Barefoot Equine SRQ

08/03/2024

It really is no surprise to me many eventers can’t jog soundley unless iced right up until the jogging inspection. 🤮

08/03/2024

07/25/2024

Ultra processed seed/vegetable oils & sunburn.🌽☀️🔥

You have probably heard about these oils causing sunburn and skin cancer in humans. But what about your horse? After all, some of these oil products were first used to fatten up livestock… and from there they were eventually accepted as “safe” for human consumption! [Why is everyone struggling with weight gain? Hmmm…]

I have had this mare pictured in my life since 2012. I took this picture today; she has been living completely outdoors in Florida for years. These days she wears an earless and noseless fly mask on the buggy days. She has plenty of shade, but she often chooses not to use it even in the middle of a full sun, 90+ degree day.

Before ditching commercial cereal grains which are loaded in these oils, she would burn so badly! Her soft pink nose would bubble, peel, bleed and scab. This even happened before moving south, when we were still in New Jersey. Refusing to make her stall bound, I resorted to sunscreens and long nose fly masks. This helped only marginally.🥵

Soy oil, sunflower [seed] oil, vegetable oil, canola (rapeseed) oil, corn oil, ect is not a part of the diets here and will never be for any of our eaters. Seeing the results from removing these products first hand is truly incredible. Our bodies take a very long time to detox these products, so I’m very happy to see her handling the Florida sun without issue!🏖

Unrefined coconut oil is what we use for a little weight building when needed. It also comes with the extra benefit of gut microbiome balancing, killing some of the harmful “bugs” known to hangout in the GI tract.🥥

Think whole body, think holistic, be intentional…for all the mouths you feed.💗👨‍👩‍👦‍👦🐴🐕‍🦺

05/21/2024

Why we only feed free choice grass hays. Rations of oats, herbs and well sourced minerals/vitamins/aminos.

Sadly, we see more and more muesli like grains coming to the US after it took us 30+ years to educate horse owners in Europe about the disadvantages (please search for keywords such as "oil, grain, oats" etc on this site)

Currently companies that already produced horse feed with indigestible ingredients to begin with are throwing mixed feeds with chopped forage on the market. Those are marketing strategies made for the human eye, but they won't help your horses. I currently treat several horses a week with terrible bloating issues, f***l waters, girthiness, or unwillingness to move off the leg. Owners typically suspect ulcers but don't question what they feed.

Chopped forage content in concentrated feed, as is now offered in many mueslis, is counterproductive because it - like concentrated feed in general - is not being chewed enough. The structure has a fiber length of less than an inch, which slows down intestinal transit so that the feed ferments in the large intestine are stuck for up to a week. Together with the high molasses content and the associated bacterial and fungal contamination of these structural concentrates, this leads to incorrect fermentation and a significant metabolic burden. Structural additions to concentrated feed are not a substitute for hay!
I also often see these symptoms in horses that only eat peanut hay, hay cubes or alfalfa from pasture blocks. Please assure that you provide long and rather rough hay as a forage source to maintain correct speed in the intestinal transit and ensure proper digestion.

During a kinesiologic session I am able to muscle test feed intolerances. Lmk if you would like to get your horses tested.

05/07/2024

04/23/2024

This is going to cause some comments... but I'm going to say it.
I was washing dishes this morning and read the lable...

Now why on earth do people use this to clean their horses privates?
Eek! Would you use this on your privates?





I bet this will get some shares, I hope to help the poor burned sheaths of the equestrian world!

if you can't get every part of your horses sheath rinsed with water, do not put any cleaner or product in their. Get 100% comfortable with water first. It will get a lot of his debris out, I promise

04/23/2024

Old article that I have shared before but this information still isn’t well know and costing owners $$$$ in avoidable surgery.

Copper and zinc
Copper and zinc
Copper and zinc

Feed minerals separate from alfalfa (and as little alfalfa as possible!!!), as a legume and high calcium profile blocks absorption of magnesium/copper/zinc!

What is OCD? Osteochondritis dissecans (OCD) is known as failure of bone underlying the smooth articular cartilage inside the joints to form correctly from the cartilage template of the skeleton. T…

04/15/2024

Our 6 day new Irish Draught Sport Horse filly got her first [micro] trim today! She stood so well and tolerated the human shenanigans without protest. Feeling like we hit the jackpot with this cross, the last picture highlights mom and dad! If you are looking for a stallion I cannot recommend .sporthorses quality and service enough!

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

03/30/2024

Check out this comparison: Same hoof, two different trims, and the consequences are stark.

Trim A:

⦿ Toe aggressively trimmed back within the white line, leaving heels above the hard sole plane. This is what we call personal preference trimming (PPT), disregarding the horse's natural foot.

Trim B:

⦿ Trimmed to the natural parameters of the hoof, following the hard sole plane, and leaving the toe pillar intact with the inner hoof wall on the ground.

👉 Now, let's take a closer look at the differences:

1. P3 (the coffin bone) shows a more hyper-positive angle after Trim A than Trim B.

2. The digital cushion appears unnaturally 'squeezed' after Trim A but 'relaxed' and normally engaged after Trim B.

3. After Trim A, the foot rests on the sole, while after Trim B, it maintains support from its inner hoof wall pillar, enabling crucial ground clearance.

4. In Trim A, the tip of P3 is compromised above the sole pressure point, whereas in Trim B, there's no unnatural pressure, vital to maintain P3 health and avoid remodelling and osteonecrosis.

5. Surface area is significantly reduced after Trim A, whereas Trim B offers the maximum needed surface area.

Some may argue that bringing the hoof wall back within the white line is acceptable, but these images vividly demonstrate the implications of such methods on the horse's foot health.

Neglecting to adhere to the horse's natural parameters can have significant negative impacts, even if they may seem subtle to us.

These changes, though seemingly minor from our perspective, are magnified many times over for the horse.

They can lead to discomfort, compromised biomechanics, and potential long-term damage to the hoof, P3, joints, soft tissues and overall well-being of the horse.

It's crucial to prioritise the natural structure and function of the horse's hoof, rather than trimming it based solely on human perceptions or preferences.

Because the consequences are dire.



HM.

👉 If you want to find out if your equine's hoof care is right or wrong, join our free group: The Phoenix Way: Path 2 Hoof Health

03/08/2024

Great visuals, and more reason to add fallen trees to your horses environment!

03/02/2024

02/27/2024

02/14/2024

Common ≠ Normal

Let’s break this hoof down a little, deep central sulcus thrush is a much bigger issue than you may think, if a horse is tripping or appears lame rule out the simplest things first. I can guarantee this is the cause of this horse tripping. As a new client this was not addressed by prior hoof care provider, I find this puzzling as it’s the one thing the client can take charge of. Daily treatment is critical for the first 2 to 3 weeks then every other day for another 6 to 8 weeks. It takes a long long time to eradicate.

02/12/2024

No Contest

02/11/2024

Guilty 🙋🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️

02/07/2024

01/30/2024

Is your turnout lacking enrichment? Simply adding these natural elements to our turnout has been so fun for our horses, while promoting proprioception/neurological stimulation
AND joint/ligament heath. Neuro links last longer when they are used!

Boring, “bubble wrapped” pastures are not normal in the natural world!

These logs are stood over most of the day when the horses aren’t eating. It’s been a great start to beginning our track system. They use them to play and rest their leg/itch a lot! Expecting a horse to preform like this under saddle, and no where else isn’t exactly fair.

Let your horse… be a horse!! 🙂

P.S. the mare modeling for us is not fat, just 9 month pregnant!

01/25/2024

Ṯḧḕ ḶḭṼḕṙ ḭṠ ẇṏṙḲḭṆḠ ḧḀṙḊḕṙ ṮḧḀṆ ḕṼḕṙ!

We are seeing an increase in liver issues. These issues show up as allergies, hives, coughs, watery eyes, and more. Our suspicions are that this is a direct result of the chemicals being used to raise the feed we are feeding. Along with the various detergents, fly sprays, dewormers, antibiotics, vaccines, etc. we are using which is very new and different to the environments that our horses and dogs were in 100 years ago, and the quality of nutrition is of lesser value than it was even 20 years ago.

Today we spray the plants that are supportive to the liver, like dandelions, out of the pasture with an herbicide that puts stress on the liver. So we are keeping them away from an amazing plant that supports their liver, then subjecting them to a chemical that is making their liver work harder, a double blow to the system

The fact is, one of the most nutritionally starved systems of the horse’s and dog’s body today, is their detoxification system. That is why in the spring and fall we suggest use the #27 Liver Support and #37 Kidney Support for 30-60 days on all dogs and horses. And it doesn’t matter if it is a 3-year-old c**t or a 25 year old gelding, nor an older dachshund or new puppy. Because horses and dogs don’t have the variety they need to support their detoxification system, it is up to us to supply it to them. After all if you are not giving it to them, they aren’t getting it.

01/08/2024

Never stop learning!!

Keep up with new studies…

AND

What is easier than healing laminitis…

is avoiding it. Horses are DESERT🌵🏜 animals.

Meant to travel many miles daily while nibbling shrubs, over hard terrain.

Standing around on soft ground, grazing on unlimited grass(🧁🍦) turns them into diseased 💊 DESSERT 🍭🍰 animals.

Recovering laminitic hooves SHOULD look like the ONE ON THE RIGHT...
.. NOT the one ON THE LEFT!

And do you know why?

Both of these horses were laminitic - or ‘foundered’ - both were under professional hoof care.

The one on the right was sound and recovering well (under HM care).

The one on the left had been mismanaged, incorrectly trimmed and will likely be pts because:

- toe wall removed
- hoof growth rates disrupted
- toe wall not stimulated and therefore growing slowly
- heels growing at a normal rate but now out of equilibrium

Result = a deformed, painful hoof ON THE LEFT. Diet ignored.

The one on the right has a true healing angle and the deformity is growing out nicely - and the horse is SOUND.

Laminitis is simple to stop and simple to trim.

Don’t go down the rabbit hole of myths, ignorance and false beliefs.

There are no lever forces tearing laminae.

- stop toe chopping.
- stop maiming.
- start healing.

Just STOP doing trims like the one on the left to equines. Full Stop.

HM.

p.s. join our free FB group to find out how to rehab horses the right way: The Phoenix Way: Path 2 Hoof Health

12/30/2023

This guy was relieved to have those bars, frogs, etcetera taken care of. Trimming is not just addressing the walls…!!!! Over grown bars are PAINFUL. This guy has bruising from stepping on his overgrowth! I am thankful for this owners drive to find new resources to improve their horse care!

11/28/2023

My observations of things that always surprise me when I remove shoes (that probably shouldn’t)

1. How heavy the feet are with shoes on. Genuinely, I pick them up and am like “wow!” That and the way foot flops around at the end of the limb with a shoe on. 🏋️

2. The smell. Under the shoe always reminds me dead legs that I’ve dissected. It’s a weird smell … not necessarily thrushy. Just ick. So much bacteria hiding under the shoe and in nail holes. Does burning the hoof make it smell weird too? 🧐🤔

3. How the foot often looks nothing like you expect under the shoe. Sometimes with the shoe on you can kind of guess what’s under there … and why it was applied that way. But sometimes you take one off and just go “well I didn’t expect that!” … shoes hides the true shape and health of a hoof. 💨 🪞

4. When you clean off the exfoliating sole sometimes it’s so soft and flakey and just falls off. I rarely touch the sole on a healthy barefoot hoof. And if you do trim it it’s like hard wax. Ever watched a farrier trim a sole and think “damn that’s a sharp knife?!” (I have) … well … spoiler … you don’t always need a sharp knife. 🧀

5. How I’m instantly more concerned about being kicked .. either deliberately or just them catching me… knowing the bruises from bare hooves makes be very attentive to where shod feet are. 🩹

6. The frogs! Contracted, pr*****ed or just deep central sulcus infections… they rarely seem to be healthy. I will always remember taking a shoe and pad off in summer and underneath was just a mass of maggots … so many the lady holding the horse could smell them … she was a police officer … go figure. 🐸