Above is an un-retouched photograph by Laura Leigh of our Miss Saffron (far right) and two young herd mates on the day they were brutally chased and rounded up by a BLM helicopter whose skids were barely ten feet off of her back. She was pregnant with Firestorm. The photo brings home to us more than just about anything else could how calloused and arrogant and without a soul these people are.  A few months later, after being shuffled from Nevada, to California, to Mississippi Read More→

Miss Mouse - Look at those feet!

Mr. Cash

Miss Pocket

Wild Horse Hoof from Pete Ramey

Uncle Skeeter

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.

Kerwhap! I was slapped right in the face with a piece of indisputable logic.

How insensitive to my inertia.

Four years later I discovered this thermograph (displayed below) which actually shows – in a real-life horse – what happens to circulation when a metal shoe is nailed on. This horse is wearing one metal shoe, on his front right. The other three hooves are barefoot. The thermograph is set to show blood circulation (or lack of it). He was walked around in a big circle and then the thermograph was taken. Read More→