Natural Hoof!

About Natural Hoof!

Were we learn the natural hoof!

Welcome all! Here is a great page on a natural hoof! we will be posting some great articles about natural hoof. People always ask why should horses be barefoot? How long does it take for them to fully be able to be barefoot after being in shoes for so many year?

Well here is were you will learn all of it, we will try our best to post great articles and great information on why, how , when. :)

Nutrition!

Why is it so important??

What Single Element I Feel has the Most Affect on Hooves, Their Growth and Health?

Well to start this story I am pretty new to natural horse, environment and how they live in the wild. The more i read and study everything about the natural hoof/horse I feel those are the elements that i feel have the most affect on hooves, their growth and health.

Elements:

Diet:

Feed & Nutrition

Balanced supplements

Freedom of Movement:

Movement

Encouragement to Move

Willingness to Move

Terrain/Environment:

Manmade

Natural

As i said in my statement i am very new to this as were i started in a barn were there was always shoes tacked on the horses, main feed was hay/grain this is what i have learned so far by reading and studying the natural way of a horse:

I feel everything leads back to the way a wild horses lives what they eat how far they move so basically everything affects the hooves -- from environment to mental stress diet, meds, weather, air pressure, etc.

Lets start with feed & nutrition:

In reality, feral, wild, domestic -- all the same nutritionally and anatomically/physiologically. doesn't matter. Horses haven't changed in thousands of years and even though we've changed the breeds, etc the base functioning of the equine is the same. they're meant to GRAZE on forages 18 out of every 24 hours ... little bits at a time for long, long periods of time. their stomachs are relatively small compared to the rest of the gut ... all 100 feet of it! stomach only holds 4 - 8 liters of substance at any one time.

What do you think is The MOST IMPORTANT NUTRIENT in a horse's diet?  is water hay and grass are both forages ... FORAGE is the next important and that can be hay, grass, trees, bark, leaves, weeds, flowers, bushes, shrubs, nuts, seeds, natural vegetables and fruits ... all forages. each with its own properties that compliment others to provide a well rounded nutritional diet for the horse.

Now horses, as we know and said, are grazers. They eat with their heads down, off the ground unless stretching up to eat leaves from a tree. and they eat only in clean areas ... ferals have designated 'dumping grounds', shall we say ... where they relieve themselves. and those spots are away from their food sources. Ever notice with domestics that there could be a gorgeous pasture that they've eaten down but tons of little areas where the grass is left untouched? those are the manure piles, and they instinctively know not to eat -- parasites.

Head down is also a positional thing in that the position allows the horse to real and the actual act of lowering the head will calm a horse down so the head down position calms them PLUS -- it allows their long, long bronchial tubes and sinuses to drain. Its the only position from which they can adequately do this.

Now -- the eating/grazing little bits at a time allows the horse to ALWAYS have food in its system. the gut ALWAYS produces stomach acid -- 24/7 -- whether there's food in the system or not. The lower 1/3rd of the stomach is protected from the acid by a thick 1/2" mucous lining while the upper portion of the stomach is not protected by this mucous lining. so in an EMPTY stomach, while moving, the stomach acid is sloshing up to the unprotected portion of the stomach and the acid is so strong that if you were to spill some on your arm or hand? It'd burn you right down to the bone.

Let's compare to the DOMESTIC horse ... a horse that is stabled at least 12 - 14 hours a day and see what we have ... Grain goes through the foregut and stomach VERY quickly ... little nutritional value is drawn from it cause it does move through so quickly. and what is not digested by the stomach goes directly to the cecum and hind gut where it is broken down and fermented somewhat, if too much (think of over graining or horse that gets into the grain shed) it will sit in the hind gut and ferment ... producing massive gasses, and then lactic acid starts to build up in the system to 'fix it, gravitationally, down in the hooves where it begins to eat away at the laminae so they get one or two big feedings of grain and a couple of flakes of hay.

PLUS, they're fed at chest height -- so they don't get to 'relax' and eat ... they're on semi-alert. and they're exercised on empty stomachs ... so the acid is sloshing and splashing burning the upper portion of the stomach and causing ulcers! and, of course, no one is there to pick up the manure piles every single time the horse relieves itself ... so they're eating off the floor (hay - unless in hay bags which is a whole 'nether mess) ... right off their own manure and standing in their own urine Uric acid, urine, eats keratinized protein. Exactly what hooves are made from .. keratinized proteins. So while these horses are nervously standing in their own waste, their hooves are getting eaten up, too! and they can't drain their sinuses unless they lower their heads to the ground PLUS ... more that we'll talk about in a second. But that's just starts off the whole ball of wax! Would seem like enough, right there, to make for sick, wiry horses, eh? And what happens then? Chaff falls out of the hay rack into the eyes, the nose ... causing irritations and possibly can go into lungs. I HATE seeing horses stalled for long periods of time. It's like locking a 6 year old hyperactive little boy in a 4ft. X 4 ft room with no window, no food but 2 meals of sugar ...