A Horse, Of Course
By DON BLAZER
The arguments for horses being barefoot or having shoes are just a lot of noise. Neither side is right! Both sides are wrong! A natural trim isn’t a magic bullet…in fact, it isn’t even a fact because horses in “nature” aren’t trimmed, they’re “worn.” And your horse isn’t in nature…he’s in a stall, a pen, or a pasture. Putting on “nature shoes”, using clips, wedges, or hot shoeing is just a lot of rhetoric…it means nothing, unless the most important question is answered first. What’s best for the horse? There’s only one correct answer, so pay attention! Hoof balance. Now how do you find hoof balance? You look at the conformation—leg and hoof structure—of the individual horse. Look at the bottom of the hoof and determine from the center point of the frog if there is medial/lateral balance. (That means equal distances to the inside and outside hoof walls.) If not, it’s got to be brought into balance. To find dorsal/palmar balance run your fingers down the center of the cannon bone. When you get to the center of the fetlock joint, drop a line straight to the ground. The heel of the hoof should extend back to that line. Now run your fingers down the center of the pastern to the coronet band, and then drop a line straight to the ground. Distances from that point to the toe and to the heel should be the same. If they aren’t, they’ve got to be brought into balance. Can you get hoof balance by trimming the horse and leaving him barefoot? Sometimes, yes, sometimes no. What advocates of horses going barefoot don’t mention is that horses with balanced feet run and live on hard ground. (They get their evidence to support their claims by looking at the feet of mustangs or horses living in rugged, rocky terrain.) The horse’s foot is dynamic, and if it is going to assume the correct shape and balance, it must be subjected to somewhat hard concussions. If your horse lives in a stall, in a pen or in a soft pasture, he isn’t going to have the balanced hoof he needs. You can “natural trim” him all you want and he still isn’t going to get the miles and miles of solid concussions his hoof needs to be worn and shaped into balance. If you can’t trim the horse into balance, then you need to add a shoe….not a shoe with clips or wedged or pads. Hot shoeing won’t make a tad of difference. You need a shoe that is wide enough to allow for “extension” of the medial or lateral hoof walls if that is what is out of balance. You need a shoe that will extend at least to the bulbs of the heel if dorsal/palmar balance is needed, which is most often the case. There are myriad of problems with the horse’s hoof…they aren’t all brought on by domestication and they aren’t all solved by shoeing or barefoot trims. The more we know, the more complicated it gets. There aren’t any simple answers, so don’t buy the “one true way” snake oil. Knowledge means we have more questions; it means consider more options. But before any decisions are made, you’ve got to understand the individual horse and ask, “What’s best for this horse?” It might be the hoof problem is a “nutrition” problem. There are more horses with poor feet due to poor nutrition than trimmers and shoers can fix; and supplements aren’t going to do the job. But that’s another story. Visit….A Horse, Of Course On the web at: www.donblazer.com
Make Money With Horses
By DON BLAZER
There’s an old joke that goes something like this: “Yesterday I couldn’t even spell recession. Today I are in one.” If you can’t spell recession, it’s almost a given you’ll be part of its definition. And if you didn’t recognize the grammatical error, it’s a certainty you’ll be in one. But if you can spell “success” there’s a good chance you can find it. If you want prosperity, you’ve got to be able to spell that too. What has “spelling” got to do with being financially successful? Everything! I’ve never known a time when the economy was “great” for those who worked at a job to earn a paycheck. The rich get richer and the middle class working-man or woman gets squeezed harder and harder. But it doesn’t have to be that way. You can do something to guarantee you’ll do better. You can learn to spell and you can learn to communicate and you can earn credentials that assure a satisfactory financial future. But you’ve got to avoid the following statistics. Less than 27 per cent of Americans have a llege degree. Less than 8 per cent of those working within the horse industry have a degree or some type of professional certification. According to the National Book Sellers Association less than 50 per cent of Americans have read a book all the way through since leaving high school. And less than 70 per cent of Americans have been in a book store. To avoid the statistics, you can earn a degree in equine studies or a professional certification as a horse trainer or riding instructor. You can earn the credentials you need at a community college or a traditional four-year program from any one of more than 200 US colleges. And if that isn’t convenient or available, you can earn the same credentials completely online from Internet schools. (www.equinedegreeonline.com) To earn the degree or certification, you are going to have to be able to spell…Rhinopheumonitis, tetanus, lungeing, neurectomy, ligaments and gaits---nearly a third of all horsemen surveyed spelled “gaits” “gates.” More than half of those surveyed did not know when to use “your” and when to use “you’re.” If you can’t communicate professionally with your clients, they’ll soon be someone else’s clients. But you can “earn more” if you “learn more.” Here’s a guaranteed method to increase your horse industry income: read one book each week on the subject most closely related to the service you provide. If you are trainer, read about horse training; if you are a riding instructor, read about teaching techniques. If you think it can’t be that simple, think again. And then go ask your horse trainer the foot-fall sequence of a horse doing a pivot; the trainer probably won’t know. If that’s not proof enough, go ask your riding instructor what he or she has determined is your most effective learning style and where is the lesson plan that utilizes it? Your riding instructor will not have considered either. Now I’m not saying the trainer isn’t satisfactory or even good. I’m not saying the riding instructor hasn’t helped you. What I am saying is they both could increase their incomes, could guarantee a brighter financial future if they “knew more.” If they learn more, they earn more. Everybody is “good” these days. But being “good” isn’t enough to be successful; that’ll only allow you to get by. Being “better” is a help. At least you’ll be able to make a decent living. Being the “best” is the answer. Increase your “expertise” and learn to spell it; then you’ll never have to worry about a recession. The rich in knowledge get richer in cash.
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