Author: fran

My motto for 2017

My motto for 2017, thanks to a Facebook friend I have not yet met: it is to “Shout Louder in my Own Space”.

My motto for 2017 is a reaction to recent online experiences. We have all been subject to the effects of the Echo Chamber recently. Modern media allows us to connect with people with similar interests all over the world. I have barefoot and Classical Dressage friends all over the planet now with whom to discuss issues and ask for advice.

A peculiar phenomenon has occurred. Humans like to belong, so we naturally select friends with views and interests similar to our own, and although we feel very connected, we may actually be isolating ourselves in a virtual bunker where everyone agrees.  This is not good for learning, or for discussion. To expand our consciousness and knowledge we need challenge, not reassurance.

It was  a great surprise to me when Hilary Clinton won the Democrat nomination my US friends all supported Bernie Sanders. It was a terrible shock when Trump won; from my Facebook feed that seemed inconceivable, as did Brexit prevailing in the UK referendum.

Facebook groups are a funny beast. There can be such great discussions, and also such emotive howling between people who disagree. I have been personally attacked, belittled, stalked and ridiculed for disagreeing with eminent media commentators who frankly should have better things to do with their time. I regretfully left one Classical Dressage Facebook site when it became apparent that the “owner” of the page had views diametrically opposed to my own experience and learning. It seemed rude to be on their page constantly questioning their ‘expert’ opinion. Unfortunately the person in question only intreacts on their own site so there is no way to have a rational discussion in a neutral space where questioning their views in a friendly and enquiring and educating way would seem less disrespectful.

And therein lies the rub- how do we discuss without dissing, how do we discuss training and husbandry in a non combative way when people insist on taking different viewpoints as personal attacks and seeing criticism when questioned?

Maybe I need to learn to ask better questions?

Or maybe I need to save my energy for furthering my own knowledge, concentrate on my own learning, and listen most intently to those that never lie; the horses themselves.

Classical training as a journey is about so much more than just dancing horses. The mindset required is one we might recognise more as a martial art: absolute humility,  self-control, responsibility for oneself and an understanding that every action has consequences. We cannot choose how others react to us, we can only control how we react to others. Each challenge is an opportunity, from every difficulty comes the chance to change.

Hence my motto for 2017- Shout Louder in my Own Space.

The purpose of this blog is not to preach, or to bang about how great barefoot is for horses and how Classical Training is the only way. The purpose of this blog is to share my journey, and that of our horses, abscesses, warts and challenges and all.

When we arrived at out what was our last livery yard before we got our own space, we were the odd ones out. Our horses were barefoot, on a funny diet, and we were training with a strange foreign lady no one had heard of, who didn’t compete anymore, and who had us doing strange self lunging exercises at the slowest trot imaginable. We were learning about biomechanics, and the correct seat, and had inadvertently enrolled on a 4 year programme that I now liken to a Master’s degree in Classical Equitation and Dressage Training.

We didn’t preach, or gush, or bore, we just quietly did the do. The old black horse should have been crippled with arthritis, but looked better and better as each month passed and his crooked body blossomed with the application therapeutic gymnastic training. The grey horse went from nearly having kissing spines to eventing up to BE100 and filling his draft frame with the appropriate muscle. And the baby bay horse got the best start as a riding horse that one could wish for.

It hasn’t all been easy.

Cal the grey has continued to be plagued by difficult feet syndrome. He has X-rays due tomorrow I hope to report on vast improvements in his sole thickness with targeted consistent boot use. He is sounder on tough surfaces but the pictures will tell the unadulterated truth.

The baby bay had me on the floor a couple of times and went through a mild napping stage. A week treating his hindgut and a saddle fitting seemed to sort that out. He hacked out beautifully on his own on walk and trot on our last jolly a week ago. He’s now on a growing break and I can’t wait to get him into work again once the nights get a bit lighter.

However Gary’s new horse Beat the ex -racer responded quickly to a short lesson on rein aids and working on the connection forward to the bit. The relaxations and improvements in his walk achieved in two short lessons illustrated yet again how quickly correct training works, and how beneficial it is to the horse’s body and mind.

So this blog will be my effort to live out my motto for 2017. I will shout loudly in my own space, about our problems, challenges and solutions, doing my best for my horses in the best way I can do now, on every new day, with what I have learned to date. I will continue to learn and to study and to seek and to question, and if the answers I find can help any single one of you to solve a conundrum on your journey with your horses, or your life outside of horses, then that will be worth it.

Whatever else happens, let’s have some fun doing it too, because horses are meant to be fun. They are such noble and sentient beings that they should bring out the best in us, if we could just stop to listen and learn, and not allow ourselves to get caught up in competition and ego and ambition.

So thanks to Max for my motto for 2017.

Not the best photo at the end but look at the changes in his balance…

If you need something to change

If you need something to change then you need to change something.


Or the other version which is my favourite all time quote: “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting the outcome to change”

So the few of you who read my previous post, Barefoot Brain ache, will know that we need something to change in the gorgeous grey Cal’s less than perfect feet. I would love to have another rock crunching barefooter that skips easily over all surfaces.

The four pillars of barefoot performance are Diet Environment Exercise Trim (DEET hmmm)

Diet we can write a book about but our management has been pretty focussed for a couple of years. Environment is evolving- track around the field, surfaces being developed. Exercise- mostly adequate, we can always do more. The best barefoot horses do 50 miles a week.

Cal hasn’t been jumping very well over the last few months and we have all been scratching our heads about what the problem may be. Husband Gary and a couple of friends were all sure it was foot related, I thought it was more likely to be breathing related as his feet were not particularly worse than they have been in previous years. A healthy horse should have healthy feet, so my reasoning was that if the feet aren’t healthy, the horse must be systemically unwell.

http://hoofgeek.com/hoof-balance/

However Gary finally decided that speculating about the whole horse and systemic problems was getting us nowhere and proved his commitment to the cause by taking Cal off to Nantwich Vets for hoof x-rays, for which I am very grateful (truly I am darling xx)

Unlike the previous set, these recent x-rays were technically well executed, with hairline and frog marked and position on the board even and balanced. If you ever need to get hoof X-rays done then the link below contains really helpful information on how to do set them up to be of maximum use- I wish I had found and read this link before I got the first set of pictures done last year, as they just were not good enough to be truly diagnostic. And as paying customers we should know what quality we expect and deserve.

http://www.thelaminitissite.org/understanding-x-rays.html

So the X-rays were technically beautiful but quite shocking: Cal’s soles were paper thin. Amazing he was working at all really. The pedal bone is thin and plate shaped and the angle to the ground was very flat. The advice from Campbell the vet was that he needed “rest” and shoes with pads.

Now I’m not into contradicting vets but I have learnt over the last few years that vets (like surgeons) (I’m a surgeon) are really good at recommending what they know and understand and really bad at examining alternatives. So a vet with limited experience of barefoot horses and no experience of barefoot rehab is unlikely to recommend a barefoot solution to a barefoot problem. Hence the search for a barefoot friendly vet.

So much of what we do to our horses is for our convenience and wellbeing and not theirs. How can box rest be good for animals designed to move 20 miles a day? How can 3 small meals a day be good for an animal that produces constant stomach acid and eats for 16 hours a day in the wild? How can individual stables and single turnout paddocks be healthy for a species that loves to perform mutual grooming and rolling activity and engage in horseplay? Since our horses have been living out in a herd and showing us how well they can look after themselves provided with the correct husbandry conditions, I have come to understand how vital movement and species specific behaviour is to the health and mental well-being of the horses in our care. #friendsforagefreedom should be the mantra of every true equestrian

https://www.facebook.com/scottishabrc/photos/a.302847419893853.1073741830.289363031242292/640345712810687/?type=3&theater

So rest, shoes and pads.

“rest” in our book means natural day to day movement as much as comfortable. Hooves need stimulation to grow so any form of foot rehab must include the maximum possible movement. The question is how to make that movement possible, helpful and comfortable.

Now I had got myself to a point that were metal shoes absolutely essential then I would consider them. absolutely essential

Now, after years of practice, I am really good at thinking outside the box and I’m sorry but I firmly believe that nailed on metal shoes are intrinsically harmful to horse foot health,

http://www.inside-out-hoofcare.co.uk/articles/the-side-effects-of-metal-shoes

So the correct question is “what did the vet hope the recommended shoes and pads would achieve?”

And could this aim be achieved by other means?

e.g. glue on shoes or hoof boots?

The aim of shoes and pads was to thicken the sole. Apparently constant even pressure on the sole causes the horse to put down more sole, and it can happen really quickly, over a few weeks or a single shoeing cycle.

Epona shoes looked really good, but there is no one local fitting them yet.

http://www.eponashoe.com/about/eponashoe-difference/

Can we achieve this same effect with hoof boots? Allowing for the enormous soup plate feet?

My previous hoof boots have been clunky, flicked off at canter, spun around, and generally looked too heavy and stiff to wear for long periods of time without rubbing.

img_2509


Until now 🙂

http://scootboots.com/

are just an amazing product. They are lightweight, soft flexible but still sturdy rubber, they fit Cal!! they sit beautifully, there is room to fit a 3mm pad inside the boots, the clasps are simple and functional. So far Cal has been wearing them constantly for about a month, with no rubbed hair or skin damage and only minor thrush. I have been taking them off once a week to let the air get to his frogs and to treat with cider vinegar. The soles are getting thicker day by day.

Photo below shows Scoot Boot in background and fairly typical foot picture in between trims.

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The other thing the x-rays showed was quite how long his toes are. I knew this.

The white line has been stretched for ages; his feet look OK at the top and then have the tendency to curve off out like Turkish slippers. Successive trims haven’t shortened the toe much, I got to a point where I myself was taking the toe back a little once a fortnight in between trims but they almost seemed to grow again overnight. And if the toe is running forward how can the sole get thicker?

img_3247


So if you need something to change….you need to change something.

So I eventually came to the conclusion we suddenly needed to be more radical.

Eventually = Lots of soul searching, reading, advice, internet consultations, trimmer consultations, more research, more reading.

And then suddenly= a big gulp, a prod from a pair of experienced horse professionals and a bit of gut instinct.

Toes right back to the white line, heels left alone.


Sole shots to follow. 

His landing was immediately better, as was his action. It’s not a miracle, but he is stomping around with his boots on. He dragged me down to the house the other day. I’ll report back in 5 weeks.

Does Cal the gorgeous grey, feel better in himself?

Yes immeasurably.

Is it all about the feet?

His breathing has also improved with the advent of autumn….I guess I won’t know which inflammation feeds which until next summer.

We’ve also gone right back to basics with diet- that’s a story for another day.

DIET                           EXERCISE                              ENVIRONMENT                                          TRIM

Targeted Equine Worming Programme in action

We have had a targeted equine worming programme in action since 2010. In 2013 a cool phone app was released that has allowed me to monitor my targeted equine worming programme in action. Following on from my last post, I thought it might be interesting for readers if I shared just one of our horse’s worming record over these last few years.

Paddy- 17 year old ISH

March 2013- new yard                               Ivermectin/Praziquantel

June 2013                   test 50 eggs              NO DOSE NEEDED

Sept 2013                    test 150 egg

Tape weak pos         DOSE DEFERRED to wait for frost

Dec 2013                     encysted redworm Moxidectin/Praziquantel

March 2014                test 0 eggs                  NO DOSE NEEDED

Aug 2014                     test 0 eggs

Tapeworm neg          NO DOSE NEEDED

Dec 2014                     encysted redworm  Moxidectin

March 2015                test 50

Tapeworm neg          NO DOSE NEEDED

July 2015                     test 0                            NO DOSE NEEDED

Nov 2015                     Tape positive             Ivermectin/Praziquantel

Feb 2016                      encysted redworm  Moxidectin

May 2016                     test 0                            NO DOSE NEEDED

Sept 2016                     test 0                            NO DOSE NEEDED

Tapeworm pos           Praziquantel

DEC 2016                  Will need worming for encysted redworm-

I will use Moxidectin as only moxidectin or febendazole deal with encysted redworm and there is well documented resistance to febendazole.

So there you have it- a real targeted equine worming programme in action. My testing dates aren’t perfect; life can get in the way for all of us.  Looking at this record also made me realise that I have used a lot of Moxidectin (Equest). As this is the only wormer left for Strongyles with no recorded resistance in the UK or Ireland we should probably use it as sparingly as possible to preserve its’ effectiveness for the future.  So I should use more straight Ivermectin, or even Febendazole or Mebendazole with a resistance test following dosing. By testing more or less regularly for tapeworm I have given 4 worming doses for Tapeworm out of a possible 8. By doing regular Faecal Egg Counts I have avoided 8 doses for redworm.

Why bother? Why not just worm and be done with it?

Well, wormers are essentially a poison- they are designed to kill worms but do also have other deleterious effects on the gut flora and the immune system. The horse’s hooves show event lines after worming, particularly with combination wormers, a sure sign that there is a systemic inflammatory effect reflected in the hooves.

Most horses don’t need regular worming. In a stable herd, 2/3 at least have a basic resistance to redworm and don’t build up high intestinal populations quickly. Why worm the horses that don’t have worms?

Emerging resistance will be a problem for all of us. In modern hospital there are superbugs which only a few select antibiotics can beat. Some of those select antibiotics were released years ago, unpopular initially because they were not particularly effective,  and are now back in favour because their lack of widespread use meant that the common bugs didn’t get over-exposed to them and so didn’t mutate to resist their effects. Once resistance becomes a problem drug companies are less incentives to release new drugs 15 years ago a newly developed antibiotic would quickly sell a billion doses, now a new antibiotic is kept in reserve, to prevent resistance and to save the lives of those infected with multi-resistant organisms. There may well come a time where bowel cancer surgery becomes high risk again despite amazing technical advances because we cannot eliminate infection. The same will happen with wormers- new compounds are likely to be kept for best and as such are much less profitable and therefore slower to be developed and released.

Testing can be expensive. I pay £11.50 for FEC and £17.50 for Tapeworm saliva tests. If the horse then needs worming that month is expensive. But most of the time, testing is cheaper than just worming. It’s very unusual for more than 1 horse to need worming after testing. This year none needed worming in May, two of 4 didn’t need anything this time and the other 2 needed a dose for either redworm or tapeworm but not both.

I hope I have demonstrated that it’s worth thinking about a implementing a targeted equine worming programme.

Getting ready for a barefoot winter

Getting ready for a barefoot winter- are you ready?

Getting ready for a barefoot winter; because it can be a gruesome time when your horses live out in a herd in a field. Last year there was a fortnight when I didn’t actually see the horses in daylight at all; luckily we have a lady who pooh picks, necessarily a daytime actvity, and she helped to keep an eye on them. I remember taking flash photos on my phone at feeding time to check them over, as well as making good use of the phone torch option.

Getting ready for a barefoot winter; we have promised ourselves to be better prepared this year. We have put some pea gravel down around the hay feeder so Gill doesn’t have to do the gloopy mud dance with the wheelbarrow. We each slipped at least once in the mud last year, although there were no full festival style face plants. We have made a short track going onto the field from the gate for the haylage deliveries; the truck can drive on, drop the bales and they are stored in an electric fence square next to the gravelled feed area- luxury indeed. There is still a churned up area in the corner of the field from the tractor deliveries last winter.

We have done our autumn worm counts and saliva tests. Four horses had four different results. One clear, two weakly positive for tapeworm, one with a medium redworm count. Typically Con, the loan horse who was due to go home, was the clear one, and it was our three that needed treating. So two wormed with Equitape and one with Strongid- P. They will all get wormed again for encysted redworm once the temperature drops and we will worm count and saliva test again in Spring. Since we started doing targeted worming 3 years ago, I have only had to worm for tapeworm once about 18months ago and the two old horses have consistently low faecal egg counts. We saliva test twice a year and egg count three times a year. We use Westgate labs for all our test kits, resonably priced, fabulous service, very prompt resuts and great advice over the phone.

http://www.westgatelabs.co.uk/info

Rocky is 4 now and still seems to have a susceptibility to redworm; I guess he will be the one in the herd that often needs worming. By testing and doing targeted worming we are doing our bit to slow the spread of drug resistent parasites in our area.

Apparently there is an ELISA test for encysted redworm in development: in theory we could get to a situation where none of the horses need worming for years at a time once that is available.

We have also weight-taped all the horses and, a great suggestion from a friend, I also have a selection of condition photos to allow for comparison as winter drags on.

And finally, we have acquired a new horse. Gary has an ex-racer called Beat to go hunting on. He tried him with 3 shoes on, the horse then arrived with no back shoes and actually seems to be coping quite well. We will aim to transition him in Spring once hunting is over, as Gary wants to crack on and have some fun first.

Rocky is cantering under saddle and stomping around the forest. Cal has had some foot X-rays and a combined consultation with a trimmer and a holistic barefoot friendly vet. I’m still porcessing all the information and gathering more advice to see if we can come up with new ideas to get his feet going better.

img_3244img_3243

Spot the shiny new Scoot Boot on the other foot 🙂

And the super  Equisafety Mercury jacket- my favourtie piece of equatrian clothing. No one can say they haven’t seen you!!

So lots of stuff to report on over the next few weeks I hope.

Getting ready for a barefoot winter- bring it on!!

img_3247img_3242

 

Barefoot Brain-ache

Barefoot brain-ache is an annoying condition, well-known to the owner of the barefoot horse. Barefoot brain-ache occurs when the answer to a supposedly simple question is no longer simple because certain dogmas are no longer taken as truth.

My barefoot brain-ache is caused, again, by the fact that Cal the gorgeous grey is completely stomping-around sound on a surface, on grass, and on smooth tarmac but not on stoney surfaces. In the last fourteen days he has stormed around the farm ride at Somerford, jumping everything, raced around the Stafford Horse Trials at 80(T) level, competed in the Delamere Forest XC jump training at 90cm, had a day of SJ and XC training organised by Equine Adventures at Somerford and done about 25 miles hacking around Delamere Forest.


Yet had you been there watching me walk him onto the truck for any of those days out you would have pulled him off the lorry and put him back in his stable (oops he doesn’t have one). Our Tarmac is quite rough from the paddock gate to the truck parking place and he tiptoes across it. The yard at Crossmere Livery where we had the SJ training is hard-core- he teetered into the arena and then jumped like a pro. The landings at Somerford XC are gravelled and prepared, none of those bother him but we have to walk down to the XC course on the grass verge because the hard-core track is too rough for him. Although to be fair he would walk on the stones now, but very slowly and carefully like an old man. His ears are still pricked, he doesn’t wear a pain face when he’s creeping down the gravel road, he just really takes his time and care. Then he steps onto the grass and sets off like a pocket rocket. He was jumping out of his skin the other day; so much so we are now on the waiting list for Skipton BE90.


So if any other barefooters out there have any tips or tricks to share, I would love to hear them.
Barefoot brain ache answers to date:

We are building a hard-core feed area in the field to counteract the winter mud; hopefully this will help to toughen up his feet and get him used to rougher surfaces.

These symptoms can reflect low-grade laminitis: the laminar connection at the coronary band and the top inch of hoof always looks good and tight but by the time the hoof wall hits the ground, the white line is a bit stretched and the toes are a bit like slippers. I can counteract the slipper tendency by light trimming with a radius rasp every couple of weeks, so his feet look very good most of the time now. I have tested for all forms of metabolic compromise, he has never been positive for insulin resistance, his ACTH was borderline for Cushing’s once but a trial of treatment with Agnus Castis,  Freestep Superfix and then Pergolide for 3 months didn’t make much difference so we have now stopped.

We changed the haylage to organic with a much better mineral analysis profile, as described in a previous post, and the foot sensitivity definitely improved but hasn’t vanished. Other parameters are vastly improved after the haylage change though; muscle tone, coat quality, general well-being.

His sole is thickening up nicely- he shed a load of sole at the end of winter but still has a good toe callous. He does have some minimal thrush around his frogs but nothing too horrible, and this goes altogether when the ground is dry.

So continues the barefoot brain ache: is Cal lame? What does lame mean?

Definition from Wikiepedia

“Lameness is an abnormal gait or stance of an animal that is the result of dysfunction of the locomotor system. In the horse, it is most commonly caused by pain, but can be due to neurologic or mechanical dysfunction.”

So he does have an abnormal gait that is likely caused by pain but this only occurs on a very specific surface and resolves immediately when the surface changes with no lasting effects. It can also be prevented by wearing boots.

When is a horse lame?

So to be lame, I would guess the change has to be persistent, occur on different surfaces, and I suppose on both reins because we all know now that uncorrected crookedness can look like lameness on one side on particular, and in fact used to be called “bridle lameness” before slow motion film made this dysfunction really obvious in Olympic dressage horses.

When Paddy and I were doing our tour of polo yards with Mel, one place we were at had an arena where they had simply scraped the grass off the top and left the soil as the surface. This “arena” grew stones every time they harrowed it. Now Paddy has always been a rock cruncher but if he stepped on a big rock whilst schooling he would hop off it and carry on. Our host, a vet and barefoot sceptic, used to say he was always lame…but the mis-step was a protective mechanism and only lasted for a stride; is that really lame or just sensible?

“A sound horse is a one who has no lameness or illness.”

So a rock crunching barefoot horse is most definitely sound, because if we accept that the feet are the barometer of whole horse health, (no foot no horse) and if they are functioning correctly, the rest of the horse must be pretty healthy too.

So is a gimping barefoot horse sound?

“The horse is sound for the service intended by the owner or rider. By sound, I mean the horse is comfortable: He’s not going lame from performing his job (barring accident or acute injury).”

Said Phillip Dutton in a fab article “What is Serviceably Sound? “

http://practicalhorsemanmag.com/article/what-is-serviceably-sound-11664

Cal is definitely serviceable sound. For what I want to do (eventing on mostly grass), his feet are good enough. He is not going lame from performing his job.

If we wanted to do endurance we would have to boot, but that’s fine, many of the winning horses in the Tevis Cup are booted. Unfortunately Renegades aren’t made big enough for half Irish bog ponies. We have had two pairs of Old Macs in 5 years, although these have had a tendency to fly off at speed. I’m currently road testing a pair of Cavallo Trecs- they flap around a bit but stayed on cantering around the hayfields last night.

So my conclusion to the barefoot brain ache is that Cal is serviceably sound, and in fact is perfectly sound, according to those definitions I have found.

Would he pass a vetting?

Only if the lungeing on a circle on the hard was done on super smooth tarmac.

How then do you vet a barefoot horse?

 

 

Barefoot eventing 

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Barefoot eventing is back in full swing. After a couple of months training and consolidating and learning how to jump again, Cal is looking and feeling much more positive. 

I’m still not sure what the most crucial change has been. The new Haylage has now been analysed for full mineral profile and the results are much more favourable. Iron is low, nitrogen to sulphur ration good, and zinc and copper deficient but not wildly so. I haven’t changed our bespoke recipe yet but will do once the 2016 cut is available for use later in the summer. All the horses look loads better muscle and skin wise, as well as having better performing feet. 

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The peripheral “paddock paradise” track is up and the grass eaten down to a level where I am comfortable experimenting with leaving grass sensitive Cal on the track for gradually increasing periods of time. He is still sensitive on hard stone chippings but performing well on all other surfaces and feeling much keener and more responsive. 


And his breathing seems to be good enough. I have heard the odd cough but felt no obvious dip in performance. 

And we have been doing more work, and more distance and fast work- mileage  nearly always improve feet as well as fitness. 

So Saturday was British Riding Clubs team horse trials at Lannymynech. I roped our groom friend Gill into tack cleaning with pizza and prosecco on Friday night. Our times were stupidly early; getting up at dawn in midsummer was a shocker. 

Dressage was a good test- he did cough and head shake a fair bit during the warm up but managed to keep it together during the test and got a creditable 33. I was disappointed as I feel like we should be sub 30 now but for that test on the day it was absolutely fair.

Showjumping was interesting. One horse fell over in the warm up despite having studs in, as the thin grass on hard ground was very slippery. There was also lots of slipping and trotting around from other shod horses in the arena. This is also the venue and the date where Cal’s breathing problem finally manifested itself as an inability to jump a full round of show jumps  last year.

This year, the fabulous barefoot pony felt very strong, secure and balanced. We had two poles down, both due to naff impulsion off the turn, i.e. rider error, but no stops and no time faults. Time can be an issue for the Irish bog pony.

Cross country, Cal was fab. He had an early stop at fence 4, a stout  box with brush on the top just before the new water. This fence caused a fair few problems- we got away with one look. From then on Cal just got better and bolder and we both were grinning as we took a lovely sweeping line to home and sailed past the second to last fence instead of jumping it!! 

Whoops… But the horse doesn’t know he missed a fence, he was just so proud and happy and chuffed and it felt great to have the cross country machine back in the room.

A few days to recover and regroup and this weekend the 80cm in the Cheshire Shield is our next challenge.

Action photos to follow 

The barefoot friendly vet….

It doesn’t seem too much to ask for, a barefoot friendly vet. The perfect barefoot friendly vet doesn’t have to be a barefoot person, I would just love to find a barefoot friendly vet who is able to look at a barefoot horse objectively, without prejudice, and share our expectation that feet should work perfectly well without shoes. Then when the said feet aren’t working perfectly well, the barefoot friendly vet would help us to work out why the feet, and therefore the horse,  are not healthy, rather than recommending that we mask the problem by putting shoes on the imperfect hooves. 

On Monday evening we attended a fabulous equine lower limb dissection workshop. Campbell, the vet leading the evening,  is hugely knowledgeable and experienced, with an enquiring mind and a learning mind-set, and with a tangible love of horses and passion for their form and function. He delivered a detailed, entertaining and fascinating evening about the anatomy of the equine forelimb, spending lots of time on the hoof. It was absolutely amazing to feel, touch, prod and see the various layers of the hoof as they came apart, to actually see and feel and stroke the laminar tubules, to fondle the pedal bone and to see the navicular apparatus in its full detail.


The specimen feet were actually pretty good. It had been a shod horse and as such I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised. The foot had a thick, strong, spongy frog and a really good beefy digital cushion, certainly much better than any of my horses had in shoes, and even better than the frog in Paddy’s funny clubby forefoot now that he is a barefoot stomping around horse. Campbell gave the best verbal description of the shock absorption mechanism which the hoof provides that I have ever heard from a vet or a farrier. He really emphasised the crucial role of the frog and the digital cushion as well as the hoof wall flexing on impact.

I asked him how a metal horse shoe affected the shock absorption system- his reply was that good shoeing should not compromise this function at all.

Now I will say that if all horses were fortunate enough to have the robust feet that the dissected horse had in shoes then I might even agree with him! Although I do want to know how long the dissected horse had been in shoes, how old it was and whether it was regularly shod. Because the feet were so much better than the shod feet that I regularly see out and about, with closed, collapsed heels, atrophied frogs and weedy digital cushions.

Had Paddy’s feet looked that good in shoes I might never have embarked on my barefoot journey.

But Paddy had terrible feet in shoes, and the horse himself had become a danger to farriers, so I did start my barefoot journey, and started reading and questioning. And no matter what your views on barefoot versus shod I think there are two facts we can all agree on.

  • Iron shoes do not expand
  • Iron shoes are applied with the hoof off the ground so the hoof is not in its fully expanded state at the time when the rigid iron shoe is applied.

There are a couple of points which are obvious to me but apparently still open to debate

  • The barefoot horse loads the whole foot structure during locomotion, and so the whole hoof absorbs the shock, as Campbell described beautifully, the frog, the digital cushion, the sole, the wall, the capsule, and the blood in the capillary bed acts as a complete energy absorption system.
  • The shod horse loads the shoe and therefore the peripheral hoof wall during locomotion. Now I accept that the hoof wall is connected to everything else, but we have already established that iron does not expand and that the iron shoe is not set wide enough to allow maximum expansion, so even if some of the absorption function of the hoof is available to the horse in shoes, it must be compromised to some degree. Most importantly in my understanding, as the frog does not generally contact the ground in a shod horse, the back of the foot cannot work in the same manner in a shod horse.

Campbell had a lot of really sensible things to say on the conditioning of the horse, how they need road work and concussion to toughen up their tendons and increase their bone density, how all structures including the foot needed work to develop and to fulfil their potential.

But he does seem to believe that horses need shoes to work, especially in this country, where we don’t have the arid conditions that allow horses to develop good strong feet?

It wasn’t the time to mention track systems


Or the arid desert like conditions (NOT) on our field just a few miles down the road from Nantwich Equine vets.


It wasn’t quite the forum to mention hoof boots.

Or barefoot hunters, eventers and endurance horses, doing all the miles they can, barefoot or booted.

I did think I would love to have the opportunity to talk and ask questions and discuss stuff with him more.

And we are still struggling in the search for a barefoot friendly vet who would investigate poor hoof performance an an indicator of underlying metabolic or systemic problems rather than a local hoof problem to be solved by shoeing. 

Abscesses are a foot problem, yes. We had those, we had many even in Paddy’s normally stonking feet a couple of years ago. We subsequently realised that the iron content in the forage was very high. Since moving house and changing forage supply, not a single abscess. 

Bruised heels, yes, we have experienced those, barefoot and shod. 

Footiness, yes. Actually I take the footiness sign very seriously; as a sign that our whole horse management is not working for whatever reason. Footiness is low grade laminitis, and in the barefoot horse, this subtle sign is very obvious when not disguised by shoes.

The answer though is generally alteration to the diet or exercise regime, not the horse needing shoes.

Cal, my grey,  is the perfect example of a horse that “can’t cope barefoot” actually having other issues.

I have struggled to keep Cal barefoot. Had he not fractured his carpal bone I might even have shod him again by now because he is not an easy barefooter. As it is I am determined to minimise concussion to the knee to delay the onset of arthritis. He was very flat footed, thin soled, with under-run heels, when he arrived in shoes. He stayed like that in remedial shoes, and for a good while during barefoot transition! He now has thicker soles, decent heels and his hooves no longer look like Turkish slippers. But up until two weeks ago he was still footy on stones. He needed hoof- boots to hack out comfortably on stony tracks.

His hoof photos have always looked like case study photos of horses with low grade laminitis.


I have asked for him to be tested for Cushing’s three times, for insulin resistance twice, and we did foot X-rays to check the pedal bone angle and guide the trimmer. Cal is the reason I have spoken to nearly every trimmer and barefoot friendly farrier in the country and combed their websites looking for answers. Cal is the reason I have read, researched and investigated every possible cause of imperfect performance in the unshod hoof. Cal is the reason we balance minerals to our haylage supply, optimise gut support consistently and support the gut additionally for travel or other stressors. I have learned a huge amount about horse anatomy and physiology  because of Cal. 

I would have been much happier to have been guided and advised by a knowledgable and supportive vet throughout that process. 

Three weeks ago we got our field treated with the minerals and products recommended by the Albrecht soil analysis. We took the horses off the grass until the stuff had washed in, typically just as the dry sunny weather kicked in. The horses were limited to the yard, feed area and dirt track down to the trough. Work was busy so it took me a while to put up our track system. All in all Cal was off grass completely for 10 days.

The first ride after the Bank Holiday was a revelation. We were late back from Scotland so we went for a quick hack, no boots as we weren’t going far, and he stomped around the forest tracks with absolute glee.

So there we have it, after four years of tweaking. Simple answer, the horse is grass sensitive. Although he doesn’t test positive for insulin resistance, to have functional feet, which to me are a barometer of whole horse health, he has to be off the grass completely.

The track is now up, and goes all the way around the field. The other horses are eating the track grass down. Once the grass is mostly gone, I might try Cal on the track for a few hours at night so he gets to do exercise laps with the others.

His feet look great, and maybe he too will now acquire official rock cruncher status.


Had Paddy taken 4 years rather than 3 months to get from shoes off to rock crunching I am sure I too would be one of those people that believes my horse can’t cope barefoot.

Luckily, we always get the horse we need at the time LOL

Albrecht and the agronomist

One of our first jobs when we acquired our own land was to get the soil analysis done according to Albrecht principles. You may not have heard of Albrecht: we hadn’t a couple of years ago. Nor, it would seem, is Albrecht a name familiar to the local Cheshire agronomists.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Albrechthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Albrecht

Albrecht was a pioneering American scientist who surmised and proved that mineral balancing the soil so that it could support an entire ecosystem rather than just the crop being grown would lead to healthier crops, healthier animals and healthier humans. In the long run, healthy mineral balanced soil supports a multitude of grass species with a good root system and so doesn’t get washed away, supports varied species including microbiota, flora and fauna, and can remain healthy in homeostasis ad infinitum. His writings are freely available and make really interesting reading.

http://www.amazon.com/Albrecht-Soil-Balancing-Papers/dp/1601730292/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=1W4FTAMTQV7AXVXCQA26

Oner of the perpetual joys of the barefoot journey is the voyage of discovery towards scepticism and self-sufficiency. Once you take the leap of faith and pull the shoes from your first barefoot horse, with the vet and the farrier and half your friends telling you it will never work and that you must be mad, you have to do a lot of reading, experimenting and research to understand enough about barefoot to deal with the initial difficulties and transition successfully. For Paddy, I had to learn about diet and exercise, then ulcers, with Cal it has been Insulin Resistance, Cushings, thrush, COPD and finally tidying hooves a bit in between trimmer visits to keep his toes in check. With buying our own land came the concept of naked ponies through a working winter, track and hard standing design (ongoing) and now learning about mineral balance in soil.

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Why do I need to know about soil? Because soil influences grass, and horses eat a lot of grass, so the healthier the grass,  the better their feet, coats, breathing, itching, you name it, nearly every horse ailment under the sun could theoretically be improved by correct diet. And I need to know it because the agronomist, let’s call him Dick, has never heard of Albrecht, barefoot horses, or healthy soils.

Humans disturb natural balance. Humans want yield, we grow single species grass selected out for quick nutrition for animals destined for quick slaughter. In Cheshire we grow ryegrass for fattening and milking cows. Cows are ruminants, horses are not. Horses are not food or milk providers but animals evolved to survive in the desert and the steppes; poor, arid, varied grasslands.

So when we got our soil analysis done, according to Albrecht principles, there were certain recommendations. We needed Calcined magnesite (for the magnesium), Potassium sulphate (for the sulphur) and DAP (for the Phosphate not the Nitrogen). I rang up our local supplier, they very helpfully said I would need to talk to Dick the agronomist who would work out the best products to give us what we needed.

Dick had never heard of Albrecht. He looked at the soil analysis report and suggested Paddock Royale, a common fertiliser suitable for pony paddocks and readily available at reasonable cost. It would give us the elements we needed, albeit not in the perfect ratios.

Great, I thought, good land, doesn’t need much, winner.

Then Stacey (of Forest Holiday Cottages fame) got him to look at her soil report. Now I happen to know hers is completely different to mine, with very different issues and mineral requirements to balance her soil.

Dick recommended exactly the same product for Stacey as he had for us… at which point alarm bells rang.

Then followed two weeks of wrangling. I had to brush up my A level Chemistry to check my organic chemistry in order to effectively argue the toss with Dick the misogynist agronomist who eventually said “I’ll sell you whatever you like” (THANK YOU). Eventually he has mixed our product as instructed and delivered it to the guy who will do the spreading, covered in labels warning of risk of laminitis if he spreads it at our required coverage!!

Obviously Dick didn’t listen to any of the stuff about ratios, mineral balance rather than fertilising, or in fact the idea that the horses will be on a track system not on the grass in the traditional sense at all over summer. He didn’t look up Albrecht because obviously he already knows everything he needs to know for the rest of his life.

Oh well, another learning opportunity missed for Dick, embraced fully by the Nelipot team.

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I’ll let you know how it all goes, we are waiting for the weather now to spread, after which once the stuff has gone in, we can finally put our summer track up and get the boys moving more every day.

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In between all this, schooling homework has been done and is paying off 🙂 Cal came second at Southview Competition Centre Combined Training today- 2 lovely tests and a pole down at 70 and 80 but no stops and very little hesitation- hurrah.

http://www.southviewarena.com/events.asp

And Rocky had a Birthday : here is the baby photo, see above for recent picture.

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