What is the primary method of control of direction, and speed of your horse? Unless your horse is very advanced and well trained, and in combination with leg pressure and seat the primary and certainly the back-up control is the reins.
It doesn’t matter if you ride in a halter, bitless bridle or with a bit, you are probably at least partly asking for the speed and direction of travel with your reins.
Hopefully your horse will have a very soft mouth and rein pressure only needs to be slight. Having a good mouth on a horse is extremely important and should things get a bit exciting, a one rein stop can save you and your horse.
The one rein stop is your emergency brake. If your horse wants to rear, bolt, buck, or shy you can gain control with a one rein stop. Have a look at this video by John O’Leary, arguably one of Australia’s better horsemen and expert at dealing with problems in horses......
A lot of people shoe their horses and they actually don’t even know why – often just because it is a done thing and everyone is doing it.
This is a controversial subject and here is some of what I have found. Some of this is an extract of an article by Joe Camp, who researched the subject of hooves.
Personally, I have never had shoes on any of my horses, I ride them over rocky terrain and have not had a horse go lame, other than all of 2 stone bruises. Here is an excerpt from a horse magazine and it makes a load of sense:
Did you know that a horse’s hoof is supposed to flex with every step taken? And that simple act of flexing is just about the most important thing a horse can do for good health and long life? The flexing provides shock absorption for the joints, tendons and ligaments in the leg and shoulder; acts as a circulatory pump for hundreds of blood vessels in the hoof mechanism; and helps the heart get that blood flowing back up the leg.
Without flexing, the hoof mechanism will not have good circulation and will not be healthy. And the heart will have to work harder to get the blood back up the legs. Without flexing, there will be no shock absorption.
And with a metal shoe nailed to the hoof, no flexing can occur.
Makes a whole lot of sense to me and when you see a hoof working in action, such as in this video clip you will understand it even more:
Have a look at this thermograph, which actually shows - in a real-life horse - what happens to circulation when a metal shoe is nailed on. On this horse 3 hooves are natural and the off front is wearing a metal shoe. Circulation on the shod foot and leg is severly restricted.
If you want to look into this further, you can look at the results of Jaime Jackson's study of more than one thousand wild mustang hooves. All barefoot hooves, of course. All very much alike, healthy and as hard as steel. The original The Wild Horse Trim which now means to replicate the trim the horse would be giving itself if he or she were in the wild. Remember, the horse has survived for something like 54 million years, and being a flight animal - a prey animal, his feet are the most important part of that survival
There is a thought that the foot has been bred right off the horse, that the so called "domestic" horse no longer has the same foot as the horse in the wild. Nothing could be further from the truth. Actual science tells us that it would take a minimum of 5000 years to breed change into the base genetics of any species, including the horse. "Domestic" horses retain the ability of return to the feral state and be completely healthy. In other words, you do not really have a "domestic" horse. Genetically speaking, you have a wild horse in captivity. All horses on this earth are genetically the same.
"If all that's true, why does my horse appear to feel better with shoes on his feet?"
An answer that came back from the experts was: Have you ever crossed your legs for such a long time that your foot goes to sleep? It's because you have cut off the blood circulation to your foot. Essentially that's what's happening when a metal shoe is nailed onto a horses foot. The hoof no longer flexes. Which means a substantial loss of blood circulation in the hoof. This means the nerve endings go to sleep. And the ill health the hoof is suffering from lack of circulation is no longer felt by the horse. In other words, the "ouch" never reaches the brain.
That's also why some horses are tender for a time after shoes are taken off. The hoof that has been unhealthy because of shoes now has blood circulation once again, and he can feel.
It takes approximately eight months for most horses to grow a brand new hoof, from hairline to the ground. So with proper and consistent trimming, that's the maximum time it might take to have terrific feet unless there are serious lameness issues, imbalances, or the like, in which case it could take longer. But most of the time, during the transition, the use of hoof boots allows the horse to be ridden with no pain while still allowing the hoof to flex and heal and grow as it was intended.
Emile Carre, a past president of the American Farriers Association was quoted as saying "The (horse's) foot was designed to be unshod, Anything that you add to the foot, like a horseshoe that is nailed on, is going to interfere with the foot's natural process. Most horseshoes have six to eight nails, possibly one to three clips, all of which constrict the foot's ability to expand and contract. Add pads, packing, any number of alternatives to the shoe, and you create a gait alteration. It all interferes with the natural process of the mechanism."
Walt Taylor, also of the American Farriers Association, was quoted in an article in the American Farriers Journal (November, 2000) saying that 90% of the domestic horses in the world (that's 122 million horses) have some degree of lameness and are still being used.
So the nailed-on metal shoe, in effect, becomes camouflage for what is actually happening within the hoof mechanism. The lack of circulation which dampens the feelings in the nerve endings hides the illness and pain the horse is actually experiencing.
Less than 5% of horses in the wild have any kind of lameness, and Dr. Jay Kirkpatrick (who has studied wild horses most of his adult life) says that virtually every case of lameness he's seen in the wild is related to arthritic shoulder joints, not hoof problems.
Something to think about.
As for my horses – they get a wild horse trim and I have never had a complaint from any of them. Keep it natural....
This is a great video of Monty Roberts doing join up and then a saddle and rider on an un-broken horse.
Join-up is a technique that any-one who works with horses will benefit from and if used before a major training session or when evaluating an un-familiar horse, this can make for a whole different relationship with the horse, safer handling and a better outcome.
This may seem so basic to many horse men and women, as it is one of the foundations of any work done with a horse and yet so many people don't get it.
To get a horse to do anything when working with them, you put on pressure and the horse will move away from it. Start with gentle pressure and keep increasing until the horse comes off it - even if it is ever so slightly. The horses's reward is in you taking the pressure off. (Don't jab or jerk, as that can confuse the horse.) As you repeat this exercise, the pressure required to get the horse to move will become less and less until eventually it may barely require a touch. I may just mention here, that you should always keep yourself in a position of safety, in case the horse decides to turn the tables and put the pressure on you - until you are comfortable and know the horse well.
Depending on what you are doing, the pressure does not neccessarily have to be physical. You may be simply raising your energy toward the horse or making some noise like cracking a whip or clapping your hands. Again, as soon as there is the slightest response, the pressure must come off instantly. Timing is very important, because if the timing is bad, the horse may become confused and not get the message.
Pressure is used in many ways. It can be you excerting physical pressure on different parts of the horse. The horse may be set up to put the pressure on and release it by itself, so will actually train itself. The pressure can be swinging a rope in its direction and/or your energy or some kind of noise. Keep increasing the pressure until there is a response. Different methods for different situations.
The one thing you should NEVER do is get angry with your horse. Horses are very sensitive and will pick up on your moods instantly. If you are in a really bad mood, stay away from your horse or you could be asking for trouble, but that is a whole other subject....
Looking forward to your thoughts....
