"There's nothing you can do"
I’ve heard it time and time again…
“That’s just their conformation”
“Once their back drops that’s just how it is”
“There’s nothing we can do”
I’ve heard it so many times that I started to believe it myself.
I mean, I was seeing Malachi back in 2022 and I saw him routinely until he came here in February of this year. And I didn’t fix him, none of us did.
He got worse between the two bottom photos because he foundered in January - but I think you can see that a lot of his postural patterns have been present for years…
He’s a cribber, he has severe high/low in his front feet, he has severe side bone, he has a lot of arthritis, he spent a lot of time in a stall as a show horse in his past life, he’s 17 years old.
And yet… somehow… even with feet that are still very much in the middle of rehabbing - he’s getting better.
We don’t think we can fix these things because we CANNOT fix them without a fully comprehensive approach. If we’re missing a piece it’s not going to work.
So what does it take?
Dental balance - this one was already in place before
Hoof balance - since coming here he has a new hoofcare provider who sees him every 2.5 weeks, I trim weekly in between her visits to keep things as balanced as possible during rehab. He lives in cloud boots 24/7 and has since February.
Bodywork - this one was already in place before
Good nutrition - forage based and mineral balanced - this was already in place for the most part, but he was getting too many calories for his activity level
A lifestyle that encourages as much free choice movement as possible throughout the day - he changed from 24/7 dry lot and/or pasture turnout with one buddy to 24/7 track turnout with 8 buddies.
Training that encourages healthy biomechanics and is as force-free and compulsion-free as possible - this was in place but he was often pretty disengaged from training we assume because of the discomfort in his body
A team of professionals who communicate with each other and work together to get it right
We don’t think this kind of stuff is possible because getting all of these pieces in place at the same time is HARD. It’s impossible really in a lot of situations because it requires a lot of change, a lot of deviation from what we do in traditional horsekeeping.
It requires a lot of thought. It requires time and effort and work.
And there will always be those people in your ear telling you it isn’t possible.
But every now and then we get it right, and that’s when the magic happens.
