Intueri Equine

09/05/2024

Spring time is not the only time to be concerned about laminitis.

09/04/2024

Great visual! When I refer to possible coffin bone remodeling..this is what I’m referring to.

09/03/2024

I am reorganizing my trimming routes to maintain efficiency. All active clients—please be on the look out within the next week for a message with your horse/barn’s schedule along the new pricing and services sheet. Thanks everyone!!! 🐴

09/03/2024

09/01/2024

08/31/2024

08/30/2024

Invite Friday!
Intueri Equine is hoping that all of its followers would click the “invite friends” link on our small business page! My passion, horse, and my family thank you!!

08/29/2024

I admire Warwick and have learned so much from being a part of his subscription. Funny how this stuff can translate into our interpersonal relationships as well 😉

08/28/2024

It used to be that only once you loved them that you could sell them.

And then one of my teachers told the new horse in front of him that he loved them.

He didn't have to know them or go through a hard time. He just loved them from his heart and from the start.

Instead of loving at the end, it was love from the beginning.

A posture of love towards our horses opens the door to trust, partnership, grace and honor.

How we feel about our horses and talk about them matters.
How can we expect a horse to be respectful and trust if we are not first trustworthy and respectful of them.

Loving them from the get go is the back bone of horsemanship.

A love for the horse and all that they are. The gift they are to us we are often undeserving.

08/24/2024

Dropping The Knives

We are going to talk about this meme a bit, because I’ve seen it pop up a lot and it makes me a bit sad.

I’ve been spending a lot of time talking to hoofcare friends around the world lately, and we have all come to a similar conclusion:

This job can be really dang hard, my friends.

For those of us in hoofcare, summer starts “burn out season”- not only does it often feel like 800 degrees in our bodies as we are working to hold up a couple hundred pounds of horse limbs while they try to use us for balance while simultaneously stomping at a fly, but it’s also the season when owners are often riding more, doing more, and wanting more from their horses- and expecting that we will make all their riding dreams come true with our rasp and nippers.

We want that, too. We want to make your horses comfortable and sound. We want to do our best to advocate for your horses and set them up for success.

And I feel like every year, I still have to do a post about how it’s also not all up to us as the hoofcare provider to make that happen.

When it comes to soundness, yes- the trim and whatever we do to the foot as professionals is incredibly important. We can cripple the horse in a second, we can also bring relief. Of course, that’s not the only thing responsible for a horses’ soundness. Their diet, environment, turn out schedule, stress levels, gut health, biomechanics, saddle fit, dental status, metabolic status, and so much more all play a role in how comfortable they are before and after a hoofcare appointment.

I was chatting with some friends today and all of us had stories about how we often are expected to be “Mr. Fix It”- with the silver bullet, magic wand answer to get your horse back out showing tomorrow - and it can be an immense amount of pressure.

Add in the fact that often, if anything goes sideways soundness wise, we are the first to get the blame.. even if the owner hasn’t called us in 3 months, or the horse is fed a straight corn cob diet and kept on lush grass fields during the day with enough fat pads to become a literal couch. It can be hard to not just feel like everyone is throwing the hoofcare pro under the bus (hence the meme).

If we read the foot and do the same trim that kept them sound and comfortable 3+ years in a row, and that horse isn’t happy after we see them, my first thought is “what has changed in their diet? Their environment? Their health or stress or whatever else to cause inflammation in the hoof that hasn’t been there in the past?” But it can be easy to just blame the farrier.

Most of us spend a huge amount of our “free” time reading, talking to others, going to clinics and conferences, sitting in on webinars, documenting and learning to “read” the foot, talking to vets/bodyworkers/trainers/other farriers, and working hard to learn to do the best we can. This job takes a huge amount of critical thinking, decision making that we know can go either way in many cases, and none of us are right all of the time. None of us - hoofcare pro, owner, vet, bodyworker, … no one.

Are there times when our hoofcare decisions aren’t right for the horses? 10000%, absolutely you bet. And as many times as that is true, there are times when something else is causing an issue and we are only able to work with the feet we are presented with- we can’t work miracles.

To the clients who view us as team members collaborating to keep your horse in top shape- you’re the real MVPs. Thank you for trusting us, for working with us, for looking for ways you can improve your horse’s hoof health and soundness and make our job easier. If all of our books were filled with clients like you, our jobs would be a breeze.

I am so thankful to have so many amazing owners and professionals I work with, and working on horses with them makes the hard days worth it.

For others who have had difficult times with your horse and are working to get them sound, remember we are on your team. We want to see your horse comfortable. And we love when we are able to be a part of the collaboration to get that done ❤️

08/21/2024

💚I started trimming Kaylie Eaves Horsemanship competition horse, Sonora, late June of this year. She recieved 2-4 maintenance trims a month along with cranial sacral work, a diet adjustment, balanced training, and full time turn out.

Yesterday, we took some progress photos and the results are amazing!

Today, Kaylie and Sonora embark on their trip to the Appalachian Trainer Face Off to show off their skills to help find Sonora her forever home. Wishing them the very best this week! 💚

08/21/2024

I have 2 openings for equine or canine bodywork sessions or hoof trims this Saturday 8/24. Give me a call or message here if you’d like to book !

08/19/2024

⬇️

There is very little that you can put onto a hoof that will improve its condition. If you want healthy hooves you need to grow them. If you want to grow healthy hooves, you need a good diet.

‘Importance of Nutrition for Barefoot Horses’ is one of the ebooks available in the Hoof Geek Academy FREE resources that will explain what you need to know. Find out more, here https://hoofgeek.com/free-resources/

08/17/2024

Some hooves on my rehabilitation list this morning! So blessed to be able to do this 💚

08/16/2024

Received a heartwarming review in my inbox this morning.💚

08/15/2024

08/14/2024

I’m not anti shoe… what I am is sick and tired of shoes being put on irresponsibly. What do I mean by this?

•Hoof care providers applying shoes knowing dang well that they may get overbooked and won’t be able to reset the shoe before distortion sets in…

•Owners that delay having shoes reset due to budget, schedule, sale, etc… it’s not fair to the horse.

•Lack of individualization when deciding what type of shoe to apply… aka “this shoe cures all” approach.

If we can’t reset on a healthy schedule for that horse… send someone qualified over there to get it done… teach the owner…or don’t apply it at all. Suggest boots instead!

Thankfully, this sweet gelding landed a good bid with a caring and generous owner that gives him everything he needs and so much more🤍. I’m grateful and so honored that we crossed paths. We have a journey ahead of us but I’m excited for the outcome. 🙌⭐️

08/12/2024

New service routes added:

🔸Logan, OH/ Hocking Hills
🔸Dayton/Brookville, OH
🔸Toledo, OH

If you are in or near any of these areas and would like to schedule your herd for trims/cranial sacral/massages or a package of services—I’d love to help!

🔸Horses
🔸Donkeys / Mules
🔸Goats
🔸Cranialsacral and nail trims for dogs is also available!

Message this page or give me a call 614-706-0332 Mon-Fri between 8a-6p.

Clients are required to complete a client form via email and a 5-10 min phone/facetime or zoom consultation is required prior to first appointment.

08/12/2024

⭐️For the horse and the ability to set them up for comfort and success! The hoof clippings in the photos were from a horse trimmed only 3 weeks prior. I offer virtual hoof consultations, owner trimming lessons, integrative hoof care appointments that combine cranial sacral/massage, mentorship to all my clients, hoof care product sales, and more! Message this page or give me a call to see how I can help you and your herd! ⭐️

08/10/2024

When your horse extends through their AO joint [the articulation between the base of the skull and C1], their lower jaw retracts - you can feel this yourself if you point your nose to the sky, notice how your bottom jaw glides back.

When your horse flexes through their AO joint, their lower jaw protracts - you can feel this yourself if you press your chin to your chest, notice how your bottom jaw glides forwards.

When your horse flexes through their AO joint, their laryngeal diameter decreases - you can feel this by pressing your chin to your chest and taking a deep breath in, notice how much harder that is.

If your horse has tension in their jaw, they lose range of motion through their AO joint - you can feel this yourself if you clamp your jaw shut, notice how much harder it is to point your nose to the sky or point your chin to your chest - your neck feels tight and immobile.

And the same can be said if your horse has tension through their AO joint or neck, they will lose range of motion through their jaw.

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Now do all of those movements again and notice how, when you drop your chin to your chest:

It's difficult to inflate your ribs to breathe,

It's hard to round your back,

Your hips tighten up.

This is because you've impinged your deep ventral line.

We do this to horses when we ride with a rein length/tension that doesn't accomodate and support their anatomy.

So if we compress their jaw and neck, we compromise their ability to:

Breathe

Lift their back to carry a rider

Activate their hindlimb.
..Gives us quite a lot to think about with how many horses are ridden and trained, doesn't it?

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Want to learn more?

The recording for Train Your Eye - How's Your Bit Affecting Your Horse? is now live on my website.

❤️✨️

08/09/2024

We all have seen those horses that seem to be uncomfortable over various surfaces no matter how much we "do everything right”: tweaking their diet, removing excess sugars and starches, balancing their minerals to grow a healthier hoof, and giving them all the building blocks to actually grow sole. It's easy for us to get discouraged or beat ourselves up that the foot isn't responding to all our ingredients for health. So what is going on internally?

Philip Himanka, a mentor and clinician for Progressive Hoof Care Practitioners, chats with me about what is important when it comes to healthy sole tissue, how he works on some of these cases to get them more comfortable and grow healthier structure, and what we are looking for on radiographs to know if the internal structures are struggling due to damage.

You can hear the entire conversation on any podcast app under "The Humble Hoof," or directly at this link: https://thehumblehoof.com/2024/08/09/sole-depth-and-hoof-comfort/

And for those who want to geek out on topics like this, register for this year's Progressive Hoof Care Practitioners Conference in Chicago, IL, October 3-6, 2024! Visit progressivehoofcare.org/conference to sign up and I will see you there!

Thank you to our amazing sponsors:

Equithrive offers supplements for everything from metabolic health to joint support – get 20% off your first order at equithrive.com with code HUMBLEHOOF

Cavallo Hoof Boots is offering 20% off a pair of Trek hoof boots at cavallo-inc.com with code HRN

A special shout out to Grid as New, Mud Control Grids – they are a game changer for any mud issues, big or small! – mudcontrolgrids.com

Also be sure to check out HayBoss Feeders – haybossfeeders.com – for all your slow-feeding needs. I get my Hay Boss feeders from Mountain Lane Farm in NH!

08/09/2024

Friday Funny
🤭😬🤣

08/08/2024

Worked on haunches over and visualizing boundaries with Deanna Preis Horsemanship at Shade Tree Stables ……………………………………………………………..