Horse & Hoof Nature's Way

08/12/2024

Exciting delivery received this weekend!

More to come on this soon once I’ve thoroughly enjoyed unboxing everything 😁💙

27/11/2024

A little blooper from the end of another play session this week 💙

Playing loose with Tom going around the two jump blocks (one hidden by the branch I didn’t notice was in front of the camera 🙈). He was so good with not knocking them over throughout the session… until the end

It’s the way he walks off licking and chewing after knocking it over that I love 😂

06/11/2024

Just thought I’d share a little about me, my values and who I love working with ☺️

03/11/2024

So lovely to be back in Aberdeenshire catching up with lovely people and seeing some beautiful sights 💙

Pictures from this mornings walk around Lock Muick

01/11/2024

A little snapshot of one of the coolest ponies I worked for this week, the lovely Anthony 💙

30/10/2024

Still mulling over the wealth of knowledge shared at the track design day on Sunday. It was great to dive deeper into understanding how we can work with the needs of our land, to be able to better meet the needs of our horses.

The principle is the same as that of the ISNHCP (the trimming program I trained with) and my own personal values in the work that I do.

To work WITH nature, not against it.

Be that by creating a simple track system that holds up better through the boggy months after relieving compaction damage to the land or a fully surface track with watering hole area thanks to a reinstated ghost pond!

If we can understand the soil type of the land we have available and the habitat that exists (or once existed) there, we can work to support that, and it in turn can better support our horses (and us!) 💙

28/10/2024

Went on an amazing track systems training day yesterday at Loddington Coppice!

Learning all about how to make track systems work best for us and our horses by understanding the land we have available to us better and working with it, rather than against it!

The set up at Loddington Coppice is brilliant and Annabel’s knowledge as an ecologist and horsewoman I think could be game changing for those wanting to create a track system or improve their current set up.

Will share more on what I learnt as I process it all 😁

Making sustainable equine grazing and yard design simple.

25/10/2024

You know, some of my favourite little moments of my job are when you really feel you’re having a two-way conversation, together with the horse.

Saying “Good man, well done” when you can feel that tiny weight shift when you’ve gently asked them to lift their leg. When you can feel them thinking about your request. I guess this would be rewarding the thought in the right direction. Feeling them respond to that praise and encouragement. Feeling their confidence build that they can find the right answer with you, working together, not against each other. They’re small moments but they are the ones that make my heart feel the warmest doing this work 💙

21/10/2024

21/10/2024

It’s a naff weather afternoon here and I’m using it to hit the admin side of things. Lots of pictures of hooves to file from last week!

So here is a little moment from a sunny evening last week that made me smile 💙

19/10/2024

Such a lovely evening with Tom last night 💙

There was the nicest energy in the school yesterday evening and Tom felt so open to playing together.

Not just playful, but open to listening and playing, together

There’s a cone on the ground just out of sight behind the fence rail that you can’t see on the camera. We were playing with going round it and coming back to me.

Really it all felt pretty magical last night but the best bit was the second go round (on the video) and he went to turn just in front of the cone, but when I ask him to wait, back up and go round a bit further, he was listening so intently and followed my directions spot on

Sometimes our play together feels a lot like just finding playfulness in movement, however Tom wants to move. Which is cool too because it’s lovely to see him looking powerful and playful whilst moving. He’s not keen on being told what to do though. It sometimes feels like he’s defensive of not wanting to try and get it wrong so he’s just going to say “no” and do what he wants instead. Then he can’t fail because he hasn’t tried. I could be wrong in this, and I imagine a lot of it also comes down to me and my energy, but that’s how it feels to me.

Last night felt like we were playing together though and he was open to trying.

I’m not saying what I’m doing or how I’m doing it is right, it just felt really good 😊

16/10/2024

This goes for so much:

- The land we have available
- The hay we have access to
- The knowledge and experience we currently have
- Our support network, professionals and friends
- The number of commitments in our lives
- The time we can prioritise for our horses
- Our openness to a 2-way conversation with our horses
- Our level of headspace to figure things out as we go!

For our horses too:

- The diet/nutrition they have available
- Past experiences
- Their living environment
- Their ability to move, behave and socialise, naturally
- Their support network (other horses and human care givers)
- Their current health, comfort and physical state
- Their openness to connect with their human

In my opinion, it doesn't really matter what our starting point is on any of these things. I am conscious of trying to do the best I can for Tom and the horses in my care, at any given time, and open to learning wherever I can and need to. Be it from the horses themselves or other humans with more experience. Don't get me wrong, some days this is easier than others. I also think it's made that much easier with the wonderful support network I am so grateful to have.

Above all though, I just love getting to working with people that are open to continuing to learn and grow their resources too. Even if it's in tiny steps at a time, as it has often been for me!

14/10/2024

11/10/2024

Beautifully peaceful start to the day with a walk around Lord’s Piece with Bertie ☺️

09/10/2024

Form follows function.

To me this is a simple way of saying a hoof may not always look pretty and symmetrical but it can still be entirely functional for that horse.

Our aim is function, allowing your horse’s hooves to perform as each individual one needs to, to support the body above at THAT time.

That is not to say we ignore flare, wryness or laminitic stretch, but rarely do we ‘fix’ these things by trimming them away.

Is there something going on further up the leg or body that the horse is trying to support at the foot by flaring?

Is their hindgut struggling with the prolific grass growth or processed feeds, leading to the white line starting to stretch, stress rings to appear and the toe to appear longer?

These things are information.

They are often information about the body as a whole.

If a flare has started to appear that wasn’t there before, maybe its worth checking in with their bodyworker (or ours! Has something changed in our body now impacting how we ride). Are they trying to compensate for an area of soreness or injury? Would we help them with this by taking away the flared wall and making the foot symmetrical when the need for it hasn’t started in the hoof in the first place?

If the white line is starting to stretch and stress rings are starting to appear down the outer hoof wall, its worth examining what’s gone into their body recently. Have there have been any changes to their forage, medication given or any new feeds started? If so, chopping the toe back wouldn’t stop the lamina connection from failing/stretching and the toe continuing to appear to grow longer, but making or reversing changes to their diet can.

The best thing we can do for them is

1) Give them a functional natural trim by mimicking natural wear patterns

2) Note any changes or unnatural growth patterns that may have appeared or worsened

3) Monitor them as we respond by making any necessary changes to support the body to function as its designed to, thereby supporting their hooves to produce more natural growth patterns all on their own 💙

In the case below, the horse was sound and comfortable on this feet throughout the time of these pictures being taken. A month after the first photo was taken, his environment changed to a grass-free track system, with an adlib netted hay diet and more movement 😊

07/10/2024

We made it!

Super proud of Tom as it was an adventure route he’s only done once, 2 years ago. He handled it like a champ, taking it all in as he went

TomTom you are the best adventure buddy 💙

07/10/2024

Work all done for the day 👍

On to the odd jobs list now

Tom and I are off on a mission to find a post box!