nuts on this ride. My sister (always rescuing me) suggested opening the divider so the mare could spread her legs, which we did and she hauled just fine for the next hour until we got her to her destination.

Now I hear that is pretty common for horses to do. And it sounds like that is what Fancy was doing as well. I often wonder if they might get vertigo in the trailer sometimes and think they should be on their side. Who knows, but some horses really need to get a good base under them and giving them lots of room is a good idea.

I'd love to see the backward facing trailers manufactered here in the US. That's the way horses like to ride. My minis always chose to ride facing backwards when I don't tie them in, so if I do tie their heads, they are facing backwards.

It just seems to be more natural for them to keep their balance in a moving vehicle and I believe it's easier on their joints when the trailer goes over bumps. Trailering is tough on the knee joints. If you've never ridden, standing up, in a trailer, you might try it (in a safe situation) just to see. You really feel the bumps in your joints.

And old trailers from the 60s, 70s and 80s, that people are STILL using - oh my gosh, there is no suspension!

Fancy - Part Three

2009-04-07T22:34:00.001-07:00

Today Morgan and I went to see the cast put on. Her foot is continuing to look better.
There are still some parts that are nasty though – like that white area by the remainder of the bulb…that is bare cartilage. Urk.

But everything else is fairly dry and pink so they wrapped it up.

I didn’t get any pictures of the cast process because Fancy has decided that the vets make good chairs and she leans (practically sits) on them at every chance while they are holding her foot up. I got to stand at her head today and try to talk her out of squishing the nice ladies.

Tomorrow she is supposed to go home, so today I put a new wall mat in the trailer.

There is a very good reason it costs so much to have those mats installed!

She had to remain for observation today to make sure the cast fit right and that she would walk on it.

Fingers crossed that we go back to the barn on a nice sunny day.

Lisa

Wow, that hoof is starting to look great! The vet is doing a wonderful job with it. I can't wait to see the casting job! Thank you for taking the time to share this story with us Lisa!

Pat

Fancy's Hoof Injury - Part 2

2009-04-03T10:38:00.001-07:00

From Lisa:

The kids and I went to Pilchuck Hospital yesterday to groom and love on Fancy. She seemed to be doing well, bearing weight on the bandaged foot. We left her a much cleaner horse than when we got there. She must have itched horridly with all that dried sweat and blood under her blanket. Tuesday was a nice warm day so we left the blanket off to keep her from getting sweaty.
Wednesday we went out again. This time we timed it so that we would be there for the wrap change. Again, we did some bonding. I think she was glad to see us – what do you think?

Vet says that the sugardine wrap seemed to help dry up the tissues. It does look a lot better. I see now that she didn’t take off quite as much as I thought she had. Don’t get me wrong, this is bad enough; I just thought it was worse.

The circled area is where she removed some of the coronet band. In these photos it seems like it might be less than originally thought. I have higher hopes for a great recovery.

The tissues are drying up nicely. I expect a cast to be put on in two days if everything keeps to this schedule. She got a good soaking in Epsom salts and weak Betadine today followed with a fresh wrap with Scarlet Oil. Morgan got to be the vet’s assistant.

Things are looking up. Fancy is down to ½ gram of Bute 2x a day and isn’t limping. She is not sound of course and she favors the foot while standing in her stall but while walking she looks great. Thank you to all the well wishers and support I have received from all my friends.

Back to me.

I received an email from Sharon Cregier after she viewed Part One of Fancy’s story. This is part of the text from her email. I thought it might interest you as much as it did me. We do need to find ways to make traveling safer for our horses. Something Lisa mentioned to me on the phone was that the first thing she was going to do was get a different trailer.

Dear Pat,

Next May I will be giving a presentation at the international Animal
(Air) Transportation Association conference. It is in Sydney,
Australia. The presentation concerns scenarios just like those
presented by Lisa and so graphically pictured.

Yes, there IS a solution. If you will provide your postal address, and
that of Lisa, it will be my privilege to send you both a complimentary
dvd.

In the meantime, please visit www.equibalance.co.nz I have been
compiling data on horse transport accidents for three decades. I am
aware of the American Horse Shows Association study which found that
most of the injuries presented at horse shows are transport related.
And Nat Messer's AAEP newsletter observation that many horses
transported to his clinic for routine procedures arrive with colitis.
The reason is: Horses are being transported in trailers designed for
dead weight, not live weight.

Horses must travel in trailers designed to accommodate their behavior
and center of balance and allow them to lower their heads at will.

To date, only one horse trailer in the world meets these requirements as
well as the stipulations for horse and handler and automotive safety as
establised by the OIE -- a world organization having to do with animal
health. It is a trailer which is so safe women and children load their
own mounts.

I do not receive any compensation for presentations on the problem, and
solution, of horse transport. I am not monetarily affiliated in any way
with any manufacturer.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours for the horses,
Sharon E. Cregier

Fancy's Hoof Injury

2009-04-01T02:12:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I was contacted by Lisa, a horse owner whose horse had suffered a severe injury in a horse trailer accident the day before, March 30th. Lisa has given me permission to post her poor mare's condition. The pictures as you can see are graphic, but it will be interesting and information to follow her case as she heels. This is, unfortunately, not an uncommon hoof injury.

It usually heels with a large scar around the back of the hoof over the soft tissue or at best, a seam that runs down the wall from the coronary band. Something, we've probably all seen years after the accident. I feel like the more we do for this type of injury, the less scarring the horse will end up with.

So as terrible as it is and as sorry as I am to know Lisa and her pretty mare are going through this, we are going to follow Fancy's story, with updates as I receive them with the hope that sharing her recuperation will help other horses. And I know we all wish Lisa and Fancy well in her recovery.

Here is Lisa’s story.

The horses, kids and I were on our way to Poulsbo to spend a few days with
Andrea and her kids. Fancy has re-developed her trailer anxiety so I spent
the last three days really working on this and thought we had it managed.
Everything was loaded up and the horses were calm. We headed back home
because I forgot a few crucial things like stirrups and chaps. I could see
Fancy was throwing her weight around, but it didn't look too bad. We pulled
into our cul-de-sac and this is what I saw when I got out of the truck.

This is NEVER a good sign with a horse trailer. There was a trail of blood down the road - why someone didn't notice it and wave me down, I don't know. (People don't notice things like this. - Pat)

Fancy gets in the trailer just fine. It's what she does once we are under
way that is causing the problems... By the time I opened the back I knew
something very bad had gone down, I was hysterical - screaming at the kids
to go in the house and get dad to call the vet because I thought Fancy was
going to have to be put down. OK - I've never seen clotted horse blood
before and I thought she had gutted herself somehow. Yes I am a drama queen
- shut up. ("Who wouldn't be in this situation?!" - Pat)

She was throwing herself to the right and trying to climb up the wall with
her left legs. She managed to rip the mat off the wall but then the rivets
that were left in the wall ripped her up.

I am pretty sure the kids are scarred for life. I might be too. I am sure
Fancy is.

She had blood on her forelock, it was even up on the ceiling.

Fancy was a wreck. She was a sweaty mess and my brain was not
working. My neighbor, Craig, suggested offering her some water and she was
glad to have it. "Thank you Craig - I wasn't thinking well."

Then I carefully unloaded her out of the trailer. Reba was a rock, very calm and soothing, she stood right next to Fancy and quietly nickered once in awhile. Fancy started shivering so I put a blanket on and ended up adding two more. One wrapped around her neck and two on her body. I was afraid she was going into shock. Leslie and Curt brought their trailer down so that we could separate the horses and take Fancy to the vet. There were many phone calls made to the vet during this time.

She was bloody from her front legs to her tail. Even Reba was wearing Fancy's blood.

When Leslie arrived, Reba looked at her and then turned to Fancy with the
quietest sweetest low nicker I have ever heard, as if to say "She's here, you're going to be alright". (Sniff...- Pat)

Fancy removed the entire outside corner of the hind left hoof.

This is where ALL the blood came from. She could hardly put any weight on
it. I gave her 2 grams of bute for the pain, but I didn't want to even wash it because I knew the water would cause so much pain. She gamely walked to
Leslie's trailer and got in with no fuss.

Reba was not happy about the separation but she loaded back into my trailer and we took them to Pilchuck Vet. Hospital in Snohomish.

At the Hospital, after sedation and much cleaning and X-rays. No, the
towel is not bunched by the hoof.

This shows how much hoof she lost. The X-rays show that she did not fracture
the coffin bone, but she did scrape it near the heel. That is gonna hurt
for awhile.

You can see here how much tissue is missing. She removed a fair bit of
sole, but the bar is left so at least she has some support. You can see
that she removed part of the coronary band by the heel so she may
have a deformed heel from now on. This is going to take about six months to
grow back in. She will have to live in a stall for quite a bit of it.

That isn’t going to go over very well with her.

As I try to find the positive here, I have an X-ray so I will be able to see
if my barefoot trimming is right according to the coffin bones and in looking
at this photo I can see that her frogs have grown in nicely - much better
than where they were a month ago.

Fancy will NOT be going on the Chief Joseph ride this year. I may not be going as a rider since I just spent the budget tonight and she still has 3 days in the
hospital.

So if any of you can learn from this - this is my very hard learned advice.
If you feel motion in your trailer - GO CHECK THE HORSES.

Don't assume it is business as usual. I really thought we would end up in
Poulsbo with her all sweaty and maybe with a little hide missing from
stomping on herself, I was very wrong and I will never make that mistake
again.

Happy trails to you all and I hope you never go through this. I will keep
you updated.

Lisa

Back to me now. As you can tell, this accident is very fresh and Lisa is still reeling. Please let us know if you've experienced the same situation and what was done for your horse. Any advice for us is welcome.

Thank you, and thank you Lisa for letting me post this as you go through it. Not an easy thing. Stay strong.
Pat

Horse I trimmed today.

2009-03-12T20:24:00.000-07:00

This is Sea. An Arab mare about 15. Rescued and the owners have been trying to rehab her feet, but during the past year or so, even they got a little behind in her hoofcare. A farrier was called in to trim her at one point, but was adviced not to do too much at once.

This is the inside of her right front foot (taken from her left side so I was shooting from underneath her body).

This is her left front.

Solar view of right front.

Right front again.

Solar view of left front. You can see from solar views that she had likely she suffered from Pedal Osteitis at one point.

After I explained that not doing enough with her trim was detrimental to helping her get better. The owner was okay to let me do what I felt was best for the horse after hearing the analogy of our fingernails. I told her that when our fingernails get long, the growth of nail past the nailbed is no longer connected to anything. If we walked on our long finger nails, it would put pressure on the connection of nail to finger until separation of the two occurred and how painful would that be?!

Left front - trim is nearly finished for today.

Left front lateral view.

Right front. Pictures taken just before I added a few finishing touches. Sea was getting a little antsy.

These trims are fun for me. I love the challenge and the obvious changes I can make in just a short time.

This is a cute little mare and she was fairly cooperative with her feet, but I didn't want to push it with her so I only trimmed and changed as much as I thought she could tolerate at one time.

A few more trims and some growth of well connected wall and this horse will be kicking butt all over the pasture!

The Mountain Top Can Be a Lonely Place

2009-03-09T14:50:00.000-07:00

So I've ruffled a few feathers lately for refusing to admit horseshoes are okay in some situations. For some reason, when people say we are all entitle to our opinions. I think they mean as long as we add lame statements like, "...but whatever works for you and your horses is okay."

There was a time when I would say whatever it took to get along, but I'm getting too old to be diplomatic anymore. Not only will I not give in just to get along. If my feelings on the subject of shoes: "No horse - is better off - wearing horseshoes!" seems a bit confrontational to anyone...well, TS.

When people don’t want to hear what I have to say, rather than try to get me to admit I'm wrong, maybe they would do well to review their own values on the subject.

I was invited to the thread to speak to the hoof issues of Remmer, which I did, but since hooves are my specialty, I continued responding to questions and comments about hooves- not necessarily Remmer's hooves. and was finally admonished for perpetually taking the thread off-topic. Oops!

This forum was started by an awesome group of people who came from the Parelli Savvy Club Forum. They left and started their own forum where they could speak freely, without the censorship they were experiencing on the Savvy Club forum whenever they were in disagreement on things Parelli's stand for and teach. Such as their choice in hoofcare. WHICH IS OUTRAGIOUS!

They call themselves Bad Apples, because that's how they were treated on the SC forum. I thought I might be a bad apple also, but I've come to realize that I don’t believe I’m truly “A Bad Apple.”

I personally admire Pat Parelli, always have, probably always will. For living out his dream. Has he made some mistakes? Yes, we all do, just not as publicly.

Has he been screwing up with their horses' hooves? Yes, and it's becoming obvious to everyone, but them - seemingly.

Is he arrogant? Yes, but you’d almost have to be to continue going out in front of millions of people and shouting from the mountaintops that you disagree with the majority. You step on peoples’ toes when you refuse to admit “they” are right and you are wrong, and that takes guts!

Just ask Dr. Robert Bowker and Pete Ramey and those who came before them, just how much determination and fortitude it takes to continue on when you are confronted by the entire horse community to admit you are wrong, when you know in your heart you are right and you just want to help the horses who are being tortured, maimed, and killed by what others are doing to them. I'm also accustomed to being out-numbered in my philosophy and teaching, so it never comes as a surprise when people react negatively to my statements.

I compare the logic of horseshoes today to the logic people had regarding smoking in back in the 40’s and 50’s. Everyone did it. No one recognized that it wasn’t healthy and there were few outward signs that smoking was slowly killing people.

When a few scientists began to realize the harmful affects of smoking spoke out to the masses, the tobacco companies lowered the boom on them. They were sent back into their labs likely threaten with slander suits, paid off to shut up or publicly admit they were mistaken. Smoking was socially acceptable and those who smoked outnumbered those who didn't. After all, our own government had been purchasing cigarettes by the truckloads to distribute to our military personnel for years!

Later, as people were getting sick and dying from lung cancer and other smoking related illnesses, it became clear that the tobacco companies had ulterior motives for quieting their adversaries.

Then, when science and the medical field jumped on the anti-smoking band wagon, we learned that not only was smoking shortening lives, second-hand smoke was even worse.

Smokers were not only killing themselves they were killing the non-smokers around them. Kind of like getting kicked in the head by a horse with shoes on!

Healing Henry!

2009-02-09T21:36:00.000-08:00

Meet Hank! Newest addition to the Rainier Hoof Recovery Center!

Learn about his condition and his progress on his own blog, Healing Henry!

Final and Bittersweet Update on Classy and Cricket.

2009-02-01T19:07:00.000-08:00

This is Classy Bobbie. A sweet 19 year old Appy mare that we rehabbed from Founder. (There are previous posts about her and her pasture mate, Cricket.)

Both mares arrived here in the acute stages of laminitis. Both were pulled through and doing well. Cricket, however, at 13 years old, relapsed this past fall and all our attempts to bring her back failed. We could not bring her out of it. She gradually got worse until she was spending most all her time in the stall lying down on the soft mats.

With the number of horses we have here to feed, I felt Bobbie (Her named evolved from Classy to Bobbie due to a quirky habit she has of bobbing her head and one front leg when she wanted something, food!) would be an easy mare to rehome. She hadn't been ridden in years, but her history was that she was once been a well trained show horse. Turns out, she was rusty, but all her training was still very close to the surface.

She is calm, sweet and so easy to become attached to, making the decision to let her go a difficult one. But we found a great home for her with a loving family in Pe Ell.

Her new owners are riding her and she is a therapy horse for their two daughters. She's proving to be awesome with the girls and she is well-loved by her new family.

Sadly, Cricket's story doesn't end as well. This is Cricket right after she relapsed in the fall - with my niece, Phyl, who volunteers some of her time here and had adopted Cricket soon after the mares arrived.

Cricket's feet were causing her chronic pain and I long suspected she was dealing with more than just inflammation of the laminae. We finally decided it was best to end her suffering. She left us today.

Everywhere I turn I'm reminded of that little mare. Because she was stall-bound the last few months, she was a 24/7 care case: daily grooming, stall cleaning, buckets of fresh water and armloads of hay to nibble on. I worked on her feet as often as I could, trying to find new ways to get her comfortable enough to allow me to work on her hooves. For awhile she let me clean or trim her feet while she was lying down, even laying down on her own when she saw me enter her stall wearing my farrier apron. She was a smart mare.

Then eventually she wouldn't let me touch her feet at all. It was so difficult for both of us, and the thrush she was developing because I couldn't keep her feet clean and dry proved extremely painful and impossible to cure.

This picture was taken the morning of her last day. She was allowed out to eat grass and gaze at the horses in the pasture while she rested. She ate sweetfeed and carrots, and her favorite treats. I brushed her and cut her tail off (so it wouldn't be cut and sold later. Yes, that happens.) I let her know she'd been a lovely horse and this was going to be her last day enduring chronic pain. We said our goodbyes.

So, a sad ending for one and a happy ending for the other. I'll miss them both very much. Sniff.

Don't let this happen to your horse.

2009-01-24T09:13:00.000-08:00

As I was doing some research on laminitis, I came across a blog by a farrier. I was shocked by a couple pictures on his blog and had to comment. His description of this picture was that it something he sees frequently.

He was correcting something about this foot, I can't even remember now because I went into shock that he would actually do this to a hoof, on purpose, for ANY reason. And after gutting the hoof, he does nothing to actually correct its faults, like addressing that stretched white line (long toe.)

(Notice the black around the hoof wall. That is bruising from horse shoes.)

In my comment, I asked him if HE did THAT to that hoof? Then added: If so, it's no wonder he sees that sort of thing on hooves frequently.

He came back with with the most arrogant attitude of: "Yeah, I should have my head examined. huh." Then adding that he's only been a farrier for 18 years so you'd think he knew what he was doing.

Sadly, he does think he knows what he's doing, but I'm pretty sure he doesn't!

What he was doing is called "SURGERY."

Now hear this! No hoof care professional, be it horseshoer, farrier, nor natural hoofcare practitioner, whatever we call ourselves, have a license (or a right) to perform surgery on your horses!

Please remember that! We don't have a right to be cutting into the sole until we get to blood, ever, ever, ever! Nor should be be cutting into the corium of the frog. And if we do we need to be fired ON THE SPOT and a vet called in to clean up our mess!

How do you think a horse would fair to have a hoof cut into like that, then be sent back out to trod around in mud, manure and urine?

The problem with veterinarian logic when it comes to hooves is that when they discover a problem, often a farrier is called in to fix it. What isn't checked into is whether that farrier is qualified to fix the problem or make it worse. How does the vet know? How do you know?

Local farriers who are known in the community for having excellent shoeing skills, may not have the skills or the qualifications to treat laminitis, abscesses, navicular issues, pedal osteitis, canker, or the plethera of other issues that can go wrong with a hoof.

Many farriers have never even been to farrier school. They learned from Uncle Joe one summer because they got laid off from their job at the mill and need a way to earn a living. Seriously, there are a lot of those guys/gals out there. And I've heard certified "farriers" refer to them as "horseshoers" in a not so complimentary tone.

One of my customers asked her former shoer why he got into that profession, and his response was: "Strong back - weak mind." I'm sure he was joking, but...well, she's my customer now if that tells you anything.

Now if you are a farrier and you are taking offense at this, please don't. I named one of my pony's after the first farrier we had when I was a kid. Buster Silva. Buster learned from...well, his Uncle one summer when he needed to find a way to earn some money. But Buster was a wonderful horseshoer. He was timely, dependable and had a great horse-side manner. I saw him more than I saw my wayward father and I will always remember him as being kind to us kids when we had rode our horses shoes off and he knew we were paying for new shoes with our babysitting money.

Was Buster qualified to treat laminitis, abscessing, white line disease, navicular? No, I'm sure he wasn't. But we didn't have to deal with any of those issues 40 years ago like we do today. Why? More horses today I imagine, and sadly back then affording a vet was a luxury for most horse people, and a bullet was cheap.

(I think we see more hoof and metabolic issues today because we have too many pasture pets living on race horse diets.)

Another picture from that blog. What was he treating here? An abscess? The abscess wasn't painful enough I guess, so the hoof was cut out from under the horse.

This type of trimming is why THIS horse could never go barefoot. Had he NOT gauged out its sole, the horse might have stood a chance at healthy bare feet.

You bloody it - you buy it!

Perfect Hooves are Made, Not Born.

2009-01-19T21:42:00.000-08:00

I believe that perfect hooves are made, not born.

In the wild, perfect hooves are created by the constant abrasion and varied diet. Many people believe that when a wild horse’s hoof goes bad, the horse perishes and is eaten and that is why we don’t see bad feet on wild horses.

I don’t agree. I think we just don’t see bad feet on wild horses because they take such splendid care of them. Once rounded up, it only takes about 6 weeks for those perfect hooves to turn into what we are used to seeing on our horses.

It’s true, that from time to time, we can dissect a wild hoof and find some similar hoof problems that our domesticated horses deal with, but it’s not usually a hoof problem that costs a life.

So what about domesticated horses? Well, for example, this is Neenah.

She’s nearly 8 months old now and I’ve trimmed her feet several times since her birth. The first few trims were with just the rasp. (You have to be very careful with foal feet. There is no room for mistakes on such tiny feet. )

And yes, she’s ONLY had several trims because I’ve mostly had her out on pasture and gravel paddocks where she does very well.

Each time I trim her hooves, I’ve had to do some reshaping, because her feet are not perfect. She has some flare on one side of her left front foot that is already causing separation of the white line (laminae). (Can you see the flare?)

I'm working to correct that. This last trim involved the nippers, for the first time. So we'll be correcting this. Rather than shoeing it as is.

She’s has a tendency to be a bit clubby (upright) on the fronts so I’m careful to take her heels down every time. That's what I've done here.

If I didn’t, and she were someone else’s horse, that owner might be discussing the possibility of tendonotomy or ICL (inferior check ligament) surgery in her near future.

Because she’s my horse that will never happen to her. I will never destroy a healthy part of her anatomy that she will need later, in order to fix something that can corrected at the hoof.

Horses that have had ICL surgeries face an uncertain future of bowed tendons and other injuries because the tendons in the lower leg have to take on the job that the ICL once had.

And as for cutting the tendon itself which is done on some horses with rotated coffin bones…two words about that horse's future; Pasture Pet.

So, it’s up to us. If we bring a new baby horse into the world, we need to get concerned about their hooves the minute they start standing on them.

Our babies can grow up with perfect feet! And who would nail a shoe to a perfect hoof?

Abscess Upate #2

2009-01-19T21:15:00.001-08:00

This is Danny, the abscess horse. Remember him? He was on the ground for 3 solid days in pain. When he got up and started moving around, an abscess ruptured. One rupture site was at the coronary band, one on each heel bulb and later his sole practically fell out of his hoof.

It was the worst abscess I've ever seen. Why did it happen? I'm not sure. Was his diet to blame? Not sure, 15 other horses were on the same diet and none of the others abscessed at that time that I know of. He's always been a bit of a Chunk!

I had let his feet go past the 6 week deadline for trimming. Often my horses are like the cobbler's children. They don't get tended to when their feet need attention.

He's doing much better, and his main abscess site has nearly made it to the ground. When it get's closer to the ground, the leverage on his toe, will knock the last inch or so out. That's normal because when the abscess was traveling up his hoofwall, it was leaving a trail of dead laminae in it's wake. That means there is no connection of wall to coffin bone below the rupture site.

This is what his little sister is doing to his tail! My niece says she's teething. I believe she's right!

I added this picture of Forrest that I took while I trimming Danny. I just thought it looked kind of cool. It's been so foggy here lately!

Interview Questions

2009-01-16T23:57:00.000-08:00

Recently, I was asked to submit responses to interview questions for another informative horse blog. Natural Horse Resource

Since, I worked pretty hard on my responses, I thought I would post them on my own blog. Some will agree with my opinions, which is awesome, and some will not and that's okay too.

An Interview with a Natural Hoofcare Practitioner

The following are Pat Wagner’s responses to the top ten hoofcare questions asked by many horse owners who are considering barefoot soundness for their horses.

Pat is a twice certified natural hoofcare practitioner. Her journey into saving equine hooves started when her own mare could no longer tolerate the damaging affects shoes had on her hooves and spiraled into a life of pain and lameness for many months.

When she realized that traditional hoof care was no longer a viable method for keeping her horses sound, Pat traveled to Georgia to train with one of the foremost authorities on Natural hoofcare, Pete Ramey. Pat recommends Pete’s book, Making Natural Hoofcare Work for You, as well as articles found on his website and his latest DVD release, Under the Horse.

Since that time, Pat has spent over five years training with, and teaching practitioners around the country, attending clinics with experts in their field such as Dr. Robert Bowker, Professor of Anatomy and Director of the Equine Foot Laboratory at Michigan State University.

All their horses are barefoot sound now, and Pat and her husband, Rich, are busy rehabbing less fortunate horses at their farm, the Rainier Hoof Recovery Center in Washington State. Pat is currently a member of the American Hoof Association.

Before getting to the questions, we asked Pat if she had any introductory comments.

Pat: If we have a question about our horse’s hoof health, and the response is a firm “yes” or “no”, we should ask someone else or do our own research. The correct response to nearly every hoof related question is “it depends…”

1. Why is it critical for a horse's hooves to land heels first?

If you consider the biomechanics of the horse, you can understand why heel first landings are natural to the hoof in most instances.

A hoof landing correctly is critical to the tendons and ligaments of the horse’s lower leg. Of the horses whose hoof landing patterns are perpetually toe first, the tendons and ligaments are operating exactly backwards. (Graphic courtesy of newrider.com)

When horses climb hills, descend steep slopes, or negotiate uneven terrain, their hooves will land however they need to in order to start their journey and arrive at their destination. So when we speak of perpetual landings, we are referring to hoof landings as horses traverse flat ground.

From the side, watch a horse walk past you. What you should see are front hooves coming down on the back of the hoof first (the heel). As the horse’s body moves over the hoof, the hoof will pitch down onto its sole (bringing the entire hoof into play), and as the horse’s body moves over and past the hoof, it will break-over the toe as it leaves the ground to prepare for the next heel-first landing.

That was my attempt at describing a healthy stride. Unfortunately, this isn’t the stride you will see on many domestic horses, and certainly not often on shod horses. If you do see heel first landings on a shod horse, hang onto the farrier.

So you might be wondering what is the big deal about a hoof landing heel-first? Maybe your horse lands toe first every stride, and you ride her every day and she does just fine…or so you think.

Why don’t you try it yourself? Walk around for 5 or 10 minutes coming down toe first on your foot then drop onto your heel. With every step, you will feel begin to feel your calf muscles become tense and your tendons and ligaments will feel stressed. It’s not painful, even after a few minutes, it is fairly uncomfortable and your legs will tire quickly. Now walk that way a bit longer, out to your barn, as you move around to do chores.

Imagine being forced, because of improper foot wear, to walk around like that all the time!

When you switch back to landing on your heels first, the rolling over the ball of your foot, you can you feel the difference in your legs? Heel first landings are much more comfortable. Am I right?

Toe first landings for you, might be a great way to tone up your calf muscles, but horses do not have any muscles in their legs below the knee – it’s all tendons and ligaments. I certainly wouldn’t be asking a horse to work hard for me, if I knew his body mechanics were not functioning properly.

Imagine constant locomotion day and night with toe first landings. Not just walking, but jogging and running and sending yourself, with someone on your back, over jumps. Ouch!

Horses whose hooves land chronically toe-first are not a truly sound, and while they are working with backwards mechanics, those same horses are usually dealing with other defects in their hooves as well. Such as run-under heels and long toes, which force an incorrect break-over on their hooves. It’s frequently these horses who are labeled navicular.

Horses live with this discomfort until it becomes painful. Then, they live with the pain until they just can’t cope anymore and then we begin to see chronic lameness for which we begin purchasing all sorts of pricey supplements. Until we retire the horse, or have it put down and go in search of a younger healthier horse, and the cycle goes on.

So if you have a horse in chronic pain when it moves, and it’s a mystery to you, your farrier and your vet. One of the first things I would look at is how the hooves are landing.

2. What does the term “break-over” mean?

When I arrive at a barn to trim a horse for the first time whether it has been receiving pasture trims or if I remove shoes, the most common problem the hoof has been living with is elongated toes. When toes run forward, the rest of the hoof (frog and heel) typically follow.

After toe first landings, a long toe is the most common and damaging fault domestic horses live with.

To get a feel for what horses living with excessively long toes have to deal with, put on a pair of shoes or boots that are 3 or 4 sizes too big for you and wear them for a while.

A hoof with toes that are much longer than they should be cannot “break-over” at the correct place.

One flawed tactic that many hoof care professionals use to correct long toes is to allow the heels to become long (high) – in an effort to balance the hoof.

3. How do you compare natural trims to shoes and traditional trims?

A hoof is a progressive unit which has an amazing capacity to adapt to it’s environment. If you want to see your horse develop hooves that are comfortable on rocky terrain, bring rocky terrain into your horse’s environment. This doesn’t mean forcing a tender-footed horse to walk on rocks, but rather find ways to work up to a horse who is comfortable on the rocks.

The main point to remember is that the hoof changes and adapts to the conditions it lives in and works on. It’s not an inanimate object, like something made up of woody substance, as many perceive it to be.

A hoof horn is keratinized (hardened) protein, the same substance as your own fingernails. The hoof horn is attached to the coffin bone by two layers – epidermal (insensitive) and dermal (sensitive) laminae. These two layers of laminae are zipped together in a Velcro-like manner. Improper diet, neglect, injury, and shoes can all have a negative impact on this lamellar attachment.

Horseshoes: nailing steel to a hoof causes a multitude of problems for the horse. Here’s a short list.

The shoe locks the internal structures of the hoof into the state it was in when the shoe was applied and takes the outer structures out of function.

The bars, sole and frogs will overgrow in a vain attempt to remain functioning by making impact with the ground. These elements of the hoof need intermittent (not constant) pressure for healthy circulation and to resist atrophy. Constant pressure kills living tissue, like that of shoe nailed onto a hoof.

Each time a shod hoof lands, the concussion is more excessive than the horse’s anatomy was meant to withstand. (Video examples of this can be found on youtube.)

The trimming method that has to be done on a hoof for the application of a shoe has to be different than a natural trim. There needs to be excess hoofwall to nail the shoe onto.

Traditional trims: the main problem I see with traditional trimming methods is that very often hoof material that should have been removed is left behind, and hoof material that should have been left behind, has been removed. Backwards trimming methods won’t promote healthy, sound-on-gravel, bare hooves. So by design traditional trimming methods promote the necessity of horse shoes!

When leaving hooves deshod, a common trimming technique is to leave the bit of hoofwall length past the sole - the notion being that the extra wall length will replace the shoe.

That logic has always confused me. Why would we need to replace a shoe on a bare hoof? It’s not like the hoof was born with a shoe attached and we removed it so we need to put something in its place. Also, that particular trimming method causes some of the same issues that shoes cause for the hoof.

Incorrect trimming methods are directly responsible for the need for shoes; and shoes perpetuate the need for shoes.

4. What can we do to condition our horses’ hooves to riding barefoot?

Most of us still like to use a term that Pete Ramey coined, “gravel crunchers” to describe the type of hoof that can traverse over any kind of terrain.

The horse owner who owns a gravel crunching horse is to be applauded for getting all the elements of a great bare hoof correct, diet, movement, environment, and trims.

However, because we cannot expect all hooves to become sound on gravel at all times, we need to protect those horses from becoming sore footed on long rides over unforgiving trails, or even just being led around the barn.

Some horses live with conditions that promote a sound hoof, while other horses are not in a situation conducive to sound healthy bare hooves and likely will never be.

What then? Shoes? As of now, shoes are the most convenient apparatus, but my hope is if you go to shoes, you search for and find a certified farrier who understands the natural hoof and how to apply as natural a trim as possible that can be shod. Again, look for that heel first landing. Then seriously consider removing the shoes for at least part of the year.
Or consider alternative shoes, like the lightweight glue on shoes.

Hooves adapt to their environment. If you have a horse that lives in a stall on fluffy deep shaving for the majority of its down time and you decide to pull the shoes and take off riding barefoot down a rocky trail, how well do you think that horse is going to do? As dumb as that sounds, it’s been tried. No wonder we hear comments like riding a horse barefoot on the trail is cruel. Yes, it is cruel in that scenario.

You have to help the hooves adapt to the environment you’re going to be riding it on. And no, that doesn’t mean forcing a tender-footed horse to walk on abrasive surfaces until it stops limping.

“Mamas, don’t let your babies grow-up on soft bedding.” Get those babies out of the stall! Get it into an area where it can move around, a lot over varied terrain. Just like babies born in the wild. We’re seeing too many clubbed hooves on young horses. I believe a soft hoof being conditioned on soft footing is partly, if not completely, to blame for this condition.

Second, bring the gravel in and spread it around areas your horse has to navigate every day - for example, in the gateways, around the water troughs, in the paddock, etc. If horses start out this way, it won’t have a negative impact on the hoof and cause sore feet.

What size gravel? Because you will want to keep your expensive gravel clean in order for it to do its job, the most important factor regarding size, I think, is that it’s small enough to drop through your manure fork. You won’t want to be tossing it out with the manure.

Generally when we bring abrasive material into our horses living area, we need a plan. Don’t dump a truck load of gravel into your paddock in the rainy season only to see it swallowed up by mud. Wait until the ground is dry, then dig out the area and remove a few inches of soil that generally turns to mud, and layer in different sizes of rock and gravel.

I always get asked about hog fuel. We’ve tried it. If you layer it deep enough it’s great for a year, maybe two. But as it decomposes, it creates another problem. Not to mention that you never know what you’ll find in hog fuel that could damage a leg or puncture a hoof. Or what chemicals have soaked into it, such a diesel.

5. What do your recommend for protecting our horses’ bare hooves while riding on rocky trails?

Wouldn’t it be great if we could get a company like Nike to patent a truly perfect athletic shoe, or boot?! One that is easy to put on and easy to remove. Marquis is the boot that comes as close to that description as I have found, but it’s still could use improvement.

There are glue-on hoof boots that many endurance competitors are using successfully, including the Marquis Glue on, by Stride Equus. And Easycare Hoof Boot Company has some great new products. One is the Easy boot Glove!

The glue-on type boots aren’t as apt to fly off or cause rubbing like the standard hoof boots, however, for the recreational rider, glue on boots are not as easy to put on and remove as the regular hoof boots.

As more and more of us are going barefoot and expecting to ride on rocky trails and rugged terrain, the demand for manufacturers to get serious about providing us with a great boot may happen. But for now, we have to use our best judgment when choosing hoof protection if we need it.

However, since we must choose from the boots available to us now, it’s important to understand that certain boots work better on hooves of different shapes. For instance, some boots will stay on an upright hoof better and without rubbing, than others. So you have to experiment a little to find the right boot for your horse.

An interesting note is that a couple boot manufacturers are distributing identical boots under different brand names. Same exact boot, different brand.

6. Are you opposed to ever putting shoes on a horse?

I’m opposed to every putting shoes on my own horses. Most horse owners will tell you that shoes remain the most convenient type of hoof protection we can put on our horses today. That’s true, with the exception of the all-terrain barefooted horse that needs no protection.

Although it happens and often at the very worse times, there is less worry about the horse losing a horse shoe on the trail than a boot, and shoes don’t rub soft tissue. I get that. (However, shoes do bruise the walls and soles of the hoof.)

I couldn’t put shoes on my own horses, but I understand a rider’s situation and the convenience of horse shoes. There isn’t anything as good out there yet as a nailed on shoe for carefree riding.

So for summer riding, if your horse’s hooves are correct, sound and healthy, a few months spent in protective shoes applied by a certified farrier (check for that, certification is important and many are not) typically won’t destroy a horse’s hooves. But give them a rest out of the shoes for most of the year. Nearly every farrier reference book includes that statement.

Having said that, I have to explain that the type of shoeing I take issue with for many reasons is “corrective” shoeing. In my opinion, there just is NO SUCH THING as corrective shoes. If the hoof itself is incorrect, you cannot correct it with a shoe. You may have a horse that doesn’t limp, for awhile. I feel that most often hooves heal themselves in spite of the shoe, not because of it. I’ve dissected many cadaver hooves of horses that were put down wearing corrective shoes.

If a bare hoof isn’t sound, it won’t be sound shod - you just won’t see as much limping. So if you’re going to shoe to ride, fix the hooves first.

There is something to bear in mind regarding the roulette of horse shoes. There is a large percentage of unqualified horseshoers in the field. Even the best farrier, is going to have an off day. So consider the likelihood that at some point in time your horse will fall victim of a poor quality shoeing job, just as my mare did.

I was given a valuable reining horse, retired at the age of ten after coming lame from the shoes attached to his feet. He has never completely recovered and likely never will. For him, it took only one set of shoes to ruin his career and devalue him completely.

7. Is it true that on working barefoot horses, the hoof wall will wear off faster then a horse can grow it?

Yes and No.

Yes, that is true when the hooves are trimmed in the traditional manner, and infrequently. Leaving the walls longer than they naturally should be, allowing walls to flare, and cutting out live sole material.

In other words, on a flat, flared, incorrectly trimmed hoof, that go for two months between trims, the walls might wear faster than a horse could grow them if you really used the horse hard, but then the horse would probably develop splitting and chipping hooves and a pronounced limp, long before it could wear the walls down.

And no! Hooves that are frequently and correctly trimmed and are not flat, flared and are sound going into hard work, will typically not split, chip, or wear faster than the walls can grow. Healthy, well trimmed walls can stand up to what wild horses test them on, which is much more severe in most cases than what the majority of us ride our horses on.

8. How often should hooves be trimmed?

One of the key differences between traditional hoofcare and natural hoof care is the length of time between trims. The more frequently we can simulate natural abrasion of the hoof, the healthier the hooves.

If I could get to my horses to trim them as often as I’d like, the longest they would go between trims is 3 weeks. My customers who keep their horses on a 4 week trim cycle are the ones always bragging about how well their barefoot horses perform on the rocky trails. But five weeks between trims still works well for most horses.

Even pasture ornaments shouldn’t go past 6 weeks because that’s when we typically start to see stretched white lines, that will eventually lead to separation in the white lines and then we see hoof wall abscessing and white line disease and other issues. It takes a number of trims to get their hooves back to sound health.

If your horses are going out 8 to 12 or more weeks between trims, they will likely not ever develop sounds hooves. There are exceptions to that rule, as with all rules about horses and hooves, such as horses living on terrain similar to that of wild horses and they are constantly on the move. I’ve seen amazing hooves like this on trail horses in California wine country. But even they need a touch up now and then.

I’ve met one horse that was over 20 years old and had never had her feet touched. Except for some flare in the lower half of her hooves, her feet functioned as well as she needed them to, roaming around her pasture. But typically when a domestic equine’s hooves are left to their own devices for many months or years, there will be pain and extensive damage.

9. Do barefoot hooves develop abscesses more often than shod hooves?

Hoof abscess are a conundrum. It sure seems like unshod horses are more apt to develop abscesses, but I don’t believe that is the case.

I hope write a paper about hoof abscesses one day. They are a mystery and not much research has been done on that topic. So I’ll try to keep my thoughts on abscesses as brief as possible here.

There are as many theories about the cause of hoof abscesses as there are hooves that have been afflicted with them.

Diet is one possible cause and I believe that is true. But neglected hooves allow separation of the white line (access) which can lead to environmentally induced abscessing, as well as constant pressure from shoes.

First, there are several locations that abscessing can take place in the hoof. One is inside the hoofwall. We’ve all seen those after they’ve worked their way up the laminae tissue and ruptured at the soft tissue of the coronet band. Separation of the white line, (too many weeks between trims?) allows debris to work its way up the laminae destroying both the dermal and epidermal layers in its path up to soft tissue where it bursts out.

Second, is the subsolar abscess which affects the solar papillae that attaches the sole to the coffin bone and when this type of abscess ruptures, often times large sections of sole material will be lost, and new sole will develop in its place, like a blister.

Thirdly, what I refer to as bar abscesses which start under unkempt bars and will usually rupture near the heel bulbs or under the sole or throughout the entire hoof.

Interestingly, hooves frequently suffer from acute inflammation (laminitis) concurrently with abscessing.

As we discussed earlier, shoes tend to put the hoof into lockdown. So I believe a shod hoof can harbor an abscess or abscesses for long periods of time. And I believe the reason we commonly see abscessing in recently deshod hooves is that once released the abscesses are allowed to surface. That is just a theory.

10. What do you feel is a common trimming mistake that barefoot trimmers make?

Not addressing the bars correctly. Like the rest of the hoof, the bars adapt to terrain the hoof is working and living on as well as seasonal changes.

There have been a number of occasions when I’ve gone in to trim a lame horse and all I’ve done is take down the bars and the horse walks off sound.

Bar trimming is very controversial. In the different natural hoof care camps there seems to be two extremes in the recommendations for trimming bars. One camp teaches students to cut the bars back radically into the live sole. The other camp teaches that we should never touch the bars.

I feel that both methods are flawed. If we take the bars too far back, we rob the horse of its most important horizontal and vertical support for the back of the hoof.

If we don’t ever touch the bars, they become elongated, puffy or flopped over onto the sole, the opposite problem arise.

Because the bars ARE the caudal support for hoof, left unkempt, long bars can lock the hoof into a situation were sole material is retained and the hoof capsule become elongated. I believe that overgrown bars can put undue pressure on the lateral cartilages which can cause pain and therefore lameness. That could explain why taking the bars down to the live sole, (not below live sole) can cause soundness in previously unsound horses.

Bars that have rolled over onto the sole are great places for hiding debris that will eventually cause abscessing. (Note: if your horse is popping abscess one after the other, especially out the back of the hoof, check the diet and the bar length.)

I feel, as trimmers we need to avoid those two extremes of gouging out the bars, or leaving them untouched. We need to help the bars find their healthiest length for each hoof. When the bars arrive at their happy place, we will know and that’s when we should leave them alone.

Summary:

There are many more questions about the proper care of equine hooves than there are answers. I could easily have elaborated on the responses to the 10 questions above for many pages of text.

I believe that proper hoof care, and learning to trim a hoof naturally is easy, but not simple. There is much more to keeping a hoof healthy than just the correct trim, but I believe, the trim is the foundation for a healthy hoof. You can get every other aspect, diet, movement and environment exactly right, but if the hoof isn’t being trimmed correctly, soundness may never be achieved.

So I ask you, how could Mother Nature have so completely dropped the ball with the horse and his hoof that we superior humans have the answer for where she messed up? Please believe me that there was no mistake in the hoof that was provided for the horse. It’s a brilliant piece of anatomy. Our job is simply to assist the horse in maintaining their hoof soundness by making wise decisions regarding our horse-keeping practices.

“If a hoof isn’t sound barefoot, it isn’t sound.”

Fun in the Snow!

2008-12-17T13:10:00.001-08:00

Keeping the horses fed and making sure they have unfrozen water is sure challenging this time of year.

What goes in, must come out!

My horses tend not to drink as much water when I use those heaters that go inside the 100 gallon Rubbermaid tanks, so I use these heated water buckets. Which mean lots of refilling during the day. Sometimes I dump the warm water from the bucket into the bigger tank and refill the bucket for them. I can better track how much water they're drinking with the smaller buckets also. Keeping them hydrated is as critical in these cold temps as when it's hot out.

Missy, my wonderful quarter horse mare whose been with me the longest is 20 now and has a 5 month old at her side, so she has shelter when she needs it and plenty to eat.

This is Missy's first born, Danny, on the opposite end of their loafing shed. They are in a separate area from Spencer and his buddies. (Neenah, missy's filly, and Jake a 3 year old Quarab rescue, are in with Danny and Missy.)

Just trying to keep everyone fed and as comfortable as possible. I don't blanket my horses unless I see one of them shivering. Keeping hay in front of them usually keeps the shivers at bay.

Corner feeders are in both sides of their shed. I've noticed that horses don't like their butts towards the opening of a shed, facing in, when they are eating, but these guys have learned to accept it.

Jake and Neenah use these fence feed buckets for now. These buckets are a bit frustrating for Jake, because it's not easy for him to get a good mouthful. But that's okay. Plus I think it's up too high for him here, so I started setting them on a lower fence rail. That seems better.

The Parelli Playfield in winter. The pond is frozen and I walked out on it yesterday. Kind of scary, but the ice didn't crack! I told Rich about my excursion out onto the frozen pond and his response was, "The ice must be really thick, huh." He cracks himself up sometimes. I've just learned to roll with it.

Update: It has been snowing all day. It's gotten fairly deep!:0)

Do horses' feet get cold in the snow?

2008-12-14T23:37:00.000-08:00

(This is a great question that a friend just emailed me. I had to post it!)

Neenah!

Yes, but they have this awesome system in their hooves. Researchers have discovered that horses have a shunt in the main vain at the back of their hoof, that shuts off the flow of blood to the hoof when the temperatures are really low. Then when hoof temp drops to a certain point, the shunt opens temporarily to allow warm blood to flow through it. Then it closes and on and on it goes to keep their hooves from freezing completely. That function is likely part of the reason why horses get laminitis.

So thinking about a steel shoe attached to the hoof, and steel nails driven into it, the steel, it would seem to me, would radiate the cold into the hoof so that system wouldn't function as efficiently. Shoes are a bad deal in the winter time especially in the snow.

I took this picture on a hike in the Little Book Cliffs, near Grand Junction, Colorado. We were looking for wild horses. We found them and it was kind of scary so I didn't get lots of great pictures. If you look closely, you can see the backs of two wild horses grazing on something. I'm not sure what they were eating out there. A little bit of everything I would imagine so that's why I like to feed my horses a variety of different hays. The brown and white horse is a stallion and he was a little bit snorty about us getting too close to his family. So we didn't.

So now I'm wondering if a foundered horse's hooves would freeze in the snow because the circulation in a foundered hoof isn't functioning normally....hmm. Or would the cold help them feel better. Somehow I don't think so, but I don't know?

Understanding the Relationship Between Colic, Laminitis and Founder.

2008-12-04T16:06:00.000-08:00

Some of you have asked me questions that I’m going to try clearing up. To explain this topic in the best way I know how, I’m going to take you back and forth in time a little bit. My time! Just warning ya. Hang on and when you come to the end, you should have a way better understanding of these conditions. If not, let me know what the sticking points are and I’ll try to do a better job in a later post.

Is colic and founder the same thing? No

Can colic lead to founder? Yes

Does founder mean certain death for a horse suffering with it? No

Is shoeing and stall rest the cure for founder? No, not in my opinion and in fact the exact opposite of what we should do.

Clear as mud? Keep reading, it gets worse. Just kidding.

Colic, as most of us know, is another term for bellyache. That’s pretty simple. When a human baby get colicy, we’re simply saying, he has an upset stomach.

So now I want to share a story with you about how confusing the terms colic and founder can get you into serious trouble with your horses and why we all should know the difference.

About 13 years ago, I was just getting back into horses and I purchased my mare, Missy. Before that, I didn’t have much involvement with horses for about 10 years and I never really had a good understanding of colic and founder and had never heard the term laminitis back then. If I did, I let it pass as a complicated thing I would probably never need to know about anyway. I was wrong about that and if that line of thinking sounds familiar to you, please read on.

Me and Missy in 1998

One afternoon, Missy began showing signs of a bellyache.

Now this wasn’t my first experience with colic. My last horse that I lived with back in 1979, was an Appy gelding named Joe. He had gotten into the grain barrel and ate about 25 pounds of sweet feed. (Yes, sweet feed…I know why not just feed them a carton of Hershey bars every day.)

Joe and me in 1979 (Don't laugh at the tack, it was the 70s.)

I came home to find him thrashing around on the ground. Scared out of my wits, I called the vet, I was told to keep him walking. So I walked with him most the night, crying and pleading with him to get up every time he tried to lie down. I blubbered things like, “Don’t you die on me!” It was a very dramatic and overwhelming situation that I will never forget.

Later I was actually told by other horse people including my farrier at the time that my horse had foundered. He hadn’t foundered, but this advice created further confusion of the terms in my mind.

At the time, I didn’t know it would have been okay for him to lie down, just not to roll while he was down there. I made that poor boy walk for hours, but he got through the episode with no further complications that I was aware of. He was a lucky boy and walking him was the right thing to do.

He was also fortunate not to have twisted his intestines when he was thrashing around on the ground. That can happen when they are allowed to roll around on the ground in an attempt to relieve the pain. It’s typically referred to as “twisted gut.” And to visualize that think of balloon animals and how the artist twists the long balloon tubes to create the figures. One twist like that in a horse’s gut and there are only two situations that follow: surgery and/or euthanasia.

So here I was many years later with my beloved mare, Missy, in the same situation, but I was never certain what the cause of her bellyache was, just that she had one. I had switched from sweet feed to mixing my own grains and I added rolled corn which if it isn’t used fast enough can mold. That was just one thought. I don’t do that anymore either.

I called the vet for Missy and explained that I thought my horse was foundering, should I keep walking her, I asked. “NO!” was the response, DO NOT WALK HER!

Well, I couldn’t figure that one out, walking Joe was the right thing to do for him when he “founder!” Right?

Well, Missy was not foundering, she was colicing and yes, I should have been walking her, but the vet had heard “founder” and her advice not to walk her was correct.

So when the vet arrived and determined that I was ignorant. She tubed Missy and my sweet mare pooped for us and seemed fine afterwards.

After that experience, I decided I’d better do some research. So I purchased a big fat veterinarian’s handbook. I tried to figure it all out from that. But it was boring to read and over my head.

So back to now. We know that colic is a bellyache and a horse should be walked and helped to relax. Yes, it’s okay to let them lie down and rest, but not roll. If the colic is from impaction, pooping is always a good sign. If you walk the horse until it poops and seems to feel better, I’d say you got them through it and just keep an eye on them for awhile to make sure they’re behaving normally again. Watch for signs of acute lamintis. That would be sudden tender-footedness or simply look for a ring around the hoof to grow out from the coronet band a few weeks later. That would mean that yes, the horses laminae was affected during the event.

Okay, so as for founder, we need to discuss laminitis to figure out what causes founder and to discuss laminitis, we need to know some basics about hoof anatomy.

First, laminitis is simply the term for inflamed laminae. If you hit your fingernail with a hammer, it not only hurts like a sonofagun, but your finger feels pretty warm afterwards. Well, laminitis is not quite the same thing, but that was a fun analogy and would have related better to mechanical laminitis. Another time!

What is laminae? Well, if you look inside a hoof, you have the coffin bone. That bone is attached to the inside of the hoof wall with laminae.

Think of the laminae as a Velcro fastener. The outside of the coffin bone is covered with dermal laminae, the soft side of the Velcro.

And the inside of the hoofwall is covered with epidermal laminae the rough side of Velcro. The two sides zip together creating a very strong attachment of bone to wall.

The epidermal laminae (wall side) doesn’t actually have a blood supply, but the dermal laminae does and when something goes wrong with that blood supply, the dermal (sometimes called “sensitive”) laminae becomes inflamed and hurts!

At the onset of that inflammation, whatever the cause might be, we’d refer to it as the acute phase of laminitis.

What do you do if you can catch it at this stage. Try to extinguish it. First response for this is to get the hooves under cold running water (That’s what I’ve heard and read anyway.) and call the vet. DON’T walk the horse! (Whether the cold water is the right thing to do, I’m not sure, but it sounds right for now.)

Causes of laminitis could take me days and pages to describe. But it can be caused by mechanical means – shoes, sudden pounding ride on pavement, termed road founder, but mainly, it’s organically caused, or dietary. The horse ate something or a lot of something that he shouldn’t have. That would be considered “organically caused” laminitis.

So back to Joe the Appy who got into the grain barrel. What took place was that he ingested a bunch of sugary grain suddenly.

When that sugar (fructose) made its way to what is referred to as his “hind gut” where fermentation of food rich in fructose takes place, the bacteria that is a normal part of the digestive receives a sudden gusher of the food it thrives on.

In order to handle such a huge influx of all that yummyness, the bacteria must begin reproducing at an alarming rate in order to digest it all. That sudden increase in the population of fructose loving bacteria now enters the blood stream. Weeee!

We all know that blood flows throughout our entire bodies, but for horses whose hooves have a fairly complex circulatory system in order to function properly, blood is the nourishment for the dermal (sensitive “bone-side”) laminae.

But with this new development of 25 pounds of sweet feed in one sitting sent to the hindgut causing the bacteria to reproduce like mad and take a ride on the bloodstream subway, the blood isn’t enriching the laminae any longer, it’s poisoning it. Make sense?

Instead of a nice normal blood supply that the laminae is accustomed to receiving from the heart, it’s now dealing with blood that is out of balance. Inflammation is the first sign that the sensitive laminae is in serious trouble.

Now the horse is in the acute phase of laminitis, but let’s say no one notices and really we normally wouldn’t catch it here. It’s sudden and passes rather quickly.

Like with Joe. He got into the grain barrel when I wasn’t home. He probably did suffer a minor bout of laminitis shortly after the colic. Any major disruption in a horse’s normal life can cause that. But I wouldn’t have known it even if he could have put a big sign on his butt that said “My feet are ON FIRE!”

There was no sign of lameness and likely there wouldn’t have been because his hooves were locked into a pair of steel shoes. But he didn’t founder, if he had, there would have been lameness eventually even with shoes. What should I have done in that case? First! Get rid of the shoes and DON’T force him to walk if he’s not comfortable doing so.

So here’s something to ponder while we’re talking about diet. What happens when a horse doesn’t ingest a huge amount of sugary feed all at one time? What if we are just feeding a few pounds of sweet feed every day?

The horse may not be showing any signs of lameness, so he must not be suffering from laminitis. Right?

Well, no. The constant influx of too much rich food can cause what is referred to as sub-clinical laminitis. That is laminitis with no sign of lameness. The dermal laminae is not doing as well as it would be if the nourishing blood that was circulating through it was well…healthier.

If your horse were in that situation and:

a.) say you go out for a local competitive trail ride one day. Your horse appears healthy and gets a daily work out in the arena, and has shoes on! You figure he should be able to handle a 25 or 30 mile ride. But then he comes home with serious lameness from that ride. After a week of rest, he get’s better and is lame off an on from then on.

Or b.) what if your horse is pregnant and is dealing with a hormonal shift or imbalance that also has an affect on her body in addition to the her sensitive laminae that isn’t feeling so well and she starts to gradually show signs of lameness.

Or c.) a combination of situations or events that are heaped on top of hooves that are already not doing quite as well as they could be, but we aren’t noticing anything out of the ordinary and we just keep doing what we’ve always done, because it’s worked so far.

What I’m saying is that one thing might not cause the laminae to go into the acute stages of laminitis, but a combination of conditions could bring it on and then we are left scratching our heads trying to understand what happened.

Next: What is founder? Well, let’s go back to our Velcro, or laminae and the blood supply it’s receiving is not enriching like it should be. In fact, the dermal laminae is being poisoned. It is becoming weaker. Either suddenly or over time - depending on the situation.

What if we’re taking about a long term condition of a horse who is not on the healthiest diet he could be on? The signs would be lameness off an on, sometimes on trail rides, or after working for a few hours in the arena.

Have you ever heard someone say, “I think he’s just lazy and starts limping to get out of work, because he only limps when…”?

I have. Horses are smart, but in the wild showing signs of lameness means: I’m probably going to be someone’s dinner soon and the herd will kick me out because they don’t want a horse tagging along with them that has a “BBQ” brand on his butt. Some of that mentality never leaves our domestic horses, so trust me, when a horse is lame, he’s genuinely hurting.

So the blood supply to the laminae is no longer nourishing it as much as it could be which means the dermal laminae will start to weaken and begin loosing its attachment to the epidermal laminae. The cells the dermal laminae normally generate go willy nilly! It’s been suggest that as the lamellar attachment is lost in the front of the hoof, and cells are being generated like crazy in the back of the hoof, what results is a hoof that appears long in the heel and shorter in the toe. A founder hoof.

If nothing is done to turn the horse’s situation around, the laminae attachment is eventually simply going to fail. And that is often when a vet will tell you, your horses coffin bone has rotated.

The dermal laminae loses its grip on the other side of the Velcro. It will essentially die. The coffin bone rotates (possibly). That’s founder.

Coffin bone rotation is a controversial thing with natural hoofcare practitioners and I won’t go into that here, but it may or may not happen.

Okay, so then there is chronic laminitis, which is really a foundered hoof that just isn’t getting any better. It could get better if the right things were done for it, but because it can take months and sometimes years to improve that horse’s situation, euthanasia is normally the next step.

There are other causes of founder. Such as “road founder” but I really believe that anything other than organically caused laminitis is not the true cause of founder. I believe a horse who is dealing with sub-clinical laminitis for a period of time and then is put into a second or third situation, trail ride, pregnancy, someone tossing apples over the fence in the fall or when temperatures are just right for grasses to be full of sugar, that horse is set up for full-blown founder.

I want to touch on one more topic for a bit in this long post and that is grass founder. Or acute laminitis caused by letting a horse out on rich pasture in the spring and fall.

Grass is one of the most natural, best sources of nutrition a horse can get. When I purchased Missy, the folks who boarded her would lock her in a stall night and day for weeks at a time during the spring to keep her off the lush green grass.

When I got her, she was a skinny little thing, with a shaggy coat and kind of pathetic looking really. I had no idea that bringing her home and letting her eat the lovely grass on the dairy where we lived at the time would cause her to bloom into a really lovely mare.

Missy, within a few months of coming home, leaves her thin, shaggy body behind.

Before I got her, she was standing in a dark stall, 24/7, getting grain and hay twice a day which they thought was better than letting her eat that wonderfully nutritious grass? NOPE! You can’t fault them for being careful and you only know what you know at the time.
But that logic is backwards in most cases and here is what we need to know in order to understand “when” grass is dangerous.

Grass and grazing on it, isn't necessarily dangerous just because it’s spring, or because it’s wet, or it’s tall, or lush, or green and pretty, or anything of the other reasons I've heard from horse people. In fact, that’s likely when it’s the best thing for a horse! Just not suddenly and for 24 hours a day when they're not accustomed to eating it.

It’s dangerous during times of the year when we are experiencing sunny days and cold nights! Which coincidentally is Spring and Fall, normally.

Why?

Because on sunny days grass becomes little sugar manufacturing plants. Grass is busy generating the stuff it thrives on.

Now if we have a sunny day, and our grasses are generating all kinds of nutrients and sugars, and at night the temperature stays above 40 degrees, the grass will then respirate that excess (toxic levels) of sugars out and keep only the good stuff!

It keeps what it needs to be nutritious and healthy and gets rid of the toxins.

So the next day, the grass is safe. Maybe not safe for an obese horse with Insulin Resistance (IR) issues to be tossed out onto all day, but for a healthy horse, it’s probably not going to hurt him especially if he’s slowly acclimated to it.

But what happens when the night time temps dip below 40 degrees is that the grass plants CANNOT respirate the toxins out. It goes dormant for the night. And the next day when the sun comes back out, the grasses go back to work, generating more fructose - sugar.

After a few sunny days, followed by really cold nights, when I look out at the grass I see the Oompa Loompas marching around out there and their song starts running through my head! Yours too?

So there you have it as best I can explain it and what seems right in my mind. When a horse founders, you’ll eventually see white line separation at the surface of the hoof and that leads to other issues that we can get into later, like White Line Disease and abscessing. I believe all of those issues go hand in hand. If your horse suffers from one of those conditions, chances are another one was in place, we just didn’t realize it.

Here’s the million dollar question: Can any of those conditions be the result of poor trimming and shoeing?

Absolutely!

Missy and Rich having a moment not long after we brought her home.

PS: In the next post, I’ll talk about choke and my Arab, Pearl, who is prone to choking. Choke is often confused with colic.

Trimming a Foundered Horse

2008-12-03T18:20:00.000-08:00

One of the problems I've been having with Cricket, the mare who foundered this past Summer while she was being boarded on a friends pasture, was getting her to stand on 3 hooves while I worked on one hoof.

This is Cricket's 2nd founder event. She came here in chronic pain. She was rehabbed within 5 months and was doing well until she was put into a situation that sent her back into acute laminitis.

In my opinion, each time a horse goes into acute laminitis, then founder, the subsequent damage to the laminae is worsened with each event. I suspect that is due to the fact that after foundering, a hoof doesn't ever completely return to the state that it was before the first event due to the damage incurred by the laminae and solar papilae - once compromised, always compromised, at least to some degree. This my not be true in every case, but possibly in most cases.

So Cricket just could not tolerate the pain associated with standing on three hooves. I tried everything I could think of and became very frustrated with her lack of cooperation, but at the same time, I knew she was in a lot of pain. I tried mass doses of pain reliever and finally raising her in a sling, which I thought was my last resort at the time. But this smart little mare prooved me wrong.

For a long time, I couldn't do anything with her feet to help her and the condition of her hooves was really becoming a huge concern. Her frogs were getting extremely thrushy as well, so I knew that was causing much of the pain she was experiencing.

Feeling defeated, I was beginning to wonder if the kindest thing for me to do for her was to put her down.

Cricket laying down for me so I would work on her hooves.

But I started going into her stall with my tools anytime I found her laying down on her chest and I'd ask her to lay down completely on her side. Surprisingly she complied the first few times I did that!

Now, everytime I walk into her stall with my tools, I say, "Lay down Cricket" and she complies. She clearly seems to understand that I'm trying to help her and she's letting me know this is the only way she can grant me access to the bottoms of her hooves. It's pretty amazing and cute!

Partially trimmed founder hoof.

Sometimes she lets out a big sigh, like "Oh good grief, this again...here you go."

Horses are so smart! What more can I say?

Some of you have had questions about lamintis and founder and are confused about the two, how they relate, and the causes. If you would like me to explain what causes laminitis, please let me know and I'll be happy to do that here.

Thanks,
Pat

Delilah's Story

2008-11-26T09:11:00.000-08:00

This is an amazing story about a horse - Delilah - who lost her hoof and her family who is standing by her helping her through some difficult procedures.

The photos are amazing. Please take a look and help if you can.

Thanks.

Parelli's Again.

2008-11-25T09:50:00.000-08:00

Here is a copy of a thread from our American Hoof Association Forum. I felt so strongly about it, I thought I would add it here.

A natural hoofcare practitioner from New York started the thead with this:

Check out this guy's site.

and then check out some photos of the Parelli's horses feet.

When do they come out with the savvy feed line (filled with molasses)?

My response:

Yep, this is very sad. At this year's conference, Linda brought this new farrier out to introduce him to the crowd. She was elated with his work. "Way more than shoeing!" is what she chirped to the crowd after she'd ridden poor Remmer for about an hour during a lesson with Walter Zettl.

Linda announced that her Dutch Warmblood, Remmer, was moving better than he ever had before. Poor Remmer was obviously hurting to my eye, but he wasn't obviously lame, I think because the hooves were so locked up and he probably had some pain equally in all fours. I didn't even notice Allure’s feet. But I could only see from the stands.

I did notice the 2 and 3 year olds were already wearing shoes. The farriers who started that website and the DVD have Parellis so bamboozled. And the Parellis, who I have the greatest admiration and respect for seem ignorant about hoof care, sadly, for such a bright couple.

I posted my experience about the 2008 conference on my blog because I was so sad about their views on hoof care. They advocate dumping molasses in their horses' water and the water of the students’ horses. Which I didn't know until Kay told me and one of the students there confirmed. It would not surprise me at all if they come out with a sweet feed that has their name on it.

During the 3 days of the conference, if I heard Pat say the word "Natural" once, I heard it a balizzion times. He says it makes his heart hurt to see some of the contraptions people put on their horses, torture devices to get the horses to cooperate with them. But his heart is okay with those hooves apparently. My heart was hurting for their horses.

At a tour stop in Billing a few months prior to the Conference, I personally handed Pat two copies of Joe Camp's book, with a note from Joe and a note from me inside along with my business card. I hoped that they read his book, but Joe said a few negative things about Linda (he was complimentary of Pat, but NOT Linda) so anything else he had to say in his book probably turned her off...if she read it. It would have had that affect on me as well.

So Bummer! Parelli's have such a profound impact and millions of horse people all over the world, including the Queen of England and her trainers! They are teaming up with amazing people like Driving Instructor, Nate Bowers whose dad was the most well known expert in natural driving trainer in the country, and the Dog Whisperer - Cesar Millan, and Dressage Horsemaster, Walter Zettl.

And now these farriers who came up with a tricky way to make owners think they are onto some amazing new contrivance for correcting hooves with shoes. And Parelli's they've gotten so far behind these farriers, their DVD is now advertised on Parelli's website!

And THAT has had a profound impact on this one Parelli student. And believe me, I’m not just someone who has dabbled in their training methods for a few years. Although, I've only passed the first Level assessment test with my mare, the Parelli professional who evaluated my test announced to a crowd of students that I was sitting with, that my test was 500 times better than his own. I was knocked out by that. I’ve been a practicing Parelli since 1996.

I'm a Parelli Amabassador! You should see my house! I have ALL the Parelli Level's programs (old set & new set) I have two sets of his original VHS tapes from his earliest days, and every set of DVD's they've introduced since then, Liberty and Horse Behavior and the Success Series, as well as the new Patterns programs.

My closet is full of Parelli shirts, jackets, coats, hats as well as pins, keychains, etc. In my barn, I have 5 carrot sticks and halters, so many different length ropes, I can’t keep track of them all.

I have the complete set of Savvy Club DVDs and CDs. We've devoted an acre of our property to a Parelli Playground AND I have tickets to a conference in Reno next year!

Two years ago I ordered a Parelli Saddle with my name on the gold plate on the back of the cantle along with all the accessories – a year later it arrived on my door step, that’s how back logged they were on their saddles!

I have invested thousands on what these people offer, because when it comes to their theories, I'm a believer! I use what I’ve learned to help other horse owners and with every customer’s horse and they "usually" love to cooperate with me.

It's not just about getting along with horses, it's learning the psychology of horses that works on any animal, including people!

But what they're doing with their horses' hooves and now that they are advocating a farrier who nails shoes and pads onto hooves with underun heels and long toes and they use a laser level to impress them by shoeing horses from the knees down, goes against everything I know to be true about the most important part of the horse besides his mind...okay...deep breath.

Sorry to get so emotional…this one really hits a nerve, but I'm glad you brought it up. I wish we could do something about it.

Oxine and Citric Acid mixture WARNING

2008-11-19T08:04:00.001-08:00

Hi Everyone,

In a previous post, which I'm going to take down, I recommended this mixture (Oxine and citric Acid) as it was recommended to me as cure for white line disease and thrush. I've read that many are having a good success rate with treating some hoof condition with it.

But I've had some negative experiences with it. And I'm not longer recommending it. In fact I'm warning against it's use as I do bleach or any other chemical treatments of hooves.

1. It didn't touch the white line infection on my gelding.

2. I used it on a founder mare's thrushy frogs and it cured the thrush and destroyed her frogs.

3. I took a whiff of the mixture after it was diluted and it burned my throat and caused me to feel like I was going to pass out.

This is solution that I've read it used for santising restaurant kitchens and practitioners have been using, apparently with success on some cases of white line.

But it is strong, scary stuff and should not be mixed in an enclosed area. It's being recommended by some very experienced professional hoof care practitioners, but I'm concerned that it will kill live tissue along with bad bacteria. I doubt anyone has done that type of a study on it.

So please don't use it on your horses. As a cleaner, it probably works well, but as with any cleaner, don't breath it!

I apologize for recommending it before testing it myself.

pat

On the Road...Again

2008-11-13T20:08:00.000-08:00

Some days, when I'm on my way to horses, I look out my window and think about the past. I wonder why there have been so many difficult times. Not just financially, but physically and esspecially emotionally. I've been hurt by people who walked away feeling better about themselves for having made me feel terrible.

I think about the journey my life has been. I remember the many years worth of morning racing into town traffic, cursing the other drivers and the crappy weather and my vain attempts at trying to be at my desk in the basement of city hall, trying to look busy before the boss got there. Then feeling the adrenalin rush subside and wishing I was still in bed, toasty warm, in comfy pajamas with my soft pillow cradling my head. Instead of sitting in a chilly office, wearing constricting undergarments and a wobbly office chair cradling my butt.

Now, I set my own schedule. My head leaves my pillow when I hear the donkey's braying for their breakfast. I love the rain, the sun, the cold, the heat. It's all good!

I love the horses - most of them, and the horse owners -most of them (lets be real). And I'm usually on the roads when everyone else isn't. That's often when I turn to look out my "office" window and realize how much I'm enjoying the journey...to the next turn, to the next horse, to the next day that I get to be here - alive and happy.

"Living well IS the best revenge."
George Herbert

That road trip is one I taped parts of last January to and from Mineral Lake, Washington.

Gotta run now! See ya on the road.

Pat

Founder isn't fun!

2008-11-10T20:36:00.000-08:00

This is Cricket. She's been the subject of other posts. She came here as a founder case, and was rehabbed and sound for awhile, but something happened while I had her on a borrowed pasture and I found her in the acute stage of laminitis (inflammed sensitive (dermal) laminae.)

So I brought her home just about the time apples were ripening. Neighbors often don't understand how detrimental sweets can be to certain horses. She was offered a few two many apples over the fence and that sent her over the edge to founder. The laminae has been destroyed and she will need to grow out new hoof capsules and if everything is right, she may be sound again. We'll see.

Cricket has been spending most of her time for the past few months in the stall. I've been feeding her differently types of hays and some beet pulp mixtures, MSM, and a product called Remission. I've been trying to keep her trimmed, but it's been difficult for her to completely unweight one foot. She's not very cooperative anyway, but this makes working on her feet so much more difficult!

For the first few months after the initial laminitic episode, she lived in the Soft Ride Comfort hoof boots. Which work very well in these cases, because if they're fitted well, they don't rub. But when I took her out of the boots she could barely take a step.

So we lined her stall with some recycled mats that Rich was able to get from a school renovation job. They work really well. Very cushy and more comfortable for her since she was laying down a lot for a few months.

Another benefit of these mats is they are very thick. I took a picture of the bottom side, but managed to delete it from my camera. I'll get another one and load it later. This stall usually floods in the rainy season. So we don't have to worry about that happening again. Nice. The urine drains better with these than with regular stall mats also.

Yesterday, I decided that if I was going to get her feet trimmed and treated for the nasty thrush infection she's developing in her frogs, I was going to have to lift her up off all fours. So I pulled out the horse sling that we invested in when I had my first serious founder case here for treatment. This sling cost $1,000. Rehabbing horses isn't cheap!

Here is the sling laid out and ready to go. The white padded tubes at the top go between the horse's hind legs and the fleesie pad at the bottom goes around her chest.

This is her with the sling partially attached. We have a ways to go and she wasn't real happy about the padded tubes between her hind legs. But I didn't get a picture of her with that part on. Once we had the entire sling on her body, Rich got concerned about how she would react when she realized she was attached to the back hoe and lifted her up a bit too quickly.

When she felt the tubes zip up between her legs she freaked out. The area we were doing this in was too confined and well, Houdini would have been proud of how she managed to get most the way out of the sling, before she allowed us to detach it from her body completely. What a disappointment.

What did we learn from this situation? Sedate the victim? In her case, we probably should have done that.

Go slower with the lift? Yep, equine wedgies are not well tolerated by frisky mares. Geldings don't seem to mind them. Go figure.

Make sure the area is clear of everything! Yes, Cricket busted a rasp in half during the freak out! A rasp! It was a Save Edge rasp though. A Heller Legend probably wouldn't have broken!:0) That's why I recommend the Hellers!

Well, more about Cricket at a later date. I figured I haven't shared any shots of Neenah for awhile. Here she is! Having a rest!

Draft Hoof

2008-10-30T11:55:00.000-07:00

This is a picture I took a few years ago at our state fair of a Percheron's foot.

Normal people take lovely pictures of the horse's head, or body shots showing the sheer size of these gorgeous animals.

But not me! I take a picture of the bottoms of the hooves. An area very few of us ever even notice, which is why they often look like this. No one complains, not even the horse. And the horse has every right to be really pissed about being forced to live with this crappy shoeing job!

Drafts can be big, naughty, combersome animals to trim and/or shoe so their hooves usually aren't maintained on the most frequent basis, not the mention the cost, unless owners work on their own draft horses. Which is often the case because after all, they are just draft horses, it's not like they ride them or anything. Right?

This horse is suffering from severe flare, causing separation of the white line and opening his hooves up to potential cases of white line disease and/or abscessing. The flare should have been addressed with the trim. It hasn't been addressed with the trim, so this hoof, with it's $200 or $300 dollar shoeing job (for all fours) is in exactly the same predicament as any long-term neglected hoof would be.

Flaring also allows the soles to become flat and tender so you can see in the picture the pad that is added to protect the sole and frog. This pad and shoe takes the entire bottom of the hoof out of function. The frog atrophies like any other body part that isn't being used. Draft horses can have just as wonderful and shapely hooves as any other horse. Owners of drafts just need to educate themselves about how to make that happen. Their horses could move and pull with much more athletism if their feet were more normally shaped.

One of the worst cases of flare in draft horses that I've ever seen is on the Percherons owned by the Preifert Fence Panel company. Boy, if you get to chance to see their hooves in a picture or in person...yikes! I happened to see a picture of these horses in the Capital Press paper and I cut it out, it was so horrible. The team of horses were pulling a wagon at break-neck speed as part of the opening ceremony for last year's Bishop Mule Festival. I could not believe they could keep from tripping over the duck billed hooves. It was an awful sight. No horses should have to live with feet like that, especially working horses.

I just wanted to point this out to you. If you are interested and you happen to be walking past the pretty draft horses at the fair, notice the hooves. This should shock you just as much as when you see a horse that hasn’t had any hoofcare in years. Spencer’s hooves are a good example of extreme neglect. (spencersnewlife@blogspot.com)

If this doesn’t shock you, let me know, I can help you learn why it should.

Pat