Tag: horse riding

Operating within a false paradigm

Fallacies and paradigms- 2 of my favourite new words. Are you operating within a false paradigm?

First question – what is a paradigm?

operating within a false paradigm

Are you operating within a false paradigm, i.e. a false belief system? How does this relate to horses? I hear you cry…

Let me use a personal example of operating within a false paradigm.

Some years ago there was an incredibly successful black dressage stallion from the Continent. He and his rider posted record breaking scores. His movement was spectacular- his forelegs seemed to reach for the sky, stretching far beyond where his nose pointed, and the crowd gasped and cooed. And the judges also gasped and cooed. The record breaking scores led me to believe that this sort of movement must be sought, a result of the pinnacle of skilful and careful dressage training.

At the time, I wanted to learn more about how to train my horse, from scratch, all the way though to magnificence. At the time the black stallion was the epitome of competitive magnificence in my eyes. He was scoring over 80% and winning every gold medal around.

So my paradigm: because this combination was winning everything, he must be the most correct rider, and the black beauty the most beautifully trained horse out there.

As I read and learned more, I started to read about Rollkur. This rider is a well known exponent of Rollkur, or LDR, or deep stretching, or whatever fluffy name the proponents choose to use. This is an abusive training method where the horse’s head is hoiked in behind the vertical to achieve control and submission. This deprives the horse of his sight and also the use of his neck. It was first used by Nicole Uphoff and a big horse called Rembrandt who was too hot for her to handle in competition situations. Rollkur allowed her to ride him under control. And she won…lots.

Rollkur also has a strange effect on the movement of the forelegs. It accentuates flinging of the forelimbs while failing to engage the hind limbs. It creates or accentuates spectacular forelimb movement, but not in a biomechanically sound way.

Rollkur for prolonged periods of time was banned by the FEI in competition and warm up in 2010, on the basis that it is abusive, and that training in this position is bad for the horse’s health and soundness.

https://practicalhorsemanmag.com/health-archive/hyperflexion-in-horses

But the effects of Rollkur, the unnatural spectacular gaits on a hollow back and an overbent neck, continue to be rewarded.

So as an amateur learning dressage, I studied those high scoring tests. I tried to reconcile how this hero of dressage, a sport espousing harmony and partnership, could be considered abusive? How could the results of an abusive training method be winning rides, when dressage is an art as well as a sport, and is all about harmony, and improving the physique of the horse?

I did this weird thing in my head- maybe Rollkur done skilfully isn’t abusive? Maybe he wasn’t actually doing Rollkur, but something very close to it? Maybe it was possible to train a horse to show that degree of forelimb extravagance without using Rollkur? Maybe the horse was bred with that movement and he was simply harnessing it? May be we needed better horses to win, not to be better riders?

BUT DRESSAGE SHOULD BE A TEST OF TRAINING? Alerich, Wily Trout, these were thoroughbreds with ordinary movement, who were made more magnificent by correct training.

At my sister’s riding club in Germany, a Fjord pony used to win regularly at their equivalent of PSG, because he was trained to be the best athlete he could be.

I watched the black stallion’s tests on YouTube, over and over. And as I watched them more, and read more, and learned more, I began to notice other stuff.

The black stallion actually had very good, large moving, but correct gaits as a youngster. The trot in the later work wasn’t regular. The diagonal pairs didn’t match. The hind legs were uneven, one almost hops behind. The head is mostly behind the vertical, not mostly in front occasionally coming to the vertical as required in the FEI rules.

There was little harmony- the curb was torqued horizontally on tight reins and the stallion straining to escape. And his eye still haunts me, now I know what pain looks like.

I was struggling to understand how something that didn’t fit the FEI’s own definitions of the movements required could score so highly. The judges are the protectors and guardians of our sport- why would they reward incorrect work so highly?

When I want to learn something, truly learn and understand something, I go to the best textbooks.

I’m a surgeon- to know how to operate on a human, one needs to know the anatomy, the physiology, the function, and the likely effects of intervention. When we are schooling our horses, we are doing daily mini operations, working to improve the form and the function. To do that we do need detailed knowledge.

The first book in my dressage collection was a gift, and a key find.

Yet the details it contained of correct movements and exercises were not evident in the tests I was watching, nor in all the photos in this book.

Then came Aachen. The black stallion by now had another rider- who was struggling to ride him as successfully. More ominously though, his gaits looked very uneven by now. He was deemed fit to compete at Aachen, but the videos of that test show obvious lameness. How could the best equine vets in the world have passed him fit to compete?

http://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/2015/08/dressage-at-aachen-not-so-great-for-the-sport/

Then came Rio. Another Continental horse was passed fit to compete despite having been on intravenous painkillers and antibiotics overnight, having had a temperature of 40C and despite being in obvious, glaring pain in the warm up. The cause of the injury was first reported as fractured jaw, then a spider bite, but the cause is really immaterial. How could a true equestrian even contemplate competing their horse after a night like that? A human can choose to go out feeling ill, a horse needs us to speak for them.

And the vets should have spoken for the poor chestnut horse. The team vets did their best to get him into the ring- dubious but possibly understandable; their job is to look after the horses for the team, after all. But the official vets, those adjudicating, how did they let him warm up, let alone enter the arena?

http://taviannaomi.wixsite.com/indubioproequus/single-post/2014/05/01/The-Glass-Cieling

So the best vets in the world, employed by the FEI to monitor the competition, to make sure our equine partners are happy athletes as stated in their directives, allowed a very ill horse to be saddle up, ridden in obvious pain, and proceed to the competition.

My paradigm at that time- these are the best horses in the world, trained to the highest standard, protected by the rules and by the most experienced professionals in the world, whose job is to uphold the rules.

It would seem that paradigm was false…

Are you operating within a false paradigm? What are your beliefs regarding your role as a trainer, rider and protector of your horse? Have you examined those beliefs, checked them against your knowledge, discovered the gaps in your knowledge and sought to fill those gaps? Or do you blindly accept, as I once did, that the experts must know best?

And most importantly, have you twisted the observations of your own eyes, ignored your own feel, to fit in with your current belief system? I know I did, I denied the evidence of my own eyes, argued with others who didn’t know much about horses, yet who saw discomfort and weirdness more clearly,  until the cognitive dissonance within my own head was churning me up inside.

BTV, on the forehand, clawed left hand, C2/C3 highest point- at the time I was proud of this photo.

Luckily for me at the time, I had a very clear and outspoken horse, whose body and mind did not tolerate training that caused physical or psychological damage, no matter how much I loved him, and how genuine I was in wanting the best for him. For Paddy, and now for Cal and Rocky, trying hard wasn’t good enough, I have to learn to do it correctly.

BTV, short reins, short neck, hollow behind the saddle. Around the time of this photo we scored 72 in a test but Cal was turning his back on me when I presented him with a saddle.
Hands better, my position improving, neck coming out of shoulders correctly, chest broadening nicely, topline filling out, hindleg stepping through better

I was operating within a false paradigm.

I don’t have beliefs any more, or heroes, or idols. I have growing knowledge, an expanding skill set, and I have learned to listen to my horses.

Horses don’t have paradigms 🙂

Baby Rocky- neck and back need A LOT more muscle to support that head but floppy ears and nice steps. And I have elbows and a back!

Just do the homework

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Just do your homework….right? It’s been a long hard year. I’m sure some of you have been really organised and managed to do lots of riding and training?!

I decided one winter that I would just be kind to myself: I gave the horses January off to concentrate on eating and keeping warm out in their field. Rocky, our 5 year old Hanoverian, did some extra growing, which wasn’t quite in the plan. Then the rain came.

What I did do that winter was lots of studying. Just do the homework. Riding is a purely physical activity but the art of training your horse correctly for longevity requires not only physical skills but

theoretical knowledge as well 

I read and re-read a few of the Classical Dressage texts: Charles de Kunffy is a perennial favourite: his concise prose is so clear and the illustrations chosen are always completely inspirational.

 

His little but perfect book “The Ethics and Passion of Dressage” should be in every equestrian’s library, in my humble opinion. I feel very fortunate to have audited several of Charles’ clinics, at Dovecote Stables and at the now defunct TTT, as well as riding with him for a couple of lessons.

Use on-line resources

I did quite a lot of Facebook discussing- on sites such as Classical Horsemanship. Contrary to the modern defensive dressage divas, I find these sites incredibly informative. Once you start to learn who to listen to, that is: there are some gems who really know their theory, and there are others who just spout catchphrases without really understanding the nuts and bolts of correct training. And those who do know their stuff will always answer questions, really helpful and unfailingly polite, while those just spouting politically correct jargon but not actually doing the do cannot explain themselves and get defensive or offensive when questioned.

Just do the homework.

Facebook and online discussion are a fascinating exercise in communication too- do I understand my problem or the horse’s dilemma well enough to phrase a question that will lead to a useful answer?

Thomas Ritter has done a fabulous series of “Facebook lives” over the winter- these are still available online as a really generous free resource, and some of the mini challenges have been great, even if I didn’t manage to do the physical manege work yet to make the most of the exercises shared. I will be doing more of that homework when we have some light nights to enjoy.

work on your own body

I’ve found a yoga teacher I like, and that teaches just around the corner, which is great. I will have functional, unlocked hip flexors one day before I die…

But the main thing I did was to just do the homework, to make sure every ride counted. I didn’t have an arena, so a lot of the winter riding I did was hacking in the forest, between snow and rain and hail.

#betweenmyhorsesears

I didn’t just slop around on a loose rein, enjoying life. Nor did I didn’t ride my horse around in an artificial outline, stifling his urge to go forward.

I made sure every step was taken with the longest possible forward and out neck that he could balance, with a relaxed jaw and poll, and I thought about my equitation absolutely every step that I could. Are my buttocks soft, have I got one on each side of the horse, are my knees level, are my legs rotated so I have thigh bones not fat in contact with the saddle, are my elbows pointy, are my upper arms a vertical part of my back, is my back flat not hollow, are my thumbs holding the reins, not fingers, are my fingers folded not grabbing….and most of all, can I stretch my lower leg back so it feels like my heels are collecting the hocks of the horse, I get a slight kneeling in church feeling and the angle behind my knee opens up??

None of these are positions to be held- the magic happens in the movement of change, the transition, so it is replace, replace replace, on a loop like a computer programme, round and round my body.

the magic is in the moment of change

I made sure Cal was straight from tail to poll, no funky kinky stuff, and I tried to think about him stepping with even weight through both forelegs, and I did a little bit of shoulder in, haunches in, half pass as we walked and trotted around, but mostly I just worked on me.

And a big change occurred, suddenly over a long winter.

A soft, inflated lifted top-line developed. His neck and lumbar back look amazing. The contact became incredibly consistent, although he still head shakes on windy days. His stride has got longer, he has cadence and suspension developing.

And he is absolutely just a pleasure to ride. Keen, alert, fun, sensitive, self motivated, jumping all sorts of awkward crazy logs off a one stride turn, just for fun.

Just do your homework folks- it’s worth it.

But do the right homework- practise only makes perfect if the practise is correct.

You are either improving your horse or breaking him down.

and there is no try, only do or don’t.

Your horse will tell you when you are doing enough.

Enough is always much more than you think- if it ain’t changing, you ain’t doing it.

And don’t bullshit yourself, you are doing yourself and your horse a massive disservice if you do anything less than your best.

Just do the homework with a big massive smile 🙂

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

Working on a perfect seat

January and February have been challenging from a riding point of view here in the UK; I have been making the best of the worst conditions by working on my leg position and tone, part of the lifelong task of working on a perfect seat.

There is often a theme to our learning. This winter, I have been doing a lot of background reading, and whilst perusing the photos, I have found myself fascinated by the photos of jumping and dressage heroes of old, all with a perfect seat balanced to the ground, and a really good strong leg position.

Eddie Boylan on Durlas Elile from Einar’s personal collection- world champion 3 Day Eventer and also successful at GP dressage

Arthur Kottas from “Kottas on Dressage”

Leg positions with good angles between ankle, knee and hips.

Photo from “Creative Horsemanship” CDK

Photos from “Creative Horsemanship” CDK

For me the key feelages have been that the it is the outside muscles of the legs that are engaged, not the inside. A rotated thigh allows the thigh bone to lie flat against the saddle; there should be no muscle in the way. For me this is legs off saddle, an inch up, an inch out and away, and then thigh rotation and heels out and back as if they are connected to the hocks of the horse. Piriformis, a pesky little muscle in our hip-joint,  screams at me when I have done enough.

There are other key feels for me: I have to stretch my weight down and over the top but along the outside of my thigh- like kneeling in church.

And I have to push my legs back and my toes up- I found a great way to access this feeling on the ground the other day- I stand in riding stance, and then, without changing anything else above, I move my feet back several inches so they are well underneath me. Imagine kneeling in church to get the feeling of down the thighs. Or the feeling that your knees are pressed up against a bar or a wall. That last feel finally got my kneecaps rolled down a fraction not opening forwards . When I do this ‘enough’ in the saddle, Cal stretches his topline and reaches forward to carry me beautifully on a softly lifted back. And that fabulous lifted stretching topline has nothing to do with the reins!

This work has involved a lot of stretching my hip flexors, through yoga, Pilates and with regular attention from a really good physio  who does Myofascial Release.

For those of you who haven’t yet discovered the magic that is MFR, this video gives a good overview.

Draped legs, gently framing the horse’s sides.

Shana Ritter – from “The Biomechanical Basis of Classical Riding “

The degree of tone in the lower legs, required to support a horse in collection.

Thomas Ritter – from “The Biomechanical Basis of Classical Riding”

Jumping position with the back flat, the shoulders up, the bum pushed back, the legs still grounded, and above all the hands giving towards the horse’s mouth, not balanced on the crest for support.

Above are some of the photos from my winter reading that have inspired me to work harder.

Sources-

“Creative Horsemanship” Charles de Kunffy

“The Biomechanical Basis of Classical Riding” Dr Thomas Ritter

“Kottas on Dressage” Athur Kottas- Heldenberg

for more reading suggestions https://www.nelipotcottage.com/books-i-am-glad-i-found/

Hoping my seat is up to inspection 😉

Homework for my long-suffering readers:

Someone asked a really simple question the other day

“what motivates you?”

and the flip side is “what limits you?”

Be really honest with yourselves: if you don’t know what limits you, you can’t move past the limit.

For me Cal made it really obvious I had to learn to ride him better to get the best out of him.

I wanted a novice eventer, and inadvertently bought a seat horse. Who would insist on me working really hard, every ride, towards a perfect seat.

 

The Unbeatable Lightness of Being- Seeking Lightness in Riding

The unbeatable lightness of being that we can achieve with our horses, for me, is the absolute goal of classical riding and training. One you have felt the unbeatable lightness of being, it becomes addictive, and nothing less will do.

I hold cherished memories of a lesson a couple of months ago. The gait was canter, the exercise was 3 strides shoulder fore, straighten to the diagonal for 3 strides, then plié back to the track for 3 strides and repeat. The difficulty, high, the execution imperfect but the effects were the unbeatable lightness of being.

I can still remember the feeling –

Cal under but mostly in front of me, shoulder apparatus maximum width, withers lifting me up, huge neck up and out in front of me, the bit felt light yet firm in my hands, he felt completely balanced between hand and seat. In that moment, I could have put him anywhere in the arena, speared my enemy, jumped an enormous hedge, asked for a flying change, or halted him into a levade, if I had those skills. He was completely engaged, completely available, completely “on it” and completely with me. That is my current definition of lightness in riding, the unbeatable lightness of being.

It was a surprise, because it wasn’t soft.

Having had a previous horse that had been extensively ridden behind the vertical, I had come to associate that evasion with softness, an empty hand felt soft, but actually was an empty hand, a horse curling behind the vertical to avoid bit pressure. This time it was a more tangible contact, like holding hands on a summer’s day, not restrictive but there was a definite sensation of holding something precious, something that must not be dropped. And it was about much more than the hand; my seat was filled with my horse’s back, wide and firm but comfortable and malleable. My back was straight, my legs stable. I guess it was an adhesive seat on an inflated back; it felt like sitting on firm memory foam, totally comformable, comfortable, but active as well.

It only lasted a few strides of course; in training at our level these moments are fleeting. But it was enough to know that I would seek that feeling, every day in every ride, until that is our normal way of going. Had we been in a double bridle, we would have been on a loose curb, because in that moment, he filled the rein, it wasn’t me seeking him.

I have felt it a few times since. Last time it occurred we got our first clean canter to walk transition. I’m still amazed at how much horse it requires to achieve lightness. Cal the grey is quite soporific to ride; his mind is hugely powerful and he’s quite happy working on low revs. I call him the hypnotist; I get on determined to access the whole amazing war-horse body and get off having had a lovely ‘nice’ ride!! For him to be fully light, he needs to be fully engaged, brain, body and soul. He doesn’t yield (or step up?) to that easily. Therein lies our biggest homework. When he does turn up he is huge, in body and in personality.  He and I aren’t quite comfortable with that… just yet.

Lightness in riding is the ultimate goal. The pinnacle of classical training at the old school SRS was the solo display, birch upright in one hand, the snaffle rein loose and the curb reins held lightly in the other hand. The display would typically include all the Grand Prix movements and finally Piaffe to Levade, without a single aid being visible, horse and rider as one, effortless centaurs, mind meld and body meld, in the unbeatable lightness of being.

How do we get there?

First we need an independent balanced seat – we need to look to our own riding. A good seat, the sort developed on the lunge in days of old, an adhesive seat with a supple back and allowing joints, with each leg and each arm able to act independently, in several parts, to aid each footfall if required. The upper arms are part of the back, the hands and the bit belong to the horse; we receive what he offers, never taking or restricting. The neck is allowed the length the horse requires for balance: when the balance is good, the hindlegs will flex, the croup will lower and the topline will reflect that. Two to four years on the lunge, as an apprentice in a good riding academy in days gone by. My sister, growing up in Germany, spent four years on the lunge, as a learner amateur rider. Klimke was lunged once a week all the way through his career. A good seat takes work. Why do we think we can do away with these basics these days?

gymnasticise your horse

Next gymnasticise your horse. The two sides have to be equalised; the overbent side decontracted to the same length as the long stiff side, the weight in the footfalls equalised, front to front first then front to back, then eventually the back will take more weight than front (not there often yet). The back has to be both strong and supple, the front and back of the horse connected, the neck coming UP out of the withers strong and long before it can help lift the back into collection. That alone could be years of work, for the part-time amateur rider with no arena and limited riding time.

The school exercises are designed to strengthen and supple your horse, to teach him better balance, to empower him to control his body better and become magnificent. We have forgotten their purpose, these strange exercises that appear in our dressage tests. Learning their purpose and their criteria takes study, i.e. reading, practise, analysis, and educated application. It’s not about how they look, it’s about how they make the horse feel, how they develop his body, which muscles and joints they target. Putting the head and neck over a specific hind leg is like power lifting for a horse, developing the strength in his haunches. Half pass is like the ultimate cross trainer, the Carlsberg of exercises, it reaches parts other exercises cannot, the reach of the outside hind leg, diagonal power, open shoulders, squats on the inside hind leg, WHEN DONE CORRECTLY.

the horse needs to trust your body

And most importantly you need your horse’s mind. He needs to trust your seat to be stable, to trust the hand, to reach forward willingly into an allowing contact that offers him a point of reference without restricting his balance. The aids are aids that offer the horse space to move into, a point of balance to move across to, not a shoving or a pulling or a pushing that contorts him into a certain shape. It becomes a dance, between partners.

A really useful note on the hand position from the greatly missed Sandy Dunlop – this is regarding the line from elbow to bit:

“The key of that line, a line which most people do incorrectly, is that the line is along the underside of the lower arm, NOT the upper side. Most people have their third finger pressing down on the rein when they think they are straight line from elbow to bit. A correctly bent elbow with the correct line can look to many modern riders as if it is a high hand when in fact the line from horse hip to rider hip through elbow to bit is unbroken. 

During the learning process all riders find and lose that connection angle. In general there need to be phases of temporary exaggeration of the articulated elbow in order to prevent the erroneous muscle memory which keeps ‘relaxing’ the hand down onto the old line which causes pressure on the bars and tongue of the horse. This becomes an elastic thing where the temporarily high hand is no longer needed. Sadly, people often mistake the temporary for the permanent. 

This single, simple error of line is the common cause of the mild to medium btv posture we see in most horses i.e. that btv posture which prevents throughness and correct biomechanics of postural usage.”

I love internet discussions on training. I have learned loads from international virtual friends who are incredibly generous with their experience and expertise and are well practised in the black art of explaining training principles in writing. The Masters are all but gone, but those who trained with them are still with us and working really hard to keep the Art of Dressage alive, despite modern competition aberrations.

The truth is often uncomfortable, but it’s still the truth.

And the two bodies together become more powerful and more beautiful, and the human should become invisible because the horse should dazzle and shine.

Just a small ambition for life then!!

I hope you too all find moments of the unbeatable lightness of being.

A willing dance partner- seeking lightness in riding Carlos Caniero

I have a new favourite video- feast your eyes and then go and emulate this and you won’t go too far wrong searching for the unbeatable lightness of being.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpyO3B5dHmQ

An exemplary line from elbow to bit
Huge horse, light on his feet, light in the hand Pollay at the 1936 Olympics – youngest rider competing and Gold medalist

First do no harm…

First do no harm… You may not know, but I am a surgeon in my other life, so “first do no harm…” is the mantra that I live by, day to day, and try to apply in every interaction in life, human to human and human to horse. Above is another doctor, who I am sure shared the same mantra.

Now I know we all love our horses and we work really hard for them and with them, and nobody that got into horses ever did so with the intention of causing harm. But here is an awkward truth:

“The intention to harm need not be present for a horse in fact to be harmed”

So how might we harm our horses?

The first most obvious example is blood. Now we all may have different standards but one of my basic principles is that nothing I do to my horse should make him bleed.

I’m not saying I have never caused a horse to bleed- when Paddy was in work, I rubbed his side raw in a jumping lesson, not with a spur but with a spur rest. Yes, he does have incredibly thin skin. But that wasn’t an excuse. I rubbed his side raw because my leg position wasn’t good enough in those days and I was gripping with my calves, in that “knees out, heels in” stable, secure and incorrect position that jumping trainers encourage because it decreases the number of ground slaps that might occur in any one lesson.

It wouldn’t happen now. Four years and hundreds of pounds of seat focussed lessons later my leg position has changed entirely, my seat is now secure and I aid with the inside of my foot not the back of my calf.

When Cal was young I rubbed his mouth raw with the bit. The well meaning livery yard owner gave me some crystals to mix with water to harden up his mouth. I was an idiot and uneducated and I used the solution and carried on schooling. No one suggested I should learn to use the bit better or learn to keep my hands still (independent seat again); it was the young horse’s soft mouth that was the problem and there was a caustic solution for that.

First do no harm…

Rocky has not had a sore mouth. Now we have learned that the bit should only act up or out, never down on the bars, that the length of rein is dictated by the horse, that the frame dictates the length of rein and the horse’s level of balance and schooling dictates the frame. And I have a more secure seat that allows me to think forwards with my hands without losing balance.

So obviously I’m still not perfect, but I’m learning and trying to be better all the time. And if I caused one of my horses to bleed in a competition I would eliminate myself and kick myself and run for home to train and improve myself so it could never happen again.

First do no harm…

There are other more insidious ways of causing harm to a horse. The modern fashion of riding Low Deep and Round, also known as deep stretching, well behind the vertical, has been shown by more than 50 scientific studies to be physically and mentally damaging for the horse. Modern science is proving what the Old Dead Guys knew by keen observation- closed postures and curling the front of the horse rather than riding from the haunches leads to problems with kissing spines, suspensory ligament pathology, SI joint damage, hock arthritis, and also to stress and gastric ulcers first from having their vision limited and then from learned helplessness.

First do no harm…

This horse is behind the vertical- red vertical line included for reference.

Please don’t take my word for it: read the research for yourselves

http://equitationscience.com/equitation/position-statement-on-alterations-of-the-horses-head-and-neck-posture-in-equitation

And then make your own minds up. But please remember

“To know and not to do is not to know”

So we are naturally too quick to criticise others, and all of us are just doing our best. How will we know if the work we are doing is correct?

Luckily horses are very clear once we have learned to look and listen.

I’ve altered the quote below (from Maya Angelou)

“I have learned that horses will forget what you said, horses will forget what you do, but horses will never forget how you made them feel”

So how do we know that our work is good? In a world where so much teaching is against the horse rather than for the good of the horse, how do we tell the difference? How do we know whether the work made his body feel better? Which after all is the whole point of Dressage- from the French verb ‘dresser’ which actually means to train, to sculpt our horse into a thing of beauty that is empowered rather than diminished by our interventions.

Did it make the horse feel good?

What signs do we look for to know it made them feel good?

My favourite sign is helicopter ears- they go soft and floppy and assume all sorts of funny angles. Rocky has huge ears, as do all his family, so this one is pretty obvious, as well as being visible from on top!

Another sign is soft liquid eyes, with relaxed ‘eyebrows” and slow blinking. When the work is good, the horse is calm, because horses are kinaesthetic and they find it frightening to be out of balance. When their balance is aided to improve, they relax and chill out. They almost look stoned after good work. Stoned, not exhausted.

Breathing slows and calms: soft hurrumphs or gentle chuntering are signs of a relaxed mouth , tongue and larynx as well as relaxed brain. Harsh sharp breathing, breath holding, or sharp snorting, teeth grinding or calling out are all sure signs of a horse either stressed or on full alert.

More on the mouth from James Dunlop:

“In the French Tradition, it is the state of the mouth that governs everything. There are three mouths possible. A dry mouth, a soaking wet one with gobs of foam on the chest and legs, and a moist one in which the lips are just moist and the lower jaw relaxed. The third mouth is described as being ‘fraiche’ and offers a gentle murmur (L’Hotte) as if to be ‘smiling’ ( Beudant) . It is to this third mouth that we should aspire.”

I always get off the horse after a work session and look critically at the muscles. Is the neck soft and inflated, are the under neck muscles soft, does the neck come nicely out of the shoulder girdle. Does it look wider at the base than the middle of the top? A good neck should be an even triangle  from withers to poll, and from shoulder girdle to poll. The LDR horses have this weird tube of muscle that runs up from the middle of their necks, with no splenius or trapezius; in layman’s terms they have a hollow missing triangle just in front of the withers and also under the pommel. This photo below is an example of a horse showing aberrant muscle development from excessive flexion.

A lovely reminder of the missing neck muscles, also showing why forward down and out is the healthiest position for the neck

Is the lumbar back full? Does the hors’s skin shine and glisten and move smoothly over his frame or does it look dry and tight and stuck to the bones? Is the tail carried, not clamped,  does it swing softly as he moves? If the tail swings, the back can’t be braced.

And finally, does he look proud after work? Does he go strutting back to the field to tell his mates how cool he was? Does he look better and stronger and bigger each time? Does he offer the improved posture next ride without having to do the prep work?

If he offers the new posture or the new body usage next time, you know it felt good and he’s choosing to seek that posture. If you have to do all the work all over again, every time, it didn’t feel better. And that means it probably wasn’t right. So don’t repeat it…because if you aren’t improving your horse you are breaking him down (Charles de Kunffy).

and first do no harm…

The best thing about competing

The best thing about competing is that entering competitions makes me focus on my training goals. The best thing about competing is that entering competitions gives me a concrete timetable to direct my work towards, and when eventing is your main discipline, that timetable has to include basic fitness, fast work, jumping practise and cross-country schooling

as well as flatwork. We have had a great winter mostly working on our flatwork, as always with the help of the amazing Patrice Edwards, and Cal has been feeling stronger and better than ever, with a good canter (finally) that feels effortless and adjustable. So the best thing about competing is that it forces me to test the training.

 

The best thing about competing, and training for competing, is that we get to catch up with old friends. Winter can be dark and dreary, especially with working full-time and having horses living out; some days it just seems too much effort to ride, let alone enter anything. This winter my surrogate pony club mum, the lovely Judith, has organised regular riding club jumping clinics with Richard Carruthers. These have been great fun, watching combinations develop, and the camaraderie, thrills and spills and banter have been inspirational. A bit of continuity has also allowed Richard to be inventive: in this lesson he put Cal in a hackamore to see if less inadvertent clutching rein action might improve his way of going. We still had a couple of stops but it did make me realise where I might possibly have been tightening my hand when thinking “oh heck”. My current tasks is to retrain myself to kick every time I think “oh heck”!! The hackamore won’t stay in for ever, but it has been a useful exercise, and doesn’t allow me to micro manage at all, so all I can do is keep asking for forward, which is very much what Cal needs.

The scariest number I ever heard is 4000: this is the number of weeks in an average 80 year lifespan. 80 years sounds like a very long time, 4000 weeks by contrast sounds surprisingly short. It’s so easy to let a week drift by, or a month, when one isn’t focused. Horses set their own timetable, for sure, but a sense of time passing is handy for those of us with busy lives and other distractions, like a full time job and a home business on the side.

Rocky set his own timetable this month; no sooner had I ordered his new saddle then he developed an abscess and was waving his front foot around like a dying swan. He came down to the house for a few days for poulticing, which was quite testing. Note to self, must handle him in more inventive ways, rather than just doing basics, as nappies went flying across the yard and he did pirouettes and levade whilst the tape was going round his foot. After 8 days there was no real improvement so we took him to Brownmoss for x-rays. The x-rays showed a tiny abscess, quite deep in the foot, so no point digging and no point poulticing. We chucked him out in the field again for it to work its own way out. This took another week; he got really good at chasing the dogs on 3 legs and doing perfect pirouettes to turn around. It was all good hind end strengthening. He finally looked sound the evening before we went away for Easter weekend, so will get ridden out tomorrow.

Rocky handing in his note excusing him from games

The best thing about competing is that it makes me clean my tack properly! I’m quite good at looking after my tack for durability and checking stitching for safety, as most of it is second-hand, but it rarely gets a full buff and polish unless we are going out somewhere. Rocky chewed Cal’s leather reins, so I have the choice of looking scruffy in lightly chewed leather tomorrow or doing dressage with rubber reins that don’t give the same nice elastic feel…we’ll see.

The best thing about competing is that it forces me to tackle Cal’s mane so that it can be plaited; as a friend once said, he has two good manes, one on each side, that take quite a lot of taming. He also hates having his mane pulled, so we have to do a few handfuls at a time, or do it really quickly before he gets too cross.

Cal showing off his two manes

After photos tomorrow LOL.

The best thing about competing is the anticipation. To keep ourselves moving forwards, we are told to do something every day that scares us. You can’t grow in your comfort zone, only in your stretch zone. Well, having not competed properly i.e. jumping, since last summer (I don’t count dressage as competing because I am now so detached from the outcome), I am indeed feeling stretched! Here’s to growing!

The dulcet tones belong to Richard Carruthers, videos courtesy of Brent Sansom, many thanks Brent.

And finally, my stepson Barney stomped way out of his comfort zone this weekend, walking 100 miles in less than 48 hours, raising over 4K so far for Cancer Research UK and St Wilfred’s Hospice, in memory of Pam, his dear and wise friend. I am uber proud, and would ask you to consider donating to the 2 very worthy causes.

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/SomeoneSpecial/PAM

 

Top Ten Lessons from 2016

Top ten lessons from 2016- some hard learned, some not so tricky 🙂

  1.  Number 1 of the top ten lessons from 2106- Always have more feed stations than horses. For us this meant apertures on the monster hay feeder. We had 4 horses and 4 apertures…but one was always getting chased off. To get more apertures we had to buy another feeder. Which led to
  2. Number 2 of the top ten lessons from 2016- Don’t have the feed stations too far apart. In our experience, the horse at the bottom of the pecking order will starve rather than eat separately too far away from the others. So the extra feed station has to be near enough to feel inclusive but not so near that the bottom horse gets chased off all the time.
  3. Number 3 of the top ten lessons from 2016- Don’t overstuff your feeders with haylage. Labour saving we thought, 2 giant feeders, 2 bales in each, chore down to once a week 🙂 Except that the weight of the haylage in the nets led to compression and fermentation and they didn’t eat it. 2 bales wasted 🙁
  4. Number 4 of the top ten lessons from 2016- (I’m sorry if the repetition is annoying but I think the SEO programme is happy now LOL) – Objective evidence is good. If you think your horse has ulcers- scope it. If you think your horse has RAO/ heaves/ breathing trouble- scope it. If you think your horse’s feet aren’t as good as they might be- X-ray them. If you think your horse might have Kissing Spines- do the scan. 3 out of 4 apply to us. And be there for the investigation, asking questions and getting it all straight in your head. I didn’t learn anything new on the investigations but SEEING the results allowed me to believe and quantify the problem and ACT on it rather than dithering / supplementing / tickling the surface of the problem. Answers we chose- Ulcers= generic PPI, RAO= steroid inhalers and herbs, thin soles= boots and pads. You don’t have to do exactly what the vet recommends but you do need to know exactly what you are dealing with to make informed decisions. And if you don’t feel you know enough to make informed decisions then either get informed or trust your vet.    (I’m not sure our vets like having a colorectal surgeon with an MD in Biomolecular Medicine and barefoot, holistic, classical leanings as a client but there we go)
  5. Number 5 of the top ten lessons from 2016- you can never do enough groundwork with a young horse. Rocky is walking trotting and cantering under saddle and hacking on his own but I wish we had done more in hand work. It’s the basis of everything and it doesn’t need to be much: a few minutes sometimes was enough for the lesson to go through. I will do more when he comes back in to work after his growing (dark nights) break, as well as cracking on with his general education.​​
  6. TWO EQUAL REINS. Such a simple thing, so difficult to achieve. MORE RIGHT LESS LEFT. This rule applies to 99% of riders and horses.
  7. Just do the ff=ing homework. I thought I worked hard until I saw the difference one of the “Patricelings” achieved in a short month. One week she had straight arms, low fixed hands and an unhappy horse although in a “pretty” (false) outline, the next month she had elbows that were part of her back, steady yet allowing hands and a very happy horse. She hadn’t fully understood the why,  she had just gone away and done the work and the why appeared; the contact she was offered was soft and reaching and the horse’s topline looked terrific as a result.
  8. But do get decent tuition so you get good homework. Bad training is damaging to horse and rider. Classical principles work, they have been developed and proven over centuries. There are no short cuts that do not compromise soundness, equine well-being or worst of all progression to the next stage of training. Unless you want to do BE90 for ever and just keep switching horses every time you break one. Why learn to do something quickly and badly? It will impact negatively on everything else you do from that day onwards. Like turning with the inside rein- it’s a great tip for beginners who need” whoa, turn and go” but in the long run all it does is unbalance and constrict your horse.
  9. Don’t limit your expectations or your dreams. Your horse doesn’t know that you “only” want to do prelim and BE80; why not do that as well as you can, classically, correctly, happily? I only wanted to event up to BE90, possibly 100 on a brave pants day- suddenly with good luck, great advice and fabulous training we have a youngster potentially capable of much more, an Irish Sport horse a smidgeon off changes and baby piaffe, and an ex racer that will jump the moon once it can trot in a circle.
  10. and number 10 of the top ten lessons from 2016- Never under-estimate the importance of species specific diet and lifestyle. I cannot emphasise enough times how happy our horses are, living out in a herd, woolly and muddy, grooming, rolling, grazing and playing as part of a natural equine lifestyle. Their bodies look fab, their coats are amazing (when we knock the mud off), their feet are fabulous and their brains are superb, alert, inquisitive, willing but with no anxiety. We do have challenges, the ex racer thinks he’s still racing when in company, the baby has a sense of humour, but overall they are a very cool bunch of horses to be around.

So there we have my top ten lessons from 2016. Funny how two people can be in the same life and have completely different viewpoints, so I asked Gary too.

Gary’s top three (in his own words)

  1. Good advice is what we all crave. Reliability: we’d all like to delegate the real responsible decisions we have to make to others, those seemingly far more qualified. There are so many well meaning people but often I’ve found theirs isn’t the best advice. Take all information on board – all information is good information but the trick is sifting though the information to work out what will work for your horse. Cal has been the perfect example, or more precisely, his feet issues that Fran has documented in her blog for all; warts an’all. Many people I highly respect have offered their comment. We took it all on board and sifted it through our present knowledge. We were fortunate enough to find the right direction; a culmination of that valued advice, but ultimately our own decision. The decisions were ours, and on that day, we’ll stand by them. Delegating your responsibilities is not an option.
  2. A situation occured earlier last year which led to my biggest set back. It culminated in an inappropriate confrontation, bitter comments and almost divorce! Without further detail, I believe the root cause was a lack of attention to my horse’s tack, in particular his saddle. I rue this day. I deeply regret the consequences because I was fully responsible for that moment. My deepest regret is to the horse I placed into the middle of this. My lesson is so simple, but so often neglected – ensure your horse is correctly prepared!
  3. My experience, and those who know me will concur, is not vast. One signficant lesson though has shone through. All horses are magnificent, but not every horse is right for you. I loaned an incredible horse last year, a truly talented being that could have taught me far more than I allowed. But like love; like a passion, if the spark is not there, you are not soul mates. I eventually found mine, an ex-racer, and my passion for our horses was ignited again. For me, this has been fundamental. The relationship is hugely important. This feeds desire, inspiration, imagination, and most importantly hunger for more learning. P.S. And 3a! Knowing that these ideas and thoughts will develop and change……
  4. Because she asked me to give 3. Surround yourself with those who believe in what you believe. You will become the average of those closest to you, for good or for bad. Fran’s blog has genuinely inspired me; giving most what she most desires.

 

Training, not Taming

Training, not taming, the horse to be ridden. A recent post on social media showed a photo of a beautifully marked wild mustang stallion posturing. The caption asked “is this the self-carriage that we seek?” And one of the replies was “I’m not sure I’d like to be riding my horse if he was in that mode…”

And this got me wondering. Looking at the photo, the horse’s back is beautifully lifted, and at maximum length from tail to poll, the overall balance is uphill, the suspension and ground cover breath-taking, the throat latch is open but the poll is absolutely the highest point. In short, if one added a rider to the photo, it would be the most beautifully correct passage, and the rider would be invisible because the horse would steal the show.

So for me, yes, absolutely, this self-carriage is a good example of what I would seek. As Charles de Kunffy says, the purpose of dressage training, in keeping with the Renaissance ideals, is to transform a random act of Nature into an edifice of Art. Training, not taming.

The purpose of training, for me, is to strive towards a quality of symbiosis that makes me and the horse feel like a Centaur, one body, one mind, working together effortlessly and invisibly. I love eventing so ideally for me that would be true on the cross country course, show jumping and also in the dressage arena. I want my horse to be a willing partner, thinking for himself, our brains attuned to each other but working in harmony. I certainly wouldn’t want to canter towards a big solid cross-country fence with a horse that isn’t looking after himself and, by extension, me as well. Training, not taming.

SONY DSC

Now please don’t get me wrong, I am not boasting here: if you saw me ride, you would see that I am a long, long way away from that ideal. But it is important to know what we strive for, for how else might we take steps to achieve it?

Achieving a classical seat is an incremental process
Achieving a classical seat is an incremental process

So would we like to ride a horse with the amount of energy and pizzazz of the posturing stallion?

Who wouldn’t?

Surely the whole point of riding a horse is to have two bodies and minds working together to achieve more than either can separately? The human becomes more majestic, more imposing, more powerful, on board a horse, leaping huge fences and traveling at tremendous speed. The whole point of riding is to harness the power of the horse and use it for our purpose; be that enjoyment, labour, display or battle. Why would you get on a horse and ask it to diminish itself?

SONY DSC

Many horses are “energy efficient”. Many horses have no idea how powerful they can be! My own gorgeous, sleepy, gentle Cal, scares himself silly when both hind legs work equally and he realises how much power there is behind him. When he hits that point, we have had Pesade and Capriole, when all that was required was two hind legs, equal, underneath you, lifting please! The baby Rocky is right hand crooked: when asked to lift his bum with his left hind, we have had kicks and twists and inside outs just to avoid a bit of new weight bearing. When they find the feeling though, and play around with the new body you have just introduced them to, that is truly an amazing moment.

One of my most treasured memories is when the black horse, Paddy, old, arthritic, stiff and resistant, spontaneously offered the most beautiful canter in a lesson where we spent a bit of time doing walk pirouettes and helped him to unlock his back. The canter was a really cool reaction- “ooooooh that feels soooo goooood”

The novice horse loses the new balance again two strides later of course! But if you can show them that place, again and again, the balance becomes better and stronger and then they choose the new muscle usage because it feels good, and then they offer the correct posture because it feels good. And then they blossom and grow in confidence and stature.

This can’t be forced. For the horse to choose, it has to feel physically better. And good training, that sticks, where the horse is a willing partner, has to be based on offers not coercion. The best training is where we set up a question or exercise where the only logical physical answer employs the new muscle usage that we seek. The horse experiments, tries a few things, works out the required offer and then is rewarded for the try. The exercise is repeated, the try gets quicker, more confident, stronger. Eventually the horse learns that this exercise creates that feeling, and the aids become invisible and the try becomes an immediate response. And that is training, not taming.

There is no “control” required because there is no resistance and no fear. The horse is on the aids, working on suggestions and signals. The horse is not diminished mentally because his mind is respected and employed to his advantage during the training. The horse is not diminished physically because the training is built up slowly, layer upon layer of incrementally tougher demands on a body that has been gradually prepared for the higher demands of collection.

This takes timing, and tact, and humour, and skill. And it takes lots of time. Podhjasky says 4 years to prepare a horse for the high school movements. Four years after they first start school work, which the SRS horses do at 6. Years 4-6 are spent hacking out, in straight lines, developing bones and tendon and bodies, seeing the world and learning about life, not in the arena.

But when you have an advanced well horse trained in this manner, that will spontaneously offer every ounce of half a tonne of muscle, to make the pair of you majestic, why would you not want a piece of that? And why would you not want it to last for ever?

img_0836

That’s what I’m striving towards. And if it takes me a whole lifetime of learning and training to achieve it with one horse for even one minute, it will have been worth the journey.

“My horse won’t cope barefoot..”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Better qualified people than me have answered the same question

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

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

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

Which then leads me to more questions-

how do we define lameness?

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

 

 

Barefoot is best…..but it ain’t always easy

For humans or for horses. Paddy is the horse that started us on our barefoot journey, and the accelerated learning that ensued: feeding horses naturally, the prevalence and effects of gastric ulcers in horses, natural husbandry, paddock paradise, track systems…and ultimately all these factors were drivers that led us to the purchase of our beautiful forest cottage.

Traditionally horses wear metal shoes, unless they really don’t need them. I remember ponies at riding school with no shoes, and later my German sister’s Arab horse regularly doing miles through the forest with no shoes. In fact there were quite a few horses in my sister’s village with no shoes at all doing lots of work and looking very well. But I live in Britain, and I always wanted to go eventing, and eventers need studs to go cross country, and so we needed shoes.

Paddy was cheap to buy and came with a reputation. Part of the reputation was that he hated the farrier. We cold shod him for a bit with a bucket of feed to keep him occupied but when I started eventing him, he “needed” studs, hot shoeing was required and the problem gradually escalated. We got sacked by one farrier, then the farrier cum horse whisperer started asking for him to be sedated until one day the shoes came off but the horse whisperer couldn’t get them back on. We had two events looming so I got the vet out, we formally sedated him, shod him  for the last two events of the season and I tried to make a sensible plan. Call out and sedation put the cost of shoes to £100 a pair. His feet were weak, crumbly, looked terrible, barely held nails and we were on a 5 week shoeing cycle. I started to ask myself if we needed shoes? Did I really need to event? Could he find another job? Did I need to sell him?

We had a climbing friend who was married to a barefoot trimmer, Sarah then from Performance Barefoot, later known as Forageplus.

https://forageplus.co.uk/

A vaguely remembered conversation got me thinking about barefoot horses in Germany, managing without shoes, hacking and jumping and galloping. I started reading, started asking lots of questions, re-examined what I knew about shoes and horses, spoke to Sarah at length, changed his diet, started buying white powdered magnesium oxide by the kilo and six weeks later we pulled his shoes off. He was 12 years old.

He was obviously lame on stones, as you would be if we took your shoes off and sent you out running,  but we were surrounded by super smooth tarmac- suddenly, with no shoes, all the steep, narrow, country roads felt much safer. We had Little Budworth Common with a sand track to canter on, so Paddy never missed any work. He tottered down the gravel drive, zoomed down the smooth tarmac and pulled like a train around the common. After about 2 months he zoomed down the gravel drive too, then down the hard core. Paddy is not a ploddy horse! We started jumping barefoot and he actually felt better: he adjusted his balance automatically and stopped rushing his fences. Grip just didn’t seem to be an issue. His feet got stronger and stronger. He had a couple of amazing seasons eventing; he has never been the most consistent horse but we got to the Riding Club National Championships for Horse Trials, Hunter Trials and moved up to BE100, the third level of affiliated competition. He was a cross country machine on his good days.

paddy profile

In retrospect it is so obvious: the hate of the farrier was pain from thin soles, poor hoof quality due to poor nutrition (although it was a reputable feed brand, just not the right food for a sensitive horse), and from repetitive hot shoeing. From having the worst feet in Cheshire he now has the best, toughest, most functional feet you could wish for.

This January my 20 year old barefoot machine went charging around the hills above Colwyn Bay with the Flint and Denbigh. We had a great day, he galloped up the hills, trotted up the steep lanes, jumped most things and kept right up with the thrusters. Best of all he had fun.

When I bought Paddy, I was on a great livery yard with a crowd of really good friends and we all bought new horses around the same time. Paddy is the only one of our horses from those times still in work, although he does now choose his days. The rest of the cohort is dead or retired now, most have been PTS. Commonest problem/ cause of euthanasia; forelimb lameness due to arthritis.

So for him barefoot was the answer.

However the reason the old boy got dragged up the hill that day was because Cal, my good horse, is not quite such a barefoot legend. He bruised his soles on Boxing Day racing around Rivington Pike on really stoney paths with the Holcombe Harriers. Paddy would have been OK up there but for Cal it was all a bit too much and he was still ouchy. And for my poor husband Gary, who sorted out the invite, did a lot of the prep and got us to Wales, his horse was also a bit footsore from Boxing Day and so he turned around early and had to wait in the lorry for the happy crew to return. Pretty galling.

Why are Cal and Con not rock crunching barefoot horses? I’m not sure yet, we are still working that one out. Cal I’m sure has an underlying metabolic condition. He tested borderline high for Cushings, has had severe RAO this summer and always looks a bit fat. When I work him enough (20-30 miles a week) his feet are tolerable. We are not doing that this winter. Con is just getting fit; he arrived quite obese after two years of being nanny to a yard full of youngsters. His wind and muscle tone are improving, I think his  under performing barefoot hooves are probably acting as a protecting limiting factor while the rest of his physiology tones up. Very frustrating for a relatively newly horse obsessed husband who loves the idea of hunting!