Satori Center

Resources

Tidbit

Farriery Faux Pas
I'm not so sure this plan was thought through so well

Lately I've been thinking a lot about whether or not we've got the right idea with farriery.  Mind you, I like most of the farriers I know and have met and have employed and most of them take great pride in what they do.  It's just that since I've learned about Ortho-biomomy and Equine Positional Release, I'm starting to wonder if we might need a different approach.

Today the topic has come up about club feet and tall heels.  I've been thinking about this from a whole horse perspective for that last few weeks.  I think the 'big picture' is really important, and today it seems like it's time to see if I can coherently spit out what I've been thinking about.

Years ago...

Years ago I got to take some clinics with Tony Gonzales, farrier and author of P.B.M.: A Diary of Lameness - Proper Balance Movement - A Gift For Your Horse.  He was a very charismatic talker, fun to listen to, and amazing to watch in action.  I listened intently, pored over the book, highlighted things, made charts, cross referenced, looked at horses -- kind of went nuts.

In the end, his idea was that horses are kind of like tables.  the top should be flat, so to speak, and the legs should all be 'equal' in length.  I say "flat so to speak" because some horses are butt high and some are wither high, and I say 'equal' because some horses have deep barrels and short front legs and others don't.  But if you look at a horse, you can kind of get an idea if it's not level on top and you can look at the withers or the rump and figure out whether the legs are 'equal' left to right.

And the horses legs have the same thing going on as well.  They should be symmetrical left to right, pointed straight ahead, and not too long or too short in the toe.

How to figure this out, well, that part I'm not sure whether he ever got around to sharing or not, but he was on to something anyway.  The idea was solid and he was an artist when it came to implementing it.  Horse moved amazingly well after he was done.

A Few Years Ago...

I was looking at my mares knee and thinking, 'What the HELL?!'  It was the size of a large grapefruit or a small cantaloupe and I was thinking, 'That's not right.'  I looked closer and her hoof was bizarre.  It was like she was sliding out of it sideways.  There was a 'bull nose' on the outside and an incredible flare on the inside.  

So you can bet I was furious at myself!  I talked to my then farrier and his explanation was 'well, that's the way she's made.' My immediate reaction was 'NO, it's NOT. She most definitely wasn't born that way.'   

Believe it or not, I held my tongue.  I gave him six more months to take a different approach, during which time things got worse.

I then got on the internet, got a rasp, and did a hack job on my mare's feet and, horror of all horrors, she went better.

OK folks -- that's NOT supposed to happen.  Adios amigos to that farrier.

Also at around that time I found a website in New Zealand which recommended that anyone who does horse's feet should also know horse anatomy and be proficient at horse massage. 

I thought this was nice, if somewhat bizarre, and totally not going to be happening very often.  But the idea stuck with me.  Why would this guy, a farrier, think that all farriers should also know massage for horses?  What was up with that?

Then, as luck would have it, I blew out my back and found Ortho-bionomy -- an entirely different way of approaching things.  (o -- they aren't farriers!  but I'm finding the philosophy has a lot of applications.)

A Few Months Ago...

I found Jaime Jackson's books 'The Natural Horse' and 'Paddock Paradise.'  

The reason I picked these up was that the last farrier I had, whom I like, btw, (Hi, John!)  mentioned to me this 'new' idea of Paddock Paradise, and I was game because we were doing the Texas drought thing.  (We still are!)  At the time, a search online produced a site in Kentucky and another one in NY or some such place, and not a lot of info.   But he gave me a good idea of what to do - basically set up a track around the perimeter of the field.  So I went ahead and stacked out a track and made the horses hoof it back and forth between hay and water and food.  

I started out with a small track, around maybe two acres.  My mare with the cantaloupe knee was also having hind end issues and I knew she needed to walk but I had to keep it within her ability.  Over time, as she got better, the track got longer as I took in more and more property.

Finding the book was helpful because I felt like I was no longer winging it. There's a nice diagram in there, btw.

In the book 'The Natural Horse,' his main thesis there is that the horse's feet are shaped by the activity of the horse and the environment the horse is in.  You take a wild horse and put him in a manmade, man run, agency environment, and before too long, you have horses that no longer move in the manner of the wild horse and no longer have the healthy hooves of the wild horse.

Hmmm.

That book also has some really interesting thoughts about movement and how to trim a hoof.

Today

I have now come to believe that the hoof the horse grows is the 'best fit' answer for the entire package.  There is a horse, there is the ground, and the hooves negotiate between the two in the best way they can.  

If you look at the feet and they are 'messed up' then it's because something is going on in the horse somewhere up above the feet.  Goofy feet?  Goofy something in the horse.  The goofy feet came about because of the goofy something in the horse.  (Well - ok, a bad farrier session is a bad thing.  Bad things can be introduced that way.  Sometimes that's the start of it.  more on that some other time...) 

When I went to Tony Gonzales' clinics, I kind of didn't understand that.  I thought you could 'fix the feet' and that would 'fix the horse.'  But, just like the fellow in New Zealand, I now understand it's a lot more complicated than that.

Working with the feet alone is like wagging the dog by the tail. 

On the one hand, YES - you can get things done, and in my clinics I show you how to work with feet so that you can work with them on a daily basis if you wish, so I think there's merit in wagging the dog by the tail!  By working with the feet, you can keep things from getting worse and you can even help turn the tide. 

When you get adept, there are amazing things you can do while you're connected to the feet.  Like, you really can wag the whole dog.  The trick is to know how to reach the rest of the horse through the feet.

On the other hand, for greater results, I also show you how to work with the entire leg and how to be attentive to the entire horse.  The foot is not an isolated thing.  It's connected to a horse, and if you want the horse to grow a beautiful foot, you have to look at what's going on in the horse and attend to anything in the horse that's 'not beautiful.'

Which also includes how the horse is handled and ridden, and the equipment it wears, as well as environment.

It really is a BIG picture.

three topics I'm opining on at this moment:

• the club foot
• the long toe
• a winging leg (like, what was that cantaloupe knee from?!)

I will continue to write more opinions and thoughts in the future.

Books: Amazon Assoc. / Old Favs

Links

  Books