Abrasive Hoof Trimming

Recently I had to face the fact that with the price of fuel I was never going to get a farrier out to my place, so it was time to buck-up and just get 'er done. I contemplated my nippers and rasp. If you keep them sharp and you practice enough, these tools are sufficient, but this contemplation only got me depressed about the 44 hooves waiting to be trimmed, my age, and the stony hardness the dry desert gives to horse hooves. I felt overwhelmed.

Then, in my contemplation, I came across a revolution in hoof care. A technological wonder. A true godsend. People are using hand grinders to trim hooves!!! There was suddenly a light at the end of the tunnel. Hope returned.

Phil Morarre teaches people how to use a 3-lb handtool to achieve a Barefoot trim. He offers clinic and has produced a couple of DVD's for people that can't get to a clinic. He also hosts a Yahoo forum on Abrasive Horse Hoof Trimming. He is accessible and very helpful through the forum or through his website http://www.softouchnaturalhorsecare.com

The Hinny Whisperer approves of Phil Morarre for:
• his commitment to the well-being of all equines;
• his "you can do it" encouragement for horse owners trying to care for their animals;
• and for applying technological innovation to an age-old problem.

You might think a horse would go nuts to have you grind off some hoof. This clip will show you what Lightening Bug had to say about it.

Never Give Up: the movie

Endospink challenged everyone to learn to swing up or vault on to their horses. He said to start with something small and work your way up. I started with Soloman Elvis. It took me a few weeks and we are still not perfect, but, hey, we are much better. I challenge you to learn how to do it too. Post a video response to me and Soloman.

ps. I finally had to upload to google videos... hey, I hope you enjoy it.

Jacques Bonnier

In the culture of the United States, we just don't understand the sport of bullfighting. It seems so brutal and ugly to kill a beautiful and brave animal for the sake of spectacle. There might have been a brief time in this culture where an interest was sparked by the once-hip trends of Ernest Hemingway and his bohemian cohorts, but that time was more than 50 years ago. Now, we only see it as weird.

But, bullfighting has been and still is part of the world of horsemanship. The Portuguese Rejoneo is a bullfighter on horseback. They don't necessarily kill the bull so it is not quite so objectionable. Whether it's morally right or wrong, it still takes a lot of guts and skill to do more than gallop out of the bulls pathway.

Jacques Bonnier is a Frenchman who rose to prominence in the world of the Rejoneodores during the 1970's. You can find videos of both he and his son riding on his website: Elevage Jacques Bonnier. You will find no finer example of excellence on horseback anywhere.

Hokey Pokey Hinny: The movie.

DVD review: Controlling your Horses Speed

John Lyons DVD on Controlling your Horses Speed is like 2 years of horsemanship clinics compressed into an hour and forty-five minutes. If your horse is having problems with going faster or slower, you should check it out. He works with a western style of riding so his goal is speed control on a loose rein, but it's the rein-awareness that he is focused on. You don't use leg control other than as a way to speed up your pony in the exercises he teaches here.

The principle exercise is serpentines. Change directions, move the hindquarters, soften the nose, drop the head, relax the neck muscles, move the shoulder with the indirect rein, keep the nose down through direction changes are the steps along the serpentine trail to control. He starts off in the walk, but most of the real work is done at the trot, which he promises will smooth out after the first hour of serpentine work. Yes, plan a hour of sitting trotting to start out with! You will be glad you got it done.

Endless serpentines.... he says he works with four facets of each exercise: 1) the motivation or pressure to get the horse to perform; 2) the body part he wants to affect; 3) the direction he wants the body part to move in; and 4) the reward or release for the movement. By the time he was speeding and slowing his horse, Charlie, through those endless serpentines, I was wondering what the reward was for ol' Charlie. The final stages seemed so relentless! Perhaps if you are a horse a few seconds of loose reins between the requests is sufficient reward, but maybe not for a long-eared critter.

Since Cracker Joe would not be a happy hinny under John's direction, we changed it up and tried it out with a more positive spin. The reward was a horse cookie and the criteria kept moving up the Lyon list: change directions, move the hindquarters, soften the nose, drop the head, relax the neck muscles, move the shoulder with the indirect rein, keep the nose down. Thirty minutes into it and we still had a happy hinny with a softly yielding nose riding well with only his loping halter. Tomorrow we'll see about dropping the head and the rest of the criteria. I used a variable schedule for reinforcement after he got the idea. Based on trying it out like that, I would now recommend serpentines as a good exercise for doing a bunch of stuff and this DVD will give you a pretty good idea of why and how to get it done.

But, I would actually NOT want my horses to move like a Lyons trained animal. The neck is too low on the demonstration horses shown in the DVD. It looks too much like some wacky show ring style where the horse has given up taking an interest in the rest of the world. It's just a style thing, right? If, in the end, your critter moves at the speed you desire, the world will be a safer place.

Equine Training Magazines

I am a fan of two special magazines. One is The Eclectic Horseman and the other is Natural Horse Planet magazine. From reading the literature, you would think both of them would cover excellence in horsemanship. Eclectic Horseman claims to be about "whatever works", while Natural Horse Planet claims to be about Natural Horsemanship.

Well, Eclectic Horseman has a forum where people can talk about horsemanship and I post there as JRW. Let me tell you that if it isn't the Ray Hunt lineage of horsemanship, these people are going to jump all over you. Nothing about "well, did it work?" They beat me up when ever they get the chance.

Natural Horse Planet, however, has all kinds of training being covered. Their lead article this month is An Introduction to Behavior Based Horse Management. Read this and see if you don't want to read the rest:

With all these elegantly apparelled ‘Mr Fixits’ flitting about the planet from clinic to clinic like bees to honey we should surely be seeing problems disappearing at warp-speed ! And even if some do have a ‘romantic’ allure for the female owner, surely such composite wonderfulness must do more than just sell DVD’s or a plethora of other merchandise, mustn’t it ? And yet many, perhaps even most, of the horse behavioural problems continue.

Strange that.

At the Hinny Whisperer forum, you can talk about what ever kind of horsemanship you want. We won't put you down. We will ask questions.

Meeting of Hinny Affectionados

The first annual meeting of Hinny Affectionados was held last week at the Largo Canyon School of Horsemanship. Cracker Joe presided. In attendance were Patricia (aka JRW), Maven, Sharek and Dequine1. Cracker Joe gave a clinic on how to train hinnys for fun and profit. Everyone else practiced their barn building skills with a very effective demonstration on the value of horsepower in land leveling. Sharek baked rhubarb pies while Maven snapped photos of almost everything. A wonderful time was had by all!