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 

I think it is important to be conscious of what the pressure of metal does to the hard and soft tissues of the mouth. 

What does the pressure of a bit do to the mouth? Well- Think about it! How do you think BRACES work? 

1. pressure on hard tissue changes its shape over time.

2.soft tissue rips and bleeds and changes shape with pressure overtime too.

~ Inge Halliday- Registered Dental/surgical Assistant /Horse Trainer/Instructor

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If you must use a bit, be conscious of its action and the resulting physicality, including demeanor changes. One should move towards using a NO BIT option more often. We should be riding from our seats! Right?

Give your horse's mouth and and mind a break from the metal bar. Your horse will thank YOU! <3

 This picture is amazing to me, I will have to figure out one that works for my horse Remington..........

                 

                                          INge & REmington

           

                                          Remington

  

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.