WHAT DOES "I DON'T KNOW" SOUND LIKE?  

Have you ever wondered why so many horse people avoid saying "I don't know?" 

I like to ask questions. Always have. My parents encouraged it, but I'm sure I drove some teachers crazy in my youth. Before the World Wide Web, there were less opportunity and options for knowledge. I had to find answers from books or the people around me who seemed to have lots of experience. Problem was, my intuition often sensed the answer wasn't complete or didn't match the reality in front of me.

Have...

1.   Contraction refers to an excessively narrow foot, with heels and bulbs pinched together. This is one of the most common pathologies afflicting domestic horses today. Contracted feet can be linked to a host of behavioral problems such as bucking, rearing, teeth grinding, tripping, head-shaking, rushing or balking.  Jumping horses with contracted hooves will be “dirty stoppers” – refusing to jump fences with the shock-absorbing system in their feet compromised.  These are often horses who will...

Are you able to be at home with your horses?  Now's an excellent time to learn about and care more for the health of their feet.  

Can you believe it??  

Studies claim over 90% of domestic horses have an active infection in the pads of their feet, also called a frog pad. That may seem high but at least 90% of new horses we meet,  present a frog pad health crisis in the form of thrush – some mild and more topical and some deep burrowing and severe.  

Some people think it's normal for the...

Did you know that you can feed organic Apple Cider Vinegar to your horse?  Infusing it in the water supply is an easy method of delivery with so many benefits for the horse and the water supply...some mentioned on the photo below.

Feeding  your horses Organic Active ACV with the mother can get expensive but there is a way to save $$   You can BREW your own! 

NOW you have a lot of organic ACV... Make some Magik Spray!! 

Unless your horse is in a functional living...

Your work is not to drag the world kicking and screaming into a new awareness. Your job is to simply do your work...Sacredly, Secretly and Silently...
and those with 'eyes to see and ears to hear' will respond.

I have been doing my work.

I tried the kicking and screaming approach in my early ‘barefoot’ days.  Now I silently move forward ... doing my work.

I realized the gravity and the depths of the belief systems passed on from one manly generation to another and it put me in a bit of depression.  Sad for the horses, I...

Is it possible?  Can foot form affect a horse’s conformation? 

Yes, it can, and does – in fact it affects much more than that!  The condition, overall shape and functioning of your horse’s feet influence not only his posture, stance, attitude, personality and movement, but also his innate and biological bodily functions such as circulation, lymph function, digestion and muscle development. We will even go so far to say that foot form and function have a great influence on your horse’s 'trainability'...

It was July 2012 when I first saw her. I sent love to her immediately.  She was most obviously an old soul.  She was very skinny (like a 0 to 1 on the condition scale)  I wondered about her and her condition...   Whats the condition scale?

I moved to a small acreage in a new community. Being a compulsive observer and a perpetual student of the horse, I looked for her patterns of behaviour as I had to drive by her several times a day.  

She appeared to be grazing regularly, I saw her at the ‘water...

It is estimated that 98% of domestic horses that arrive at the slaughterhouses (and are not bred for meat) do so for musculoskeletal problems easily preventable if we improve the conditions in which they live. 

The horses need more than prayers! Click this link which shows how different parts of the world view North American slaughter houses, in particular in Alberta Canada!

The reasons that horses end up in slaughter houses  have not changed one bit over the decades.  

Several times during the past 20...

Can YOUR horse get navicular?

     A few years ago I met a friend at a boarding facility where I saw a jumper mare being ridden in the indoor arena. She was being cantered around the large space, jumping two fences on one long side and repeating the mundane line over and over again in an obedient but almost robotic way. She was a beautiful big mare, but I couldn't help seeing the obvious tightness in her body, her toe-first landings, the stoic 'try',  and  felt a loss of participation and joy from her. ...

I wrote this article over a decade ago. It still reflects so many other horse owners' experiences.

          I had an Arabian horse named Sham. He was ready to retire and I was looking for a second horse. I surfed ads for half-Friesians and found a website called Equinextion with some beautiful horses for sale … and some different stuff about ‘Barefoot and Natural’.

          When I’d bought Sham, with his super tall coke-can...