Those of you who know me know my commitment and passion about understanding the “whole horse.” So, I’m planning a series of essays on embracing a natural equine lifestyle. I’ll publish this in future Gazette issues as well as on my web site www.silverfiddleranch.com. In this essay, I will set the stage on how and why I got involved and what it means to me and my horses.
Since I’ve had horses, they have lived in a herd—although in a much smaller physical space before moving to Silver Fiddle Ranch. I’ve been pursuing what is often called “Natural Horsemanship” for many years. Three years ago, I became interested in the natural hoof care movement primarily because my barefoot horses were not doing as well as they had been before moving here. Their training was progressing as I was gaining more and better ideas on how I could help them in their learning. But their hoof health and their body conditions were not right, and I didn’t quite know if it was something about my horses or what I was doing. Finding a solution to what I was seeing was a necessity before embarking on serious training and trail riding—two aspects of having horses that I want to continue to enjoy. A horse who is moving improperly—or who hurts—is not a happy horse and is a horse who will break down before reaching any level of potential.
The most observable problem about my horses’ overall health was with their hoof health. Abscesses, under run heels, long toes, stumbling, moving in a way that was just “off” but with no clear picture of where that “offness” was coming from. Feedback from people I trust pointed to problems in their feet. This led me to learn about the natural barefoot movement and find resources that might lead me to a solution to their soundness issues. Along with many useful web sites for learning about barefoot hoof care, I found the American Association of Natural Hoof Care Practitioners (AANHCP) and The American Hoof Association (AHA), which are organizations for learning both the theoretical and practical aspects of natural hoof care. Through bringing my horses feet back to soundness with the help of two natural hoof care practitioners, I learned some important lessons about barefoot trimming: that not all trimming methods are the same, and that the trim alone does not ensure a sound and healthy horse. I had not realized that soundness and health was a “Whole Horse” endeavor. Not just the feet, but diet, physical, emotional and spiritual health, along with creating and maintaining an environment where my horses can live for optimal overall health. Horse keeping and training for health is a complete equine lifestyle that includes natural barefoot trimming, natural horse keeping, feeding horses as naturally as possible, and handling and training them in a stress-free manner. This has turned into a huge endeavor but one which anyone who cares for horses can achieve.
The components of creating a natural lifestyle for your horse include balancing the care of their physical, emotional and mental needs along with their spiritual needs. These are areas that I will cover in detail in future essays and for now, suffice it to say there are any number of ways to go about it. I’ve found some ways that have worked for me to achieve some balance for my horses and these are what I will be looking forward to sharing. The following are some of the topics for future essays.
Horse Keeping: Our horses’ physical, mental and emotional needs are taken care of 24/7 by keeping our horses in a “paddock paradise.” Jaime Jackson, founder of the AANHCP, has studied the wild horse for decades. He is well regarded as an expert in the field of the wild horse foot. His book Paddock Paradise discusses the wild horse model and explains how you can go about recreating a territory for your horses to live in that will simulate the rich environment found in the wild. In future essays, I will go into the detail of how my paddock paradise is organized and how the planning and laying it out with the features described in Jaime's book have resulted in positive changes in all of my horses’ feet and their overall health.
Natural Hoof Care: Natural hoof care is a hot topic these days. There are as many ways of trimming a horse’s foot as there are people doing the work—some real good, others very damaging. My horses have had both with some nasty results for their overall health but then finally positive results with a way that has honored my individual horse’s natural feet. Finding the right way—the way that accounts for the horse’s natural way of being—is the important fact for horse owners to understand. Doing no harm to the horse, not using invasive or shaping techniques to force the foot into a standard frame, and finding someone who can help you with regular trims or learning yourself how to trim your horses are areas that I will discuss in a future essay.
Handling and Training: For horses to be mentally and emotionally healthy, they need stimulation and socialization with both other horses (as in a paddock paradise) and with people.
When horses are with people, they need to be handled in a way that honors their needs and acknowledges their intelligence. This means a training method that engages their mind in ways where learning is a pleasure, is non-forced, non-invasive and non-threatening. We want our horses’ lifestyle in training to be as stressfree as it is in their natural living environment. We do not want our training method to break our horses’ spirits. We want them to be with us, to be able to make decisions about what we are asking, and to know when those decisions work for the both of us. The people who are my teachers—Harry Whitney, Shea Stewart, Ross Jacobs, and Peggy Cummings—acknowledge the horse’s mind and spirit. No tricks, no gizmos and gadgets—just good clear communication and understanding that complements a natural equine lifestyle.
In my future essays I will enjoy helping you learn more about your horse and finding that balance between their physical, emotional, mental and spiritual needs and how this can take you to a new and better understanding of both yourself and your horse.
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