Read Joe's take on The Kentucky Derby. Click here

Well... we sold a horse... and I'm thinking it will be the last one we ever sell. Intellectually it seemed like the right thing to do, for Scribbles, and for Kathleen, but emotionally it left me a basket case. Read all about it by clicking Scribbles.

For all of you who could not attend the recent Pete Ramey - Dr. Robert Bowker clinics a week or so ago here in Valley Center  both Ramey and Bowker were simply incredible in their ability to simplify to the point of injecting our brains with true understanding of what they hoof is all about. And why following the wild horse model is so logical.

Dr. Bowker nailed a point I had never really thought of. He uses the term "peripheral loading" when referring to a situation where the hoof walls are carrying all of the weight when a horse's hoof hits the ground. Which is almost always the case when he's wearing a shoe, and often the case when he's barefoot and his hoof walls are too long. Dr. Bowker's point is that the hoof walls should never carry all of the load. The load should be shared by the bars, the frog, and even the sole. Why? Well, picture a small diameter tube inside a slightly larger diameter tube... with nothing locking the two together except a fiberous spongy material called the lamina; connected only laterally, on the sides. No help from the bottom. And nothing touching the ground except the rim of the larger, outside tube. Now start applying 300-400 pounds of pressure on the smaller, inner tube (as in every time the horse's foot hits the ground)... and imagine the shearing pressure on the lamina trying to hold everything together (from the side) with no help from below. That's an over-simplification, but pretty much what's happening with your horse's hoof mechanism when each step is loading only on the periphery (the hoof wall).

In the wild, if a horse is on rocky terraine, his hoof will usually be concave, because the rocks above ground will reach up and wear and callous the frog, bars and sole. If a horse is barefoot on concrete, like the Houston Mounted Patrol horses, there will be less concavity naturally (flatter) so there can still be load support from the frog, bars and soul. That's why both Pete and Dr. Bowker emphasize so strongly that the shape of the bottom of the foot can not (and left to nature will not) be the same when living on different types of terraine. If your horse is on soft arena-type footing most of the time, his foot will wear differently than if he's on concrete, or hard rocky ground, or grass. This is why Pete spends very little time trimming the bottom of the foot, preferring to let the horse tell him how he'd like it to be, and then just helping him to get there.

There's so much too all this that I very strongly recommend that you spend as much time as possible on Pete's website and Dr. Bowker's website, reading their articles. It takes time to get a handle on all of it, but it's so worth it for your horses. Here are the two website links:

Pete's website: http://www.hoofrehab.com .  

Dr. Bowker's research rticles: http://cvm.msu.edu/RESEARCH/efl/index.htm  
or http://wwwthehorseshoof.com .

Diet and Nutrition: Now this is a very slippery slope, as anyone who has tried to make sense out of it can testify. We are just getting into the concept of how we can ensure that our horses are getting, or have access to, all of the options they would have available to them in the wild, which is the foundation for their genetic structure. We have begun the complex process of trying to determine not only the best, most natural feed combinations, but the best methods to ensure that our horses have access to what they need, and can also pick and choose what they feel they need based upon their individual conditions. As is highlighted throughout this site, for us, it's not about what we humans think, or what is most convenient for us. It's about how we can replicate as closely as possible the health and happiness our horses would have if they were in the wild taking care of themselves.

The Best Source I've Found So Far!

http://www.naturalhorsetalk.com/documents/FeedingNaturally.pdf

http://www.naturalhorsetalk.com/documents/EquineNutritionMythsandFacts.pdf

http://www.naturalhorsetalk.com/documents/ReadingtheLabelswhatyouneedtoknow.pdf

These are two articles by Lisa Ross-Williams, editor of Equine Wellness, NaturalHorseTalk.com, and host of the internet radio show IfYourHorseCouldTalk.com. I've been searching, searching, searching and trying different things until I'm crazy! And Lisa has seriously put it all together in spades! Diet and nutrition is her passion, her focus. No matter how you keep your horses, you must read these articles. Thank you, thank you, thank you Lisa!

I feel we are now giant steps closer to my goal of seeing our horses live happily
and healthily into their thirties and forties.

One other note. Emerging research regarding fat in a horse's diet is paralleling the studies for humans with siumilar results. Fat is necessary for both of us... but only if it's unrefined, unprocessed, un-hydrogenated fat. It's the processing that manufacturers do to "preserve" the fat that is killing us and our horses, the chemically mutated fat. There are good articles on this subject and on the need for antioxidants, and why, at The Natural Horse Vet website, link below:

http://www.naturalhorsevet.com

More to come as we put these concepts into practice and see the results
first hand with our horses. Stay tuned.

In early October, my friend Allen Pogue and I got to spend a couple of days with what is probably one of the largest herds of Lusitano horses in the world. More than three-hundred. Foals, yearlings, two-year-olds, and up. It was an unbelievable expereince for me. All of these horses are out in huge pastures, living naturally and clearly loving it. We were told that most of them were unhandled by humans, certainly with no training at all, yet all we had to do was walk into a pasture and we were surrounded by an entire troop of sniffing curious faces, all accepting return sniffs, rubs, and scratches. Byrde Hill, owner of the ranch and the horses told us this was just the nature of the breed. Friendly, curious, willing, and ernest about trying to do what you ask. I found that was certainly true when I got to ride my first ever stallion, a jet black twelve-year-old named Danny... with mares less than forty yards away! To say I wasn't nervous would be a prevarication of the highest order. I've heard so many awful tales about how ugly stallions can be. Not so, Danny. He was as sweet as a puppy, extremely bright, and he tried so hard to respond to what this unskilled rider was trying to say to him. He's had no classical training. just the basics, but the nature of this horse is to collect and step out and I could imagine myself out in a huge dressage arena with thousands of screaming fans. Such a joy it was to experience him, and all of these wonderful horses. Byrde sent me home with a book: The Royal Horse of Europe - The Story of the Andalusian and Lusitano by Sylvia Loch. A terrific guide for anyone wanting to know more about this majestic breed.