Linda Hoover Refined Horsemanship

31/07/2024

Contact Shannon Hoffman, now scheduling for August 10-11th!

17/07/2024

Registration is now open for the Equine Sports Medicine Symposium in Pittsboro, NC!
CE Credits can be earned for Veterinarians, Vet Technicians and More!
Equine Professionals and Horse Owners are also invited and encouraged to attend the Symposium!
The Carolina Equine Sports Medicine Education Foundation has gathered industry experts to from all over the Country and all disciplines to FOCUS ON FOOTING!
Register today! You can attend In-Person or Virtually!
www.EquineSportsMedicineSymposium.com

17/07/2024

Escape the heat and attend this clinic at my favorite place on earth, Leatherwood Mountains Resort!
Linda Hoover Refined Horsemanship provides a more intimate clinic so that you can get individual attention and help!
Sign up with Linda Hoover and make your reservations with Leatherwood Mountains!
I can't wait!

29/05/2024

Limited spaces available for this clinic!
A special place to enjoy while working on your Horsemanship!
Contact Linda Hoover to register today!

29/05/2024

Taking reservations for June 8th and 9th!
Obstacles and Private Lessons!
Contact Shannon to reserve your lesson!
Shannon St.Clair Hoffman or 919-754-7568

14/02/2024

11/02/2024

Great day for lessons with Linda Hoover on Saturday! Aimee Gregg Boese Mitchell, Jess Bridgeman, Libby and Aelin the mule. Plus I had a lesson with Savanna and Malachi’s 11th ride! Thank you Linda Hoover Refined Horsemanship!

07/02/2024

I will be in Zebulon, NC this Saturday and Sunday offering private lessons based on you and your horses individual needs.
I have just two lesson times still available.
Easy haul in and out and no facility fees.
Please contact Shannon at 919-754-7568 to reserve.

06/02/2024

To get immediate help with your horsekeeping questions, check out Holistic Horsekeeping’s exciting new feature, "Ask Myriah", which is based on Madalyn Ward's more than 30 years of experience as Veterinarian and in Holistic Horse Keeping.

I'm Madalyn Ward, and I've been a veterinarian for over 40 years, the last 30 of which have been spent specializing in holistic equine health, with a focus on nutrition and management, utilizing homeopathy, herbal medicine, osteopathy, and chiropractic, as well as other natural approaches and tools....

26/01/2024

Booking for next lesson day in Zebulon, NC -Feb. 10-11th.
Please contact Shannon Hoffman if you would like to be on the schedule! Many Thanks!

01/01/2024

Wishing everyone a Happy and Healthy New Year!

15/11/2023

We have one lesson slot open for this Saturday at 3:00PM.
Please let Shannon Hoffman or Linda Hoover know if you are interested. Many Thanks!

04/10/2023

Yes! For those of you that ride with me ... no worries. We do this and then some. :)

About ten years ago, give or take, the NEDA clinician at U-Mass Amherst was Klaus Balkenhol, the legendary coach of the German gold medal dressage team.

One thing that he said changed forever my opinion about the concept of "warmup."

Klaus said that when he gets on a horse, whether out of a stall or out of a paddock, he always just walks calmly for a MINIMUM of ten full minutes. He joked that you need to time this with your watch, because ten minutes will feel like 20.

He also said that as the horse learns that this will ALWAYS be the case, that the first ten minutes, AT LEAST, will be calm walking, every single time he is mounted, that the horse will learn to start out with less anxiety about the upcoming work.

Then, after the walking, Klaus said that the initial trotting should be to establish forward rhythm, and only after this is obtained should the rider gradually take up more rein connection.

Klaus said that too many riders (I think he was directing this at me!) think of the warm up as something to be gotten through and dispensed with swiftly, so that they can get to the "real" work. Klaus reminded the audience that the warmup is just as integral a part of the "real" work as any other part.

Guilty as charged, sir. But I have reformed! Thank you!

02/10/2023

This can be said about our horses too.

27/09/2023

Join us for lots of learning and fun at the St. Clair Red Mule Farm in Zebulon!

08/09/2023

Only 2 of 12 slots open for the clinic!

I hope you will join us for this special clinic!
Excited to be teaching at this wonderful Venue!
Leatherwood Mountains Resort!
https://www.facebook.com/leatherwoodmountainsresort

07/01/2023

Pleased to be hosting Linda Hoover on Sunday, January 22nd!
Please message or call to reserve you session!
919-754-7568 St.Clair Red Mule Farm located in Zebulon, NC
Free to Audit and those participating are encouraged to stay and learn more by watching the other sessions.

To learn more about Linda Hoover visit her FB page, Linda Hoover Refined Horsemanship or her website:
https://lindahoover.com/

Learn with Linda Hoover, from Foundation to Success... The Art of Refined Horsemanship

19/11/2022

A few sessions left on Saturday the 10th and several on Sunday the 11th! Schedule today!! Don't miss out!

08/07/2022

Well said!

Close your eyes and image yourself in a relationship...
Within this relationship you have no voice..
Maybe it’s your first one, or maybe the 10th one...
You meet and immediately you are told where you will live, where you will work, how you will exercise and who you will be friends with... if anyone.
When you try and express that you are fearful of the uncertainty, confused about the new life, and worried no one will ever hear you again... you are met with more directions... over and over... with no time to process or time to be still and be heard...
Imagine living day after day... walking on eggshells, not knowing what our partner will be like that day... often they use you as a means to feel better, dumping all the stress from their job and life on you.. projecting all their insecurities and short comings right into you... blaming you for not being a better listener... even saying you are a jerk, stubborn, and even calling you stupid...
How do you cope with this? Do you shut down and stop trying?... do you try and run away, are you frozen in fear and anxiety, so much so that you are triggered by what seems to be “nothing”...and “out of nowhere”?
None of this is anywhere near a healthy partnership, yet it’s where we expect our horses to live everyday...
These animals are gifts, accountability partners, and their behaviors and desperate attempts to communicate are a clear mirror to what is happening for us internally... they do not judge, they forgive constantly and love unconditionally... and when they don’t they are labeled as “problem”
It’s time to take responsibility for our side of the relationship... they have no choice in this game, the least we can do is practice a little patience and empathy... manage our own emotions so they don’t have to navigate that energy... .
It’s my belief that they are here to support us in our growth, hold us accountable and teach us the virtues we came here to embody... .
It’s time to get present with them... it’s time to stop taking their offerings for granted ❤️

With Love and grace
Amber Lydic
The Art of Equine Alchemy

28/06/2022

I fully support this!
Traditions are just that ... traditions.
In the face of new science. We should reevaluate our choices and decisions for the well-being of our horses.

Boots and bandages - are we harming our horses as we try to protect them?

Bandaging and booting our horses is becoming more and more popular, especially with the popularity of matchy matchy sets. But are we doing more harm than good? Most people will have come across the articles in magazines and comments from vets saying they are, and yet still they become more and more popular. Why is that? Why do riders still cover their horses in thick fleece bandages or fluffy boots despite the dangers? Tradition I suppose. Wanting to fit in. Or just habit, some will feel like they haven’t finished tacking up if they haven’t put the boots on.

I know this isn’t about dentistry (for which I apologise) but I am a vet first and foremost, and as a dressage rider I am asked why I don’t use bandages all the time. I’ve written about this several times now and no one pays attention, so rather than stating facts and quoting research, I’d like to take you through my journey of discovery, please bear with me. Facts and papers are at the end.

Rewind 12 years and I was in my final year at vet school. Prior to and during vet school I had a horse and we did dressage. I had planned to ODE but this horse pulled every tendon and ligament known to vet kind. He spent more time out of work than in. Each time I would up my game with the latest boots/bandages on the market. From fluffy boots to wraps to sports fetlock boots, fleece bandages to gamgee and cotton to the half fleece/half elastic bandages. I learnt new techniques for better support, figure of 8 bandaging to cradle the fetlock etc etc. I’d been there and done it. My collection was extensive.

Right at the end of vet school I had my rotations. I chose Equine lameness as one of my options. During in this I very vividly remember a wet lab with Dr Renate Weller where she had a skinned horses leg (showing all of the tendons and ligaments) in a machine that mimicked the pressures a horse applies to their limbs. She took us through walk, trot, canter and gallop, loading this leg so we could see the inside workings of the horses leg without the skin. It was fascinating I can tell you, and I very clearly remember thinking about my horse and wondering how on earth we are suppose to support this limb when it undergoes these incredible forces! Half a ton of animal pushing down a tiny spindle of a leg held by tendons barely thicker than my thumb. Craziness!

Fast forward just a few short months and I was a fully qualified vet in the big wide world. I attended my first BEVA Congress and during the break I wandered around the stalls looking at the latest inventions and technologies companies bring to these gatherings. Here I came across a company with the Equestride Boot which caught my eye. Now if you haven’t seen this boot, it’s wonderful and I’ve since used it a few times in rehabbing very severe tendon and ligament injuries with great success. The boot is a carbon fibre boot that stops the fetlock dropping, which stops the tendons and ligaments being fully loaded while they heal. This boot is super strong. You couldn’t ride a horse in it as it is limiting the range of motion so much, but they can move about easily enough at the lower settings to rehab etc. The guy on the stand (I’m afraid I can’t remember his name) showed me their research and in the straight talking Irish way explained the stupidity of expecting a thin piece of material to support a horse. And of course it can’t! Literally no bandage or boot (short of this very expensive carbon fibre rehab boot) is capable of reducing the amount the fetlock drops. Thinking back to Dr Weller’s demonstration, I could very clearly see how ridiculous I had been to ever believe a scrap of material could do anything to reduce or support that pressure.

But the boots/bandages don’t actually cause any harm do they? Surely it’s ok to use them on the off chance they might help and if we look good in the meantime, great! Well, not long after this, research started appearing that got me very worried about my bandage collection. Heat. Anyone that uses bandages and boots will not be surprised to see sweat marks under their bandages/boots after they’ve been removed. They trap a lot of heat. The horses body and legs generate a lot of heat when working. The tendons/ligaments in the leg, along with an increased blood flow generate ALOT of heat. Fleece bandages/boots in particular, hold this heat in the horses leg. Very few boots and virtually no bandages (especially if you use a pad under) allow the legs to breath adequately. This heat is easily enough to kill tendon/ligament cells. Each tendon/ligament is made of thousands and thousands of cells all lined up end on end and side by side in long thin spindles. They stretch and return to their original shape and size like an elastic band, absorbing and redistributing the pressures applied from further up the leg and from the ground impact below. All of these cells must work together as one to do this effectively.

Just a little side step here to explain how tendons/ligaments heal. A tendon/ligament cell can not be replaced like for like. They always heal with scar tissue. This is why reinjury is so much more likely if a tendon/ligament is blown. The fibrous scar tissue doesn’t stretch, it isn’t capable of stretching or absorbing the impact of a horses movement. It will always be a weak spot. In a full blown sprain/strain the whole (or most) of the tendon has been damaged. But this heat injury might just kill a few cells at a time. Those few cells are replaced by fibrous scar tissue, then next time a few more etc etc. Like a rubber band degrading over time the tendon/ligament loses its elasticity and eventually goes snap. Then you’ve fully blown a tendon/ligament. The injury didn’t start to happen at that moment, but that was the final straw. The damage adds up over time, each time thermal necrosis (vet word for cell death) occurs.

So if using boots/bandages can not offer any sort of support, and using them generates heat that slowly damages the tendons/ligaments until they give way. Why use them? Protection. This is the only reason to use boots. To stop the horse brushing, injuring themselves catching a pole or over cross country. But for goodness sake make sure your boots are breathable! If the horse is sweaty under the boot but not above or below, the boot is not breathable enough. And don’t use fleece bandages just because you like the colour. These fleece bandages are the worst at holding heat in the leg, way above the threshold for thermal necrosis to the cells of the tendons and ligaments. If your horse doesn’t need protection, don’t use boots. I haven’t for the last 12 years and *touch wood* I haven’t had a single tendon/ligament injury in any of my horses. I will never go back to boots or especially bandages now. I don’t use them for schooling, lunging, jumping, travelling, turnout, stable, in fact I don’t use them at all. Ever. But I don’t hunt or XC.

I hope you have found my story useful and can make informed decisions on boots and bandaging going forward.

For more information on the Equestride boot and their research into support offered by boots and bandages, visit http://www.equestride.com/ and https://www.equinetendon.com/services/equestride/

The horses leg under the compression machine at the Irish Equine rehabilitation and fitness centre https://fb.watch/cmVMt6-iOJ/ (I highly recommend you watch this incredible video. It clearly shows the amount of force the leg goes through and demonstrates the real purpose of boots)

Other relevant papers-
https://equimanagement.com/.amp/articles/horse-skin-temperature-under-boots-after-exercise
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/8f15/0ea480edca142260d01f419f80d2e7e7fb29.pdf
http://www.asbweb.org/conferences/1990s/1998/59/index.html

Edit 1 - I am getting asked about stable wraps very frequently. This post is about riding, the tendons and blood flow create heat which is trapped by bandages/boots during exercise. This doesn’t occur in the stable stood still. If the horse has a strain/sprain resulting in inflammation, then there is an increase in blood flow and there is heat being created. In this situation you should not be bandaging. But if it’s cold and an old horse needs stable wraps to keep the joints warm and improve sluggish blood flow (filled legs) you can use the heat trapping to your advantage. But you need to be careful in summer.

Edit 2 - the other thing I’m being asked about is compression. Compression DOES NOT control inflammation. The inflammation still occurs, but the swelling can not escape the bandages and the increase in internal pressure reduces blood flow, causing ischemic damage. Like laminitis within the hoof. The hoof capsule prevents swelling so the inflammation expands inwards and cuts off the blood supply. This is why laminitis is so painful and difficult to treat. Compression is only useful in the case of leaky vessels, for example reduced blood pressure, reduced movement so the blood isn’t being pumped backup the legs, or osmotic imbalances eg low protein with diarrhoea. In these situations, compression of the legs can encourage blood to return to the vessels and continue circulating.

09/03/2022

Message Shannon St. Clair Hoffman to schedule your lesson today!