Grazing Walks

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A horse’s digestive system was designed to eat a steady trickle of a variety of plants throughout the day. In modern horsekeeping it can be difficult to provide the same level of variety that a wild horse may see.

Consider taking your horse for grazing walks through the woods. You’ll be amazed at the variety of plants your horse will eat. Soon you’ll begin to be able to identify which plants your horse eats and which ones he doesn’t. This can give you insight into how he feels that day and what he needs.

When my second horse, Thunder first came, he ate every dandelion in sight on our walks through the woods. I researched dandelion, and it turned out it was a liver detoxifier. Given Thunder’s history,  it didn’t surprise me that he sought out dandelions. In the early days of his rehab I made a point to make sure he had his 10-15 minutes of dandelions several times each week.

Meanwhile, over the years I’ve noticed that my first horse, Chaco, will eat horsetail in small quantities. Horsetail is mildly toxic, and the vet said just don’t let him eat pounds of eat per day, but a few plants shouldn’t hurt. She also said it is rich in minerals and mildly anti-inflammatory. Another plant manual I read said it helps with connective tissue.

Our horses can’t speak to us in words, but they do speak to us all the time through their actions. It’s like decoding a mystery. The more time you spend with your horses and witness the decisions they make, the more the mystery of who they are unfolds before you.

Try a grazing walk through the woods with your horse. I’d love to hear what you learn.

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Thunder and Chaco enjoying their grazing walk through the woods.

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A Horse Won’t Hold Its Foot in the Air for You. Right?

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“Well, it’s not like the horse is going to hold their foot in the air for you to clean it out.”

This is a common assumption in human thinking. However, if you try on some “horse thinking”, all of a sudden the idea of a horse holding its foot in the air for you becomes completely reasonable and normal.

When it comes to cleaning the feet of a horse it’s a job that needs to be done, and as humans beings we are a predator (eyes in the front of the head, canine teeth for eating meat), and we are straight line thinkers. The quickest route from point A to point B is a straight line.

Contrast that with prey animals. Their eyes are more on the side of their head. They don’t have teeth for eating meat and their default is a meandering line, not a straight line. If a horse feels a straight line, that’s a big tip off to them that they’re being stalked by a predator and are about to be dinner.

Several years ago I used to volunteer with a horse therapy program for at-risk youth. One client I worked with was having trouble picking up the feet of her horse. She was so focused on getting a hold of the hoof that she would try, fail and then give up. She repeated this process so many times that soon the horse didn’t even bother to listen to her. The horse eventually kept all its weight solidly on the very foot she wanted to pick up. She was very much in straight line thinking. The horse was very much resisting.

I remember telling her to forget about picking up the foot. Instead look for a green light from the horse, no matter how tiny, like a shift of weight, and then pet the horse’s leg immediately. She did this several times. She got better at asking slowly so she could better sense the very beginning of when the horse started to cooperate. The moment the horse began to cooperate, she went to petting the horse’s leg. She did not care about what the foot was doing.

After several times of doing this, the horse decided to hold his foot in the air for just a moment. Amazed, she was about to grab it, thinking she could finally clean the foot.

I abruptly stopped her and said, “Resist the temptation to grab it. Instead, ignore it, and just pet the horse’s leg.”

She was able to over-ride her straight-line thinking, and just pet the horse’s leg. After a couple of times of this routine, the horse eventually held its foot relaxed in the air for several seconds, the longest he ever had. I knew he was ready for her to clean it out. And so she did, with complete continued cooperation from the horse.

Yes, you can get a horse to do things using straight line thinking. If the barn is burning down and you need the horse out of there now, straight line thinking will get the job done. But what if the barn isn’t burning down? What if there is no emergency? Then what would our interaction with them look like with a round about line, the kind of meandering line that horses spend the majority of their day doing?

This is where horses show us humans another world. If we have the patience and courage to enter their world and see it as they see it, a whole new experience unfolds before us. It’s where the magical moments with horses reside, where they want to be with you, and they want to interact with you of their own free will. Once you get a taste of a horse seeking you out, nothing can compare. It is heaven on earth.

Problems? Change the Environment

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Cell biologist, Bruce Lipton, writes about what one of his professors in graduate school taught him regarding studying cells: If the cell isn’t doing well, change the environment.  He saw this statement play out on a regular basis in his study of cells. 1

The same can be said of horses. If your horse is not thriving, look at their environment. What are they eating? Where do they live? How much movement do they have? What is their social environment? What stressors are they exposed to? All of these factors and more will affect their well-being and long-term health.

Here at God’s Window we answer each of those questions with only one goal in mind: What do our horses need to thrive?

It’s amazing how healthy senior horses can be when their needs are met in the right environment.  Try it with your own horses. They just may surprise you.

1 The Biology of Belief, by Bruce Lipton

Sample Diet

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“Nutrition plays a role in every equine health condition, and the horse’s diet can either support or hinder healing and inflammation.”  – Dr. Doug Herthel, founder of Platinum Performance

My first senior horse, Chaco, came to me cribbing constantly and underweight. He had a history of difficulty keeping weight on.  I knew a good diet was critical to having a chance at the cribbing going away and him being able to maintain his weight.

My first horse the day I picked him up. 26 years old.
My first horse the day I picked him up. 26 years old.

Here’s his daily diet before I owned him:

1. 3 scoops of soaked beat pulp
2. 1 scoop of soaked alfalfa cubes
3. A few scoops of senior horse feed
4. Local western Washington hay
5. Some pasture turnout in summer

Here’s his daily diet I switched him to when I got him:

1. 20 lbs. timothy/orchard grass mix hay (from eastern Washington)
2. 2 lbs. eastern Washington alfalfa hay
3. 24/7 pasture turnout
4. Mineral supplement
5. Omega 3 fatty acid supplementation during the non-growing season

 

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Six years in to his new diet. Age 32.

 

*I got rid of the local western Washington hay. It had a poor nutritional profile.

*I got rid of the senior horse feed. It was grain based. Not only did grain cause Chaco to crib, but grain is related to numerous health disorders in horses.

*I got rid of the beat pulp. While beat pulp can be a source of fiber, I wanted to see if just feeding him high quality hay would take care of his nutritional needs.  (It did).

*I added a powdered mineral supplement to balance the nutritional profile of the hay.

*I supplemented omega 3 fatty acids in the non-growing season.  During the growing season, grass has omega 3 fatty acids. If the horse doesn’t have grass, then supplement the omega 3 fatty acids.  Sunflower seeds, ground flax seed, flax oil or hemp oil all have omega 3 fatty acids.

Today, his constant cribbing has stopped.  He can maintain his weight on hay and pasture alone.  And an added bonus is his silky soft coat. It is so soft and luxurious I can’t get enough of it. What’s the secret? The diet.

Are you having health problems with your own horse?  Take a close look at the diet. Good nutrition will only support your horse’s overall health.

 

Skin and Coat Issues

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A bare spot covering half of his ear, a winter coat that shed leaving bare spots of skin because the summer coat was slow to come in. My first year of horse ownership was full of surprises. I had know this 26 year-old gelding for several years before I owned him, and I didn’t recall these odd skin and coat issues.

 

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Bare spot on ear.
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Summer coat slow to come in behind shedding winter coat.

 

 

 

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Moth-eaten appearance around head.

 

 

My holistic vet assured me to not read too much into these coat issues because I had just dramatically improved his diet, changed his environment to a herd on acreage, and gave him regular exercise. For the first time in a long time this horse’s needs were put first and being met. With those changes alone, his body needed time to adjust and respond to the improvements. It’s also not uncommon for a body to unwind old patterns before making new ones.

She suggested I let a full year play out and see if the bare spot on his ear goes away on its own, and if he sheds more normally next spring. In addition, other than his moth-eaten appearance, he seemed to be in good health. His eyes were bright. He had energy, and got along well with his pasture mate.

Sure enough, the following spring he shed normally. The summer coat was right behind the winter coat as it shed. The following winter the bare spot on his ear completely filled in and was normal.

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No more bare spot on ear two winters later.
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No more bare spot on his ear the following winter.

Does your horse have odd skin and coat issues going on? If so, for a long-term solution, look at the quality of the diet first, along with the environment he lives in and the exercise he gets. All of these areas contribute to the overall health of a horse. If any of these areas are lacking, it’s not uncommon for skin and coat issues to show up.

How do you know for sure if that’s the cause? You don’t, until you make the changes and then see what happens over the course of the next 1-2 years. If the problem is still there, then something else is going on. However, as in the case of my first horse, a year later the skin problems were gone, and all I had changed was his diet, along with environment and exercise.

Like anything worthwhile, there are no short-cuts. It is an investment of time and money. When your horse feels better and better as he ages, and you both are still around to enjoy each other’s company, it’s worth every penny.  Take a chance. Invest in a high quality diet for your horse.  Evaluate his living environment and exercise.  You only have something wonderful to gain.

A Rabbit, Cat, Eagle, Horse and Human Converge

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It was another typical day with my horses. As I was feeding in the morning, I noticed the barn cat in the yard, a regular hunter of mice and rabbits. About an hour later he took up a perch near the top of the driveway next to the road. I found that unusual, but didn’t think anything of it. I haltered my horse, Chaco, to take him for a walk, and as I walked him up the driveway I noticed a rabbit in a frozen position, his hind legs stuck in the fence. I assumed he was dead and figured the cat would eventually have him for lunch.

Chaco and I took our time at the top of the driveway, sort of curious and at the same time not wanting to look too closely at a dead rabbit. While we were at the top of the driveway trying to figure out why the cat hadn’t done anything yet, we heard a commotion in the neighboring maple tree and the sound of big gusts of air. Suddenly, overhead, just 15 feet above us, were the huge yellow-gold claws of a bald eagle. It startled both Chaco and I. Wow! Those claws and legs were huge. I had no idea.

With the eagle gone we continued down the road for our walk. Upon our return the bald eagle was standing in the grass cautiously walking very slowly toward the dead rabbit when the cat came out hissing with its back arched and hair raised. The eagle started to posture and then flapped his wings, moving back a few steps. Undeterred, the cat did not back down and the eagle left the rabbit where it was, stuck in the fence.

About an hour later I was about to leave when Chaco left his hay and walked to the far end of his paddock and pointed his body in the direction of the dead rabbit. This was unusual behavior for him so I stood with him watching the dead rabbit. As I stood there I asked, “What are you trying to tell me? Is the rabbit alive?” Sure enough, after a couple of minutes of watching the rabbit, I saw what Chaco saw. There was a twitch of the rabbit’s nose. The rabbit was alive!

I knew then that I needed to unhook this rabbit from the fence, and hopefully he would hop off. As I looked for a way to loosen the wire, Chaco watched me intently everywhere I went. I found a shovel and scooped up the rabbit’s front legs and gave him a little push backwards, and he was free!

However, to my disappointment, he didn’t hop off. I put a drop of Rescue Remedy on the end of a piece of straw and touched his ears with it, hoping that maybe that might bring some energy back to him. And yet, I also saw the injury to his hind leg, and perhaps that was why he was not hopping off. There was nothing more I could do. Even the wildlife rehabilitation center I contacted agreed. With sadness in my heart, I told the rabbit I was sorry. I knew what was coming.

Within hours the eagle won, and the rabbit was no where to be found. The cat went back to hunting mice, and Chaco had gone back to eating his hay. And me, I wanted a happier ending, but I also respected that the rabbit was a wild animal and part of the cycle of life where life and death coexist. Mother nature took its course, and I was the only witness to the convergence of this rabbit, cat, eagle and horse.

Stress and Therapy Horses

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The second senior horse I took in, Thunder, came at 27 years old, just retired from therapy work with at-risk kids. He was a rock solid, bomb-proof horse. If someone was afraid of horses the therapy program matched them with Thunder. He would take care of them. If they made an error and inadvertently put themselves in a dangerous situation, he would make sure they didn’t get hurt. You could trust Thunder with a baby. He helped numerous kids and adults over the eight years he worked as a therapy horse.

I never thought he’d retire from therapy work. He was so dependable. When I received the call about his coming retirement I was shocked. What happened that he needed to be retired? The answer? He started biting people. This horse that would never hurt a fly had reached his limit. It wasn’t just one bite, but a pattern of biting. He was burned out and needed a break.

Therapy programs won’t last long if they have horses that bite people, so as a horse, the quickest way out the door is to start biting.

Therapy work is hard work for the counselors involved and the horses involved. There is constant exposure to difficult feelings and helping clients learn to create positive, healthy relationships.

Horses that externalize their stress by biting and kicking are not selected to do therapy work. Therapy programs need quiet, docile horses that are willing to help people. These horses also tend to internalize their stress. Hence, they don’t typically bite or kick. However, their stress can show up as foot problems, unexplained lameness, difficulty maintaining weight, gastro-intestinal issues, etc.

As equine therapy for people continues to grow, so will the realization of the need for stress management in therapy horses. We know the health problems associated with chronic stress in people. The same is true of horses.

Horses deserve to have a long, happy life in their service to people. A good stress management program will increase the longevity of the horses, and will be a win-win for all parties involved: both the people and the horses.

Why Chiropractic for Horses?

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Here at God’s Window, everything is about creating optimal health in horses on all levels:  mentally, emotionally and physically.  Chiropractic can affect all three of these areas.  When you feel well physically, your mental and emotional states improve.  The same is true of horses, and that is why chiropractic is a regular part of our horses’ maintenance care.

When you were first conceived and your cells divided, one of the earliest systems to start developing was the nervous system.  Nerves go to every part of the body, and chiropractic addresses the proper function of the nervous system by ensuring that the spine is aligned.  When the spine is aligned, then the nervous system can operate at full capacity, and the body’s natural healing capability will be at its best.

Some horses receive chiropractic care because of an acute situation or trauma.  Chiropractic can be very helpful in those situations.  However, chiropractic is even more powerful when maintained on a regular basis because often times those acute situations don’t even arise because the body is already functioning optimally.

This is what makes God’s Window different.  We want horses to function optimally on all levels, and be fully alive the way God created them to be.  Therefore, regular chiropractic maintenance is part of their care.  If an acute situation comes up we address it, and the chiropractor will make an extra visit.  However, we don’t save chiropractic for only an emergency or acute problem.  We use it as a preventative measure.

When you keep the spine and nervous system tuned up, you optimize the natural healing capability of the body.  This promotes optimal health and wellness, and there’s nothing more beautiful to see than a fully alive horse who wants to engage with you.  Now that is heaven on earth.

To see a horse received a chiropractic adjustment, click here.

Too Much Touch?

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When I took in my second senior horse to rehab, Thunder, he did not want to be touched.  He preferred to walk away rather than be groomed.  If you stayed in his space he would nudge you away with his nose.  He made it clear he needed space, and lots of it.

He had just retired from eight years as a therapy horse for at-risk youth doing a wonderful job taking care of and teaching the kids.  The work, however, did not come without a price.  He wore out, and he made it increasingly clear his last year on the job that he wanted to retire.

The first year he was in my care I rarely touched him.  About nine months in, he would let me brush his legs while he took a nap in the field, but don’t touch his belly.  If I tried to brush his belly he would walk off.

Today, three years later, he lets me brush all of him, and he even shows me his spots he wants scratched.  It’s me who gets tired of scratching him, and I want to stop.  It takes a long time before he decides he’s had enough scratching.  This is a huge change from when he arrived three years ago.

What’s the secret to this change?  If he walked off, I let him.  I may have had an idea to brush him a particular day, but if he said no by walking off, then I respected that.  Once he knew he could say no, and I would respect that no, then he started saying no less often.

Now I’m starting to see the yes when he puts his hips in my hands to scratch him.  Because I have allowed him to walk off, I am thrilled when he decides to stay.  That is his yes.  It’s been three years in the making, and it’s a wonderful thing to have straight from the horse’s mouth.

Thunder getting his scratching.
Thunder getting his scratching.

Ideal Living Environment

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When I began rehabbing senior horses my goal was to create an environment as close to their natural environment as possible.  I would love to have a huge amount of acreage and turn my horses loose.  The more they can take care of themselves on their own, the healthier they will be.  Freedom of movement is a key ingredient to their well-being.

When I found a place to keep my first horse it was a several acre pasture with another horse and a shelter.  I remember the owner of the property saying it wasn’t the Ritz Hotel.  In my mind, to a horse, it was the Ritz.  What more could my horse want?  Six to eight acres to roam freely day and night with another horse, and a shelter in case he wanted to come in out of the rain.

He had come from an environment of a cement paddock, with some turn out on pasture in the summer.  While he had it better than a stalled horse, who has very little space to move, the cement and small space took a toll on his aging body.  Instead of feeling great as he aged, his aches and pains were increasing to the point of biting people.  When he retired and I took him, I knew that just wide open space on real dirt would do wonders for him.  He could start rehabbing his own body just by having the space to move freely day and night.

I even once read of a study done that showed that horses at pasture with no additional exercise program had the same level of fitness as stalled horses who were ridden daily for exercise.

Given the opportunity, horses will take care of themselves often times better than we can.  The bonus for us is that we will have more years to enjoy our horses in a state of good health.  What more could we want?