Progress on the Parelli Play Lot

Some of you know that Rich and I started working on, what we call the Parelli Play Lot, a couple years ago. Well, it’s been slowly coming along as we work around weather, time, energy and resources (money). If we could have earned $5 for every rock we picked up, we could pay off our mortgage.

We have all the parts and pieces to build an exact duplicate of a Parelli carwash, as well as a collection of old tractor tires to build pedestals and other obstacles, and some logs.

One large area will be the arena at the road end of the field. There may a water fountain in the pond, we’ll have to see how that goes. And today we purchased a picnic table at Costco!

We’re excited. It should be nearly done by mid-summer! I hope you can come and play!

Tilling the Weeds


The horses are a great help


Bulldozing the pond


Rocks for the pond


Cortez the Pond Turtle that we picked up on Cortez, Colorado on our way home from the 2007 PNH conference


The Sequoia Tree 2007


Rich mowing the field today!

Amado - 11 year old QH gelding.

Amado’s owner called about 6 months ago with his story. My interest was piqued within moments of answering the phone. “…he had been named Parelli when he was rescued at the feedlot…he is shod with very different, very expensive shoes…advised he would need to wear them for the rest of his life…”Loved the name! Had to see the shoes! Uh, for the rest of his life? Let’s just see about that!
Larry, his owner, told me Parelli’s name had been changed to Amado when they got him, which is Spanish for beloved. In his case, this name truly fits this horse.We don't have a complete history on Amado’s, but as best as we know, he’d been with several owners. All, I’m told, cared about him very much. He’s had many hours of training, but when he was 5 years old, he developed lameness and was eventually labeled navicular.As with most young horses going into work, shoes are applied, however, in Amado's case, it's unknown whether a competent or incompetent shoeing job was done. In my opinion, his shoes and the application of them are what started Amado down this path and eventually sent him, (and many other horses in his similar situation) to death's door.After years of trying to restore sound hooves in him with corrective shoeing, he could not walk and was sent to the feedlot for slaughter. That, sadly, is a very common scenario for many horses. Almost as many horses are put down due to hoof issues as all other causes of equine death combined.


(Amado before deshoing)

Amado was rescued from the feed lot by an organization called SAFE. “Save a Forgotten Equine.” He lived in foster care and was put into a natural balanced type of shoeing system that helped him move around again. Although, a corrective boot, such as the Soft-ride Comfort Boots, likely would have accomplished the same goal. Every shoeing cost about the same as one pair of those boots.

Amado shoes were very expensive and he became so difficult for his farrier’s that the last two refused to return and not many farriers are familiar with applying this type of shoe.

Larry’s options for his horse were becoming limited. That when he contacted me.The shoes, which saved his life, also came with a price. His frogs were so over-protected they had simply been rotting away. The entire hoof was taken out of function, other than weight-bearing.

Larry, advised me that Amado didn’t move around much. He spent most of his time standing.That was apparent in his body condition. He seemed to hold himself together with strained muscles.



While I’ve known him, Amado has been very sweet and cooperative. Definitely not dangerous, but then I’m not nailing unorthodox shoes onto his sensitive hooves either.

THE SHOES
Amados rehab shoes. These shoes are what actually helped Amado begin to move comfortably. There was quite a smell of rotting tissue upon removing them.




Before and After First Trim

As you can see from the photos above, Amado’s soles had generated a massive amount of dense tissue. The walls were long, so the sole found a way to keep up with the wall growth. His heels were extremely tender and his frogs were almost non-existent.

After deshoing, as with any navicular horse, he was definitely stabbing his toe with each step. His heels couldn’t take the pressure of a proper heel first landing. He didn’t seem to be in pain as much as just feeling discomfort and protective of his heels.

After a few trims, the reports on Amado were that he was running and bucking and even jumping small obstacles.

FIFTH TRIM
By his 5th trim appointment, his hooves were landing flat as opposed to toe-first, and that dense packed-in sole material had finally let go and sloughed. He was moving so much better and his body didn’t exhibit the tense muscling that I saw originally.

SIXTH TRIM
By the 6th trim, which I term the “magic trim” trim, I could see a dramatic improvement of his frog development and sole concavity. We still have to continue shortening the toes and there is still some white line separation, but that will self correct as he becomes sound again and is landing heel first.

So, here is a lovely gelding who was destined for dog food because of his hooves. That is just about as wrong as it can get for a horse. I’m sure if his owner who lost hope and sent him to be slaughtered could see him now, he wouldn’t believe he is the same horse.
These horses desperately need owners, farriers and veterinarians to at least take a look at the rehabilitative work being done by natural hoof care professionals.
All the excuses for not wanting to see the type of hoof rehabilitation we are accomplishing, and the equine lives we are saving, is simply....inexcusable!
It’s time, my friends. It's time.

Free DVD's and Tickets to Parelli USA Tour Stop

Pat with Pat!

I've recently been accepted as a Parelli Ambassador. FINALLY!

So, among lots of wonderful things, I simply continue doing what I've been doing for years, but I'll be recognized for my efforts.

It also means that I have LOTS of free tickets to give away! The more tickets I give away, the more successful I'll be as an ambassador.

So if you know of anyone who would like free tickets to the Parelli USA Tour Stop, in Redmond, Oregon on May 10, let me know I’ll be happy to send them as many tickets as they want, along with a free DVD, Parelli's Secret, an introduction to Natural Horsemanship.

I’m going to be at the door at the Billings, Montana Tour Stop, greeting attendees!

They give away lots of stuff at these events. Saddles, bridles, halters, leadropes, DVD programs, etc.

Parelli USA TOURWAY

MORE THAN JUST RIDING - A MAJOR EQUESTRIAN EVENT!

Confusing Hoof Care!

I am a hoof care practitioner. My journey into natural hoofcare started in 2002 when my own mare’s hooves could no long withstand the damage shoes were causing her hooves. After tearing a shoe off her foot, she became so lame, she could barely walk on soft terrain.

Unable to find anyone I felt I could trust with my horses, with the help of one or two farriers in the area, I simply started trimming them myself.

A book by Pete Ramey led me down a path to natural hoofcare. I was fortunate to hear about a clinic with Pete and Ivy Ramey that was being held locally and I took one of my owner-trimmed horses to it. Pete was impressed with my work.

So I decided then and there to go to Georgia and train with Pete. Afterwhich he encouraged me to apply for certification through an organization he was a member of, the AANHCP.

In 2006, after a year of training with various field instructors, I was certified and worked as a field instructor training students to trim.

A year afterwards, some rumblings arose in that organization with respect to the level of competency of new practitioners who were being certified, which was addressed by a one-trim-for-all hooves mandate that was generated by the Association’s founder . What followed was a mass exodus of all the practitioners who disagreed with certain new mandates and certain new workshop instructors teaching for the AANHCP.

The AANHCP, formerly known as the American Association of Natural Hoofcare Practitioners was left with only a handful of people who weren’t new to trimming and a few students who seemed to be in agreement with what became termed as the Double "A" Cookie Cutter Trim by outsiders, and a leader who considered himself the Zen Master of the hoof. Scary.

The cream of the AANHCP crop who resigned, as well as a few very successful practitioners around the country, banded together to form the AHA or American Hoof Association. (See Americanhoofassociation.org) This is not an educating organization, but rather one that screens for only the most competent practitioners in the world. I am now a member of the AHA. And have recently returned from their 2nd annual conference which took place in upstate New York. Four days of working around experts in their field, learning about new ways to help make horses comfortable in their journey from damaged hooves to natural hooves. It was amazing!

So I realize that with new associations cropping up, and incompetent trimmers who are learning from misinformed trimmers and the farriers who claim they know natural hoofcare - (it simply means leaving the shoe off - right?) what is left is a great deal of confusion for horse-owners who are seeking what is best for their horses.

Some people are working to perpetuate the confusion regarding hoofcare practitioners claiming that we are all out there massacring hooves for a quick buck, and that we use iodine to cover the blood we cause to flow from the hoof. (I personally have trimmed thousands of hooves and have NEVER caused a hoof to bleed.)

That is such nonsense when you consider the healing that is being done for hooves that have been damaged through neglect and/or traditional hoofcare. However, there are people out there who claim to know natural hoofcare practices, and who are destroying hooves.

So when deciding to try natural hoofcare for your horse, please don’t listen to the BS that is being spewed by the idiots who dominate the horse world. Do your own research. Talk to others who’ve experienced wonderful success with healing trims provided by competent natural hoofcare professionals. Question everything you hear and everyone who you are hearing from. Veterinarians, as wonderful as most of them are, also have incompetent members in their ranks who know what they know and refuse to educate themselves in the research that is taking the hoofcare world by storm.

Learn about the new ways we can protect hooves from terrain that may cause pain, like the latest in boots such as the Renegades and a new product called Equicast.

Find someone who has a reputation for helping, not hurting horses. And remember, the second leading cause of equine euthanasia is hoof issues and there is always going to be those who don’t want the traditional damaging hoof care practices to die. It keeps the “professionals” busy fixing the problems they cause and they know for every horse they put down due to hoof issues, another will take its place.

Today, my mare and all my horses have tough natural hooves that can negotiate the toughest terrain without a care.

I wish you all the best in natural hoof care.

Pat

My sentiments exactly!

And They Call Us Horse Lovers

By Robert M. Miller, DVM

The Nation was shocked when Barbaro broke down shortly after leaving the gate at the Preakness. I saw the repaired fractures in TIME magazine. What I think happened is that the sesamoid bone fractured, a common injury. As a result, the fetlock collapses causing the pastern bone to explode into multiple fragments, probably with the next stride or two.The last time the general public was exposed to a racetrack tragedy like this was when the great filly, Ruffian, fractured; the injury eventually resulting in her death.The news media focuses on great champions like these, but what most people don't realize is that such injuries are relatively common occurrences in horse racing.Part of the cause is that we have bred athletic power into our racing breeds far exceeding what nature requires for the horse to survive in its natural environment. All wild horses need to do is outrun a big cat. We have selectively bred for speeds that the anatomy of the horse cannot always cope with.In addition, we train and race them long before they are mature. The immature are often capable of spectacular athletic performance. Every time I watch an Olympics and I see gymnasts as young as 13, 14 or 15 years of age, I wince at the thought of the damage I know is occurring to some of their bodies. I started a year of gymnastics at 17 years of age, and I wasn't very good, but I still managed to do damage that manifested itself many years later. Fortunately, I was drafted into the Army at 18, which ended my gymnastic career.Half a century ago, when I was cowboying, "colts" were started at four years of age or older. Once in a while, one might be started as a three-year-old. Despite some very hard work, barring accidents, those ranch horses were still sound and working into their 20's.I'm not opposed to racing. It's a great sport and has motivated mankind to produce truly great horse breeds. But I am opposed to any practices which contribute to premature crippling of otherwise healthy horses. Some years ago, the annual convention of the American Association of Equine Practitioners (A.A.E.P.) was held in Dallas. The same week, the national cutting horse futurities were being held in nearby Fort Worth. Three colleagues from Sweden told me that they wanted to see the cutting horses. So, one evening, after the day of scientific lectures had ended, I accompanied the three Swedish vets to Fort Worth.After watching several horses perform, the senior Swede, a professor from the vet school in Upsula, Sweden, said, "This is incredible! It must take many years to obtain such performance from a horse.""But," I answered, "this is a futurity.""I do not understand this word," he said."These are colts," I explained. "These are just three-year-olds."He looked shocked, turned to his companions and explained to them in Swedish and then said to me in English, "I have only two comments: One, it must take great skill to be able to train a horse to do this in so brief a time. And, two, what is happening to their poor legs?"
Today, we have all sorts of futurities - reining, cutting, barrel racing, etc. I have tried many times to get owners to postpone arduous training to give the colt a chance to mature. Most of the time, I was ignored. The lure of winning something or making some money was too great to resist. My strategy when the owner insisted on going ahead with training and/orcompetition that I felt was premature was to say, "That's okay. You go ahead. What you are doing is very good for my business."
Why is it that the protests against over-using young horses come primarily from the people who profit from such abuse - the veterinarians? Is it because we best understand the trauma being inflicted upon immature skeletons, joints, ligaments and tendons?
Just as I am not opposed to racing, if properly conducted, I am not opposed to horse shows or competitive equine events. Horse shows, like all livestock shows, were conceived of long ago to "improve the breed". They were designed to demonstrate and reward the people who were doing the best job of breeding, of selecting bloodstock, and of creating superior bloodlines.
Unfortunately, human nature, vanity and greed have corrupted the horse show industry. We see grotesque caricatures of the original character of each breed. Stock horses, the working ranch breeds, are shown in Western Pleasure classes traveling in a manner that would drive a working cowboy crazy. With lowered heads, going in a downhill manner, these horses greatly magnify the forces placed upon the forelimbs. Once again, good for usvets. It produces income, but the horses suffer.
The wonderful Tennessee Walking Horse is shod and shown in distorted gaits that can only be called "grotesque".If it weren't for the frequent veterinary checks, which are mandatory, can you imagine how many endurance racing horses would die because of their riders' consuming desire to win? I remember the early endurance races. Saddlebreds, with surgically distorted tails, and gingered anuses, are exhibited with the pupils of their eyes dilated with atropine.How many people who sincerely consider themselves to be "horse lovers" wean foals at three months of age, or even earlier, which nature never intended? How many horses, a gregarious species, spend their lives locked in box stalls? How many horses in the U.S.A, like so much of our human population, are damaged healthwise by excessive nutrition?Such abuses exist in ever breed, every discipline, in every equine sport. We need to step back and analyze what we are doing.One of my clients was a prosperous, educated couple. They were very congenial, and they owned three Quarter Horses. One day, they called me to come to their home to worm their horses and check them over and booster their vaccinations. When I arrived, I found only two horses, so I asked where the third one was."Oh, he's in training as a reining horse, with ____________" (a successful and notoriously brutal trainer who also happened to be one of my clients).I said, "Oh, I see." Then the wife said, "We know how cruel he is to the horses, but hewins!" I never felt the same toward those people, again. This same trainer (he's been dead for many years) once said to me, "Doc, why can't you guys cut the tails on my horses? Why do you make me drive 300 miles round trip to get my tails done?"
He was referring to the illicit surgical paralyzing of the tail, common in reining horses so they can't switch their tails. ALL of the horses in his barn had their tails cut.I said, "Were you ever beaten in a show by a horse that you knew had its tail cut?""Oh sure," he said. "Lots of times." "Well," I told him, "I didn't cut the tail nor did my partners. We won't do anything against the association rules."This same guy, a world-class competitor, kept every horse in his barn on Serpecil, a tranquilizer not approved by FDA for use in horses. I have no idea where he got the drug, but somebody was selling it to him.
I believe that a conspiracy exists in the horse show industry. The trainers are judges, and the judges are trainers. Too often, they scratch each others' backs.If Western Pleasure horses were shown as they were 50 or 60 years ago, a good amateur could turn out a champion. But it takes a real pro to produce the freaks seen in today's Western Pleasure classes. And, after the horse goes back to the owner from the trainer and is no longer winning, it has to go back to the trainer for a "tune-up".A few days before I wrote this article, I got back from Bishop Mule Days, a unique event I attend every year that has no equal anywhere in the world. I had the pleasure of seeing Western Pleasure mules that WERE NOT "peanut rollers".
The trend began some years ago, but the mule people balked at it and ruled it out. GOOD FOR THEM! You see, to be a mule lover, you REALLY gotta love horses!

Oregon School of Natural Hoof Care

Last week, a practitioner friend - Lori and I drove to Jacksonville, Oregon to the Oregon School of Natural Hoofcare to attend a seminar with Dr. Robert Bowker, DVM, PhD.

The drive to Jacksonville was filled with beautiful scenery. I call my car windshield, my office window, and back in the day when I was spending 40 hours per week in a basement, I could not have imagined the view out my windows today. LOVE IT!

Dr Bowker is a professor at Michigan State University, Department of Pathobiology & Diagnostic Investigation. For short – Bob - one amazing guy!

(Dr Bowker making sure we get the point of his lecture.)
(The horse NEEDS A GOOD BACK-FOOT!)
(Dr. Alfred Hitchcock Bowker - notice his silhouette on the screen. )
( In a nutshell, all domestic horses are dealing with toes that are too damn long! If we fix that, we can fix lots of other problems within the hoof capsule.)

Cheryl Henderson, ABC Hoofcare and owner of the OSNHC, had many hoof and leg bones there for us to inspect, and even 5 or 6 horse skulls. There was every kind of hoof boot on the market as well.

Not only that, we were fed like horses destined to founder, and we slept in the bunkhouse at the school/private home. It was a lovely atmosphere for learning. However, the temperatures dipped a ways below what my sleeping bag was rated for. Brrrrrr.

Dr. Bowker's findings produced from his research pretty much “flies in the face” of traditional teaching at every university, vet and farrier school. Not many of his colleagues want to hear what he has discovered. However, he is right and they are all stupid not to listen to him.

His analogy of how receptive the traditional educational community has been to him is that he’s been swimming upstream for many years and has been getting pissed on the entire way. He’s accustomed to that kind of treatment so nothing anyone says about his lectures on his research can hurt him.

None of the hoof junkies (his term for us) at the seminar would have pissed on Dr. Bowker. Just the opposite, I think most of us were in awe of him. Oh yes, a few seemed to be know-it-alls who attended, not so much to learn, but to confirm what already knew, and to show off a little by spewing out medical terminology they knew was over most the rest of our heads. That’s okay though, we all have something to offer.

Press on Dr. Bowker. Help the rest of us become better practitioners. Take lots of showers.

On the way home, we had to leave I-5 and get a room, due a snow storm, slushy pavement, and lots of big accidents. The power went out in our hotel room at 4am and again, brrrrrr. I was glad to get home to my own horses (and dogs and husband) and get warmed up again.

(View outside our hotel window)

My next trip is in 4 weeks, to New York, for the annual American Hoof Association Conference. I’m so jazzed!

More on the problems of horse shoes:

As those of you who have spent any time with me at all know, I’m fairly opinionated…

“No! Really?”

Hey, watch it! I know what you’re thinking!

…and I spend most my waking hours thinking about horses and their hooves. So the fact that I’m capable of filling post after post on this blog with my opinions, thoughts and experiences with horse hooves comes as no surprise. I just wanted explain that before I ask you this question.

Can you believe that I’ve been pondering what we’ve been putting our horses through by shoeing them for many hundreds of years and that I have more to say on the topic?

Well, here is something that I find fascinating for you ponder also.

It just makes sense to me that not every farrier has the skill to shoe a horse “comfortably.” So it’s a given that not every set of shoes applied to every horse is a comfortable set of shoes.

In fact, I believe I can say with confidence that MOST horse shoers (except the most skilled) leave a horse standing in a very uncomfortable set of shoes.

Now I ask you, if someone gave you an uncomfortable pair of shoes and told you, you had to wear them 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (and for most of that time you would be standing) and you could not remove them for 8 to 10 - and even much longer in some cases - weeks, can you imagine how you’d feel?

I imagine your feet would be numb within a couple days, maybe less than 24 hours. That’s typically what happens to the hoof.

Now take hooves that haven’t been trimmed properly and apply a set of shoes that don’t fit well. Never mind the steel nails driven into the hoofwall and sometimes into the sensitive laminae, or that the steel girder (shoe) keeps the hoof from flexing like it’s meant to and increases the amount of vibration the hoof must tolerate, or that shoe lifts all the functioning hoof parts off the ground that are meant to come impact the ground with every stride.

Beyond all of that and more, now let’s say the shoe salesman at your local shoe department sold you a pair of poorly fitting shoes for your 2 year old daughter and told you that once the shoes were on your child’s feet, you could not take them off for 8 to 10 - and frequently much longer - weeks.

You’d know that your child’s feet were going to grow during that time, not to mention all the other reasons for allowing your child to go barefoot most the time, so you as a wonderful caring parent, would be appalled at this crazy suggestion.

But we have no problem at all doing this to our young horses! Why? Because we think their perfectly healthy feet can’t function once the horse begins to work. We think? NOPE! We’re not thinking. Not about the horse anyway. We are thinking about our own convenience.

And one more thing, we don’t shoe our dogs who accompany us on miles of trails, and they have even softer soles than horses do.

So there you go. If you’re not scratching our head right now, your visiting the wrong blog.

That’s my latest thoughts and opinions on horse shoes. Stay tuned. More to come, I’m sure!

Natural VS Unnatural

This is Just My Opinion, but I have to say something about an issue that has been bugging the hell out of me lately that has to do with horse's tails.

Not just their tails, but that's a big part of it. Really, horse shoes are not the only unnatural thing we do to our horses. I get so frustrated when I see all the other things we do to them, such as forcing them to stand in urine soaked stalls for as many hours as most natural horses are out snooping around for blades of grass, playing with each other, nipping and kicking and playing dominance games. Just plain keeping their minds occupied.

But why stop there? Why not bundle them up in blankets meant for arctic climates. Those horses just look pathetically HOT to me. A stalled horse can stay plenty warm without added protection. In fact, horses like to be on the cool side. It’s unnatural for a horse to be warm in the winter like we humans think their horses want to be.

Have you noticed how miserable horses look on a hot summer day compared to a cold snowy day? My horses love to romp in the snow. (Of course they’re unshod so they can romp in the snow without killing themselves.) They are not stalled and they rarely wear blankets. I have to admit, they get a little sick of all the rain though. Me too.

So it’s not enough that we keep our horses in warm and often dirty blankets and standing in stalls for 17 hours a day, but we find it necessary to bag their tails. What the heck is that about? Again, I see natural horses with lovely tails that are rarely brushed out! Unless another horse is chewing on a tail, it will comb out shiny and full when we need it to, without all those broken hairs you see on bagged tails.

But let’s not stop with the braids and the bags! Why not stuff the tail bag with something heavy. Whoever started that practice is a real lunkhead. Nowadays, a flip of their tail could mean a concussion!

Or false tails! Can’t people tell that horses hate to have stuff hanging from their tails? They use their tails for balance and swatting flies and soothing their foals, or other horses, by swishing their tails against each other.

I see videos on Youtube of horses being worked in round pens and it appears to me they are running away from all the crazy crap hanging from their butts. It’s unnatural!

I could go on an on about the stupid stuff we do to our horses. The short list is:

Branding
Shoeing
Bagging tails
Docking tails
Nerving tails
(We do a lot of unnatural stuff to their tails. It’s so bizarre.)
Soring pasterns
Weighting pasterns
All the stuff we do to show horses
Cutting check ligaments
Etc etc etc

Yes, I know simply saddling, bridling and riding horses is just as unnatural to them as anything else we do, but since they allow us to enjoy them in that way, why do we put them through all this additional crap?

JMO

Why not shoe your horse?

One question I get asked a lot is “Why are shoes harmful to hooves?”

Horse shoes:

protect the hoof wall from wear (allowing hooves to get too long and putting unnatural forces on the ligaments and tendons)
can cause the frog to prolapse
cause vibration which can damage living tissue
impairs shock absorption
impairs hoof mechanism – contracts the heels, deforms the hoof and bruises navicular area
can pinch the corium
cause unnatural strain on joints
can cause thrush which can lead to permanent lameness
cause unnatural weight and centrifugal forces
nails destroy the hoof wall
nails conduct cold into the interior of the hoof
cause increased risk of greater injury and damage
prevent improper development of a young horse’s foot

Those are just to name a few of the possible and probable affects of shoes attached to the hoof by a competent farrier. Imagine the damage when shoes are applied by the many incompetent farriers out there shoeing our horses.

Classy & Cricket Update

One week ago, I began a new treatment for both mares, soaking their front hooves in a combination of ingredients I've concocted. In this video, the clips of the mares struggling to walk were taken a few days before I started soaking their hooves, an improved over when the arrived here 2 months ago. But in the last clips you'll can see something different. True, the ground they are moving on is soft, but there certainly seems to be a difference in how they are weighting their front feet. See what you think.