Posts tagged “barefoot”
The Hoof Landings Tower of Babel
This isn’t even remotely what I expected to be writing about right now. In authoring my recent series on heel-first landings, I assumed that everyone likely to read them was familiar with the definitions of the various types of landings – probably because what the different landing types are called are, in themselves, accurate descriptions […]
The Myth of the Heel-First Landing – Part 3
Hopefully, Part 1 and Part 2 of this series have laid sufficient groundwork (no pun intended!) for you to now be ready to hear why the feral horse lands flat-footed at the walk. Let’s briefly summarize what we’ve covered so far: As a quadruped, the horse’s anatomy and way of going differs from the bipedal […]
How Much is Too Much?
Jared Lee’s cartoon makes light of what is pretty obvious to most of us: the horse is far better equipped to carry people than the other way ’round! And yet, as the size of our population continues to increase, the shrinking weight difference between horse and rider is definitely having an impact on the horse […]
Laminitis Risk Update
As I’ve acknowledged before, one of the best things about my life has always been the opportunity to both teach and learn, and our recent Liberated Horsemanship clinic in La Llacuna, Spain was no exception. With people gathered from Spain, France, Austria, Russia, England, Scotland, and, of course, the United States, we all had a […]
Spring is Here?!
I know just how my horse felt when I took this photo many years ago. Following some surgery, he’d been stuck inside for a couple of weeks, so I carried a camera with me (pre-digital days, I might add!) as I turned him loose again for the first time. He was ecstatic! The weather here […]
The Myth of the Heel-First Landing – Part 2
In the first article in this series, I started us down the path to understanding why the proper landing for a horse at the walk has to be flat-footed by describing the anatomical differences between humans and horses, and pointing out the limitations of our ability to perceive fairly significant differences in how the horse […]
The “Expert Syndrome” Revisited
I hope Mr. Adams doesn’t mind me sharing “Dilbert” with you, but recent events prompted a return to the topic of experts in the horse world, and these particular cartoons seemed especially appropriate! I’ve commented about this problem before in my article entitled The “Expert Syndrome”, and decided to revisit it after a couple of […]
The Myth of the Heel-First Landing – Part 1
Yes, I know it’s been far too long since I’ve posted an article, but life seems to have a way of interfering with my writing! The good news is that I now have several articles well under way, and so will try hard to keep the gaps shorter. I had to laugh when I saw […]
The Good Client
There’s a company called Farriers’ Greeting Cards that sells all manner of practical paper products – business cards, billing forms, greeting cards, etc. – for hoof care professionals. They also have a number of less practical ones featuring “things not to say to a hot, tired farrier” sayings that no doubt everyone in the hoof […]
Problem/Solution
It’s a constant struggle. The other night I gave a 2-year-old mustang born in a BLM holding facility his first real trim. I say “real” because he surely must’ve been trimmed at least once or twice in the holding facility, but almost certainly either in a squeeze chute, tranquilized, or both. As you can see, […]