MotorQueue Natural Hoof Care

02/11/2025

02/09/2025

02/05/2025

Love this.

Incredible structure and amazing function.

01/27/2025

Let horses move past their “story”

When you’re in the thick of it, the story is real. The behaviors can be explained by a past, near or far. Some of it may be valid, some may be our interpretation, some may be best guesses. Either way, here we are.

But horses have a strong desire to be balanced. If given half a chance, most of them, I’ve found, adapt. Some need a little more help, some have a missing ingredient that helps them complete the recipe of wellness. But usually, people are in the way.

I’ve been that person too. It’s easy. You tell the story over and over - “she was traumatized.” “You won’t be able to catch her, she hates men.” “She doesn’t trailer.” “She had an accident while tying so she doesn’t tie.” These things may have been true at one time, but without adapting our awareness to the current moment day by day, moment by moment, we so often keep the horses progress stifled.

I can’t tell you how many troubled horses I’ve had that I tip toed around, told the public to watch out, and one day discovered them calmly standing. Before my very eyes they had turned into another horse, and I was so busy talking about them I hadn’t noticed who they were now.

Photo by Caitlin Hatch

01/25/2025

Mind your melon!! I always ride in my helmet and even if I'm on a walk only trail ride on my senior horse, I still wear it. Because you just never know! My helmet has saved my life before and it may yet save it again in the future!

Why do we encourage helmets?

It is your body. You have the choice… but I definitely want you to have the facts before you poo poo the idea of a helmet.

According to a study by the national trauma databank, from 2003 - 2012, 45.2% of all TBIs in adults were from equine sports.

Think about that for a minute.

That means in the same time span, all the other brain injuries that happened were from combined professional sports (and non professional) and other activities.

Football (think about the TBIs these guys get!)
Baseball
Soccer
Even car accidents
Plus all the other incidents that could possibly happen.

All combined make up the other 54.8%

That would also mean that in this time span, equine sports were the leading cause of TBIs in adults.

So next time you see an adult wearing a helmet while they ride a horse…. Please reconsider the thought that they must be novice. Or that they don’t look cool. Or that they are scared.

They probably value their brain and ability to function.

Helmets save lives in this sport.

Maybe if more people were wearing a helmet, this number wouldn’t be so high.

Attached is a photo of Fallon Taylor, professional barrel racer, wearing a helmet, not giving a f*** what you think. I absolutely love what she is doing for our sport by normalizing wearing a helmet (among other things!)

01/25/2025

In the wake of the tragic LA fires, this study by Copelin et al. (2024) on blindfolding horses raises important considerations for handling horses in emergency situations.

While blindfolding has been traditionally suggested as a technique for handling horses in emergencies, this study challenges that assumption.

The study found that blindfolded horses generally required more time and greater lead rope pressure for handling, and displayed higher frequencies of avoidant and active refusal behaviors compared to unblindfolded horses.

From a welfare perspective, these findings suggest that blindfolding may increase stress and anxiety in horses during handling, potentially compromising their well-being.

The increased heart rates observed in blindfolded horses further supports this concern.

However, the study also noted that blindfolding could be beneficial when navigating visually frightening stimuli, indicating that the technique may have situational benefits.

The research highlights that in time-sensitive emergency scenarios, such as barn fire evacuations, blindfolding is likely to increase lead time and difficulty of handling. This could not only impede rescue efforts but also put both human and animal lives at greater risk, raising significant welfare and safety concerns.

The study emphasises the need for more research into emergency horse handling protocols and suggests that alternative methods, such as regular practice of evacuation procedures, may be more effective in ensuring horse welfare during crisis situations.

Copelin, C, Hayman, B, Bergeron, R, Merkies, K,. Compliance or confusion? The usefulness of blindfolding horses as a handling technique,

Applied Animal Behaviour Science, (2024) Vol 271,106180

01/23/2025

Some excellent hoofcare quotes to start the morning off right!

Favorite Hoofcare Quotes

It’s been 10 years since I really started my hoofcare journey, and throughout that time I’ve been able to learn from so many amazing teachers/mentors/veterinarians/farriers/friends from all over in the equine world. So many of them left such great nuggets of wisdom to push me along in my path and help me pursue soundness for each individual horse.

As I am now a mentor myself for Progressive Hoof Care Practitioners, I have been thinking about things I say to PHCP students a lot during mentorship days, or things I say during PHCP webinars or other teaching opportunities.. and it often comes back to the same phrases.

I thought I’d share them here, but also ask you all to share some of your favorite hoofcare quotes that have helped shaped your approach to hooves as well!

*️⃣ “You paid for your entire rasp, use it.” - Jeannean Mercuri
—- I say this to almost every single trimming student I work with, and it was said to me by Jeannean during my very first mentorship with PHCP! When I was a “baby” trimmer I took such tiny little rasp strokes and only dulled the very middle of my rasp! Jeannean reminded me I had more rasp to use and would have more life in my rasps if I actually used the entire thing 😂

*️⃣ “Movement isn’t the problem, improper movement is.” -Nic Barker
—-This comment shaped my approach to navicular rehab specifically, and it was something Nic said to me during her podcast interview when we hosted her for a clinic in NY. She was talking about how she rehabs soft tissue injuries in the hoof capsule with movement, instead of avoiding movement, and the importance of proper biomechanics to act as physical therapy for those structures.

*️⃣ “I love seeing a perfect hoof, but I love seeing a sound horse an awful lot more.” -Steven Leigh
—-Steve said this to me on the podcast, when we were talking about concerning ourselves more with a horse’s comfort instead of just carving a perfect hoof on them. I think of this quote all the time when I am trimming a hoof and tempted to remove something the horse may need for comfort just because the picture didn’t look “pretty.” I have so many more sound horses because of the comments Steve has said to me in the past!

*️⃣ “The healthiest hooves are attached to the healthiest animals.” -Tomas Teskey
—-I must say this quote in every single webinar I do… because we want to combat the idea of horses “just having bad feet.” If a horse has unhealthy feet, I want to figure out why their body isn’t growing healthier ones! Diet? Metabolic issues? Gut health? Lyme/EPM/PSSM/something else systemic going on? Day to day management? This quote reminds me to keep looking for things to improve in the horse’s health to see if we can grow better feet, and not just keep my focus below the hairline.

*️⃣ “The hoof is like the canary in the coal mine.” -Pete Ramey
—-Similar to the quote from Dr. Teskey above, I say this quote from Pete in basically every single webinar I’ve ever done. It again reminds me that the feet are like the “check engine” light for the horse… if there’s an issue with the feet, it’s a symptom… find the cause.

What are some of your favorite sayings/quotes that have stuck with you, or that you repeat often?

01/21/2025

You cannot escape ground reaction forces - and what I mean by this is you cannot escape the way the horse's hooves interact with the floor.

Your horse's hoof shape directly influences how they interact with the floor and equally the shape of their hooves directly influence their muscular recruitment and therefore their postural development.

As an example of this, here is a diagram of the horse's superficial retraction myofacial chain. This chain supports the retraction - i.e. the drawing back - of the horse's forelimb via connections from the solar surface of the pedal bone, through the back of the forelimb and shoulder, over the ribcage and over the top of the neck.

If there is loss of development, and therefore loss of depth, in the caudal hoof - i.e. the back third of the hoof - you're effectively creating 'fascial drag' which contributes to shortening the topline of the horse's neck and compression of their ribcage.

You can visualise how, if the heel drops, the whole fascial chain is suckered down.

Creating the appearance of a hollow horse with a short neck and perhaps overdevelopment of the underneck muscles.

Now of course you can bias your training for length and elevation through the neck, flexion through the back and expansion of the ribs; but if your horse's heels are low then you will be creating conflict.

Because you're asking that horse to inflate into restricted fascia which is being further implicated by ground reaction forces.

In doing this, you will contribute towards making movement uncomfortable - which lets be honest, poor training practices already do a good job of this(!)

You will perhaps bias towards the risk of injury or reinjury - which is slightly oxymoronic if you've chosen that movement plan as a means to rehabilitate or develop healthy posture.

Your horse will be spending more time practicing poor posture, which is more time teaching their nervous system that this is homeostasis.

And since movement and emotional health are intertwined, you may also be contributing to a negative emotional state.

Fascial chains do of course work both ways, so you can bias your training for healthy movement and it may help with caudal hoof orientation, but you cannot escape the influence of the ground and so, if you're not including your horse's hoof care within that picture, you are only giving your horse half the chance for success.

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For this month's webinar, I am delighted to be joined by the wonderful Beccy Smith of Holistic Equine, where she will be discussing what healthy hoof morphology really is, the factors that influence it and what you can do to help your horse.

Beccy is an Integrative Equine Podiatrist who truly considers the whole horse with respect to hoof health. Her keen eye and attention to detail is second to none in the hoofcare sphere and I cannot wait for this webinar!

27.01.2025 19:00 GMT

Recording available if you can't make the live ❤️✨️

01/20/2025

If you have placed a Miracle Mud order recently, there may be a delay in processing due to some medical issues! Let's all continue to show support for our favorite women owned small businesses and send some well wishes and love!

To my customers who have recent orders placed. I have been in and out of the hospital and my daughter has informed me it’s time to make more mud. If your order is delayed, it’s due to my health challenges I am facing at the moment. Your patience will land you one additional mud as an apology for the delay. Thank you for understanding.

Shannon

01/09/2025

Woohoo it's a snow day in Texas! It is dumping snow at our house and my crew are loving it! Stay warm everybody! We are off work today and tomorrow for sure, and we will see how things are by Saturday!

01/04/2025

01/02/2025

From our herd to yours, Happy New Year!!

12/31/2024

Something about the way the morning light sparkled through this gal's luxurious leg hair yesterday really caught my eye. It was almost glowing! A bright moment at the far end of a very wet, muddy week!

12/28/2024

A polydactal surgery! Some graphic images but check out this cool surgical procedure done on a young foal to remove his extra digit!

12/27/2024

We also use hay nets daily and have for almost 15 years. There are always considerations as to how best to use something but overall we also have found the benefits greatly outweigh any negatives. And now that I have one that cannot use them at all due to his dental issues, I can also add that both the waste and rapid consumption on his part are an even bigger problem!