Posts by Steve
What Makes it “Natural Hoof Care?”
It’s not unusual these days to hear horse owners, farriers, and even veterinarians talk about so-called “natural” approaches to a wide variety of equine health and management topics, including vaccinations, deworming, feeding, and hoof care. Since (as I explained in my first post) my equine expertise lies primarily in the area of hoof care, that’s […]
A Useful Gift!
I created the following image to compare horse and human ages some years ago, after reading the results of a study in Equus magazine. I updated it a bit, and thought I’d share it with you. It features one of my favorite photos of my first Peruvian Paso – Misionero – always known as ‘Spud.’ […]
Hoof Chipping Revisited
Last week was an interesting week in the “chips” department, beginning with the client, whose horse I’d trimmed only twice before, who called to cancel her appointment because her horse had chips in his hooves, and, therefore, needed to get him shod. “We tried,” she said, “but it’s just not working out.” A day or […]
Laminitis Risk Calculator
This is an especially exciting and important post for me. Last April, while in Warrenton, MO to do my Special Topics/Advanced Trimming workshop for Liberated Horsemanship, we all had the privilege of hearing Dr. Don Walsh of the Animal Health Foundation give a presentation on a very real and very serious threat to our horses […]
Ch-ch-ch-changes!
This isn’t really an equine-related post, but one of the wonderful things about dating the very talented designer Annie Selke is her willingness to help where I fall short – in this case, her way-over-50% input on the redesign of the Enlightened Equine blog header, featuring a photo of my beloved Andero. I love the […]
Functional Form
I certainly wasn’t thinking of a comparison when I took some photos of a client’s hooves the other day. As a product designer, I’m admittedly drawn to the form of a well-functioning hoof, and this older Warmblood has great feet! But as I was cropping the photos, I came across some pictures I’d taken years […]
The Emperor’s New Shoes
I happened across an article entitled Polymers replace metal in horseshoes for added benefit in one of my many engineering trade magazines the other day (Design fax, Volume 7, Issue 26). I suppose I shouldn’t have been shocked by its contents, but I continually hold out hope for more legitimate science in this field, and […]
Progress!? Update
An email update from the client with the undiagnosed hoof infection – Yesterday I got to ride my (horse type deleted) on a really nice trail ride on some neighboring farms and he was wonderful!!! I can not thank you enough! He has been consistently sound now for longer than ever since I got him […]
Chips & Cracks
I occasionally get calls from sometimes very upset horse owners saying that his or her horse needs immediate attention because the horse’s hoof wall is chipping – usually at the toe, or sometimes in the heel quarters. Most of the time, these calls originate with owners who have had the horse barefoot for some period, […]
Progress!?
I received the following email from a new client the other day – I wanted to give you a quick update on my (horse type deleted) that was so sore before you started working on him. I have been noticing that he is moving more freely in the pasture than I have seen him since […]