I’ve gone back to KISS … keep it simple. The horses know best. Listen to them. Listen to the hooves. Learn to intuitively ‘know’ by reading the hoof. KNOW the equine hoof intimately, inside and out. Know it so well that when you watch a horse walk you can “see” inside the hoof and lower limb to “see” what is happening.
And ask the horse.
A little story to back up my squirrely thinking …. had a client whose horse was dead lame. 3 weeks. Had vet out. Said shoulder. Bute, rest, and all that. No improvement. I went for a regular monthly trimming. Horse definitely still lame on LF. I trimmed as I usually do, hooves were as usual, and the horse was WORSE — even on grass! Wow. Not good! Advised for another vet visit. Packed up my stuff to leave but went to “E”, looker her straight in the eyes and said to her .. “Hey, “E”, I’m leaving now. I’ve done all I know to do. I don’t know why you’re so sore. But this is your last chance to show me! So show us what’s going on and where it hurts, please.”
Horse nudged me, lifted her LF … I took out my hoof pick to look at the LF and as I was scraping the mud off the hoof blew an abscess! BIG abscess. Horse sighed. Got soaked, wrapped and walked off with no further pain and was back on the trail a week later (boots and Calendula) with no further issues. Owner stood there with her mouth agape then said, “She understood what you asked her! And she showed you!”
I laughed and said, “Yep — shoulda asked her at the very beginning of our trim!”
Intuitiveness … feel (that all elusive ‘feel’) … knowing in the heart that the HORSE knows when we don’t. All ya gotta do is ask.
And so it goes with “Excellent Horsemanship” at its best.
KISS …. just ask the horse.
The horses speak in silence …. read on.
Think on this, People … if someone is so busy trying to remember angle numbers, “correct” trim parameters ala so-and-so, the ‘shoulds’, the ‘shouldn’ts’, the ‘could-have-beens’ or ‘couldn’t-have-beens’ then WHERE IS THE FOCUS !!?? It ain’t on the horse – it ain’t on the hoof. It ain’t on the FEEL … and that’s the very baseline from which the HORSE lives/breathes/thinks … from FEEL. Get the “feel” and get it good. Then TALK to the horse and FEEL what he’s ‘saying’ … horses speak in silence. LISTEN!
Can ya tell I’m on a roll today !?!?!? I’m sooooooooo tired of humans and their ‘intellects’ … what is intellect? “The understanding or mental powers of a particular person: “her education, intellect and talent”.” …. so who CARES about the individual human …we ain’t talking about humans. We’re talkin’ about HORSES! The longer I live with horses the more I realize that they’ve got it ALL over us! We just have egos. They have … feel and life and know how to live it. We need to learn from the horses.