Horses are no different than ourselves in many ways...If you wonder what your horse feels...think of you in that situation..

So often, I hear new horse owners being bombarded with information immediately upon entering into the world of "Horse Ownership". They become overwhelmed pretty quickly. Barn owners, trainers, equine professionals of all sorts, and opinionated fellow horse loving people all have the Be All End All answers to everything you are experiencing with your horse...given generically in every situation. Answers repeated endlessly from text books written 10 years ago that lists and ailment and a treatment outdated and often ineffective. Very few people stop and assess the situation at hand and make an educated judgement based on their exploration and understanding of the situation at hand.

...And here is just a beautiful video of Jesse's Girl learning to jump. She is a Polo Pony Rescue.

My personal method is to always listen to all opinions and think them over... gauging the likelihood of  the suggested advice helping to improve my horse or my horse's situation. There is something so bizarre about the equine culture. In some ways it can be so stagnant and steeped in "Traditional"  practices it is barbaric in some cases, the pain of a bit against gum tissue in inexperienced hands, spurs that dig in and say nothing to a inadequately negotiated with horse. Does your horse want to be with you in what you are doing with him. I like to call this "High Class Horse Abuse". Jess (The above horse) is from this world. Polo is a fancy, high class, "Sport of Kings. Many of these horses, and many horses in all equine sport disciplines experience an abuse that is painful to them but somewhat ignorable to the humans involved. 

I recall going to the Equine Affair in Pomona California in 2007 or so...I needed to charge my phone so I snuck into the back of a lecture hall of 500 or so people... the speaker was a late in life cowboy of limited scope...he said "Horses do not have emotions"...I literally spit by accident into laughter. Anyone that loves their horse knows that they for sure have emotions...and dramatic ones at that.

"What is good for the horse, is rarely convenient for the human"- Inge Halliday

In conclusion, you will ultimately have to be the one to decide what is best for your equine friend. Basically all you have to do to figure out how your horse feels; is to think of yourself in the same situation. It's that simple. You want freedom. You want Love. You want understanding. You want food. You want water. You want somewhere nice to sleep. You want fun. You want friends. You want peace....and sometimes yer in a shitty mood...if there a difference between horses and humans?

Horse's spines....Why are the backs low? ...why are the whithers high...Think about it...how do braces on teeth work? You put pressure on bone=bones changes.

The horse industry is very reluctant to agknowledge this reality. Most stay stuck in beliefs such as....you must trim feet the way they grow or sugar does not cause cavities...what time period are these professionals living in? Um, horse teeth are made of of the same substances as human teeth and we have come a long way since barbers pulled teeth and hung bloody rags out on a hitching post to dry forming the symbolic red and white barbers pole.

The focus of this is: yes, we definitely affect the shape of a horse's back and spine. Ride from your own thigh muscles...ride like you are riding bareback,.. always!...and you will be riding correctly.

For Group or Private Lessons with Inge C. Halliday please fill out a Lesson Request Form 

The truth about Hooves-Empower yourself and know what is possible!

So often I hear that there is no ability to change the shape of a horse's hoof by way of trimming or shoeing. 

I ve asked certain farriers their methodology...what they are going for...what they believe is possible by shoeing or trimming. The responses are either I don't know, or I just do what the client asks for, or I trim the hoof the way it grows. 

When I tell people it IS possible to affect and change the hoof shape, size, and angles I feel as if I'm telling people the world is Round for the first time after the general population has fully accepted the notion that the Earth is flat(I hope you know, what I'm referencing here).

I guess I should say why it is important to change and monitor the way the hooves are on a horse. It is important because if you have a part of the hoof that is Blocking the movement of the horse, the weakest part that is involved in that movement will start to break down( i.e. Joint, ligaments, tendons, etc.). As horse people all know there are endless leg problems with horses that are actively being worked and in some that aren't as well. This is no mystery. It just takes some deductive reasoning, observation, and an openness to looking at the horse as a whole; an ever changing being in motion.

I am going to compile as many before and afters of the cases I have collaborated with my farrier Dawn Jenkins on. Even she said you just trim the hoof how it grows. I disagreed. I have a background in dentistry and one of the specialty offices I worked in was orthodontics. This is all about moving bone with pressures. You move teeth over by creating relief(space) on one side and putting pressure on the other. Osteoclasts break down the bone and Osteoblasts build bone on the newly created space. 

Physiology works with it's environment moving and changing as it has to because of environmental pressures.

The reason we have to do this through essentially equine podiatry is because they don't live natural lives of running at top speeds breaking away the feet naturally. We keep horses in extremely unnatural environments so we have to recreate optimum health to the best of our abilities. 

I'm not a person that thinks that all horses should just be wild again. It's not realistic. There are downfalls to that too. Like dying on the range. Our domesticated horses are far too thoroughly bred to handle the conditions. Besides, the blm and nps would round them up for horse meat anywho.

I have been loving and studying horses for 28 years. I have been riding and teaching professionally for the last 15 years. One thing I see over and over is that the client, the horsey mommy(or daddy) usually has a gut feeling about what is happening with their horse or how their horse should be treated and it is canceled out by the supposed professional; trainer, farrier, vet, etc. so the intuition of the person who knows the horse best is disempowered. The one person that has the horse's best interest in mind and is not jaded by income in relation to that horse is shut up. I would like to empower the horse advocates that speak up for horses personal rights; that speak up for new and innovative ways of doing things.