Master Your Horse's Environment
Our horses are a product of the environment they live in. While we can't provide a completely natural environment for most domesticated horses, we can make it as species appropriate as possible. Let's explore ways we can use all aspects of the environment to benefit our horse's health as well as simplifying our lives and reducing our list of chores.
There's 3 key components to the horse's environment:
Your World
Everything around your horse is part of the environment. The field, stable, tack, feed, water... the list is endless!
Your horse
The internal body is an environment in itself, we often seem to overlook horse health as a significant part of the environment...
Your Team
Everyone who interacts with your horse are part of the environment around them. (whether we like it or not!)
Below are the most useful articles I've published to help you understand how your horse's internal and external environment affects hoof health, and give you ideas and support for providing the best species specific environment you can.
Horse Health
The Lowest Sugar Horse Feed
There’s been a lot of talk about the sugar content of feed lately, but focusing on just the % of sugar in a feed can cause more harm than good. It can feel like every time you think you have it figured out there’s another thing to consider and you’re back to the drawing board,
The Importance of Circulation for Barefoot Horses
When it comes to looking at nutrition in horses, the circulation is very rarely mentioned. It’s not uncommon for fundamental things to be overlooked. They just keep going quietly in the background so it’s just too easy to forget they’re even there.If we were trying to build a horse though – which in essence we
The Importance of Digestion for Barefoot Horses
Digestion is an Essential Part of NutritionWhen it comes to delivering nutrition to the body, effective digestion is essential. Whatever a horse ingests is a source of nutrition. That means what they eat, drink (and breathe). Getting the right thing into the mouth is only a small part of the equation though. Yes, it’s absolutely essential that
The Importance of Nutrition for Barefoot Horses
Why is There An Obsession with Nutrition for Barefoot Horses?Ask anyone, if you’re going barefoot with your horse, you’re going to need to look into the diet.  But why is that? Why is diet more important for barefoot horses than shod ones? While it often looks that way, in my opinion, it’s really not any different.Â
Listen To Your Gut
How often do you consider your horse’s digestion? We all spend a lot of time worrying about whether our horses are getting good nutrition, but we tend to focus on what we’re feeding them. We test the grass, maybe even the soilWe test the hayWe spend hours looking at the nutritional charts on feed packets and
Walk This Way
How often do you walk your horse up and really look at how they’re moving? I think most of us do it when we see a problem. It just doesn’t seem important enough to ask someone to walk our horse up unless we think there’s a problem. You probably walk them up when they’re trimmed or
The Heart of the Matter – Understanding Horse Health
WoooHooo it’s Friday!I wanted to tell you all about a very interesting and eye opening conversation I had yesterday. I think, it could be one of the most important things I’ve come across when it comes to understanding horse health. I’m going to need to set the scene a little bit before getting to the
Bars: To Trim or Not To Trim
I received a question from Becky about trimming bars: Should the bars be trimmed, some say no and some do which is best for the horse and why?Well the direct and honest answer is this… Bars should be trimmed when they need trimming and not when they don’t. Yeah, even I roll my eyes at that, however it
You Aren’t Quite What You Eat – Nutrition for Barefoot Horses
Todays post is all about nutrition for barefoot horses with sore feet. Of course you’ve already read the previous two articles in this series and have a much clearer idea as to whether your horse has got weak hooves or sensitive feetand you’re ready for the next step… If you missed the first 2 posts, you’ll
Horse Management
The Lowest Sugar Horse Feed
There’s been a lot of talk about the sugar content of feed lately, but focusing on just the % of sugar in a feed can cause more harm than good. It can feel like every time you think you have it figured out there’s another thing to consider and you’re back to the drawing board,
To Rug or Not to Rug…
Whether or not to rug your horse in winter can be a surprisingly contentious topic. Debates can get even more heated than an over rugged horse! Let’s skip over all the ranting and ‘my way is the only way’ attitudes and look at this a more logically. A rug is a tool. A tool can be used
Mud Sucks! Winter Challenges and Solutions
Winter is coming!! Rather than armies of White Walkers, we tend to get herds of mud monsters! Muddy conditions can not only cause problems for your horse’s hooves, they can make your trimmer’s job seem near impossible.I often hear people worrying about the mud making their horse’s hooves soft or even their horse foot sore
Healthy Weight Loss For Horses
Managing an overweight horse can be difficult. If your horse is kept on a livery yard, options can be limited, and as an owner you can be subjected to all manner of pressure from other *ahem* ‘helpful, well-meaning experts’. Sadly, fat shaming has come to the horse world. As has shaming the owners of said horses.While
Weatherproof Hoof
It’s around this time of year that I start seeing a lot of posts where people are asking for help because their horse has gone lame because the ground is wet. I’ve no doubt in 6 months or so, I’ll be seeing people say that their horse is lame because the ground is too dry.
Dry Brittle Hooves: Which Product is Best?
There seems to be a lot of advice around about whether or not hoof oil and hoof moisturisers are good for hooves. Some people swear by hoof oils, others swear against them. Let’s look at what’s happening and why, and see if we can’t get a little crazy and define what it is we’re actually trying
The Great Natural Horse Keeping Hoax
We’re all aiming to keep our horses as naturally as possible, but is that really the best thing for them? Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of keeping horses naturally. My horses are turned out 24/7, I use herbs where possible, avoid drugs unless absolutely necessary, we’re as organic as possible, they’re shoeless,
What To Do When Grazing Isn’t Suitable
I had a question in response to my last blog post about laminitis. It occurred to me that grazing problems are so common, I should make the answer easier to find. I’ve added more to it so it covers more than just Barbra’s specific situation (just in case you read my response in the comments
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