Braving my fears in the hope to increase my horses health today. This step has not been without trepidation, but I think the benefits outweigh the risks. What did I do? Put my horses together. Of course, I didnt just bang them all in there and hope for the best. That could be a disaster! All horses have been housed with one another with varying degrees of success, in fact one horse, Pete, is still recovering from his last attempt where his previous mate Bailey turned on him (due to the mare factor). Glider is quite aggressive to be the top horse, but Bailey has learned to stand up to him. The girls, Wilma and Betty have been with him before too. So, what brought this change about? At the Functional Hoof Conference, we were lucky to hear from Jane Myers. You may have heard of her. She advocates a system called the Equicentral System and you can look at her website. Basically, horses these days are too fat and dont move enough! We heard this over and over again. They stand around all day waiting to be fed. They dont have to move far to get water. They are perhaps exercised for an hour or so. This is nothing compared to their natural habitat however, where horses would cross many miles to get food and water. It wasnt just handed to them on a plate like today. Movement creates better hoof function as the hoof relies on movement to increase blood flow to hoof structures and get nutrients to the hoof wall. It is rare for the domestic horse to move so much that he wears his hooves enough naturally. Having horses in separate paddocks is common for many reasons. One is we dont want horses marking other horses or injuring them. Or perhaps they have different feed requirements. Yet horses crave equine contact. Many horses these days simply do not know how to live with another horse because they have never done it before. So I am being brave, taking a deep breath and putting them together. My problem is, I humanise and sympathise with the underdog. I hate seeing one of my horses outcast or picked on! Yet, this is how it is in the horse world. It certainly creates more movement, which can only be good for horsey hooves, muscles and joints. They have settled down now - Wilma most protective of Betty and Glider intent on keeping Bailey from the girls. At least they all have a purpose in life now other than standing around waiting for the food conveyor belt to arrive! There are other systems around. The Paddock Paradise system, the Jenny Craig paddock, strip grazing. But these systems are hard on the ground and create erosion from hard equine hooves. I have the evidence in my own paddocks! So now, we give this a try. In the future, a healthy, happy little hard hoofed herd should develop and my land will thank me. All horses recently trimmed to improve hoof health and I am very happy with how they are coming along - now lets get that movement happening! Remember, if you intend to increase your horses movement by riding, lunging or hand walking, you need to build it up gradually to be fair to your horse.
Posted on: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 02:34:00 +0000
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