Hoof Care
Me, Learning how to trim, November 2005!
Riding hunters most of my life, my horses always wore shoes on their front feet and sometimes all the way around. I never questioned it – what else are horse shoes for? George’s story of recovery from lameness is somewhat of an ironic one. I adopted him from the farrier at the local university’s veterinarian school. According to his prior owner, George had been diagnosed with navicular disease. This farrier had taken him on with the goal of getting him sound through corrective shoeing. Months later, George was still significantly lame at the walk. He had spent his years on the hunter/jumper show circuit and his career was now totally over. My husband and I had just purchased our house on 5 acres and brought George home to help mow the lawn. Never in my wildest dream did I think he would become sound enough to ride on a regular basis.
I tried various farriers, trimming, and corrective shoeing methods over the next 6 years in an effort to ease George’s pain. Nothing I tried seemed to help. In late 2003 I read about an herbal anti-inflammatory that was working well for horses with navicular. I purchased it and began using it immediately. Remarkably George became sound enough for light riding. My holistic vet came out at the end of January 2005 and was quite upset to hear that I still had George on the herbal anti-inflammatory, as it was meant for short term use only. I had been totally ignorant of this fact and fortunately George did not suffer any ill consequences. My vet asked me to take him off it immediately as she was concerned that it was simply masking his symptoms. She was right. A few days after discontinuing it, his lameness showed up again. Unfortunately for me, I was scheduled to have my long awaited saddle consultation with Carol Brett from England only a few weeks later. I was a bit devastated at the turn of events. Little did I know then that this was the best thing that could have ever happened for George.
The morning of the saddle clinic, we hitched up the horse trailer, and George, seeing this, walked to the far corner of his paddock and turned his back to us. He was not budging. Something told me that despite his discomfort, I needed to load him up and go, which I did. A woman who watched my saddle consultation approached me afterwards. She remarked that she knew of a hoof trimming method that might help George significantly. She told me about Jamie Jackson’s website and book, Horse Owner’s Guide to Natural Hoof Care, and gave me the name of a local hoof trimmer using this method. I went home, read through the website then contacted the hoof trimmer who came out a few days later. George immediately showed improvement after the first trim and was sound after about 3 months. I have never had to resort to any type of supplement or anti-inflammatory since that time to keep him sound. In my mind this is really miraculous.
One primary underlying principle of Natural Hoof Care is that the natural unshod hoof is superior in form and function to the same hoof shod and uses the hoof of the wild horse as its model. It is a holistic approach which includes barefoot trimming (no shoes), as well as changing the horse’s diet and environment to reflect those of a wild horse as much as possible.
For further information:
http://www.equinesciencesacademy.com/ - Another program for teaching natural hoof care and trimming taught by former students of Jamie Jackson.
