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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
Heel First?
The natural tendency for shod horses, is to land on the toes first. According to a farrier I spoke to recently, the correct way for horses to place their feet is completely flat – all in one go, as it were! Although the first situation is a fact, the second is sadly nothing more than […]
Keeping Warm Feet
Horses are, like humans and all other mammals, warm blooded (including the so-called cold-blood breeds). This means that the body’s temperature is regulated internally and not by external influences (the sun). A direct result of this is the minimal variation in temperature noted over the whole body. Some areas are slightly warmer because of the […]
A Heated Discussion
I had a rather heated discussion yesterday with one of my horse-riding students (as opposed to a student of horse-riding). She was very much of the opinion that a horse needed to be shod to stop the hoofs wearing down too quickly. I didn’t actually ask what she did with her horse that would make […]
Winter is here (on paper!)
So the winter has begun; well, according to the meteorological calendar, at least. Our weathermen mark the change of seasons on the first day of March, June, September and December – it makes it easier on the statistics than the infinitely variable 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd or 23rd of the month 😀 Our horses (were […]
“The Experts…”
Last year I had the fabulous experience of riding a transhumance in the south of France with Pierre Enoff. Were it not for the fact that I am going back this year, it could almost be described as the experience of a lifetime – taking a herd of 70+ horses some 150km across some pretty […]
“Bad Hoofs”
Oh my ears and whiskers! A recent meeting of horse riding instructors was given the following information about one of the riding school’s horses “the farrier has said that he has bad hooves”. And additionally, mention was made about how good the farrier actually is… Of course, Sabots Libres wouldn’t be Sabots Libres without questioning […]