Posts filed under “Miscellaneous”
An Important Note
You may have noticed I’ve added an item at the top of the Sidebar entitled Sign Up!, with a link below it that says “Stay informed and contribute to our knowledge.” That link will take you to a very simple, but very important, form I’d encourage every visitor to fill out. Not only will it […]
Off His Rocker(s)
When the owner led the horse out of the stall, my heart sank. This poor gelding was wearing a type of shoe known as a rocker, banana, or convex shoe, and although I’d read about them before, I’d never actually seen them “in action.” I wish I could have maintained that ignorance, because what a mess! […]
The (High?) Cost of Hoof Care
I was giving a lecture on the economics of hoof care to a class of university students when one of them asked me how much a particular pair of “specialized” shoes cost. Consulting the farrier supply catalog in my hand, I replied, “They’re $12 per pair.” “No they’re not!” she retorted. “My farrier says they’re […]
The Land of Enchantment
Last weekend’s trip to Santa Fe proved to be an interesting one. I met some very nice people and some very nice horses. I also worked on some rather unusual horses with respect to conformation and movement, which I may comment about in the future. Most of the horses I saw, like many I see […]
Santa Fe Bound!
I’m headed out to Santa Fe, NM for a few days to do some one-on-one trimming training and to begin the process of transitioning a number of horses to being without shoes. I anticipate an interesting weekend in one of my favorite parts of the country! These are always very rewarding experiences because they allow […]
Mistaken Identity
Over the past several years, I’ve seen a considerable number of lame horses that have been diagnosed as having one problem or another but in reality have a very different one. And a visit a few weeks ago was no exception. I went out to trim a horse who’d been diagnosed with sidebone – the […]
Happy Holidays!!!
Andy and I just want to say “Thanks, and Merry Christmas” to all of our wonderful clients and friends! It’s certainly been a very busy year. Between caring for clients, teaching 25+ classes at Ohio State, and visiting Annie in Massachusetts, I’ve barely had time for anything else. Still, I was able to get this […]
Laminitis and Pumpkin
The title of this post may seem as if I’m about to reveal some connection between the laminitic horse and a common vegetable, and, in a weird sort of way, that’s correct. But it’s not what you think… Some months back, one of my clients took on the care of a very sweet donkey who […]
A Matter of Conscience
This started out as what I had envisioned as a fairly straightforward post, written in response to some comments made by a reader and by a local horse owner. Instead, it turned into an extremely challenging one to write – I suppose because I have so much to say on the subject that the difficulty […]
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.’ […]