LBM Equestrian

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 ❤️

08/15/2024

What constitutes a circle? It’s probably the most mis understood, over done and poorly executed exercise in the mainstream horse world

A poorly done circle is a wet noodle flopping around, a disconnected body with a nose pointed onto a figure, while the hind legs flail around and the rib cage collapses.
A poorly done circle is a plywood board that someone is attempting to pound softness into, by pulling pieces and parts around

A well done circle is a masterpiece, a thing of beauty
A well connected body, straight on a curve

But the horse has to know how to turn with the shoulders, and to keep the hind legs behind them
A horse has to learn how to keep their neck center
A horse has to know how to expand the rib cage to the outside
A horse has to know how to stretch the outside of the body

That’s no small feat, and it’s quite the athletic endeavor, not to be taken lightly, and nothing to flop around on mindlessly

A circle deserves our respect, awareness, and time put in to develop it well

05/27/2024

05/14/2024

Welcome to Trainer Tuesday! Each week we ask trainers a question and gather their answers for you. These trainers have a range of experience, backgrounds, and focus points of their programs, so the answers have as much variation as you would expect and also probably much more similarity. This week....

04/03/2024

Have you ever just come to the abrupt realization that you don't see anything the same anymore?

The two year old that you once would have approved of starting under saddle now looks like an incredibly immature baby that you can't imagine asking to carry a load.

Physical issues that lead to training and performance issues you no longer view as the problem but perhaps the solution to the actual problem.

All of the things you would have considered behavioral issues you can now see as the balance issues that they are. You no longer want to address the behavior but instead the reason for the behavior.

You are no longer fooled by words. Anyone can say anything about their training and approach...but the horse will tell you a lot about whether the words match the action, if you're educated enough to see it. Some things are debatable...other things definitely aren't.

You now recognize that you are a nervous system and your horse is a nervous system...and that the priority is to keep you upright and alive. That matters, A LOT.

You recognize that developing a horse is an endeavor that takes years. YEARS. Years of a lot of time and a lot of commitment. There's truly no substitute.

You also realize that getting here has meant admitting that there were times when you were wrong. That there were times when you did harm with the best of your intentions. That you had to walk away from circles of people whose beliefs and approach no longer lined up with what you now know...or maybe they walked away from you? Either way, it's hard to stand alone sometimes.

You realize you've had to become a beginner a thousand times over...and you'll continue to find yourself in that spot a thousand more times in the future, plus some. Maybe even at some point today.

You realize that even when it feels like you haven't grown at all...you actually have. That growth is something to be proud of, no matter where you're at on your journey.

- Terra

03/28/2024

The expectation to buy a horse that magically needs "no maintenance" is honestly, not based in reality. It's fantasy.

03/02/2024

Ok friends, let’s be real… We’ve all seen some ISO ads lately that would make any true horseman stop in their tracks…

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ISO Unicorn

Absolutely no spook, quirks, vices, maintenance, special needs. 100% safe.
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Thank goodness they are shopping for unicorns and not horses, because a good horseman knows that is absolutely impossible from a horse.

Personally I spooked at a squirrel yesterday, and I have better vision than a horse and am not a prey animal.

No one can guarantee any activity in your life is safe—-not soccer, not baseball, not tennis, nothing. Those are the choices you make and the risks you voluntarily take on to participate in the activity you’ve chosen and to live your life. We all try to make the best choices we can of course, but any seller that promises any facet of your life is guaranteed safe is selling snake oil.

As for the horse’s quirks and special needs? I’ve owned hundreds of horses in my career and worked with many hundreds more. The five best horses of my career were as follows:

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Horse #5. Vices: Cannot pull mane or body clip without heavy sedation. Must be in front when hacking in group. Why it’s worth it: Horse of a lifetime for his rider.

Horse #4. Vices: Free because he failed his PPE so badly at 5yo. Needs $800 shoes from a top farrier every 6 weeks. Why it’s worth it: Competed at the upper levels of eventing very successfully and reliably for 11 years.

Horse #3. Vices: Poor mover in the trot, extremely hot, needs a very kind rider. Why it’s worth it: Evented through advanced level, national champion at intermediate.

Horse #2. Vices: May rear and buck. Kicks and bites on ground. Will not go in any wash stall. Why it’s worth it: Never once dropped his rider. Evented through advanced level.

Horse #1. Vices: Incredibly spooky, poor mover in trot, chip on X-rays. Why it’s worth it: Successful and prolific advanced horse, sold and exported to a European Olympic team.

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Our horse shopping advice to you? Be a good horseman.

If the horse makes you smile every day, who cares if it’s tough to pull its mane?

If the horse takes the best care of you, who cares if it flinches trotting past a trash can? Use your inside leg.

If the horse does the job you need it to do, who cares if it needs a good farrier? They should ALL have good farriers.

If the horse saves your behind every time you don’t see a distance, who cares if it cribs on a feed tub?

Good luck, happy shopping, and for the love of unicorns, stop seeking things that don’t exist or you’ll never find it.

—Megan Moore, Verona Equestrian
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(Welcome to share, please don’t copy paste.)

01/27/2024

With January coming to an end, it’s crazy to think foaling season is fast approaching. If you know me at all, I thrive for this stuff! I love being there to help moms deliver, to welcome babies into the world, and be there as they grow up and become their own horses. I’m very thankful to be at a spot that offers both quality training and quality breeding. Cheers to hearing small whinnies near my front door steps soon! 🥂

01/24/2024

01/16/2024

Here’s the thing about that recent video of Katie Prudent teaching a group of young riders: the way you react to the video tells me a lot about how you view the world.

Is it entirely possible to be very successful within your chosen sport/career while utilizing fear, punishment, and ego-driven, obedience-based methods? Absolutely. Many of the world’s top achievers in sport and business do this. It’s well known that psychopathy thrives in the executive branches across all different realms.

The question is not to do with Katie’s expertise within the field but the way in which she talks disparagingly about both horses and riders in this lesson. “Horses need a good licking” “I would flip him over backwards before letting him turn” etc. I won’t even get into the way she talked to the riders, because my expertise is with the horse side.

This tells me that her training methods are based in fear, and the thing about fear is that it only goes one way. Respect, on the other hand, in order to be real, has to go both ways. I don’t care if your relationship is within your species or inter-species, the knowledge of pain and punishment as the probable outcome to getting an answer wrong is not the way to build respect.

Kindness matters. It is also entirely possible to train horses with humility, care, and empathy, and achieve your riding and competitive goals at the same time. So why do we just say that the ends justify the means when it comes to high level professionals like this?

Anger is just ignorance in disguise, because something happened that makes you uncomfortable, and when you delve further into why it makes you feel that way, you’ll find the why. Why is my horse doing that? Why isn’t my horse doing this? Ripping his face off, or giving him a good licking prevents you from finding out the why, because you skipped that introspective moment of why it made you angry in the first place.

Why does the idea of another being “disobeying” make us so uncomfortable? Why do we require obedience at all times in the first place? Why do we think we inherently deserve it?

The perpetuation of this notion of “man’s dominion over beasts” with dominance and submission as the main tenets is absurd in this day and age. We have an explosion of science that proves horses to be far more intelligent, sensitive, and capable of complex emotions and feelings than we ever thought possible. Ignoring this is just intellectually lazy, and professionally embarrassing.

01/02/2024

Happy birthday to all the special thoroughbreds out there. Extra love to a special girl in Wyoming and an old man in Michigan. Just sharing some of my favorites I’ve had the pleasure to work with throughout the years.

12/28/2023

No truer words. We all come with baggage in life and as long as you don’t take out things negatively on your horse, I’m willing to help any rider center themselves for themselves and their horses.

Riding at the end of the day should not add stress to our lives, it’s the time to escape that. Whether it’s a full lesson, some R+ work with a horse, or simply just being around them.

12/22/2023

I’ve noticed there is a stark difference in this mentality from hunter/jumpers to eventers. Eventers know that a horse that stops is a horse that is going to keep you and them safe. Just because the jumps fall down, doesn’t mean your horse shouldn’t say no.

Pat a horse that tells you no when you’re really wrong, they are teaching you valuable lessons!

BY ANN DEMICHELE I’ve learned more from horses who’ve said no than those that have said yes. I’m a professional out of Northern Virginia. I grew up on a farm, and my mother is also a professional. I have three brothers who also competed in Showjumping. We all did pony club, steeple chased, fox...