Mariah Healed Herself
I’ll never forget standing out in the rain one cold October day, soaked from head to foot because the rain wasn’t expected. The temperature was only in the mid-fifties, but to me, sopping wet, that was freezing.
I looked at our horses, heads down, dripping with water, and I just couldn’t stand it. Read More→
I love this photo. I’m not even sure why really. Maybe it’s because I know how much alike these two horses are. Our wild mustang baby Firestorm on the left and our rescued American Saddlebred Mouse on the right. I posted the photo on Facebook just because I liked it. And I like them. Birds of a feather. Two very bright and very curious horses. This morning Saffron – Stormy’s mom – and I were walking out of the barn breezeway to breakfast. I had called both of them but realized I wasn’t hearing eight hooves on the pea gravel. I glanced back and all I could see of Stormy was a bit of her butt. She had stepped up into the tack room. All four feet! I wish I had thought to Read More→
I have fretted and fretted over this issue. Especially considering the way our horses are living, out 24/7, grazing most of the time, just as they would be doing in the wild. And I’ve wondered if the need for equine dental work didn’t evolve from horses not being allowed to live and graze according to their genetic design. Like living in stalls and eating from a bag. So I’ve procrastinated, and avoided, and let time slip by, but in the end I’ve never had the guts to just say no. Because, even though I’ve never found a really good answer as to why a horse should have his teeth floated every year, I’ve also never been able to find a good answer as to why he should not. Until today.
The following just came in from Carole Herder, president of Cavallo (Cavallo Hoof Boots and Memory Foam Saddle Pads). For me, this is a must-read. Please do:
by Carole Herder
During several of my talks and presentations I have expressed my lack of knowledge in equine dentistry. I have the hooves figured out for sure and the back/saddle fit issues are for the most part pretty simple for me to explain, but I knew I was missing a piece of the puzzle – the 3rd “Hot Spot” for horses, the mouth. And it’s big. It’s monstrous. Have you ever looked in there? That jaw goes on forever!
So every Spring it’s time for equine dentistry. Anesthetic. Power tools. Sometimes blood. It’s one of those things that I’ve gone along with because I don’t really know what else to do. And here’s the thing I am embarrassed about – I do it because everyone else does. Yes, me. The lady who says, “Don’t be a sheep. Don’t do things just because they have always been done that way.”….. except for dentistry? No methinks there’s a better, kinder, more natural, more evolutionary and intelligent way to go.
So the other day, through an introduction from a good friend, a very interesting man (who shall remain nameless for now, because some traditional practitioners are feeling a bit put out by his alternative approach) arrives on my property, looks into my old boy’s mouth and begins to divulge some very fascinating information that rings profoundly true. You know how sometimes when you hear truth, you know beyond doubt that it’s true? He tells me that teeth only grow about 3 to 4 inches in a lifetime and that as horses age they start to compensate for their lives; bumps, bruises, feed programs, bits, riders, where they live etc. by growing their teeth in a way that allows them to masticate their food. Maybe a little jagged here and there, with some spaces and imbalances, but it works for them because they are survivors and adaptable. Then a dentist comes along and vroom OFF come the edges and anything that doesn’t look level and the horse can’t grow it back again. Over time more and more tooth is removed and your 30 year old horse starts having a hard time eating. Big problem for a horse! Could you imagine if hoof growth was finite? You’d be pretty careful about who you let near your horse with the nippers! So “Mr. Interesting” didn’t take anything off old Slash’s teeth and said he’d be back in a year.
He explained some other things about natural lifestyle and the importance of grazing. He gave me some resources to study re my now new fascination for horse’s teeth and he drove off with his own pearly whites shining through a big smile, both of us comfortable in knowing that our industry just got another step closer to a better place for horses and the people who love them. As I find out more, I’ll be sure to let you know.
Thank you Carole! Terrific new insight!
I’m not saying that it isn’t wise to get those “pearly whites” checked every year or so, as Carole does. Just as a caution. During one such check we discovered that Cash had a tooth that was split right down into the gum and it needed to come out. But from now on there will be no such thing as routine floating or balancing. And if a “point” is not in such a position as to be causing a problem for mouth tissue it won’t be touched.
I had to smile as all this unfolded because it’s just one more puzzle piece that fits neatly and logically into the Wild Horse lifestyle. As we say over and over, the answer to virtually every question about the horse can be answered by asking: How would the horse be dealing with this if he or she were out in the wild of the American west? But so very often we humans want to think we are smarter than God, and Mother Nature. And the horse.
And we aren’t.
Joe
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The story of our journey with horses (to date) is told in the two books that follow: the national best seller The Soul of a Horse – Life Lessons from the Herd and its sequel Born Wild – The Soul of a Horse.
And what a story it is as two novices without a clue stumble and bumble their way through the learning process so that hopefully you won’t have to. If you haven’t read both of these books already please do because with that reading, I believe, will come not just the knowledge of discovery but the passion and the excitement to cause you to commit to your journey with horses, to do for the horse without waiver so that your relationship and experience will be with loving, happy and healthy horses who are willing partners and who never stop trying for you. Horses like ours.
But first read the National Best Seller that started it all
now in it’s 13th printing:
Not that Noelle is fat mind you. But this morning, after months of silence, she was singing.
A full year ago, the first time Miss Saffron, our latest mustang adoption, entered our herd, at the time lead by Noelle, our first mustang adoption, there was a major brawl. Big time major (See the Blog and Video). And Saffron did not appear to get the best of it. Yet she kept coming back for more.
Her new baby, Firestorm, was barely two and a half months old at the time and we decided that perhaps Read More→
Myth # 1
“But if I turn my horse loose in a pasture with other horses I’ll never see him again. I’ll never be able to catch him.”
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard this, but it’s simply not true. IF you begin at the beginning with your horse. If you start by putting the relationship first. The bond first. By giving the horse the opportunity to choose you. Not vice versa. That simple act makes all the difference. Allowing the horse to say I trust you to be in my herd and be my leader. Rather than forcing your leadership upon him.
We have eight horses. Three mustangs straight out of the wild, a rescued American Saddlebred, two Arabians, a paint and a quarter horse. Every one comes Read More→
Our Mouse, coming up on physical maturity.
Almost ready to start at 7 years old.
Below is the link to the best article I’ve ever read on this subject. It teaches that no horse, of any breed, in any country, at any time in history either now or in the past, has ever been physically (skeletally) mature before it is six years old (plus or minus a few months), including every healthy, domestically-raised male and most female horses on the planet. Gaited horses (Tennessee Walkers, American Saddlebreds, etc) can require up to Read More→
