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Tag: friendsforagefreedom
The perfect barefoot trim; Keeping the Ridden Horse Barefoot
The perfect barefoot trim is a bit like rocking horse pooh. The perfect barefoot trim is an elusive and illusory premise. There is a very good reason why Trim is part 4 of “Keeping the Ridden Horse Barefoot”.
I have previously described the 4 pillars of barefoot performance- they are Diet, Exercise, Environment and now finally I’m going to talk about Trim. The perfect barefoot trim.
Time for another disclaimer. I am not a trained hoof care professional. I am pretty handy with a rasp by necessity. I do trim my two working horses as required, and then get some muscle (sorry trimming expert) in to do a check up every few months.
Over the years I have been the responsible human for a few barefoot horses, doing all sorts of work, both in Europe and in Australia, some a long time before the barefoot movement was even a thing! And one of the more recent horses has turned out to be a very tricky barefooter- through whom I have met more hoofcare professionals than I ever thought possible!
When I look back over the years, I have always known horses that didn’t need shoes. And back in my youth, I don’t remember the horses that didn’t wear shoes needing a special trimmer.
But in my youth I’d never known so many horses shod back to back literally for years without a break. I’d never seen 3 year olds shod as soon as they started work. We had really fast polo ponies in Australia that didn’t wear shoes. And some really classy show jumpers. Looking back I don’t think I ever met a farrier in Australia, despite working as a full time groom for a year. My sister and her friends have trekked hundreds of miles around the forests of Germany in unshod horses. The Argie polo grooms, the Australian farmers and the German happy hackers all had rasps in their grooming kit to tidy up any cracks or splits in the hooves.
The reason I saved “Trim” until last is because if the Diet, Exercise and Environment are right, then radical trimming can become unnecessary. We can split hairs (or hooves) about the definition of a self trimming (or self maintaining) horse but life is pretty sweet when we achieve this; for the horse and the human
And if the diet or environment aren’t good enough, then specialist or remedial trimming may be necessary to compensate or alleviate pathology to some degree; for example, navicular can be really successfully rehabbed barefooot
Navicular rehab at Rockley Farm
as can laminitis be treated and avoided
Nic Barker at Rockley Farm has not trimmed any of her horses for about 9 years
but I’m still not sure whether this approach is feasible for the majority of horse owners. The tracks at Rockley Farm are pretty unique, as is the rough Exmoor grass in between.
Over recent years trying to get Cal’s feet right I have met trimmers trained under all umbrellas: the UKNHCP, the EPA, trimmers who trained with Jaime Jackson (Mr Paddock Paradise) himself, others who followed KC La Pierre, and a couple of farriers, including one who practises under ‘grandfather’ rights. I spent years looking for the magic solution, the one person who would be able to make Cal’s weird feet look like nice round hooves and function better.
I drove myself, and many trimmers and hoof care professionals to distraction.
When I met Emma Bailey, I found someone I could have an ongoing conversation with. We tried every approach; super radical trims every 2-3 weeks, trying to model the hoof into a specific shape, we let the hoof wall get long to act like a natural version of rim shoes, we tried keeping the toes super short, controlling the flare, leaving the heels, balancing the heels, rasping the heels, taking down the bars, leaving the bars…..
Can I tell you a secret?
No matter what we did, the hoof always looked the same two weeks later….
Just like the horse grows enough foot to keep up with the wear created by work, the more you trim a hoof, the more exuberantly it grows!
The more you trim a particular flare, the more it responds, with more flare.
And you can’t force a pathological hoof to change to a healthy shape, until you remove the pathological stimulus. Sort the diet, correct the movement with training and bodywork, and then the foot will reflect the change inside and above.
Cal did grow better feet, eventually. Once I had the inflammatory conditions damped down with a diet that is starch and sugar free, organic, and varied with plentiful anti oxidants. Once I knew to avoid combination wormers, fertilised forage and processed food. Once I understood the importance of hind gut health, and the role of the biome in driving or controlling inflammation, his feet improved immensely.
The perfect barefoot husbandry regime leaves your horse sound, functional, comfortable, balanced and landing heel first confidently on most terrain.
Barefoot Hoof poetry in slow motion
True rock crunchers are a joy to behold, but not all horses will get there whilst living in England’s pleasant pastures and mountains green, particularly now rye grass, fertilisers, and pesticides are so ubiquitous.
My long and painful journey to get Cal to a point where his hooves are functional is the whole purpose of this blog- I hope by sharing the knowledge I have acquired I can save some of you either time, tears or money.
So here are my hard won words of wisdom:
- Hooves reflect what is going on in the physiology of the horse. If the horse is footsore, sensitive, tentative on challenging surfaces, there is an issue with the metabolism that has not been addressed. The short version is that there is inflammation somewhere in the body. The foot is quite possibly showing signs of sub clinical laminitis.
- Laminitis is a systemic disease- the horse’s feet are the affected end organ, like a diabetic foot in humans. It is not cured by focusing on the foot.
- The inflammation may require a holistic approach to damp it down. Putting shoes on a sore horse is like putting a sticking plaster on a pressure sore; it hides the wound but doesn’t address the problem.
- Inflammation can be addressed from the hindgut first; the more I learn about the biome, the more convinced I am that the answers to many diseases, both horse and human, are to be found in the micro-biome.
- Once the horse is healthy, GUT first remember, and there is no inflammation, then the feet reflect the biomechanics of the horse. This can be improved, by careful attention and good, classical gymnastic training.
- In the meantime you can trim those flares as much as you need to but until the loading pattern from above is altered, the wear pattern will persist and the flares will keep coming back. This stage is a bit chicken and egg; you may need to keep the flares under control to allow correct loading of the limb while the horse develops and changes.
- So to summarise: trim, as much as you need to, and as little as you can get away with. Take frequent photos and video. And if the feet aren’t performing, don’t just keep blaming the trim, sort out the rest of the horse first. SERIOUSLY. That particular nugget of truth has taken me 6 years to understand, accept, and completely internalise as a guide to keeping my horse well. Save yourselves the pain and learn from my journey.
If you do shoe your horse, please be aware that you miss many of the early warning signs that he is only just coping with our even warmer, wet weather giving us increasingly more lethal green, lush, rich British pastures.
And give him a shoeing break- this photo is the most scary I have ever seen
There is no perfect barefoot trim. But once the Diet, Exercise and Environment are in balance, then the hoof will be healthy and we should be able to trim as little as possible and as rarely as required.
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Of Course the Environment Matters- keeping the ridden horse barefoot
Of course the environment matters for keeping the ridden horse barefoot successfully. By environment, I mean all the places your horse works plays and relaxes in.
Ask yourself- Where does he spend most of his hours? And how helpful is that particular environment for building high performance barefoot hooves?
How many hours does he spend in a stable? That’s x number of hours he’s not moving. It’s also x number of hours that’s he’s standing in/on bedding mixed with urine and faeces. And what is he eating while he’s standing there?
If your horses are the fortunate ones that get plenty of turnout, how many hours is that? What sort of surface are they turned out on? What are they eating while turned out? Are they on a track system or in a small individual paddock square? How many miles do they move while turned out? How far do they have to move for their food and water? And all that is before we consider whether their social and behavioural needs are met.
We know that the horses with healthiest barefoot hooves are found in the feral horse populations.
In our part of the UK our nearest feral population are the Carneddau ponies of North Wales. This ancient herd of ponies are truly wild, and have frequented this mountain range in Snowdonia for thousands of years. Their numbers are controlled but other than that they are not managed in any way.
A recent segment in a wildlife programme featured a stallion in his prime chasing off a usurper- both ponies cantering effortlessly over the rough stony ground. The Mongolian ponies had similar skills.
Could you canter over rough ground in your bare feet without any training or conditioning? I know I couldn’t: not straight away. I do spend a lot of my time barefoot, and when I was travelling through Israel and Australia and shoes were mostly optional, I could run miles barefoot on packed dirt and tarmac. But it did take some time to toughen feet up, human and horse. And these days they are soft and ouchy again LOL.
If your horse spends most of his time standing in a field of soft mud or working in a soft arena, of course he don’t be able to march briskly down a stony track. Just like muscles, bones and tendons, feet need conditioning.
A good diet sets the barefoot horse up for success (see part 1), while the miles will build and shape the feet (see part 2) but at the end of the day the feet will perform best on the surface to which they have become most accustomed.
If you want your horse to be rock crunching, then he will have to crunch some rocks!! He can be exposed to gravelly then rocky surfaces, bit by bit, building tough feet incrementally.
So yes of course the environment matters. Track systems in summer are great because they encourage movement, limit grass intake and tend to pack down into hard dirt. You can enrich sections; with pea gravel or hard core, best done on the horses’ route to a favourite spot so they traverse the surface regularly.
Be realistic out hacking. Build up the exposure to challenging surfaces gradually, initially at slow speeds, possibly hop off for a challenging section. Let the horse pick his way, slowly if required. One of the major benefits of keeping your ridden horse barefoot is the increase in proprioception and the way that allows him to choose his balance over challenging terrain and protect his joints- give him the time to learn the skills.
if you only ever work on a beautiful level surface, be that grass, dirt or arena footing, how will your horse learn to dodge tree roots, deal with camber or adapt to undulating terrain? It’s like the difference between road running and cross country running- in human terms it’s a different sport!
So of course the environment matters for keeping the ridden horse barefoot. It matters for both physical and mental health.
The way we keep horses is profoundly unnatural, even when we are doing our best by them. Low level stress and gut dysfunction are often contributors to poor hoof performance- as well as the physical, you could think of the hooves as the most sensitive barometer of your horses mental and psychological health.
So does the environment your keep your horse in meet all his needs? And I don’t mean shelter feeds and water here- that’s the minimum to keep the RSPCA away; I mean his species specific needs for mental and psychological health. Is he living a full and satisfying life in horse terms?
#friendsforagefreedom
Or is he being kept alive and functional purely for human use?
That’s a whole new dilemma!
My name is Fran McNicol and I am an amateur equestrienne living in Cheshire, UK. I am a doctor, specialising in colorectal surgery, and my MD research thesis was on inflammation and sepsis. Through my day job, I understand and fix the human digestive system, and I know a huge amount about inflammation and the human animal, but the most useful thing about becoming a “Doctor Doctor Miss Miss” (MBChB, MD, MRCS, FRCS) is that I have learned how to read other people’s research, evaluate the evidence and then critically test apparently good theory on my own horses. My writing is therefore my opinion, and current state of learning, from 25 years of full-time doctoring, a few years working as a polo groom around the world and many years of keeping my own horses. I love training young horses, and focus on riding the sport horse both classically and holistically. I compete regularly in all disciplines at our local riding club especially one day eventing. I started blogging as a way to share the experience gained from taking a selection of horses barefoot and working towards the dream barefoot property. I blog regularly at www.nelipotcottage.com
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The First Step- Keeping the Ridden Horse Barefoot
The first step to keeping your ridden horse barefoot, successfully, at a high level of performance, has nothing to do with taking the shoes off. If transitioning to barefoot from shoes, the first step is to clean up the diet. If your horse is not performing as well as he could barefoot, the first step should be to go back and examine the diet. Success in barefoot performance or barefoot rehabilitation is determined by four factors; Diet, Environment, Exercise and Trim. Those well meaning naysayers who fail at the barefoot experiment have invariably just taken the horse’s shoes off and expected instant success, without taking the first step and making husbandry and lifestyle changes.
Now please note, I have no formal nutritional qualifications. I am a human doctor, specialising in colorectal surgery, and my MD research thesis was on inflammation and sepsis. Through my day job, I understand and fix the human digestive system, and I know a huge amount about inflammation and the human animal, but the most useful thing about becoming a “Doctor Doctor Miss Miss” (MBChB, MD, MRCS, FRCS) is that I have learned how to read other people’s research, evaluate the evidence and then critically test apparently good theory on my own horses. What follows is therefore my opinion, and current learning, from 25 years of full-time human doctoring and professional polo grooming around the world as well as amateur horse keeping.
Forage Based Diet
The first step is that the horse’s diet should be mainly forage based. They are trickle feeders; in the wild they will browse, forage and graze for 16 hours a day. A forage base diet doesn’t mean they should be standing in a lush green paddock of rye grass, stuffing their faces, or being surrounded by free choice ad lib rye based hay.
Trickle feeding a forage based diet means they should have to work quite for their forage but it also that it should be available more or less non stop. Unless you are going to drive around the field all day with them dispensing wedges of different forage at regular intervals, this means for true species specific husbandry we have to get creative. Track systems encourage natural movement. But the grass on track systems tend to get stressed, so they must have free access to other stuff, hay or haylage, trees and natural hedgerows, with a variety of weeds, and herbs.
Cal, my grey horse, has had breathing problems in the past, so I feed organic, late cut,meadow “Haylage” that is more like wrapped hay. It has to be organic, I found that out the hard way. Fertilised forage causes all sorts of strange toxic effects
Feed Clean
When we first moved to our new field, we bought gorgeous looking meadow hay off the farmer next door. It smelt lovely, tested OK for sugar and starch, and was available in the right quantity at the right price. But the horses just didn’t look quite right on it. We switched to organic and they bloomed.
I also believe everything we should feed horses should be non GMO. Not because genetic modification doesn’t occur every time we breed an animal, or cultivate a plant, but because humans have mostly used GMO technology to increase plants’ resistance to chemicals so we can then use ever more toxic chemicals on the crop to increase yield. So organic, nitrate free, glyphosate free and GMO are unlikely to occur in the same space.
Round up is the commonest glyphosate:
“Glyphosate is an herbicide. It is applied to the leaves of plants to kill both broadleaf plants and grasses. The sodium salt form of glyphosate is used to regulate plant growth and ripen fruit. Glyphosate was first registered for use in the U.S. in 1974.”
Glyphosate is used as a desiccant; if it is applied to wheat just before harvest, the wheat dies by going to seed, thereby increasing the yield from the harvest.
Would you knowingly eat cereal that had been sprayed with poisonous weedkiller just before it was harvested? Would you like your horse to?
Speaking of Grass
The rest of the barefoot horse’s diet, once you get your forage right, is relatively easy. They shouldn’t need much else. If your forage is good quality and they have good varied grazing with access to a variety of herbs and weeds, they shouldn’t need much else.
I say that with my tongue in my cheek. Rewilding is a relatively new name for an ancient concept- living in harmony and balance with nature. The story of Knepp is the recent high profile example of this concept in action.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jun/28/wilding-isabella-tree-review-farm-return-nature
It took 3 years of hard work to get my supposedly horse friendly grass field in Cheshire up to a paltry 8 species per m2… more of that story in these two posts
Remember that our main crop is horses, not grass. If your field, like most of Cheshire, has only one or two plant species per m2, then you may need to supplement vitamins and minerals. The carrier feed for the supplement should be organic, non GMO, low sugar, and low starch. I would suggest feeding straights, then you know exactly what you are feeding. If you must feed processed feed in nice shiny bags, then be sure to avoid anything that contains oatmeal or wheatmeal (industrial floor sweepings), soya oil or meal, (the balance or omega 3,6,9 is completely wrong and actually predisposes to inflammation, and molasses flavouring.
Good brands of feed that I have used include Agrobs, St Hippolyt, Simple Systems.
Read your labels. And don’t believe marketing ploys like the Laminitis Trust badge or friendly sounding names like healthy hooves: read the labels again and do your own research.
Avoid overfeeding. Fat predisposes to insulin resistance, and also has a pro-inflammatory effect on the body. In humans, obesity is a strong independent predictor for cancer, diabetes and heart problems, because fat itself excretes damaging inflammatory signalling chemicals called cytokines.
Vitamins and Minerals
In terms of the mineral supplement content, magnesium oxide is really useful in the early transition days. Magnesium is deficient in most Western soils and diets. Horses and humans all very rarely test deficient in magnesium because levels are so tightly regulated in the blood and serum, but supplementing it has been shown anecdotally to have positive effects, for health and well being, as well as for barefoot transition. Magnesium also has an analgesic (painkilling) effect, helping horses to use their hooves better in the early stages.
Salt is crucial,
https://www.gravelproofhoof.org/salt
as are copper and zinc, to balance out the iron in our soils. I feed a 25ml scoop of table salt every day, and more in summer if they are working hard. If you can buy sea salt by the 25kg bag that’s probably better for them, but I’ve chosen ease over quality here.
There are many good all round balancers on the market to ease transition. I would only go with a British barefoot brand; these people have done their homework, their horses have travelled the miles, and they have developed a product based on the needs of the barefoot equine that they have identified from their own experience. A barefoot horse will tell you categorically if the husbandry is good enough, by developing rock crunching high mileage hooves.
So there you have it; the first step to taking the ridden horse barefoot is to forensically examine and perhaps change what you feed. Good hard working feet rely on good clean healthy nutrition, and it’s important to set yourself up for success with this crucial first step.
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Keeping Ridden Horses barefoot- the good the bad and the ugly
Every now and then I come across a new horsey friend who doesn’t know and understand why I am such a keen advocate for keeping ridden horses barefoot.
At these times, I find myself re-telling the story that has got me and my horses to this point, and I think I should do a blog summary of the advantages and pitfalls of keeping ridden horses barefoot.
The good
The best thing, and I mean simply the best thing, about keeping ridden horses barefoot, and eventing said barefoot horses, is never having to worry about studs ever again.
Not only do I eliminate hours of prep, cleaning out stud holes, tapping stud holes, packing stud holes, putting in studs, searching for studs in the long grass, chasing the foot around with the tap still in the hole and all the other nightmares associated with the logistics of studding a razzed up horse, I don’t have to worry about what size of stud to use, nor the possible damage done to foot and forelimb by the unnatural stress and shear force transmitted to the horse from a studded foot.
You know how footballers are always fracturing their tarsal bones? This is due to the foot gripping suddenly at speed and all that kinetic energy getting transmitted to the bones of the foot at an angle and intensity those bones are not meant to withstand. Horse’s feet are meant to flex, in order to absorb the concussion of landing, and are also designed to slide a little before gripping, to protect the bones of the foot and the more precious bones and ligaments above.
And without shoes and studs, I get the benefit of the horse’s own natural gripping mechanism. The horse’s hoof is beautifully designed to function on all surfaces when healthy. A concave sole with a pointed toe allows the foot to dig in for extra lift. The fully developed spongy frog provides grip, slows the sliding and acts as a cushion shock absorber, a bit like Nike Airs, that also helps to pump blood back up the limb. The bars and quarters act like the cleats in a pair of football boots.
Keeping ridden horses barefoot also ensures that they have the benefit of optimal proprioception when we humans are on board. Proprioception is ‘the perception of awareness of the position and movement of the body’, and a key component of the information required fir the horse, or any animal, is the ability to feel the ground beneath their feet. The ability to access and use that information to adjust to uneven or challenging terrain is an essential part of balance and of healthy movement. Our human shoes are mostly supple and flex with our feet; horseshoes generally are not. I often think be by shod must feel like being permanently stuck in winter mountaineering boots with crampons- these have a completely rigid sole that does not flex at all; can you imagine trying to walk any distance in your ski boots? You have to do the funky chicken in the joints above to make up for the fact the foot doesn’t flex as it was meant to.
And can you remember how cold your feet get in ski boots, or even in wellies, in winter? That feeling when your feet are like blocks of ice, solid lumps with no fine touch sensation and it’s difficult to wriggle your toes? And you feel like you are walking on chunks of solid flesh rather than a fully functioning foot? That feeling is caused by impaired circulation; in the cold the blood flow to our extremities is reduced to prevent us losing excessive heat from those areas. The foot goes numb, and is less functional.
Thermal imaging allows us to compare the temperature difference, and therefore blood flow, between a shod foot and a barefoot hoof.
http://equinethermography.co.uk/galleries/horse_hoof_thermal_gallery.php
Immobility leads to impaired circulation. When your feet are cold you wiggle your toes to get the blood going; likewise a functioning equid foot flexes and contracts as it contacts the ground, pushing the blood around the hoof and limb.
The horn is still a living substance, more solid than our foot but certainly not rigid as we are led to believe.
What do steel horseshoes do? The rigidity of the steel limits the natural flexion of the foot, converting a conformable, dynamic structure into a fixed, immobilised structure. The nails and the tightness of the shoe impair circulation; even if the shoes are beautifully fitted to the hoof on day one of the shoeing cycle, as the hoof grows, the shoe and the nails become restrictive. Just observe how much the hoof grows out of shoes during your winter shoeing break compare to how slowly it grows in between shoeing cycles.
The impaired circulation from restrictive shoeing mimics chilled toes; the horse therefore suffers from impaired proprioception, both from cold feet and from being deprived of crucial mechanical contact between the sole of the foot and the ground.
In a healthy foot, the frogs act as extra pumps, moving blood around the foot and back up the limb, and also acting as a hydrostatic shock absorption mechanism. A cadaver model has actually shown that a barefoot hoof absorbs nearly ALL the concussion created by landing the limb, and therefore very little force is transmitted further up the limb, minimising damage and wear on the rest of the joints.
http://www.healthyhoof.com/articles/concussion_study.php
Another interesting fact is that steel horseshoes vibrate at the exact same frequency that causes the industrial injury “vibration white finger” in humans. It’s a frequency that causes necrosis or tissue death. Not all shoes do this- Cytek and other plastic shoes don’t have this effect, nor do aluminium racing plates. But steel horseshoes do.
The Bad
What are the disadvantages of keeping ridden horses barefoot? The main problem that I have observed is that we get instant feedback about how fit, well and sound our horses are.
Photo courtesy of V&T equine services
The motto above may not be an easy motto to live by, but it is the truth. Keeping ridden horses barefoot gives us really accurate information about our horse’s fitness to work.
Lucinda Green tells a great story about a racing trainer friend who has recently started legging up his horses barefoot. He is noticing fewer early season injuries, and much better longevity from his charges. Why?
Because shoeing had previously allowed him to work the horses harder than their bones, joints and tendons were ready for. By building up the work barefoot, he could only increase the intensity of work at the rate the feet were conditioned for; which accurately reflected the conditioning of the limbs above.
When keeping the ridden horse barefoot, we also get instant feedback about our horse’s general health. Event lines in the horn of the hoof document times of metabolic challenge. You will see a line for each dose of wormer, each vaccination, every flush of grass. If you’ve moved yards, or if your horse has had an injury, or another reason for a period of stress, there will be a ripple visible.
Is the horse footy on stones? Mostly it will have had too much sugar in its diet, or have a pro- inflammatory process going on. I am now ashamed that it took me a good few years to twig that Cal’s funny feet were actually borderline laminitic.
Laminitis is a funny disease- it’s much more akin to diabetes, a disorder of sugar metabolism that affects the whole body, than a disease limited to the foot. The horse’s foot is the end organ most often damaged by the systemic disturbance, a bit like diabetic foot injuries in humans. Cal had terrible airway inflammation, low level laminitic feet, probable ulcers and some very peculiar skin lumps- all of these are manifestations of systemic inflammation. Once I listened to the story his feet were telling me I found the answer to all his ailments.
The solution- strictly organic, low sugar low starch diet with wrapped late cut meadow hay and Phytorigins amazing supplements for hindgut health, maximum anti oxidant support and optimal digestive efficiency.
the results speak for themselves
So the main disadvantage of keeping ridden horses barefoot is that you will inevitably become much more in tune with your horse’s body. Once you start listening and observing, I warn you now, not all the information is welcome. You may have to adjust your plans and ambitions to fit in with the horse’s schedule, their current capabilities. Your ego may have to step aside. You may have to train at their rate. You may have to learn new skills, such as a little light hoof trimming. You may have to become a feed geek, or a grass geek 😜, or get a whole degree’s worth of knowledge from bitter experience!!
I say it’s worth it.
The ugly
My friend the vet said to me many years ago – “you do see some really odd shaped feet on barefoot horses”
He said this as if it was a problem, as if the trimming was at fault, or those misshapen hooves were dangerous to the horse’s long- term soundness. He was almost offended by the lack of symmetry, and that someone could allow it to persist.
My current level of understanding is that feet reflect both what’s going on inside the horse and also above in the musculoskeletal system.
Nic of Rockley Farm wrote a brilliant blog back in 2013 about flares and deviation; it’s probably the single most useful blog post I have ever read
http://rockleyfarm.blogspot.com/2013/03/flare-deviation-and-does-it-really.html
If the horse has funny looking feet, it’s likely because it needs funny looking feet, or because, at this moment, it can only grow funny looking feet. Fix the diet, treat the whole horse,allow and correct the movement, and beautiful feet will grow.
Simples
Nic writes from years of solid experience and is always a source of comfort and inspiration and power on badass barefoot days
http://rockleyfarm.blogspot.com/2017/10/ask-how-and-why-and-dont-be-afraid-to.html
Asking How? and Why? of any horse care professional is your right, and your duty as guardian of your horse.
if you are not yet ready to not shoe, do please burn this image on your brain. And give those feet a good long shoeing break every year, to keep the feet looking more like the healthy foot on the left of the picture than the right.
Educate yourself. Turn into a hoof geek. And a horse health geek. Ask questions. Be honest with yourself- what do you see when you look at your horse’s feet?
And remember- no foot no horse
A couple of book recommendations to get you started on your barefoot journey
Feet First by Nic Barker and Sarah Braithwaite
Barefoot Horse Keeping-the Integrated Horse by Anni Stonebridge & Jane Cumberlidge
This article is also available as a podcast
https://soundcloud.com/fran-mcnicol/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly
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Turn out versus living out
Or show us your mud rugs!
Another phrase that should have made me a millionaire;
“my horse could never live out, he loves his stable. He’s always begging to come in at night.”
Apart from the fact that this begging is a learned behaviour, because horses live for routine, we also need to understand the difference between providing ‘turn out’ versus providing adequate facilities for them to live out full time in a suitable environment.
Now don’t get me wrong: I would much rather horses spent a measly hour turned out than no time out at all. But we have to acknowledge that horses are movement, and the more they can move the happier and healthier they are. And that all our husbandry practises are a compromise chosen by humans between cost, practicality and ease of use of the animal. Turn out versus living out is a good example of a human chosen compromise.
I tolerate thick mud on my horses from November through to March, and many other days in between.
Other than competition days, I only groom to ride. I only wash a tail or pull a mane to compete. And I am comfortable with those choices. You won’t shame me into bathing my horse in winter- he needs his greasy coat for waterproofing. Likewise his feathers stay full all winter. And I very rarely brush his legs- layers of super dry mud wellies are the best protection against mud fever.
Many people mistakenly believe that how a horse behaves in a turn out situation will determine how prepared that horse is to live out full time.
But there is a huge difference between turn out versus living out.
To understand why, we need to know more about the behaviour of the wild horse.
Horses much prefer to be too cold than too hot. They can warm themselves up, by increasing their activity, or by eating plenty of forage that then gets fermented in the caecum a.k.a. hindgut, producing heat. Effectively horses have their very own central heating system, and as long as they have adequate access to forage, will keep fermenting that forage and keep warm.
Horses left in their natural state will grow a fabulous winter coat. This has at least two layers, an underneath fluffy insulating layer and a longer coarser protective layer on top. If you have ever turned your horse out naked in the rain you may have noticed the herringbone pattern that the dried in rain has left?
This is no accident. The herringbone acts like a guttering system, allowing the water to run off the top of the coat while keeping the fluff underneath dry.
Sarah Oliver’s trackie in Cumbria
Mud herringbones for a cold night- Rocky's mum Willow in Weymouth
As long as the fluff has enough air in between the hairs it acts as an amazing insulation layer.
It used to amaze me, coming home after work to ride and pulling a naked horse in from the field, how dry the horses’ backs actually were most of the time.
And all horses can grow a good coat if left to adapt. Paddy is 7/8 thoroughbred, thin skinned with a very fine coat, so I thought. The first year, we moved to Delamere from livery in March so all the horses were rugged. The second year we just didn’t rug.
I trace clipped Cal to allow me to work him, but with a shallow trace clip, he still didn’t need a rug. He’s half Irish Draught so grows the most beautiful fluffy winter coat, and thrives on fresh air.
Incidentally I also never dried him off after riding- I had to walk him back to the field from the house so he cooled off a bit; then the first thing he would do when turned out was roll in the cool sandy mud, good for his coat and his body temperature.
When it did snow, the horses loved rolling in the snow- it was like a spa day.
Snow is also strangely insulating- the horses all wore snow rugs when they could, and their backs were toasty warm underneath!
Rolling is also a bonding activity I discovered. I took a book down to the field one summer day to sunbathe. I was flat on my back reading and enjoying the damp grass on my sweaty back when all 3 horses came over to join me for a rolling session. That was a pretty cool moment.
Paddy grew a good enough coat year 2, although he still looked a bit poorer than I would have liked coming into spring. Year 3, a really cold, wet year , he grew the most amazing triple layered pelt and wintered really well.
Environment is key though. Our horses had a field shelter, which they rarely used, but also had really good hawthorn hedges all around the field perimeter, good tree cover in the bottom corner, and most importantly the field had dips and hollows that offered varying natural windbreaks.
Their favourite spot was down in the dip in the bottom corner of the field. Eddisbury Hill formed a high level wind break, the hollow has quite deep sides and is south facing. I used to think they had all escaped as you literally couldn’t see them until you were on top of them, sun bathing down out of the wind.
Each part of the field served a different purpose. The sandy area near the field shelter was the sand rolling area. The steeper side of the slope below the field shelter was the mud rolling area.
The horses were very particular in their personal grooming routine. They would do a very thorough sand roll every morning after breakfast. The mud roll occurred in the afternoon generally, coating themselves up with extra insulation for the night.
The Pzrewalski horses in Mongolia coated themselves in mud in the morning to keep the midges away but our field didn’t have good mud in summer. I could always tell when a cold night was due though- they would be coated in mud from eyelash to fetlock.
They never got rain scald- the twice daily self grooming regime works much better than the human version.
When it rained, they might occasionally hide in the field shelter for a half an hour break if it was really relentless. More often, they would be found grazing down in the dip, or browsing huddled under the hedge. Once there was a lull in the weather, they would charge around a bit to warm themselves up, then get back to the serious business of grazing.
They would graze for a couple of hours, then nap, then have some haylage, roll or groom, then go for a wander around the perimeter and stop for a drink. I used to love to spend the hours watching them just being horses.
So if your horse is “begging” to come in at night, ask yourself
1) have you trained that behaviour (yes obviously) and
2) what is missing from that turnout environment that would make your horse less keen to come in?
Does he have #friendsforagefreedom
Is there enough forage? Enough stimulation?
A place to hide from the sun? A place to shelter? A place to roll? Room to get up some speed and play?
A place to look out over the surrounding area?
Now we are back at livery my 3 wait by the gate at 3pm, expecting to come in.
Before we moved back to livery, they used to wait by the gate of the big field at 6pm for evening feeds. But they weren’t asking to come in. They would eat their dinner, say thank you and then wander off down the field to the water trough and the haylage feeders.
Now they know their new routine – they are coming into a stable for dinner, and the turnout, although lovely, isn’t an environment good enough to support happily living out. They have adapted back to overnight confinement, for now.
But when we find our next dream Nelipot, I’m determined that I’m going to need a school dinner bell to call them down off the big wooded hill 😎😎
Because even happy healthy filthy horses should work occasionally 😜
buy the book- “Bare Hooves and Open Hearts”
If you have enjoyed this blog then please consider buying an author signed paperback copy of my recent book. It contains more of my philosophy on husbandry and training, based on my experience, research and learning. Price includes 2nd class postage to anywhere in Europe. Other regions may cost more- email me and we can always arrange.
£13.99
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The Myth of the Alpha
Or busting the myth of the alpha! I’m learning energy work at the moment. The first few sessions with a new teacher, even one infused to the hilt with energetic information, are always about seeking a common language. No matter how connected or enlightened we are, as humans we still need a framework of communication, and that communication can occasionally be clumsy. Sometimes one might drop a complete clanger. 
It may occur as an attempt at shorthand, to convey a feeling, or it may reflect confusion stemming from a different understanding of words. My teacher’s clanger today was “the horse trusts you….you are the alpha in the herd.” There we have it, the myth of the alpha!
Now first, let me just clarify; I’m not bitching here. I spoke up at the time and between us, we found a different set of words that conveyed the feeling required in the moment. But it did get me to thinking…..
The myth of the alpha or herd leader is all pervasive. Depending on who you read, it may be the alpha male, the stallion or herd defender, who fights off all comers to protect his harem of mares and pass on his genes. Or it may be the alpha mare, the real herd leader, who makes all the important decisions in the herd, including when to move, when to drink, eat and sleep.
So much training methodology, in equine and canine training, is based on this flawed concept. We are told we have to be the pack leader, to dominate, to demand respect, if we expect to earn obedience or cooperation. The whole Natural Horsemanship movement is based on repackaging this belief in various shiny guru-based guises- “control the feet and you control the horse”, the use of “pressure release”, the “round pen” work and “join up”.
None of this methodology really stands up to scrutiny if your primary aim is a willing partner, either equine or canine. When an animal shows aggressive behaviour, the others will quietly choose to remove themselves from the aggressor’s proximity. When humans use coercive or alpha based training methods, the animal is never given the chance to remove himself from the unpleasant stimulus. Instead, he is subjected to ongoing dominance behaviour with no release or reprieve. What’s natural about that? The round pen work particularly, if you watch carefully, shows stressed horses, running around, demonstrating displacement behaviour not submission. And who wants submission anyway?
Modern cross country training ethos seems to rely on the fact that the horse will be more scared of the consequences of not jumping the fence than he is of jumping the scary fence. How many sales adverts say “never stops”? Personally, if I completely miss at a fence, I would rather my horse save us both rather than turning himself inside out to take off and hopefully get to the other side. I want him to trust me so when things get scary he asks me, are we ok, are we going, what do we need to do, not just to launch himself in desperation.
Training classical dressage, especially, can not be done by force. We are incrementally teaching the horse to experiment with new and different ways of using his body; the reward is that the new muscle usage feels better and so the horse will spontaneously offer it again. This relaxed experimenting on the horse’s part simply cannot occur in a coercive relationship. Classical training, similar to dance, is the very antithesis of the myth of the alpha.
I have spent many hours observing my horses in the field, while doing pooh picking and fencing and other jobs. They are three geldings, a bachelor gang, that have been together now for 5 years, mixed up with various short term visitors. Paddy, the eldest, is 23, Rocky is the youngest at 6. There really is no clear leader among them. They definitely all have different jobs. Paddy is the sentinel- I cannot get within half a mile of them in any situation without him fixing his eyes on me and saying Hi! I have owned him the longest, and the bond is close, but not as close as the bond I have with Cal. Still, it is always Paddy that announces my presence to the herd.
Cal is very controlling about food. He really flexes his muscles and his teeth at meal times; I have always fed him first for ease and safety. This doesn’t necessarily make the others want to hang out with him, and often when he is snoozing, or if I take him out to ride, the other two will spend the Cal free time stuffing themselves at the Haylage feeders. Cal is Irish born and bred, so I guess food has been scarce at some point. That’s resource guarding, it’s not leadership.
Rocky still loves to play, mostly on two hind legs. Cal and Paddy take it in turns to entertain him, and to chastise him when he gets too annoying. No one in particular decides when to move, or when to drink, or when to go for a mosey to the vantage point; those decisions seem to occur organically and any one of the 3 horses can take the lead. When we had a little mare in with the boys, she did move them around a lot, I guess because she liked to prove that she could!
All these observations however are based on horses in captivity. No matter how much we had enriched our field environment, it still had fenced boundaries, Haylage feeders and limited grass when they were allowed on the middle; i.e. rationed resources.
Lucy Rees has studied horses extensively in the wild.
“There’s a lot of fiction written about wild horses” says ethologist Lucy Rees. By that, she means that many books and even scientific studies describe horse behaviour in terms of “dominance hierarchies” – something which has never been observed in horses living under truly natural conditions, but which nevertheless form the basis of many schools of horsemanship… even ones purporting to be “natural”.
Her fascinating series of videos can be accessed for free. They should be required watching for all horse owners and horse lovers.
“In this video series, we meet the Pottoka ponies of the Gredos mountains in Northern Extremadura in Spain. The ponies lead a natural life in over 1000 hectares. The purpose of the project is to study natural horse behaviour and also to keep the mountains clear of shrubs which can start forest fires.
https://www.epona.tv/real-ethology-with-lucy-rees
Briefly, where there are adequate resources, and adequate space, there is no dominance behaviour demonstrated. The wild horses live in peaceful, co-operative family groups, and show cooperative bonding behaviour and virtually no aggression. There might be some posturing at breeding time, but there is no true conflict. Humans could learn a lot from horses.
Likewise the seminal study that led to the myth of the alpha wolf, was based on an observational study in the 1940s, performed on wolves in captivity. Mech then published a book on the theory in the 1970s, which he has recently been trying to get withdrawn! A wolf pack in captivity, a bit like our domestic horses, is a group of disparate individuals who have been forcibly grouped together by their human owners, with no family relationship or accounting for personalities, and who are then made to compete for resources which are controlled and rationed by the humans. Funnily enough, the captive wolves fought a lot. The study has been compared to learning about the behaviour of human families by observing people living in refugee camps!
http://www.sketchyscience.com/2014/08/the-alpha-myth-real-science-of-wolf.html
It is not just our animals who suffer from our obsession with this flawed paradigm
Imagine how much less stressful and more fun life at the office could be if we all worked together for the greater good rather than allowing behaviour that would not be out of place in a small shark tank!
So if we are not to be their alpha animal, what role can we assume? How about being their most trusted human? How about an equal relationship between two different species of animal based on mutual trust and affection? Believe me, these animals know you have two legs. Of course large animals need to understand physical boundaries, for everyone’s safety, but we can set those parameters with energy and intent as well as very simple training- rewarding the behaviours we like and either not rewarding or discouraging the behaviours we don’t like.
Positive reinforcement does not have to involve treats; dogs and horses are first sentient: your approval and love is reward enough. (Although treats do help in the early days when puppies are super distractable.) I’ve never yet had a horse for whom I needed to use treats for simple training tasks. I’ve used food as a distraction e.g. when clipping and trimming, but not as a specific positive reinforcement training aid. I’m not saying I will never need to, but in my current skill set, with my current equines, my timing and marking is best done with verbal praise and a pat or a stroke. Horses are so good at understanding intent, they know when they have done well.
So please do your animals a favour. Look your horse or dog in the eye and try communicating with the smallest possible whispers or signals. Imagine you are in a war zone, or out hunting, and need to communicate with silent gestures and just a thought. Once you start to whisper, they will start to listen more closely. And once you observe them carefully, and try to only praise rather than constantly saying “NO don’t do that”, you will be amazed at how they blossom.
So please, join me in going out and help us all bust the myth of the alpha. The world will be much better for it.
Another useful article with a load of references to boot
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Autumn Colours in the Forest
Autumn colours in the forest were spectacular today – no words needed
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Naming your horse
Naming your horse can be a real challenge. Choosing passport names can be great fun, but I’m starting to wonder if naming a horse is a prophetic process or even if they help you find the perfect name?
Paddy arrived with a stable name but no passport. He needed a good name for Eventing so after much deliberation I called him Wise Words.
This name did turn out to be prophetic- Paddy taught me lots, over the years. His most important lesson was to teach me to listen to horses.
I’ll never forget the relief in his whole demeanour when we took his shoes off for the last time. Suddenly the trimmer was his favourite person, whereas the Farriers had always been the enemy.
And his jumping improved no end once he could feel his feet and adjust himself.
He always had an opinion though, especially about ditches. Classic quote from the commentary box- Fran McNicol getting some wise words from her horse at the ditch.
His last event was the unaffiliated 3 day at Longleat- some clown had put decorative little wooden lizards and alligators in the ditch. I’ll never forget him back-paddling in mid air over the part A skinny like a cartoon character when he spotted those.
He was the greatest on his good days though – I have some wonderful memories when our wise words were in tune 😀
Cal arrived with a green passport, a microchip and no name. He was bought to be the fabulous cross county horse so I named him Cloud Warrior.
Surprisingly he’s turned out to be a bit of a dressage diva, who offered Pesade very early on. I wonder if I might have a secret Airs horse in the making- I need another few years for that Naming to come true.
He also loves posing
In the meantime at Shelford this year we had an average dressage, a surprise stop in the show jumping but he was storming around the cross country, with speeding penalties, when the commentator struck again. “Cloud Warrior- this horse is very well named, not had the best day in the other phases but he’s storming across the country. Good name for a good cross country horse!”
Rocky’s real name is Royal Magic.
I have no idea yet how that name will come to be true!!
Do you have any funny stories to tell about naming your horse?
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Another self trimming horse
After owning Cal for 7 years I am very proud and pleased to announce that I have another self trimming horse!!
And once again, now it’s a reality, I’m wondering why it took me so long to understand that even funny feet Cal could be a self trimming horse.
For any self respecting hoof nerd, a self trimming horse is the ultimate aim. The self trimming horse has a perfect balance between wear and growth, balances his own feet through work to the shape that suits him, and is sound in the work he does.
I never thought Cal could be a self trimming horse, until my barefoot life seemed to come full circle.
I’ve written previously about how my barefoot journey began
And about my trials and tribulations with funny feet Cal
Including the point where we thought we had really cracked it.
but all along, I was operating from within a false paradigm, despite hoof geeking obsessively all these years!
I thought a horse’s hooves had to be good before he could become a self trimming horse.
Barefoot beginnings
Now, I started my barefoot journey thanks to Sarah of Forageplus. Sarah wrote a book with Nic Barker (of Rockley Farm rehab fame) called Feet First
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Feet-First-Barefoot-Performance-Rehabilitation/dp/0851319602
which was the original barefoot bible for those brave souls bucking the trend in the late 90’s!
Diet
It was early days- barefoot horse owners were considered eccentric freaks. Sarah drove around the county to trim clients horses with a huge tub of magnesium oxide in the back of her jeep and a set of scales. Who knows what the police would have made of her white powder delivery round?
We didn’t know as much about best nutrition for healthy feet as we do now, although we knew diet was the key.
As was work.
Exercise
When I transitioned Paddy he was being looked after by Mel the polo groom. He did at least 5 miles daily plus whatever I did with him in the evenings and weekends. And luckily, due to the facilities locally, he was able to do that comfortably from the first day his shoes came off. Glass smooth tarmac really is the best surface for conditioning rock crunching feet!!
Hoof boots were really hard to buy, really clumpy and mostly imported from America and made for little horses with dainty feet. I didn’t bother for Paddy- he never needed them.
Then along came Cal. He arrived from Ireland in the most horrific set of shoes. Looking back I’m really not sure how I didn’t spot the really funny feet.
I can’t find any early feet photos but believe me the whole of the hoof capsule sat in front of a line dropped down the cannon bone!!
This photo is from about 18months after I bought him. In that time he had fractured a carpal bone (in shoes) tripping over that toe, and was about a year into his barefoot rehab.
Now you would never say that foot could belong to a self trimming horse would you?
Environment
Shortly after this photo was taken we bought our own place and started applying everything we knew about creating the perfect feet. We had our six acre field which we proudly put a track around, our very own #paddockparadise
I mineral balanced to our now steady supply of late cut meadow hay, and then later Haylage.
We soil tested and actually applied the chemicals as recommended by the Albrecht protocol.
We tried to do our rock crunching milage around the fabulous #Delamereforest and surrounding area.
Trim
and we kept looking for the perfect trim that would finally turn that peculiar set of feet into something functional. I went through a posse of trimmers over the first few years. Sarah wasn’t trimming much as her business grew, so we needed an alternative. My first choice wasn’t flexible enough to fit in around my hectic work schedule. The next was lovely but then got poorly and needed a couple of operations. I went back to a UKHNCP trimmer for an alternative view. The alternative then moved down south! I sought a couple of second opinions, one of whom did a really radical trim which left him sore for weeks. Then I eventually met Emma Bailey, who is a good listener, really knows her nutrition and is always keen to discuss with and learn from all horses and clients. She is also good friends with Nick Hill and Ralitsa, the holistic vet, so we got 3 heads to scratch.
We went through gentle trims, more invasive trims, leaving the flares, taking the flare off, trim the bars, leave the bars, attack the toe, swipe the heels… yet no matter what we tried, the feet improved a bit month by month yet remained stubbornly slipper like
With thin soles, shallow collateral grooves and little heel height.
He was surprisingly functional over the years, despite the feet looking flat and poor, he has worked hard on all surfaces except stones and we have had some great fun
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL55sjNB8nhYVHUrASlthXCJkdGsqql_RF
Then Emma went on a workshop with Nic Barker and my barefoot life came full circle.
Any self respecting hoof nerd will know of Nic’s seminal blog piece ‘Celery’
http://rockleyfarm.blogspot.com/2011/04/dont-even-think-of-touching-that-hoof.html
And in the most recent blog follow up on that theme, not much in her learning and experience has changed
http://rockleyfarm.blogspot.com/2018/09/put-down-rasp-and-pick-up-celery.html
Now I always have believed in self trimming horses! Paddy was essentially self trimming apart from a check every 3 months, and a touch up for trips out, and Rocky looks like he will go the same way, but for some reason, it had never occurred to me with Cal. How could those pathological feet possibly become healthier without help?
Luckily Emma is a good listener. She cane back from the workshop and basically waved a rasp at all 3 horses. And told me to get out there and work them and see what occurs.
And guess what?
Cal’s finally growing the feet he needs.
Yes -there is lots of bar- he obviously needs it.
Yes -theoretically you could tighten the foot up to the white line…but it opens up again more or less straight away.
Yes -there looks like some flare from the top but from the bottom they are actually not too bad.
And yes- that toe can still come back, and it does, a few gentle swipes every time I ride.
And best of all- look at the depth of those collateral grooves!! That is new and special and exciting!
Now I’m not saying he’ll never get trimmed again. Those toes need touching up, as do any cracks and chips.
But the more we trimmed, the more hoof he grew, but exactly the same foot! Now we are not trimming so persistently, the foot is growing more slowly but is also building itself up, from the inside.
And so I’ve come full circle, back to celery – in a healthy horse, barefoot is never all about the trim.
I think I finally have a healthy horse- that’s been another journey, getting the diet right, and now we have stopped messing around ‘fixing’ his feet, we seem to have acquired another self trimming horse.
I’ll leave you with the Rockley rehabs for inspiration. The feet in this barefoot ‘hoof porn’ film are all self trimming, and all incredibly functional.
N.B. Until you’ve seen a horse move and the hoof land you cannot judge the level of function.
http://rockleyfarm.blogspot.com/p/barefoot-in-slow-motion.html
Is your horse self trimming?
Does it land heel first?
If not, have you ever thought that less could be more?
