12/12/2024
From my experience in managing horses naturally for 20+ years, and caring for horses generally for 35+ years: I honestly think that one of the biggest problems we horseowners face is our tendency to throw "treatments," "remedies," and products at a horse's hoof and/or health issue. Whether they are natural or traditional remedies/ supplements/therapies, it's really all the same - treating the symptoms. I don't mean there is not a place for these products - both natural and traditional medicines. Of course they need to be utilized! But natural horse care is about analyzing the root cause, and that cause is typically too simple for us to wrap our minds around.
For example, a lot of serious thrush is caused by horses' hooves being exposed daily to urine and f***s. Even horses kept out of stalls can still end up standing around in wet manure piles. In the photo example here, this was a Haflinger with lovely hooves, yet he developed bad thrush in his frogs due to poor living conditions. The owner remedied the inadequate environment, and the problem went away. No diet change nor topical chemicals were needed in this case.
Natural horsekeeping for our domestic horses is indeed a challenge! Most people can never do it perfectly, and that's okay. But when we have a health problem, the first thing we should do is analyze how far we have deviated from what is truly the BEST equine management: freedom of movement 24 hours per day in a herd on breed appropriate terrain, low sugar forage free fed as much as possible, regulated exercise as needed to provide enough daily miles, and hooves trimmed and maintained frequently to simulate natural wear and healthy equine hoof shape. Putting these elements firmly into practice can produce transformative results. We ALL come up short of doing it perfectly, but carry on!
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Happy Hooves! - Yvonne Welz
