What lurks under those shoes? We are what we eat – and so is your horse.
When you pull off those shoes you may well make some unpleasant discoveries.
They are the results of your horse’s diet.
The harsh reality is this. No matter how well you trim, and no matter how much exercise you give, your horse’s hooves cannot improve on a poor diet.
Even more worrying, you cannot keep them safe from Laminitis and Founder.
You know the saying “we are what we eat”. Poor diet often comes from the pastures your horse grazes on.
Today’s domestic horses are often seen on lush, green pastures that are high in sugars. This is almost certainly not a good thing as it allows the horse to eat with minimal movement.
The horse can be overloading on carbohydrates and not burning them off with vigorous exercise. You could compare them with overweight humans.
Compare that to wild horses. Their grazing is generally poor quality, forcing them to keep moving. They’ll spend 18-20 hours a day on the move.
Former farrier Jaime Jackson has been transforming his wild horse research into domestic solutions. If you want to understand natural horse care you really should read his book Paddock Paradise.
He suggests a track system as an alternative to our standard grazing methods. The track should offer variations in terrain, food and shelter. They should be evenly spaced. The longer and narrower (within reason) you make the track, the more you’ll encourage your horses to move.
It works. Not only are Paddock Paradise users enjoying healthier horses, but more land as well. The middle of your pasture is free to use. You may choose to grow hay that’s fitted to your horse’s nutritional needs, thus saving money too.
Jaime Jackson concedes there’s still a great deal of research that needs to be carried out on the lifestyle of Wild Horses. For now, we can be grateful his research has taken us this far.
But the wild isn’t divided into tracks… The horses make their own. Maybe we should allow our equines to do the same?
Our farm horses do indeed make their own tracks which we find useful when walking the field to check for weeds and encroaching trees from the hedgerow on our east side of the farm. Because our field is shaped like a comma with the water tank at the south end, the horses get lots of long runs to gallop in and play with each other. The foals and dams and sire are free to interact as a family herd but the mares rule! We will be most interested to see more research on wild horses helping domestic horse keeping. Fred and Joan.