New Horizon Equine Services and Arabians

12/10/2025

08/10/2025

"Hoofcare isn't rocket science," I have often heard people say. The implication being that it isn't hard to do.

They are right. It isn't rocket science.

It's biomechanical engineering.
It's trigonometry.
It's physics.
It's advanced biology.
It's living sculpture.
It's geometry.
It's psychology.
And, above all else, it is art... because sometimes all the mathematics in the world aren't enough for the horse. And it is our job to hear them speak when they tell us they need something different. Something more than what we expected.

They are right. It isn't rocket science. We aren't sending anyone to the moon, or to space.

Instead, we are improving the lives of those here on earth, right now. Those without a common tongue to tell us what they need. Those who suffer at our hands more often than we want to admit. Those who we try our best for. Those who try their best for us, always.

No, it isn't rocket science. It is so, so much more.

18/09/2025

PART 1 — HOW HORSES GOT INTO ONE SHOE

Picture North America some 55 million years ago. Forget open plains and galloping herds. What you’d find instead was a muggy, green world of swamps and dense forests, buzzing with insects the size of dinner plates. In the undergrowth darted a nervous little animal about as big as a fox terrier. It had four toes on the front feet, three on the back, and padded soles that looked more suited to a hedgehog than a hunter. This was Eohippus — the “dawn horse.” Although to call it a horse is rather like calling a dormouse a draft horse.

Eohippus was, at best, horse-ish. More deer-meets-rabbit, with a nervous twitch and teeth designed for browsing tender shoots rather than grinding tough grasses. It lived in the shadows, dodging predators, doing its best not to become a snack. No one looking at it then would have placed bets on its descendants winning the Grand National or pulling London omnibuses. Yet evolution, in its slow and opportunistic way, had other plans.

FROM FOREST BROWSERS TO PLAINS RUNNERS

As the climate shifted, forests began to retreat. Grasslands — vast, open, sun-scorched — spread in their place. Grass is a terrible food: low in calories, full of abrasive silica, like eating tiny shards of glass. Animals that could grind it survived. So horse teeth began to flatten, crowns lengthened, enamel folded.

The ground hardened too. Speed became salvation. A small herbivore out in the open was a walking buffet unless it could sprint. And sprinting on multiple wobbly toes wasn’t ideal. Extra digits became evolutionary dead weight. By about 37 million years ago, Mesohippus walked on three toes. In mud, that spread the load nicely. On hard ground, it was clumsy.

Fast-forward another 10 million years, and Merychippus appeared — larger, stronger, still three-toed, but with the middle digit beginning to dominate. It grazed, rather than browsed, and lived in herds on the plains. The horse, as we’d recognise it, was taking shape.

Then came Pliohippus, around 5 million years ago. This was the first true one-toed horse. Those side toes, once useful in swamps, had shrunk to splints. All the animal’s weight pressed through a single sturdy digit, wrapped in a thick, keratinised wall. At last, the hoof.

By the time Equus emerged roughly 4 million years ago, the evolutionary gamble was complete: a large herbivore, one toe per limb, built for endless miles at speed. The horse had arrived.

THE EVOLUTIONARY GAMBLE

It was an extraordinary solution. One toe allowed longer strides, faster gallops, and the endurance to roam for miles. A horse could outpace most predators. A hoof wore evenly across tough plains. Herds spread across continents.

But this marvel came at a cost. One toe is excellent for speed on firm ground, hopeless for variety. Horses became specialists. They traded versatility for efficiency. A three-toed horse could cope in mud, forest, or rock. A one-toed horse could outrun wolves — but struggled anywhere its design didn’t fit.

Evolution never plans ahead. It doesn’t ask, “What if someone keeps this animal in a damp stable on lush ryegrass?” It just solves the problem of the moment. For millions of years, that problem was surviving on the plains. And the one-toed hoof solved it brilliantly.

THE LEGACY IN TODAY’S HOOF

Every hoof you pick up today is shaped by that ancient compromise. The coffin bone (P3), crescent-shaped and porous, is the remnant of that single digit. The splint bones alongside the cannon are ghosts of toes long abandoned. The odd calluses of chestnuts and ergots may be echoes of ancient pads.

And the weaknesses remain too. Hooves designed for arid steppe struggle in wet winters. Metabolisms tuned for sparse forage collapse on fertilised pasture. The “perfect” hoof was never perfect — it was just good enough for a very specific set of conditions.

That is why modern hoof care is always a balancing act. We are managing an organ built for one world and forced to live in another. When horn crumbles, laminae inflame, or soles go soft, these aren’t design flaws. They are the inevitable mismatches between evolutionary history and domestic reality.

A COMPROMISE WE STILL LIVE WITH

So when you look at a horse’s hoof, remember what you’re really seeing. You’re seeing a 55-million-year experiment in survival. You’re seeing forests that vanished, grasses that spread, predators that gave chase, and millions of evolutionary near-misses where species died out.

The modern hoof is a miracle — and a gamble. It is both exquisitely adapted and hopelessly compromised. A tool built for speed and stamina, pressed into a life of stables, turnout paddocks, rugs, supplements, and farriers’ rasps.

That tension — between what the hoof evolved for and what we ask of it — is the heart of hoof care. Every trim, every shoeing choice, every management decision sits in that space. The one-toed horse won the evolutionary lottery, but the prize came with strings attached. Strings that we, 55 million years later, are still carefully unpicking.

09/09/2025

We have been saying this for a long time, glad to see some reserch that bears it out!

This is what the barefoot world has been saying for about 15 to 20 years….. but glad it is finally becoming mainstream……..

August 30, 2022
New Research on why Barefoot Horses remain Sounder than Shod Horses
The barefoot movement is growing amongst top professional riders worldwide, and finally a comprehensive Swedish research project is to determine exactly why there are so many benefits from ditching your horse’s iron shoes and going barefoot instead.



By Helle Maigaard Erhardsen



Since the Olympic Gold medallist and World number one in Showjumping Peder Fredricson pulled the shoes of his horses and went barefoot, he has had far fewer issues with lameness, far less injuries to the hooves and lower limbs and not a single hoof abscess. And perhaps needless to say, his horses keep bringing home the gold like never before.



But why is that? For decades hoof rehabilitators and horse owners have experienced extraordinary results with taking previously shod horses barefoot, but there has been very little research done to support these results scientifically.



So far, fragments of larger studies and smaller case studies have proved how iron shoes increase concussion when the horse lands, how iron shoes interrupt the blood supply to the hooves and inhibits the hooves’ ability to contract and expand. And the renowned podiatry researcher Dr. Robert Bowker VMD has even described how shoeing can be the direct cause of caudal heel pain, also referred to as navicular disease.



However, with next to no specific research comparing the performance of a barefoot hoof to a shod hoof, the debate between pro-shoe horse people and anti-shoe horse people have relied mostly on belief, tradition and personal experience. Now, a new comprehensive research project by The Swedish Agricultural University (SLU) and Agria Animal Insurance is well on the way to scientifically determine the difference between the barefoot hoof and the shod horse hoof.

Swedish barefoot study 2022SLU Professor Lars Roepstorff and his team conducting research for the new comprehensive barefoot study with Peder Fredricson performing an empirical riding test in the background.



A Shod Hoof can’t Expand or Contract as much as a Barefoot Hoof



The Swedish research project is led by Professor Lars Roepstorff, who has been collecting data from empirical riding tests and in-depth interviews throughout the past year. The preliminary results from the first phase of data analysis confirms what smaller studies previously have found: Traditional horseshoes do affect the function of the horse’s hooves.

“The iron shoe locks the so-called hoof mechanism especially when landing after obstacles. The shod hoof can’t expand or contract as much as the barefoot hoof because the shoe inhibits lateral movement. It could mean that the blood flow in the shod hooves is inhibited, and this blood flow is important for the hooves to be healthy,” Roepstorff explained to Agria Djurförsäkring.

In this first stage of the study, the researchers have been focussing on measuring the internal movements of the hoof with and without horseshoes. Professor Lars Roepstorff found it particularly interesting to be able to describe the difference in how much the hoof was allowed to contract during the rollover phase:

“When the mechanism of the hoof is described, it’s often said that the hoof expands when it lands on the ground, which is correct. But we also see that the hoof contracts during the rollover phase and that movement is inhibited by horseshoes. That has not been described very well in literature before now,” Lars Roepstorff said.

Further analysis is to be made to draw conclusions on the actual consequences of the hooves moving less with shoes, like how this affects blood circulation, load and shock absorption.

Horseshoe nailsThe new Swedish research has shown that it’s not only the rigid iron shoe itself that inhibits normal, healthy hoof function, but also the way it is fixed to the hoof with nails.



Barefoot Horses are more Cautious where they put their Feet than Shod Horses



One of the advantages that Peder Fredricson has discovered since going barefoot with his top-level showjumping horses, is that the horses now can feel the ground much better and are far more careful with how and where they put their feet. He links this improved ground sensitivity, also known as proprioception, to the less injuries and lameness issues he has had in his horses since he took their shoes off.



“I think that adaptation to the ground conditions is part of keeping the horse’s hooves healthy and strong. Horses don’t see where they put their hooves, they only sense the ground conditions when they have put their hooves in the ground. With shoes, we remove the feeling from the hoof, so they can move unhindered regardless of the ground. Even in those situations where they really should have been a little cautious,” Peder said according to Agria Djurförsäkring.



Moreover, it is Peder’s experience that metal horseshoes can disguise an incipient injury, which makes it difficult to discover a problem before it turns into actual lameness. Differently, a barefoot horse will instantly display any discomfort:



“You can compare it to when we humans walk barefoot across a gravel field. It may look painful before the feet have hardened and adjusted, but when we get to the grass we can walk normally again. You need to learn and understand the difference between what temporary sensitivity is and what is an injury. Horses with shoes can go for a long time with an injury before it is noticed that it is lame,” Peder said.

26/08/2025

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How does Extended Bidding work?
If an item receives a bid during the final 3 minutes of the auction, the item end time will be extended to allow for 3 additional minutes of bidding. This process repeats until no new bids are received during the final 3 minutes of the item bidding window or the auction has been extended for a maximum of 30 minutes beyond the original end time. When an auction is extended, you'll see Extended Bidding messages displayed throughout the auction with a link for easily viewing all of the extended items.

BID NOW;
https://www.32auctions.com/aabcauction2025

26/08/2025

Comprehensive resource for Australasian Arabian Horse Breeders. PDF to flipbook converted using heyzine.com

18/08/2025

𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗕𝗘𝗗𝗢𝗨𝗜𝗡 𝗖𝗢𝗗𝗘: 𝗪𝗛𝗬 𝗧𝗘𝗠𝗣𝗘𝗥𝗔𝗠𝗘𝗡𝗧 𝗪𝗔𝗦 𝗦𝗔𝗖𝗥𝗘𝗗 𝗜𝗡 𝗔𝗥𝗔𝗕𝗜𝗔𝗡 𝗕𝗥𝗘𝗘𝗗𝗜𝗡𝗚. Long before modern shows and sport, Arabian horses lived with the Bedouin tribes of the desert — not in barns, but in tents, sharing life with people.

To the Bedouin, temperament wasn’t just important — it was sacred.

Why?
Because their horses were more than animals — they were family, war partners, and protectors. Arabians needed to be:
✅ Gentle enough to live among children in the tent
✅ Brave enough to charge into battle
✅ Loyal enough to return when called
✅ Smart enough to survive the harsh desert
✅ Calm, trusting, and obedient — even with no bridle or saddle!

Only the best were bred
If a horse was mean, disloyal, or panicky — it was never bred. Simple as that. Over generations, this created the Arabian we know today: intelligent, loyal, gentle, and courageous.

The Bedouins believed,
👉 “A horse’s spirit is more important than its speed.”
👉 “Viciousness in an Arabian is unknown.”

🐪 True stories from the desert...
➤ Horses slept in tents with babies and women.
➤ Foals played with children, even using people as scratching posts.
➤ Stallions walked among strangers without fear.
➤ War mares would lie still in silence to keep the camp safe.

The Bedouin Code taught that:
✨ Blood is important — but character is everything.
✨ A true Arabian gives its heart to its human.
✨ Temperament must be pure, like the bloodline.

This sacred code still shapes Arabian breeding today. From show ring to trail ride, their noble spirit lives on.

25/07/2025