Warning Shot
Unbelievable how a bit of sharp criticism can change things even when the criticism isn’t believed! I recently pointed out to a horse owner that his farrier was doing a very bad job of looking after the horse’s hoofs – and explained exactly why. The upshot was an owner that told me I was talking […]
New v. Old?
It is a funny game this, nature conscious hoof care. Not that there is anything to laugh about when you see some of the hoofs out there. Ruinous neglect that can, with relatively little effort, be kept at least in check. Only yesterday I came across four horses together, three of which had reasonable fairly […]
Regular Neglect
The title might seem an oxymoron but all will become clear in a moment. This photo is of a pony that was shod about three weeks earlier. Sadly his owners are of the opinion that they are getting good service from their farrier – he visits once every eight weeks to tend all ten ponies/horses […]
Race to the Death
So, the verdict is out on the 2012 Grand National at Aintree. Everything possible had been done to insure a safe race. A result no doubt welcomed by organisers, authorities, owners and trainers alike. Sadly, it does not help Synchronized nor According to Pete, the two horses that died in the race; nor does it […]
The Other Approach…
It is interesting at times to take a look at how ones “colleagues” go about their profession. It has a couple of benefits: you can pick up tips and tricks – particularly in those activities that you only carry out once in a while; you see someone else’s technique – again to compare with and […]
Site Update
We’re rolling out a new multilingual version of the site in the next few days. The current means of language choice is not ideal and makes for difficult updating. If you notice we are offline, don’t worry – we’ll be back again very quickly. Hopefully within about 10 minutes!
Rhinopneumonia: no longer a problem
The Royal Dutch Horse Sport Federation (K.N.H.S.) has withdrawn all negative advice regarding travel and show events involving horses. In the past few days there have been no new reports of virus outbreaks and the potential of an epidemic seems to have passed. Of course there are now voices shouting about the excessive precaution that […]
The Perfect Hoof
In practice, we know that the “perfect hoof” doesn’t exist – but it does not stop us from trying to portray it… Of all the photos I’ve seen, this is the one that really stands out in my mind as being the public portrayal of perfect and the natural portrayal of mistreated: To the uninitiated, […]
BBC News – Dustin Hoffman drama Luck halts filming with horses
The day after three horses have to be put down at the Cheltenham Festival, the BBC comes with this report about the HBO channel racing drama Luck: BBC News – Dustin Hoffman drama Luck halts filming with horses.
Natuurlijk is niet natuurlijk…
Om de zoveel tijd – eigenlijk vrij regelmatig – vindt men een artikel in een tijdschrift, krant of op een website dat van de gehele beweging rondom natuurlijke verzorging onzin probeert te maken. Vaker zijn het de mensen van de traditionele “ambachten” die bang zijn dat hun veilige inkomstenbronnen in gevaar komen. Dit is natuurlijk […]