Rebel horse care

13/04/2025

I’m very excited to be going back to Iceland to teach about natural horse and hoof care!!
This time I’m teaching a 3 day workshop in the north of Iceland.

If you live in Iceland and are interested in evolving your knowledge about horses, hooves and hoof care, come join us!!

For more info contact:
[email protected]

07/04/2025

I have had some reels popping up in my feed lately that provoke and annoy me.

It is typically a horse in a stall doing goofy things like playing with a toy hanging from the ceiling, while making weird faces.
The text says something like:
“We used to ride these things to battle.”

As in “domestication has turned horses into helpless, clumsy dimwits who know nothing but goofiness and hurts themselves all the time. “

As much as I am for laughing at our horses in a kind and loving way when they do silly things, this to me is not funny.

You see the thing is,
If we give our domesticated horses a lifestyle that supports the needs of their species, with lots of movement after forage and water, with life in a herd of horses and maybe even interaction with other species, with challenging terrain and different surfaces to walk over, with many different plants available to eat or choose not to eat, with training and communication that they can understand and which is strengthening their bodies and minds, then we are setting our horses up to be war horses, horses that could take us to battle.
An animal with a strong body, strong hooves and a developed brain. An animal that can make decisions and take care of itself and you.

If on the other hand you place that same horse in a box stall, feed it sugar instead of fiber, nail iron to its already weak hooves, make sure it only ever gets exercise on flat, level, soft ground, wrap it in rugs, leg wraps and blankets, train it in a way that leaves the horse no choice ever, manipulate and steer every movement the horse makes, isolate it from other horses and anything that could stimulate its senses, then you will end up with either a shut down or a very frustrated and stressed out, helpless, clumsy animal which will stumble over things and be unable to make decisions, take care of itself and ask questions.

Such a horse is easy to control, easy to manipulate, easy to get to do the things we want it to do.

A horse that is allowed to be a horse, who is being stimulated and motivated to perform natural behaviors and make decisions for themselves, will ask questions. Such a horse will demand things from us.
We need to be self aware, able to set healthy boundaries, pay attention to our horses emotional world, be aware of our own body language and emotional world, know who we are and what we want, be able to give space to another creature and allow them to find joy with us, etc. etc. etc.

An authentic horse is challenging and amazing to train and communicate with.

I hope you will never have to ride your horse to battle.
I also hope that you will consider giving your horse a lifestyle that will help him/her develop the strength, power, will and mindset of a war horse.

03/04/2025

I was so happy to be asked to come on the Curious equestrian podcast to talk about my work. Both as a hoof care provider and as a horse trainer and teacher.
I think I had a beautiful conversation with Anna-Louise.
You can listen to it here and support the show:

Podcast Episode · Curious Equestrian · 03/04/2025 · 1h 6m

02/04/2025

I held a natural horse and hoof care workshop in my home country Denmark this past weekend.
My students practiced trimming techniques on cadaver hooves.

We had 40 hooves to work with over the weekend.
The majority of them were thin walled, thin soled and had atrophied frogs, but at least it was obvious that they had been cared for with regular hoof care.

And then there were a few of them that were horrendously neglected.
And honestly I’m amazed that we still get cadaver legs like this from the slaughter house in Denmark in year 2025.

The worst one of the weekend is pictured in these collages.
All pictures are of the same hoof, which I believe to be a left front hoof.

I trimmed this hoof myself as a demonstration for my students.
Notice how the medial hoof wall had tilted over to the inside and how the horse had been walking on the outside of that hoof wall!
Notice also that the bars were so overgrown that the lateral bar had covered the whole sole on that side of the hoof.

With special measurements and certain landmarks in the hooves, I could safely reduce the overgrown hoof capsule to where it would have been comfortable for the horse to have it at this point.
Without invading into soft tissue or putting too much strain on the compromised tendons.

Had this horse been alive, the hooves and body would have come back into proper balance with time, proper management, calm exercise, diet and regular hoof care.

Please don’t ever neglect an animal in this way.

31/03/2025

This past weekend I held another horse and hoof care workshop in my home country Denmark.

A wonderful group of people learned about how to create an environment for their horses that supports the natural needs of the species, and sets the horses up for health and resiliency in body, hooves and mind.

They learned simple hoof trimming techniques and practiced on cadaver hooves.

I find it so important to keep educating horse owners and spreading awareness about species specific horse and hoof care.

The more educated you are as a horse owner, the easier it is to make good decisions about how to give your horse the best possible life.

I feel very grateful to be able to help spread awareness about a better way for our beloved horses. 🐴

12/03/2025

Yesterday I shared a video of my young mare Vinta and these images were at the end of the video.
I thought I’d share them in a post too.

They are photos of Vinta’s right front and right hind hooves, and some of the changes they’ve gone through since she came to me two years ago.

Her hooves were extremely overgrown and had been neglected for a long time.
They still have not completed the healing phase and she is still growing out bruising and imbalances caused by neglect and improper management.

So this is a gentle reminder to not let horse’s hooves grow too long.
You may think that once the hooves are trimmed again then everything is fine and back to normal, but this is not the case.

Both the inner and outer structures of the hooves suffer when the hooves are left too long and everything is out of place, and it affects the whole body of the horse having to walk around on unnaturally long hoof walls.

A trimming interval of 4-6 weeks works well for most horses depending on the surfaces they walk over, their level of exercise and movement etc.

I personally trim my horses more often and remove very little material, it’s basically just readjusting the hooves every 2-3 weeks, and I find that this is extremely beneficial for the hooves and the horses.

09/03/2025

Sound on!!

Some video clips from this morning after ridiculous amounts of rain!
I’m happy to have plenty of dry places for the horses to stand and eat.

I find it important to show the track and the horses also on the days when things are not beautiful, bright and shiny.
This is part of our life and my horse’s lives here on the mountain.

04/03/2025

Today I was interviewed for the second season of the Emotional Horsemanship by Lockie Phillips podcast.
Thank you Lockie for all that you do for the horses and for your openness to discuss difficult topics and for allowing me to express my thoughts and feelings even though we do not always agree on things.
Open, honest and respectful conversations without blaming, shaming or belittling anyone are necessary if we want the horse industry to move forward towards a kinder way for our horses. 💙

02/03/2025

Asking a horse to come into a deep relaxed head and neck position activates the parasympathetic nervous system and it requires them to let go of their defense mechanism.
They need to relax the muscles that they use as a defense against predators and they need to let go of their instinct to stay alert and focused on what goes on in their surroundings.

Asking a horse to go there comes with a responsibility.
A responsibility to never misuse their trust.
A responsibility to hold space and care for them while they are in a very vulnerable place.

Some horses have never had a reason to trust a human.
Letting go of the defense mechanism is a big deal for any horse, and especially for such a horse.
In my opinion we need to have established a certain amount of connection, trust and mutual understanding before we should ask a horse to come to this place with us.

We should not ever try to force a horse to go there.
This is not about pulling the horse’s head down into a certain position.
It is about gently suggesting a lengthening of the top line and relaxation of the defense muscles and of the busy mind.
It is about finding a moment of peacefulness together.

If I’m not able to stay calm, focused, relaxed and with a peaceful mind, then I should not ask my horse to come into this space with me.

In this clip Enya didn’t want to come quite as deep as I would have liked her too. She showed me where she needed to be that day and she clearly had something to release and let go of. This can be deeply healing for a horse’s body and mind.
And for me it is an opportunity to sense into my heart and to truly sense my horse.
To just be for a moment.

20/02/2025

Can we believe in the strength of the foundation we stand upon?
Can we defend what we believe to be true, and yet stay humble, open minded, observant and reflecting?

10/02/2025

One of the biggest misconceptions I keep running into in the hoof care world, is the misconception of run under and low heels.

A run under heel is in fact not a low heel. It is actually a long heel with a low angle.
Run under heels do not need to be raised, wedged up or otherwise manipulated into looking more upright, in my opinion.

What they need is to be trimmed back to where they belong, namely under the horse!

Hooves that run forward like the one I have pictured here, need to be trimmed back, the whole hoof capsule, both toe and heels.

Restoring and healing hooves that have been neglected as severely as this one, takes time.
Being able to see and recognize what the problem actually is and trim the hoof accordingly, is the first step in the healing process.

The hoof above was not at all fully healed in the bottom picture, but at least well on its way.

22/01/2025

Do you ever ask yourself why you decided to get a horse?

What drove you to these animals in the first place?

Where did the fascination come from?

When thoughts come up about your horse being expensive, feelings about you wanting something from your horse when you spend so much money on him/her.
The sensation that your horse owes you something for everything that you do for him/her.
When you feel that your horse is here to satisfy your needs, to fulfill your dreams, and maybe things seem to not really turn out the way you had hoped, planned for or dreamt about.

When those feelings and thoughts come up, try to find back to that old sensation of magic and wonder, that old dream about connection and love.

And then go out and meet your horse with that feeling in your heart.

When you let go of the expectations, of the needs of the ego, of the desire for acknowledgement and ribbons.

That is when true connection can take place, that is when the magic can enter your soul.

After all, having a horse in your life is truly a privilege beyond measure, and something that should never be taken for granted.

17/01/2025

In this clip I’m trimming an overgrown hind hoof.
This is just the first part of the trim, not the full trim.

If your horse needs this much material taken off at every trim, he/she is going too long between trims.

Keeping the hooves short and balanced and not allowing them to grow too long in between trims is important for the health of the hooves and tendons and for the condition of the horse’s body.

Allowing your horse movement through gravel and sand to facilitate natural wear is also a great idea.

14/01/2025

To my danish speaking followers:

Det er almindeligt for de fleste heste at have et hovtrimme interval på 5-6 uger. Det giver god mening i forhold til økonomi for heste ejeren.

Men for mange heste er det faktisk for lang tid.
Hestens hove fungerer optimalt når de bliver holdt korte og i balance.
De fleste tamheste slider ikke hovene nok i det miljø de lever i, til at kunne holde hovene afbalancerede og i optimal form.

Det giver derfor rigtig god mening som hesteejer at lære at kunne vedligeholde sin egen hests hove indimellem at den professionelle trimmer kommer forbi.
På den måde kan man sørge for at hovene bliver trimmet let hver 2-3 uge og derved holdt optimalt.
Det handler om at sørge for at hovene aldrig når at blive lange og komme ud af balance.

[email protected]

Eller sms:
27 62 22 92

15/12/2024

I am in the process of creating some educational videos for a video library I am launching next year.
I am making one about track systems and have made these drawings, that I think it would be nice to share here as well.

The first one is of the track system I created on our farm in Denmark.
My horses lived in that system for 10 years.
When we started out, all we did was put up an inner fence all the way around the perimeter. In the following years after that the system developed more and more, with surfaces added, feeding stations spread out, a waterhole etc. the track was 1,2 km long.

The second image is of the track system I have here in Spain where I live now.
As you can see this one is completely different from the danish one. It is created on a sloping mountain side, and we’ve made it not as a perimeter track, but more like a maze of tracks and trails that run up and down the paddock.
On the left side the track runs on terraces.
I measured the tracks to be about 750 meters in total.

A track system doesn’t have to look a certain way or have a certain size to be functional.
It’s really about being creative with how you design it on the land you have available.

In my opinion it is very important to have resources spread out around the track, because this is what motivates the horses to move.
Extra and more natural movement is one of the key elements in a track system.


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04/12/2024

New dates for module 1 workshop in Denmark!

Modul 1 workshop om naturligt hestehold og hovtrimning.
Kom og lær om hestens naturlige behov, om vandrefolde, fodring, hovens anatomi, basis trimme teknik og meget andet.
Pris 3000,- per deltager.
For mere info:

https://rebelhorsecare.eu/

06/11/2024

A few little videos to show how we try to manage water in our track system.
Our track is built on terraces on a mountain side, and erosion is a great potential problem here.

We’ve dug out ponds and changed the angle of some of the terraces to steer the water into the ponds.

This way we slow down the speed of the water, prevent it from eroding the soil down over the slopes and keep the water on the land to keep it healthy and green.

We still have work to do in some parts of the track where erosion is still happening, but we can see that the interventions we’ve made are working.

The tracks are generally nice and dry for the horses to move around in even though very rainy periods like we’re in now.

30/10/2024

This is not a perfect hoof.
If such a thing as a perfect hoof even exists.
This is a healthy, well functioning hoof that serves its purpose for the horse it belongs to.

It is the left hind hoof of my 22 year old mare Enya, after a fresh trim.
Enya is sound on gravel and rocks.
She lives in a track system with resources spread out.
She needs to move around all day to get to hay, water, salt, shelter, shade.
There are many hills up and down in her living environment and she mainly walks in gravel and sand.

There are certain characteristics that we can look for in our horses hooves, which indicate whether or not the hooves are healthy.
One of these indicators off course is that the horse is sound and moving well in all gaits and on all or most surfaces.
Note though that a hoof can look fairly healthy on the outside, but still have issues on the inside.
If this is the case, the horse will most likely not be sound on abrasive surfaces.

I wanted to share these pictures of Enya’s not perfect hoof, to show that health and functionality does not always look exactly the same.
Even if your horse’s hooves do not have a huge frog or a massive digital cushion, they might still be healthy and serve your horse well.
We need to look at the whole picture.