White Horse Pilgrim

We see plenty like this...

Here is the left fore foot of a three year-old spot horse at the barn.

As my Goya-esque title supposes, we do see plenty of feet like this, both unshod and shod. And, like some of Goya's images, they are disturbing.

Why buy a youngster and spend an appreciable amount of money on barn bills, then allow this to happen?

I know that it is cheaper simply to pay for the farrier's most junior apprentice, rather than someone experienced and properly qualified. But sooner or later someone will expect this horse to jump, do dressage and compete.

He isn't getting a fair start with feet like this.

Brena iron-free

Yesterday Helen the trimmer paid a visit. Brena's shoes were removed and barefoot hoof care commenced.

It was an interesting exercise on a very windy day when gusts scurried down the length of the barn, leaves blew, doors banged and people came in wet from the rain.

Brena fidgeted, leant on the trimmer, snatched feet away and generally behaved like a bit of a punk. Then the big mare realised that the lady removing shoes and trimming was quiet and kind. Once this realisation sunk in Brena's demeanour changed. She began to lift her feet nicely and behave well.

 In fact Brena's feet rated fairly well for those newly barefoot. My impression was that her feet look appreciably better than when I first met her in October last year. Her toes are a little long but not unduly so. (Front feet measured 17cm long by 15.5cm wide, that's 6.7" by 6.1". These may be expected to shorten slightly in which case Doru's Old Mac G2 boots - size 10, the largest - will fit.) Her heels are not collapsed and her frogs are not contracted.

After trimming we walked Brena about outside. She walked quite happily across the gravel yard suggesting that recent trims had removed relatively little sole. (The trimmer thinks that she may gain a little sensitivity as she becomes used to being barefoot.)

Of course in this foul weather I haven't managed to take any fresh pictures. So here's a shot of Brena in Tuscany. I shall have to promise her warmth and sunshine for next year. (I'd like to promise myself these things!)

So my new horse and I are forging ahead. We're learning about one-another. Her feet are being transitioned to the best possible health. I'm getting back into the habit of riding. Indeed I am getting used to a horse who is both kind and energetic, affectionate and egocentric.

I have a sense that Brena and I really are a good match.

Request for a picture

Danielle is at the final stage of editing and typsestting my book, a significant piece of work for which I am grateful to her. This is a textbook about how to establish and operate a riding holiday centre. I doubt whether it will make me any money - it's more a matter of setting down the sum of what I learned from eight years in the riding holiday business.

I am looking for a photo to use in the book:

A well shod trail riding horse

Can any reader help with a nice clear photo that shows a well shod foot? I need to ask for help as my horses are all barefoot and others at the barn are not especially well shod. A jpg image will be ideal.

Obviously the supplier will be acknowledged in the book. In addition, as soon as the book is published, I will be pleased also to post a copy to the supplier of the photo that is used.

I'll be grateful to hear from anyone who may be able to help.

Meanwhile it may be worth setting out where the book stands ideologically with regard to hoof care. Personally I believe in barefoot hoof care for my horses. However I'm trying to meet riding holiday centre owners at a place of possibility. Back when I ran a riding holiday centre many of my horses worked in draught during the winter and anyway there were no trained trimmers available. It would have been difficult to transition that herd of working horses to barefoot, had I even been aware of the possibilities of that approach (which I wasn't), and harder still for want of suitably skilled help. The right way often is difficult. But it is better to have well shod horses than ill shod if one hasn't reached a situation where barefoot becomes a viable option. What is attainable for a leisure horse may be out of reach for a working horse that must earn the money to support it and its owner. One does the best that one can, and that is morally acceptable so long as decent standards are met. (Now we are treading a path towards consideration of the welfare of horses in the holiday industry, a subject about which I have strong views. Believe me there are far more serious welfare issues in that industry that whether or not horses should be shod.)

On reflection - knowing what I know now and having access to a trimmer as good as the lady who looks after Doru - I could have kept most of my former herd barefoot. Perhaps not the big draught horses that worked a lot on concrete roads and whose hooves were larger than proprietary hoof boots. Obviously the youngsters could have grown up without ever being shod. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. But I did the best that I could. That 'best' - within the constraints of nailing metal onto hooves - was a lot.

Surprising epitaph

Given the strange mix of violence and architecture, venality and art that characterised medieval Italy, it should not have been a surprise to discover a huge fresco tribute to Sir John Hawkwood in Florence's main cathedral.

This English knight, known locally as Giovanni Acuto, was a successful and long-lived 14th century mercenary captain who died a wealthy pensioner in Florence in 1394. Curiously, at different times he fought both for and against the Pope, and against Florence then later for the city as commander of her army.

However, changing sides was rather common in those days, and apparently was a tolerable fault given that mere money was involved. Thus a foreign soldier of fortune gained a fantastic monument in the Florentine Duomo, that famous edifice capped by Brunelleschi's ingenious and unprecedented dome.

As with the equestrian statue of Cosimo I, the feet of this horse are notable. He has upright feet with strong heels, a sight rare nowadays in both England and Italy. How interesting to see an image painted during the early 15th century that shows feet strong and solid, and apparently shod, that seem to be the result of good hoof care.

Was the horse painted from a model observed by the artist? For he has created a marvel of three-dimensional reality in an era still transitioning into a more realistic form of visual expression.

I cannot resist but to include a picture of the Duomo too. Brunelleschi's octagonal dome remains, after 575 years, the largest such structure in the world constructed from bricks - over four million of them weighing 37,000 tons.

It is difficult to imagine the enormity of the building from such a photo. In fact the gilded ball at the very top is 375 feet above the pavement. It is a huge, awe-inspiring structure decorated with intricate detail across its massive exterior.

How the construction and aesthetics of the dome has fascinated and challenged both engineers and architects over the centuries. From the Roman era onwards, men strove to create great domes, from easterly Constantinople through west to Italy, more recently as far away as London. Indeed, these great domes seem rather a Roman speciality, if one sees the Byzantine world in its true sense as the continuing Eastern Roman Empire.

So here we have a medieval cathedral whose dome, inspired by Byzantine antecedents, was designed by a world-leading engineer, which is visited by millions of people each year, and which contains the equestrian memorial to a well-travelled English mercenary whose successors wish us to believe that he rode a carefully shod horse.

Foundations

I'm just back from two days of training in leadership coaching. These days have been unusually intense, demanding a great deal of engagement as well as considerable focus both on myself and on other people.

Just as Doru's newly trimmed feet form an excellent foundation for him, so this type of training is a good basis for me to develop my work. Just as it has taken thoughtful and skilled work to get his feet into this state, I need to work at my foundation in order to gain skill.

It amazes and shocks me how I ran a business for eight years with next to no training and no coach or mentor to turn to. It is rewarding, now that I am back in full time employment, to be able to receive quality training. Finally it seems as if someone cares about my development, even if the aims of my employer may be a little mercenary.

Looking at leadership and aspiration is very interesting. It is curious how goals vary. Some specify things like "making project X into a success" or "leading their team to achieve Y". I was looking much more along the route to enlightenment, gaining self-awareness and developing favourable attributes.

Working with a horse is a great way to see one's character and actions reflected as if in a mirror. Doru is a path towards my deeper self-awareness. He is a succession of signs, a procession of pointers, a continuum of clues.

But I have the harder way, for seeking success in a material thing can be straightforward, whereas exploring a more esoteric realm inevitably is a difficult path through intangible lands. It's like the difference between walking on an overcast yet clear day compared to walking across broken terrain in the mist.

Yet occasionally there is a break in the mist, through which the most glorious sunshine floods, bathing a beautiful world in golden light and illuminating the way. In such moments, it is confirmed that one is following the right path, indeed that one is walking through a good and beneficial land that will bless the sympathetic visitor.

This is a strange thing to explain to those who prefer the straighter material road. Yet perhaps that is right for them? I am not sure that I would wish my path on anyone save the most inquisitive.

But now I am being given a new tool with which to help others, to enable them each to find their respective way forward. That is powerful, like being given a new  key and the wisdom to use it well. I am excited, privileged, challenged and trusted all at once - a strange and wonderful experience.

More bad feet

I'm just back from a pleasant and healthy bicycle excursion to the barn on a fine, sunny morning. Again, lines of white clouds streamed across a bright blue sky. The land has awakened and is alive with sprouting crops waving in the breeze, colourful blossom, and freshly clad trees.

One of the local farriers - legally protected from full competition under British law - had driven his vehicle into the barn, blocking access through the building. The barn owner was away at a show, so the iron-hanger thought that he could behave as it pleased him.

He was told by boarders that he was obstructing them, however declined to move his vehicle, telling them that they "would have to squeeze by one side".

One boarder did remove his horse from a box alongside the vehicle, squeezing him through a narrow space - hardly a safe procedure, and one which could readily have caused an accident to horse or person - whilst the iron-hanger looked on. There is a good flat concrete area outside - and the weather was fine - but the farriers all want to drive inside and become the centre of attention irrespective of the inconvenience and hazard that they cause.

This all too clearly brings into perspective the recent debate concering safety. Helmets, body protectors, etc may be a good idea, but why then magnify hazards in the first place by driving a vehicle into the middle of the barn? (Incidentally I don't leave my bicycle lying around the barn. When there are no horses in the aisle, I wheel it through and leave it behind with the wheelbarrows where horses don't go. I just stopped to take out my camera.)

The second photograph shows a finished front foot on the 13-yo mare that was being shod. This is typical of the horses in the barn, with collapsed heels and contracted frogs. The toe appears to have been rasped down to the white line, but evenly rather than the usual dubbing. Yet outwardly this horse is one of the less bad examples. The third photo shows a grey gelding that, frankly, is middle of the range for horses in South Oxfordshire. He "trips a lot", his rider says! There are Thoroughbreds in the barn that, to be quite honest, ought to be reported to the humane society although they are shod by a "qualified" farrier every six weeks without fail. Meanwhile none of the owners are poor, and no-one is trying to save money on hoof care.

For this quality of "service" horse owners pay ₤60-75 (say $80-100) for perhaps 45 minutes work - if there are a number of horses to be shod, as is usual, the farrier earns somewhere around ₤80 (around $110) an hour. I am a professional Project Manager working in the construction industry. For ₤80 an hour, I can hire a top-rate engineer with worldwide experience to design the structure for a ₤250 million bridge or a skilled architect who can design a world-class ₤25 million building. However, when it comes to horse care, ₤80 an hour buys a complacent and not especially skilled young man who cannot maintain horses' feet in good health.

That is not to say that a horse care professional should not earn ₤80 an hour (out of which taxes, insurance, pension scheme, etc need to be paid - as also with the engineer or architect.) But they must EARN it. I am happy to pay for all the skill and experience that the person brings, provided that they do bring plenty of skill and experience. A good hoofcare professional can have as much skill as an engineer or an architect - and some do. But, all too often, what we see in Britain is an antiquated version of farriery practiced badly and at a basic level of skill by a legally-protected clique so that good hooves deteriorate and bad hooves get worse. It does not need to be that way.

Oxfordshire feet

I slipped into a stable and took a few photos, the barn manager having stepped outside into the evening twilight. There was just sufficient time to do the deed undiscovered.

This is not a good photograph. I guess that secret agents who break in and take perfect sharp revealing photographs are a Hollywood creation.

Still, the shot does give an idea of the sort of foot that we see all the time around here, with a long toe and under-run heels. This is not the worst foot in the barn.

I am told that the farrier wants to fit wedge shoes on this horse, raising the heels in the hope that somehow this will make matters better.

This particular horse isn't ridden on the road as he shies at vehicles, so there really is no reason why he can't go barefoot. I am, gently and slowly, trying to persuade the owners to give barefoot a try.

Oxfordshire feet

A few days ago, Funder asked to see photos of the bad feet to which I have been refering. Well, today I managed to snap a foot that is regarded in the barn as "well shod". 

By the standards of the barn, this is a good foot. The horse is a middle-aged sport horse perhaps half way through his working life, owned by people who care about his welfare.

The poor angles, unsupported heel, and dumped toe (project the hoof wall forward to see where the toe wants to go!) are absolutely typical of the work done by farriers around here. Actually a lot of the work is worse. I haven't yet managed to photograph any of the really bad feet.

I've just heard of a farrier in these parts who tells owners that flared hooves occur because "the horse was born with small feet and nature is trying to correct this"

I've heard a farrier telling another boarder here that collapsed heels are "an unavoidable conformational problem".

One lady has been told that her horse has long toes "because his feet land toe first" - which inevitably they do! The farrier was reluctant to do anything, most likely because he didn't know what to do. Now the horse has quarter clipped shoes and dumped toes - and still has collapsed heels.

Here is Doru's foot for comparison. It's not magic. Simply his feet are trimmed by someone who knows what he is doing.

The hoof care situation in Brtain is amazing not least because there is a compulsory three year training scheme for farriers. It is a criminal offense to shoe a horse without that training. And yet the results still vary from indifferent to poor.

Now the farriers' brotherhood, which has a legally sanctioned monopoly on shoeing, wants to set the standards for barefoot trimming. In highly regulated Europe, someone has to set standards for each occupation. Trimmers will, I am sure, make a very good case for not allowing farriers to regulate their profession!

I would not like my trimmer to be regulated by a group of tradesmen who think that poor conformation is a good excuse for dropped heels and that flared hooves are helpful for horses with small feet!

Vampire farrier?

I doubt whether he really sucks blood, however he certainly has an aversion to sunlight.

It's an English winter here, chilly and all too often overcast, so a bit of sunshine is welcome to most people. The sunshine is gentle and warming, far removed from burning summer sun.

Perhaps, like the vampires in the Underworld film, he will smoke and decompose when exposed to sunlight? Is that why he always drives his truck into the barn (obstructing everyone else in a way that only farriers can get away with) and works in the gloom behind?

The horse has long toes and collapsed heels (indeed many of the horses in this barn do), however a bit of flirting with the middle aged female owner seems to blind her to reality.

If he is a pseudo-vampire, then I am a werewolf (as well as an elf-friend). When I have a moment, with no-one else around (since I am already regarded with suspicion for having a barefoot horse), I'll creep in and photograph some of the feet around the barn and post the pictures. They will shock you.

This post may seem rather surprising to those readers who are hoof care practitioners in the US. Here in Britain, shoeing and barefoot trimming are different professions, and never the twain shall meet. Farriers regard trimmers as a threat, not least because the average trimmer knows a good deal more about the mechanics (and especially the dynamics) of the equine foot. You'd think that, in a recession, British farriers would wish to increase their skill set and therefore their competitiveness. Wrong. No, raise prices and try to shoe as many as possible in a day whilst wearing blinkers. Adam Smith would turn in his grave. Alive, I shudder.

Long shadows, growing heels

After dragging dismal days of overcast and drizzle, the morning dawned clear and bright.

It was a good day to take D out for a spin. The sun was bright, the sky a clear icy blue. The ground provided good going once again.

I have been looking to put the gelding P out on loan. It isn't just that he sees little work nowadays. My job takes me away from home for twelve hours a day. On top, there are two hours each evening at the barn. Rarely on a weekday do I return home before 9pm. If I had one horse, I could afford to pay barn staff to muck out a stable on weeknights. Thanks to my adventure in equestrian business, I have two decades to provide for my retirement rather than the usual four. Fortunately I have joined a final salary pension scheme, meaning that if I can get good reviews annually and get promoted, I have a hope of earning a half-decent pension. If is a small but potent word. The above is predicated on getting enough work done of a good quality, which is not facilitated by having to leave the office at 5pm to get to the barn or by being permanently exhausted. (I have developed a way of gaining extra moments of sleep on the train and indeed anywhere. But this is not a long term solution.) Not having to clean stables nightly would be a blessing. It may be nice to the see the horses every day. But not at the price of grinding exhaustion. I had enough of that when I worked 8am to 10pm daily (and ruined my lower back) so that wealthier people than I could have nice riding holidays (and all too frequently treat my staff and I like lackeys.)

So it was frustrating when the latest person coming to try out P as a loan horse did not show up. It is the fourth instance in a row that I have been let down.

One would have thought that an experienced trail horse, formerly the guide's horse working safely and reliably in high mountain terrain, would be prized. But no, he isn't a Thoroughbred, he doesn't do dressage, can't jump over three feet. So he's the equine equivalent of a cute illegal immigrant - too nice to maltreat, but we don't want him as our neighbour.

An acquaintance who has more experience than I in loaning horses tells me that one of her horses was stolen last year by the loaner, who sold the mare to the gypsies. Another was returned after three weeks because the teenage girl for whom the horse had been loaned was discovered to be pregnant!

The two horses had their feet trimmed today. Both have excellent feet and, in fact, the trimmer was interested in using P as a demonstration of good anatomy at a training course. Not bad after just seven months barefoot!

Here is a side view of D's left front foot just after trimming. Now that he is established barefoot, it impresses me how little material the trimmer has to remove. These are great big solid feet, well adapted to their work, and in good shape. There is plenty of material where it is needed to support his weight, absorb concussion, and provide traction.

P's front feet made for interesting comparison against his final set of shoes. As with D, his frogs have widened appreciably. One can see how the rear part of his hoof is wider and stronger. His hood butresses are now huge and robust. The branches of that old shoe now lie over a frog that is nearly an inch wider than eight months ago. How amazing are the powers of recovery of the equine hoof.

Sights like this show that our journey into barefoot care is worthwhile. (It is "our" journey - the horses' and mine. Their wellbeing always was part of our thinking. That's why we didn't leave them in Transylvania.) This and their soundness and surefootedness out on the trail.

I would be delighted if a kind, thoughtful local rider appeared seeking to ride P. He is a great little horse, and it would be lovely to see him happy and in work on the trails around here.