Savior’s Hands Whole Horse Care & Horsemanship

08/24/2025

This is a topic I don’t take lightly. And it’s soooo true. Fitness will mask a lot of things until it’s too late and you end up with an injury that could be career ending. Educate yourself, give your horse adequate time off, a good legging up and fitness program, and the help the rest of their body needs to be successful. It’s cheaper and less heart breaking to be proactive than in rehab.

𝑰 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒅𝒊𝒆 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒍…

Preventative maintenance is the key to long-term success. Notice I didn’t say the key to success… but the key to 𝙡𝙤𝙣𝙜-𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙢 success. Anyone can get a horse to make one great run. But can you keep them competing at that level consistently?

Highly competitive horses are hard to maintain — but they’re a lot easier to maintain than they are to fix. Once a horse gets hurt or has been running sore, it’s hard to get them back to where they were before.

Just because your horse is doing well doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be investing in all the preventative maintenance you can. If you don’t keep up on things, it becomes death by a thousand paper cuts.

-Olivia Train

08/21/2025

Locomotion

I’ve always been infatuated with biomechanics and how the body moves and functions. But as I have dove deeper down the rabbit hole of fucntuonality I have more questions. The more horses I see, feel, touch, the more I wonder how can they help them be more functional in their body as a whole.

I use my personal horses as my experiments, all of them are expressive, sensitive, willing, and most importantly forgiving if I mess up.

I have dedicated 2025 to learning more about the body above the feet. Rewiring the brain, breaking pain cycles, establishing new posture patterns, developing strength, increasing mobility, working toward achieving the most balanced body possible. Myself included in that, seeing if I balanced my horses but not myself then rode them crooked it would negate the other hard work I’ve done as their body compensations often mirror the compensations in the rider.

I am using balance through movement techniques assisted with KT tape, cupping and blading techniques, tensegrity rebalancing also sometimes aided by KT tape, and water therapy to achieve more balanced functional animals.

Retraining the body is a process. Especially when habits have been instilled for years and years, and may also be correlated with pain. Be mindful of that if you are working with your horses. Posture work is not easy. If they offer a little take it. A little, often, goes further than trying to push your horse into a long sessions exhausting them to fall back into poor posture.

Sometimes it’s not about duration. It’s about the INTEGRITY of the movement being performed. Quit while you’re ahead, let your horse know that was correct, thanks for trying. Again 5 or 10 minutes of good quality work is more beneficial than 35 or 40 with a horse that has tried and physically can’t anymore because they lack the strength to continue correctly without compensating.

This is not an easy journey, it’s extremely demanding mentally and emotionally. However it’s so rewarding when you start to see positive changes. It’s truly incredible what the body is capable of.

As always, you are your horses biggest advocate, you are their voice. Don’t settle. Do better. These creatures are a gift.

Picture of ace demonstrating his fabulous extended trot with impulsion, engagement, and a lifted spine.

Note: if your horse can’t do it without you riding them, they sure as heck can’t do it with you they have to be able to carry their own weight before they can carry you too.

07/09/2025

Thank your farrier!! Please, it really does go a long way to know we are appreciated! 😀

July 6-12 is National Farriers Week! In celebration, we’re taking time to appreciate those skilled individuals who take care of the hooves on our equine friends. Your work and skill keep our horses healthy and moving well! Thank you for all you do!

02/18/2025

✨Nutrition & Consistency = Results!! ✨

Thrush is always a topic I get questions on. There are a lot of factors that contribute to thrush and how it heals.

The biggest contributing factors to success in healing any foot comes back to how involved is the owner. A biomechanically correct trim is my responsibility, and that plays its own role in maintaining a healthy foot. However, when the foot is not comfortable or healthy enough to perform as it should because of other factors it is out of my power as a trimmer who influences once every few weeks.

Having a correct, consistent protocol for treatment is key; but an even bigger factor is nutrition. If the horses nutritional needs are not being met, their body is not supplied with what it needs to heal in a timely, efficient fashion!!

I always suggest forage based diet, with added trace minerals on top. For our area I suggest Custom Equine Nutrition and their products, Vermont blend, Vermont blend pro, added copper and since, and vitamin E. (If youre interested I have a link with a discout 😘) For horses that may be picky there are other options such as KIS trace, California Trace, and Mad barn. If your horse is on a balancer I suggest reaching out to the company and asking if their product will be okay to top dress with whatever balancer you are feeding.

Topical protocols can vary on the severity of the thrush, and what stage of healing you are in. Sometimes I will suggest soaking once or twice in clean tax or a product of similar composition. I most comonly suggest “today” or “tomorrow” cow mastitis treatment administered into the central sulcus. Pete’s goo! Which you can find a recipe for. Copper sulfate and desitine, Red Horse products like artimud and hoof stuff, no thrush powder, or if youd like to support another her small buisness Hot Dirty Barefoot Trimmer Hoofcare Products and Services makes an equivalent hoof clay thats amazing! 😍

Onto the story!!!

This is Rose 🌹
Rose is a 16 year old QH who has an extensive history in lameness. Her owner informed me that she has battled with lameness issues since Rose was 4 ultimately leading to the early end of her career in the reining world.

Her most recent battle in 2024 was with a broken coffin bone. She was under vet care for the majority of the year until she was cleared to have her shoes pulled. When I was called to pull her shoes what we found underneath was very disheartening.

The thrush in Roses central sulcus was so deep and so painful, I have not personally seen many cases as bad as hers. My worry was that the thrush had eaten through the frog spine. (internal structure of the frog) I made it known to the owner that this would be a long recovery and we have a lot of rehab ahead to get in front of the damages done from the previous shoe protocols.

However although the news wasn’t the best I encouraged Rose’s owner that this is 100% something we can help!!! I gave her suggestions on products I would use for daily treatment, and suggested reaching out to custom equine and inquiring about adding Vermont blend and the added copper and zinc into Roses diet with her balancer.

At our last appointment I was completely floored at the progress that had been made! Rose’s thrush treatment journey began in October of 2024. I knew that her progress would be slow, but she blew my expectations out of the water!! I give all credit for her progress exceeding my expectations to her owner taking every suggestion and treating it with 100% commitment. Diet was dialed in immediately, Protocol was in place and consistent, and trims were done on time.

I truly believe from experience that without the immediate diet intervention this case would still have thrush to the severity seen on day one. It is SO important, and I believe it’s a huge missing factor in a lot of treatment plans. Topicals can only get you so far if the body isn’t supplied with the right nutrients to heal.

Im glad to say Rose is so close to being thrush free, which will allow us to continue in her rehab to comfort ❤️❤️ I’m so proud of her owner!! Despite the setbacks and feeling overwhelmed, let down by previous professionals, like she’s missed opportunities, and questioning if she’s doing right by her animal she has persevered and is now really able to see the results of her hard work!!!

Well done Kristine and Rose!!! Thank you for entrusting me with Roses rehab 🤩🥰👏🏼

02/13/2025

I have so much information I want to share with everyone 😍 one of my clients has been pushing me that i need to share these progress stories… I know I know, lol I just get busy and forget. I also don’t know how to not write a book when explaining things 😂😂 but people must be informed!!!

Anyways I’m gonna try to get some things written and shared soon. If anyone has questions, or specific topics leave a comment!

06/20/2023

Hello fellow nerds. The next few posts I will really be pushing the importance of TOTAL balance. This being balanced feet, body, movement, systemic health, nutrition, and RIDER.

I’ll now introduce the star of todays show.

Hi Yo Silver 💙
Silver is 20 years old, has been owned by the same person for 7 years, and has actively been a Competitive Distance Horse and an Endurance horse the entire time. The first time I met Silver was for a body work session and we quickly learned he was a musculoskeletal mess. I gave his owner a few tips to have her farrier look into at the next trim to help him out and shortly after was called back to take over the hoofcare as well. The “way of going” his owner was describing to me just didn’t sound right so an evaluation was needed. Little did I know that this horse would turn into one of my most in depth and rewarding case study’s to date.

Silver is the perfect example of how everything we do with our horse and put in our horse affects every aspect of them.
He required an intensive balanced dietary overhaul, which altered his body's conformation(to a point).

He required special shoeing due to excess concussion and related adverse effects, such as stocking up and toe cracks, which altered his way of moving. Thus changing his topline, which changed his saddle fit.

A more correct trim and shoeing package was required (this is when I was called for a consultation) to help support him. As he was more comfortable and starting to move correctly his body continued to change.

These changes ultimately tipped him over the edge to building a strong balanced body and exposed rider imbalances.

✨We need to take credit and be aware of our imbalances and weaknesses as riders!!!!! It is a topic that is not discussed enough and is a crucial part of building and maintaining a sound horse✨

NOW, he moves straight, his wear patterns on his feet/shoes are even, and his entire musculoskeletal system is balanced and functioning as it should.

We all need to realize these types of magnificent changes will NOT happen overnight. It involves hard work, patience, and dedication from myself and the owner.

These are the horses I live for! Your horse will be so much more willing, happy, and more comfortable to ride. Please do not take any single part lightly! They are ALL connected and are all equally important to your horses well being and soundness long term.

I have included before and after progress photos. One of my absolute favorites being the shoe that is worn through to the metal plate. That shoe belonged on the left hind. And was worn through after 150-200 miles. The other composite shoe also belonged on the left hind. I pulled that shoe at his last trim on the 18th and it has 230 miles on it with near perfect wear. 230 miles of straight balanced movement over varying terrain with a straight balanced rider for support 😍😍😍 just how cool is that.

04/07/2022

I’m soooooo excited to be attending this clinic!!!! In just about 24 hours I will be headed to pick up a few colleagues that are flying in from the airport to have a fun filled geek out weekend 😍😍🥰🥰HURRAYYY

03/06/2022

I’d like to introduce a few of the horses that have been making absolutely amazing progress in their rehab. All of the horses I’m going to introduce have been mysteriously lame with all options exhausted on trying to diagnose what has been happening, or the cause is known and the owner has had no luck in finding the professional to help their horse in they way that they need.

Fist off we have R***r!!! He is 21 years old and his current owner had had him for 3 years. I was originally called out for body work to try and figure out why he was knee buckling lame when trying to back him just from the ground. I found some areas that needed to be addressed but the area that I was most concerned about was his front right leg and foot. I asked the history on this leg and his owner told me that there had been a staple put in just above his knee as a foal that have never been removed which in turn has created all kinds of funk compensations further down the leg and into his foot. Previous professionals had tried to help correct the foot but unfortunately had just created more discomfort for r***r.

We pulled the crazy shoe and wedge set up off and came up with a plan. I explained that I wasn’t sure how far the leg would let us go as far as “straightening” it’s appearance given the fact the bones themselves may not be straight. His owner was understanding and very eager to learn. He’s now 6 months into his rehab, and he is now the most sound he has ever been since his amazing owner purchased him 3 years ago!!! WOW!!!

Overall our goal for R***r is to restore soundness for light trail riding ❤️ I believe right now that goal is very much in reach

Rehab is not easy and often times takes a lot of reassurance as we can come up on set backs that are can prove to be very emotionally draining for my clients. However my goal as a hoof care provider, body worker, and horseman is that I can bring comfort and success to all the horses that I cross paths with and that means I also become very invested in my clients and their animals. Time is the most important factor in rehab. So if you have a horse that needs help, please be patient ❤️❤️❤️

05/13/2021

Journey of Five: Update

Uneventful introductions and first saddlings are what we like around here!!!!! She is a superstar 😇🥰

Videos are of the first time the ba****ck pad and cinch were done up, and first saddling.

05/02/2021

Everyone meet: Journey of Five ❤️ (I call her Lady)

She’s a 2 year old thoroughbred filly in for a 30 day start and arrived on Tuesday. Once her start is complete I’ll be transporting her to Finger Lakes for the start of her race training.

We did some off farm work before she made the trip home here to the farm as she was friendly but not handled on line much. She’s progressing extremely fast. A highly intelligent, curious, and brave little filly.

Check back occasionally for her progress updates! 😁

04/23/2021

WOW WOW WOW!!! What a great explanation on how imbalanced incisors (my previous post) affect the horses feet and body!!!!

I have heard about the connection between tooth wear and hoof wear patterns for a while. I have even peeked into my gelding's mouth and tried to see how his incisors are wearing and what issues he might have. But really, it wasn't until I got a copy of the book Insight to Equus by Dr. Tomas Teskey that the teeth/hoof connection really started to click.

I reached out to Dr. Teskey to see if he would chat with me about how dental issues affect the body and the hoof, and we talked about this and more in this week's podcast episode! You can find it on your favorite podcast app, or at this link: https://thehumblehoof.libsyn.com/the-connection-between-teeth-and-hooves-with-dr-tomas-teskey

To see more about Tomas Teskey and check out his book, go to insighttoequus.com.

04/13/2021

Hooks on Incisors:

When I do bodywork on a horse I evaluate them thoroughly and look for all Imbalances. This allows me to create a picture in my head and better understand where the pain is originating from.

If in my initial evaluation I find hooks on incisors I politely recommend the Owner hold off on an adjustment and call a natural balance dentist first.

The reasoning behind this is that when a hook of present it doesn’t allow the horses jaw to slide independently the way it is supposed to when he/she picks their head up. This ultimately locking the jaw and adding unnecessary pole tension.

**There are many other side effects to an unbalanced mouth and hooks but that’s for a different post 😉

If I was to go and release a horses pole with hooks on their teeth it may provide temporary relief for them but will go right back and create the same tension. In severe situations the pain associated with the built up tensions and pressure is to great and the horse becomes head shy making it nearly impossible for the horse to benefit from anything that I could potentially do for it.

It is more cost effective for the owner in the long run and less stressful on the horse to address contributing factors first.

Again coming back to the point of maintaining routine hoof care and balancing teeth, feet,
and body within a timely fashion to increase your horses overall comfort and performance as well as decrease maintenance costs.

Included are photos of teeth that need to be addressed and balanced teeth 😁😊