A little more than 10,000 years ago—give or take a 1,000 years—one cave man said to another, “I’m so hungry I could eat a horse.” So they did.
First man just ate horses. Later he discovered he could keep lame mares and milk them. That was the beginning of the meat and milk industry.
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Why is it these days that whenever a clinician tells a rider, “the most important way of communicating is….” – he or she always has a communication device to sell?
Or “the most important means of communication is” some kind of training system the clinician is promoting.
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The question of whether or not to supplement a horse with vitamins, minerals, herbs, enzymes, amino acids or nutraceuticals will be asked and answered 100,000 times today.
The answer in 99,999 cases will be accepted or rejected strictly on whether or not it was the answer the person asking wanted to hear
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In the world of horses, thrush is not a songbird. It’s a dirty bird. Thrush is an unhealthy condition of the hoof which is most frequently blamed on a dirty stall. It ought to be blamed on conformation and poor hoof management. While it is true unsanitary conditions can be a cause of thrush, lack of exercise, configuration of the hoof and improper or inadequate trimming of the wall, sole and frog is more likely responsible.
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Sometimes I like to pretend I’m the strong, silent type.
When it comes to horses, big mistake.
Horses don’t want you to be too strong. If you go macho-man, one of two bad things happens.
A little lather is good for leather.
I’m glad it only takes a little lather, because cleaning leather tack is not one of my favorite jobs. It’s always one of those must do jobs.
Tack that is clean and well-conditioned looks better, performs better and last much, much longer
There’s no doubt about it. Without the horseshoe there would never have been a Roman Empire. Oh, there might have been a good-sized Roman state, or even a major sphere of influence, but an empire? Hardly!
In order to build an empire, the Romans had to travel great distances and win great battles.
If you want to be rich and you want to be happy, then you must do what you love. Simple as that!
“No it isn’t,” you say… You’ve got a job and a husband and kids, or a wife and kids, and a dog and three horses.
You can’t just quit your job and open your horse grooming business, SHINNING STAR, and do what you love.
I guess one horseman or another has been saying that since man first tried to ride the horse and quickly discovered there’s got to be a better way.
Every time I see riders (sometimes calling themselves “trainers”) spurring, whipping, jerking, pulling and punishing, I say, “There’s got to be a better way”.
There are basically two types of nervous horses.
There is the bold nervous and the timid nervous. And while they are very much the same, they are different.
Which is which is usually decided by observation. The way you handle and train each is a matter of knowing which is which.
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