Month: March 2016

“My horse won’t cope barefoot..”

“My horse won’t cope barefoot”…I would like a pound for every time I have heard this statement. I’m sure every horse can cope barefoot, and indeed I personally am running out of reasons why I might ever put a metal shoe on a horse, but I know not every owner can cope barefoot.

Barefoot can be a hard choice. It would have been very easy with Cal for me to believe that my horse won’t cope barefoot. It’s been incredibly hard for me to keep looking for the metabolic issue, to get to the diagnosis of the systemic problem that is stopping him from being a good rock crunching barefooter. It would have been so easy for me to slap shoes on it and just carry on but then I would have missed the ulcers, had even less warning about the COPD and would never have treated the boderline Cushings, luckily getting his ACTH levels down with herbal supplements. It is difficult for someone who hasn’t read about barefoot properly or thought to question the status quo to understand that everything they know about horse husbandry is designed to wreck the healthy hoof. Most of the ways that we choose to look after horses are for our convenience and not for the horse’s health. I know this, I have been there. I had the “best” looked after polo ponies within the M25 when I was grooming all those years ago. I hated some of the Argie methods but I learned a huge amount from the polo itinerants, and from other horseman in Australia, Scotland, Germany.  I have continued to listen and learn ever since, with a completely open mind. And I have checked the science, the research and the evidence, as I would for my human cancer patients. We should be in a Golden Age of horsemanship. We have rigorous scientific methods, amazing equipment and skills to analyse and interpret data. We are in a position to test every aspect of horse care and the effects on the horse’s health and mental wellbeing. Unfortunately much of the science is paid for by those with vested interests, and those who belive they know horses the best don’t feel the need to question their knowledge.

Horses are designed to move, 12-15-20 miles a day in the wild. Horses are built to trickle feed on a variety of poor grasses. They would choose outdoor life in stable social groups with a reassuring hierarchy and plenty of  space to get away from the dominant bully. They are not meant to stand overnight in shavings soaked in their own urine and faeces, eat too much sugary starchy food, go out for a few hours a day in an individual turnout paddock, deprived of crucial contact and rituals such as mutual grooming, stuff themselves full of lush grass and work for only a few hours a week.

A friend today told me how their half TB horse won’t cope barefoot because she has typical thoroughbred rubbish feet. I understand where she’s coming from- I used to feel the same way. Paddy had the worst feet in Cheshire: despite industrial amounts of farriers formula, he could never hold shoes and his hoof wall was thin and crumbly. Plenty of other people have felt the same way, watching their horse with his unconditioned hooves gimping across the yard when he loses a shoe. You would gimp in exactly the same way if I took your shoes off and asked to  you to walk on hardcore or gravel straightaway.

When I took Paddy’s shoes off, many people, including the vet and the farrier told me that I would find that my horse won’t cope barefoot. However, Paddy forced me to try barefoot, by nearly killing several farriers, including the horse whispering blacksmith, and what I found was that his hooves and his brain improved immeasurably. He became sure-footed, confident and healthier. He stopped rushing his fences and I could feel him balancing his body underneath me. It took time; in Paddy’s case about three months, to get him to rock-crunching go-anywhere status. Now at 20 he is sound and still going strong. He had four fantastic seasons eventing barefoot, then taught my husband Gary to ride, hunt and team chase and is now giving my step-daughter Lizzie the confidence to explore the forest.

Paddy is 7/8 TB; it’s nothing to do with TB genes. There is actually no significant genetic difference between all the modern horses around the world. Traits, yes, genetic alteration, no. The only exception is the recessive Hoof Wall Separation Syndrome in Connemaras, a recessive syndrome. This tragic syndrome would cause early death in the wild and therefore the aberrant gene would be weeded out as it is a disadvantage to survival.

The reason thoroughbreds are thought to have rubbish feet is that they are kept confined from a young age, fed starchy food and shod regularly  from the age of two. The hoof doesn’t finish developing until the horse is about 6; if it is compromised from an early age of course it will be sub-standard. Alois Podhajsky recommends that mares and foals  move daily from night pasture to day pasture a couple of miles down a rocky track to help the foals’ limbs and feet develop. In the wild foals hit the ground, stand up, suckle and immediately start travelling with the herd, quickly averaging 12 miles a day in their early lives. There are trainers successfully racing thoroughbreds barefoot

http://www.simonearleracing.com/how_we_train_our_horses.html

and many stories of off the track thoroughbreds being successfully rehabilitated to new lives barefoot.

http://blog.easycareinc.com/blog/notes-from-the-field/off-the-track-thoroughbreds-all-with-beautiful-rehabilitated-feet

Stacey, my neighbour, http://www.forestholidaycottages.co.uk/ put it beautifully today. She said “what we call footy, a person who didn’t understand barefoot would call lame.”

Better qualified people than me have answered the same question

http://www.unshod.co.uk/articles/guide_healthy_hooves.php

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1715697055340441&set=a.1715697018673778.1073741985.100007004891239&type=3&theater

So Con today was great on smooth tarmac, striding out beautifully on fine gravel and small stones but picked his way carefully and a bit more slowly over larger stones and hardcore. His ears never went back, he never made a pain face, if his foot landed on a sharp stone he hopped off it like a sensible pony and occasionally he chose to use the soft ground at the side of the path on the very challenging ground. Some might say that this means my horse can’t cope barefoot. We hacked for 45 minutes around Delamere and had a couple of good trots and a short canter. Once we turned for home he positively marched back to the house. Is he lame???

Which then leads me to more questions-

how do we define lameness?

how do we do a full five stage vetting on a barefoot horse?

 

 

The Best Seat in the House; cats rule the world

Everyone that has a cat will know that the cats rule the world. There’s a reason why the Bond villains have a cat on their lap- the cat is actually the villain and the hapless human just falls in with the malevolent plan. Our current cat is called Mr Burns. He’s called Mr Burns because he has a Hitler moustache

( http://www.catsthatlooklikehitler.com/cgi-bin/seigmiaow.pl

but I wasn’t allowed to call him Adolf because that wouldn’t have been politically correct. At the time we had two other cats called Bart and Homer so the villain became Mr Burns.

Bart and Homer came from the local rescue centre. They were matching black and white cats with perfect dinner suits and spats. They were sold as two brothers but were more likely father and son (the clue is in the name). We got them as a bribe to make sure the kids wanted to visit us in our little terrace in Monton, and because no house looks complete without a pet of some sort.

When we moved to Frodsham the cats discovered bliss- we moved in the middle of the August 2003 heat wave and I vividly remember them dancing around the garden in the dark chasing moths; after skulking around the bins and alleyways of Monton, green leafy Frodsham must have been a revelation.

I had a friend who had lots of kittens and cats, but the cute kittens were always grey or tabby, so didn’t match and were easily resisted: of course one acquires cats by colour matched sets. Then one day this little black and white kitten bounced out of Judith’s spare stable and I knew we were doomed. He doesn’t have a perfect dinner suit, he’s a bit dishevelled but he matched and he was super confident and so he became ours.

At the time we had a long-term house guest. Auntie Laura had broken both feet sleep-walking out of the balcony of her first floor flat in London onto a concrete slab. Initially she stayed with her sister who wouldn’t let her drink and take painkillers (spot the problem when there is nothing else to do for 6 weeks in plaster) so she came to stay with us. We said she couldn’t bring her dog as the cats were already traumatised enough by the arrival of the crazy kitten so Laura taught the kitten to behave like a dog. He doesn’t sit to command anymore but he does greet you at the door and come for walks and generally is much more affectionate and engaging than your average cat. He was a barn cat who took to home comforts like a complete professional; he must have thought all his Christmases had come at once. He is a brilliant mouser, and ratter, and badger baiter, but his best days are duvet days, spread out on your chest, testing his needle sharp claws on your belly and swiping you for a cuddle every time your attention wanders.

  
It’s just Mr Burns left now: the tale of the other cats is for another day. He has paid Laura back by training Ernie the pointer puppy. 

  We acquired an old suite off a mate; the chair was earmarked for the dog. We have several pieces of Vetbed: incredibly expensive puppy proof fleecey mat. All the cat has to do is sit in the middle and stretch out and the dog must sit in discomfort on the hard cold floor. Watching the cat ignore the dog’s shenanigans has taught me a huge amount about animal training. It’s all about infinite patience and never changing the question.

best seat

 

What is your Purpose?

“What is your purpose?” 

Such a simple and yet such a huge question. We had a visitor last weekend; Alison Delaney of Little Bird

http://www.littlebird.org.uk/

Alison is one of the most inspirational ladies I know. Her passion is helping people to fulfill their dreams. She also loves horses and dogs and so it was an absolute joy to be able to pay it forward by inviting her for a day out riding my beautiful grey horse in our fabulous forest. 

  
Alison’s great gift is making all sorts of different people feel amazing about themselves. Her deceptively simple question gets right to the heart of the matter.

So here goes 

1) to leave people, places and horses better than we found them.

  

  

  
2) to provide an environment for the horses where they can live as natural a life as possible where all their needs are met #friendsforagefreedom

  

  
3) to train classically and correctly in a manner that puts the horse first, maximises his longevity, health and potential. To train from the beginning as if everything is possible, and to preserve the horse’s spirit so it is a true partnership, dancing together.

  
4) to participate regularly in the full spectrum of equestrian activities: eventing, hunting, dressage, and show jumping, without compromising on the above ideals. 

  

5) to enjoy the journey and and to learn all the lessons presented by any challenges.

  

6) to become the complete equestrian, and therefore the complete human.

  
 

7) always a magic number: to freely give what we most desire.

What is your purpose? 

Congruence, Emotional Intelligence and Authenticity

Congruence, emotional intelligence and authenticity have become buzz-words recently. Search the internet and there are countless sites offering to help us reconnect with our inner self, with assistance from Reiki, meditation, yoga, Tai Chi, mindfulness, raw food diets and even equine assisted facilitation.

As life gets busier and we become further removed from the simple pleasures; walking barefoot across a lawn, paddling on a beach, sitting on the grass in the sun, standing on a hill-top feeling the breeze across our faces, we lose congruence and humankind becomes sicker and poorer.

Those of us who play with horses for our fun are very fortunate in that we experience Nature regularly, especially if we keep our horses at home. I get to feel the wind on my face every day cycling down to the field with the night-time feeds, as well as the rain, the snow and hopefully, soon, the sun. I slither and slide through the mud in our field, I hear the owl call, the vixen shriek and see the moon and the stars turn with the seasons. In summer I will laze on the grass with the horses, sun bathing and joining in the rolling party, in between pulling ragwort and pooh picking. There is no finer way to see the countryside unfold and observe the wild life than from the back of a horse. Just ask the Queen!

As well as the fresh air and hard physical labour, which has a virtuous Victorian effect on the mood, there are subtler lessons to learn from horses. Horses are very clear about the importance of congruence. There is nothing more distressing to a horse than sharing space with a being which feels one emotion and projects another. To them, this means there must be a big hungry cat in the vicinity. Humans bizarrely do this all the time; they say one thing, whilst meaning another, they hide their fear, even from themselves. Ignoring the big scary plastic bag just makes horses even more wild. They feel responsible for you while you are sat up there whistling away, imagine if you are the only one that could see that dangerous animal and your stupid partner is ignoring all the warning signals you are throwing out. Much better to see the bag and yawn, yes yawn. “That boring thing? Yes of course I can see it silly, it won’t eat us, and it’s just a stupid bag.”

#friendsforagefreedom

Horses have unfortunately become a commodity to feed our egos, an accessory to furnish us with trophies and achievements, or a substitute dependant that needs to be loved and spoiled and cared for in some slightly offbeat displacement activity. As a result they are often kept in totally unnatural environments, provided with what humans perceive as essential: a warm stable, a nice rug and lots of high quality food. What a horse perceives as essential is very different: in the wild they would choose continuous movement, interaction with other horses for grooming and herd behaviours, forage for 16 hours a day to keep their teeth healthy and their stomach acid low, and freedom to roam.

Once Paddy had managed to tell me that barefoot was the only way forward for him, I started to question a lot of the other dogma associated with traditional horse keeping in horse mad Cheshire. The various dilemmas familiar to barefoot horse owners surfaced and individual solutions evolved. Trim versus natural wear, turnout versus grass, the whole minefield of starting to read food labels and learning about ingredients and mineral balance. Luckily for me my first barefooter was an easy transition. Gut health, equine gastric ulcer syndrome, hind gut health, hoof abscesses after chemical worming leading us to targeted worming programmes, the list of what my horses have taught me is endless and will take many years to share.

The lesson for today however is my definition of congruence; that if you live what you believe, are completely authentic, then even without trying, you will show the way and others will follow.

Three years ago we moved to a new livery yard. We had been livery gypsies for a few years. Mel the polo groom had looked after Special Needs Paddy beautifully, which meant that we moved yards every year to her new polo job. We had done a tour of the outskirts of Delamere, complicated slightly by the acquisition of the second horse and then, when Mel left to marry her dream man, we spent a couple of years trying to find equivalent stellar care. We eventually landed at Bankfield shortly after the yard had been taken on by an American couple who were going to run the place as a professional competition yard. There were 18 boxes and they were full. The other liveries were traditional horse owners, all very nice but competitive and pretty orthodox in their training and husbandry practises. We were barefoot but Cal was barely functional and we had just started lessons with Patrice- I was in the self-lunging de-contracting stage which meant lots of trotting around super slow with high hands and maximum neck length and doing lots of in hand work that we didn’t quite understand and couldn’t explain.

Gary and I didn’t preach. We just practised congruence. I remember actively trying not to talk too much about barefoot, or classical riding or natural husbandry. After all, nobody likes the yard know-it-all and having been well educated about toxic livery yards, I had learned to keep my head down and my mouth shut. But if anyone asked a question they got an honest and full answer. And our horses went from strength to strength. Cal’s knee healed completely, we got back out competing and he has turned into a cross country machine. Paddy turned out to be the perfect schoolmaster for Gary and for me- he was very clear that we had discovered Patrice just in time and that he would never tolerate bar or tongue pressure from the downward acting bit ever again. And having felt him finally give me his back after 10 years of resistance I was never going to apply bar or tongue pressure deliberately again.

I still have no idea how it happened but within two years nearly all the horses on the yard were barefoot and yard owner and most of the liveries were having classical riding lessons with Patrice. The American dream didn’t last long, for various reasons including the breakdown of the sham marriage and emigration of their main client. The rest of us were left there, in the vast arena, peacefully pottering along on a journey of discovery.

Once you start listening to your horses they are very clear communicators. And doing right by them becomes very simple, although not necessarily easy. Once it is clear in your head that whatever response you receive from the horse is always the truth, congruence again,  and that horses try their best, there is no such thing as naughtiness or resistance. There is only “I hurt”, “I don’t understand”, or “I understand but I can’t do that yet”. A footsore barefoot horse isn’t 100% well; simples. It might have too much  grass, a high sugar diet, not enough work, insulin resistance, ulcers, Cushing’s, or an abscess brewing. If there are persistent abscess problems look to your land and your forage. If your horse is resistant, look to your saddle fit but mostly to your training because the work is causing them discomfort. If they don’t want to come in, it’s because they hate being in the dark stable on their own. They need to see each other to communicate and feel safe. They need to touch and groom and play. They need to lie down to sleep, just for an hour, and they need a look out whilst they do so.

And there is no greater compliment than two horses standing to attention at their doors, poised and perfectly balanced, when you walk onto the yard ,as if to say “pick me today, pick me today, I want to work today. “ Particularly when both those horses have been resistant, “work shy”, injured or problem horses for various reasons.

Horses don’t lie. Their bodies don’t lie, their muscle development doesn’t lie. Whatever the others thought of our oddball ideas, our horses gleamed with health and grew stronger and more beautiful, and eventually imitation became the sincerest form of flattery. Congruence.

“Outstanding success with any type of relationship in life or in any enterprise, depends upon authentic intelligence. Remarkable, high functioning individuals or groups are exceptionally coherent and show congruence in their actions and behaviours.”

 

Processing….

Fabulous weekend was had by all at the Patrice Edwards clinic- I am still processing the feelings and information from my lessons and the very useful lecture.

Key sound bite for me was to slow the shoulders and ask the hind leg to quicken. 

Key feelage was elbow to hind leg, fist forward to bit, elbow to hind fist to bit, in a rhythm, one being an upper arm function the other being a lower arm function.

Great to watch the horses processing too- a key element of the work is to set the horse up for success so that the next level of work is the next logical offer from the exercise. Sally’s Archie is now fully better and learning Piaffe- how exciting.

More to follow…