The effects of bit

This is an extra blog posting is directly taken from Kerstin Kemlén. Having horses is keeping an animal in captivity. Our decisions forms the captivity, we need to constantly think about how we treat our friends mounted as well as dismounted. We need to be aware of that the horse's life is a matter of compromising with the nature of the horse and our desire to use this magnificent animal's adaptability and ability to cooperate.
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This summer - at the ninth International Equitation Science Conference - a new research entitled: "A Method of diagnosing and Measuring Pain in The Ridden Horse" is presented .

The experiment shows that the aversion against bit are very common and signs of aversion to bit is much larger in number than previously thought. In other words:
Many bit-related behavior problems disappear when the bit is removed and this includes those behavior that frequently is included in accidents with horse and rider.

The research results support the fact that

the committees that control the contest rules,

need to review the rules about bit being

demanded in competition!

How did they come to this result - what the scientific method was used?

58 riders were part of a controlled experiment group where they were asked to change from a bridle with bit to the bitless "whole head hug" concept. The experiment lasted from 2002-2008.

The survey included in the experiment was designed based on three years of feedback from riders who switched to bitless and the questionnaire listed 86 behaviors related to bit.

Experiments riders were asked to answer the questionnaire which was divided into two columns - one for the horse's behavior ridden with bit during the time the rider have had the horse in his possession - and another column for the horse's behavior when carrying out similar work when the bit has been replaced with a bitless"whole head hug".

Experiments riders had owned their horses between 9 months to 21 years, median 2 years.
The horses were 3.5 years to 24 years of age, median 8.5 years.
The horses had been testing bitless 1 day to 2 years, median 3 month.
The horses belonged in the disciplines of dressage, jumping, trail, pleasure, distance, eventing

EVERY horse showed fewer signs of pain when ridden bitless.
NUMBER of signals of painful symptoms showed by every horse when being ridden with bit were between 5-55, median 24 pain signals.
NUMBER of painful symptoms showed by every horse when being ridden bitless was 0-17, median 1 painful symptom.
OUTCOME  out of these 58 horses 90% of the signs horse showed of pain vanished when the bit was removed .

Perception - to hear the unspoken

Easter holiday and wonderful northern spring means that the blog has had to wait until sunset. The challenge is to capture the good days as a buffer for days of another kind.
In August 2010, I was out riding my anglo-arabian mare. We were out in the woods and rode on nice, gallop friendly sandy pine moore paths and I was so happy. She was alert, responsive and felt wonderful. One day I climbed her up a slight slope, four steps, we took the little slope twice - eight steps all in all.
We walked home and she went from calm and at ease to toss her head and stepping, she became generally annoying. I halted and thought that she would come to her senses, but she began to back up, and in the middle of a forced step back I felt how she lost her left hind leg. I got off her back and started walking home. Confused.
A few years later an acquaintance told me that she, after having taken a course on horses and bits, realized that the bit she liked to use when riding caused the most pain in the horse's mouth. It was incomprehensible to her, she felt that the horse was so soft and smooth in riding.
Another told me that they had discovered that the horse had lesions in the mouth but in riding the horse had felt soft and flexible. Another told me that the horse worked like a dream just to show lameness the day after.
Once is once but twice, three times, four times ... I know that this is not a statistically significant number, but never the less it raises a question in me. How well can we read horse?
Horses have utilized silence as their survival strategy, they are experts at hiding pain and the effects pain have on their bodies. Could it be that all the horses in these examples had showed small signals that something was wrong and since we as riders did not notice them, they moved within their frame of pain, and we considered them pliable and soft?
In my own case, I had taken her outside her framework under and she became very vocal in her behavior.
Had it been possible to discover pain reactions of the horses in the examples above by using a heart rate monitor? Were there some small indications from the horses' side that we missed, were there some big?
It is said that before you judge a horse to be disobediet, you should ask yourself if it understands what you ask for, if it has been trained to do what you ask for, or if it is physically fit to do what you ask for. You can tell by my wording that the way I reasoned in 2010 was disobedience - she was annoying and needed to come to her senses. The fact that it was the pain became apparent to me later, but at the moment disobedience was a closer option.
I have learned a lesson from the incident with my mare. Now I strive to ask me if it can be any of the other reasons that prevent the horse to do what I want instead of disobedience. I'm trying to train my perception, my ability to read horses better.
My new mare, whose feet carried me to AEP, enjoys the benefit of my homework and is also a good teacher. She signals in an ascending scale if I get too close to the edge of her frame of pain. In our training I don't not ask for any gait other than those she chooses to take in the pasture (the scare canter is not included). She has just recently begun to take a trot based on self carriage rather than a trot she jumped into. So we have now added short trot repetitons in our walks. We can take walks up to 1.5 hours, when we started she wanted to turn around after 10 minutes which added up to 20 minutes walk.
When we worked from the ground in a shoulder-in like move one step with left hind was enough in the beginning, one more and she gently nibbled my hand. Now we can take a series of steps in the corners. I propose a move and she adopts or rejects. It is not a question of obedience or disobedience to me, I trust that she knows what she is capable of doing and if I ask for more than she can manage so she shows me.
I see that she trained when she moves in the pasture. She's doing nice rollbacks on the narrow path where the gelding, who can not, must detour into the deep snow. The trot she offers now I long to ride. I really long to ride her, but I'm willing to give her the time she needs to heal. We do this together, she and I, we are a team.

Hooves and humans

It was a busy day yesterday with Vasaloppet for the children and that altered the writing schedule for me, but with that done, I can say that now it's finally spring!

Last spring a new horse came to my farm and she forced me to pay attention further down her legs to the hooves or more accurately to her feet. I have a good friend who dived into Jamie Jackson and Pete Ramey's wild horse model and one that focused on Applied Equine Podiatry (AEP). During the summer last year, I talked to both and juggled my thoughts about the new horse's hooves with them. For it soon became apparent that the traditional blacksmith could not come up with any solution that seemed sensible - or if I'll be completely honest, the farrier I contacted with a veterinarian referral was quote "so tired that he went home instead" end quote. After a response like that, it felt like I myself is my own best farmhand although I actually had big gaps in my knowledge.

At first I thought that my two friends had a similar vision of what was needed in terms of trimming, support and stimuli of the feet. I read about both their perspective and tried to insert my own horse's troubles in each framework. We struggeled on the horse and I, and although it was in small steps we progressed.

In September last year, the opportunity to immerse myselves in AEP came and I took it. After that I realized that what on the surface may seem alike can differ tremendously when you go in depth. AEP is a method of hoof care based on universal scientific principles that apply regardless of whether it's hooves, bow and arrow or cars being discussed. Wild Horse model is based on studies of wild horses in their respective environments such as Mustangs in the U.S. or Brumbies in Australia but it is not based on studies of domestic horses and their living conditions.

In Sweden there was a veterinarian who made headlines when he, in an article in an Equestrian Magazine, pointed out the area that created the most problems for horses in general. Can you guess where he was pointing?
In a place just behind the withers above the horse's back - man in the form of a rider.

When the horse went from being a prey animal to become a domestic animal the price it had to pay for food and protection was their lives and health. We have used them in war, to ride on long and arduous hardship and we have shaped them into different breeds to enhance properties that have been beneficial to us.

When farriery developed into the profession it is today, it was in response to the increased demands on the horse as transportation vehicles, a vehicle that would work more in one day and on surfaces that were more "hoof unfriendly" in the form of rough dirt roads, cobblestone, wet clay and so on. Horse managment changed, horses were more tied up in stalls with the consequence that they often stood in wet beds instead of roaming freely in pasture. The science was under construction, industrialization was still in its infancy. What they knew was static, ie load during quiet standing, pull, push and levers.

The farriery met the requirements that were on a hoof of a horse standing still. When the horses were predominantly started being shod long periods of the year, problems arose with ossification, white line disease etc. Everyone knew that it was because of the shoes, but they were seen as a necessary evil and a price you had to be willing to pay.

With industrialization came cars and the development of them brought dynamics, kinetic and now we have developed tools that enable accurate measurements of things that were previously hidden to the human eye.

The results of the scientific development is taken into consideration by AEP when the theory of the hoof and the horse's feet were designed. With the model that constitutes the AEP's basis for the work with horses' hooves and feet  I lcan earn to read a hoof at any time, wild or tame, and see if it is healthy or have defects in the structures. It's like a new world opening up!

Join course and get a new relationship with your horse's hooves!

Winter can be a challenge to horse health

Winter is a time that can lead to an increased risk of colic. Colic is a general term for gastro-intestinal problems in horses and in a previous post, you can take a look at the horse's digestive system.

The increased risk of gastrointestinal problems comes from the quality of forage, feeding routines, including the way the horse is served water, and how much the horse moves.

A horse needs to eat 2.5 -3% of their body weight of dry matter ie fiber to keep the digestion working. Feeding routines are very important for the horses wellbeing. A horse has a need to chew, in the wild the horse eats around 14-18 a day. It is noticed that time spent to eat is slightly longer in the winter and it is explained by the fact that horses stay warm through the fermentation that occurs in the colon and therefor they need to eat and chew more. Horses do not keep warm by moving, if they have no reason to move (read: food or water) they are most likely to stand still. As in us humans movement promote intestinal activity and being still increases the risk of constipation.
One way to extend eating time is to feed the forage in hay net placed in various places in the paddock. This increases the time spent eating and chewing as well as movement. To fed the horses in the pasture with hay you have to spread it out in several small piles with a distance between the piles. It gives a slight increase in the time spent eating and when the hay is eaten the horses tend to wander around and look for any left overs. Giving all the hay in one or two large piles allows horses to eat faster and then they stand still and wait for the next feed.
A number of hay net or piles of hay makes the stress connected to feeding decreases. Horses with lower rank is chased by those with a higher rank, if there are plenty of net/piles to eat from the low ranked horse gets a chance to eat in peace.
Water is often a concern in the winter. Horses prefer luke warm water and in the winter it can be difficult to keep water ice-free and with a comfortable drinking temperature. Although the temperature is not perspiring in the winter, training with winter coat and drier feed increase the need for water. Nowadays, there are heated water troughs that will keep the water from freezing and warmer than ice cold. (You can get ideas of how to make those water troughs yourself on the internet.) Even in the winter you need to clean the water troughs, bacterias grow in luke warm water.  If you have many horses in the pasture you should have a couple of water troughs in order to ensure that even the low ranked individuals are getting enough water.
The access to food and water can affect both the horse's abdomen and the risk of injuries among horses. If horses gets stressed by shortage of food and water it increases the risk of conflict, if the horses are shod, they also have studs, and studs can cause major damage.
The origins of this post is a tragic loss that a friend of mine experienced when a gastrointestinal disorder were treated as constipation instead of a colon inflammation.
If you live in a horse-dense area, you may have access to veterinarians who are expert on horses but here where I live, most veterinarians have a general skills and their horse knowledge varies. This means that there is a standard procedure in gastrointestinal disorders in horses, giving paraffin and water to dissolve any constipation.
As a horse owners you need to do careful observations if the horse is showing signs of pain in the abdominal region. What about the horses droppings? When was the last time he defecated? How does it look? How does it smell?
If the horse does not defecate and have almost non-existent bowel sounds, it is most likely a form of constipation colic. But if the horse feces gets looser and looser and smell sour and acidic, it is an indication that there is a disturbance in the fermentation in the colon and then a treatment with praffin and water is akin to extinguish fire with gasoline.
Diarrhea is a sign of an ongoing faulty fermentation in the colon, the horse's natural bacterial flora is eliminated and it may be due to mold in roughage killing intestinal bacteria (penicillin is a mold). The faulty fermentation in turn leads to acidosis, a toxic condition and an increase of gases in the colon. The toxins formed in the colon, is transported via the blood into the body and may for example lead to laminitis. The gas that is formed in the colon can cause the colon to swell and actually prevent the diaphragm to move enough and thereby render in breathing difficulties.
If your horse have diarrhea, you should see it as a serious condition! One way to try to help the horse through the crisis is to give it analgesic and antispasmodic. In human health care any form of laxatives is prohibited unless you are absolutely sure it is an issue of constipation, instead you give fluid with electrolytes that will help to buffer against toxic substances in the intestines. That may be applied to horses and to aid the horse's intestinal bacterias you can give 0.5 kg normal yeast solved in water.
Now this winter is coming to an end but it'll return. Do what you can to prepare for the next winter. Buy forage of good quality, adjust your feeding routines and plan for a good solution for the supplie of water.

Horse conformation

Yesterday we had the kick-off meeting for the course in Applied Equine Podiatry, June 15 to 19 in Boden. This really is a course I recommend all horse owners (and horses interested for that matter!) . The course is not primarily about learning to trim yourself, even if it is a part of the curriculum, but to learn to recognize a healthy hoof. We collected a few hooves yesterday and I'm really looking forward to see and hear the story hiding in those feet, because they all had something to say!

I had a question on the Swedish blog on horse conformation and weight bearing ability and riding trotters,  it'll be the topic for today.

Horses can be described in many ways, the starting point may be the color, breed, conformation, performance or behavior. The exterior that we see when we look at a horse is a mixture of bone structure and musculature. A skinny horse can look dreadful, but have a better skeletal conformation than a seemingly well-muscled and athletic horse.

From a sustainability standpoint, horse conformation is important but actually not always conclusive. Beyond question that a horse with well aligned bones, good relationship between the different parts of the body, a well-set neck and a muscle suit that is proportional is well equipped to take the strain of an active life. But there is no guarantee. Hambletonian, a fantastic breeder in harness racing, had plenty of exterior deviations but it did not prevent him from being both strong and fast.

The horse's skeleton consists of 205-210 bones, depending on how they are classified.



The horse's engine sits in the back, the angles that is talked about is how the pelvic angle affects the angle of the femur and it in turn affects the horse's ability to carry weight and pushing the horse forward. Power is transmitted via the lumbar spine - the part of the spine that allowes for some movement between the vertebrae. The legs are responsible to take the horse forward and the way the bones of the legs are stacked affects both movement patterns, hoof form and shock absorbing. Here's a spread that shows different leg conformation from the book The horse exterior by Lars-Erik Magnusson.



No horse is actually designed to carry any other weight than their own, be it trotters or riding horse. Since we choose to mount up and ride them, it is important to be observant of how the horse reacts to our training and to vary both training and ground we train on.

I would like to quote a farrier in Luleå, Bengt-Erik Källsenius. "You do not buy a retired trotter, you buy a bred trotter." Trotters can be very fine horses, provided that those who train them remember that they are bred to trot fast, and it has brought exterior customizations and a movement pattern that corresponds to the requirement.

Trotters are usually lower in height (about 155 cm), has a strong back to be able to handle the power coming from the hindquarter. A trotter usually begins its training in early years and made it in a reasonable manner based on the young horse it will build the body, both in terms of bone mass and muscular strenght. A trotter trained for racing, even if it does not measure up to race quality, can become a nice riding horse, with the advantage that it can also be harnessed and driven for a change.

I recommend Lars-Erik Magnusson's book The horse's conformation and a book in English The Horse Conformation Handbook by Heather Smith Thomas. And it's never wrong to take a crayon and mark the various joints, bones, etc on a real horse, and then measure the angles, lengths and widths. All that trains the eye and makes it easier to see the horse as it is.

Hooves

Happy new year! Right now it's a beautiful winter day in Kalix with moderate -10, winter blue skies and sun-kissed pine tops. Hope your Thursday is as beautiful where ever you are!

For my part, I started as early as 1 January with something that I think will be a theme for the year, hooves.

Here are the hooves that I, along with Kerstin Kemlén and photografer Anki Lundberg, where evaluating. At a first glance they look like completely normal riding horse hooves to me. For the evaluation, we looked at; heel (landing), frog, bars, hoof walls on quarter and toe, coronary band, sole and toe (push off) and we use a score from 1-9.

When the legs are separated from the horse and it is not a horse you know from before, it is actually not easy to know what is the right or left side of each pair. I certainly thought that would be the easy part...

The picture above is of the hind feet and you can see how the nails are set in the white line. It is not unusual that the nails ends up there, though it  does not cause tendering preassure it means that bacteria have a way into the white line and the risk of white line dissease increases markedly.

In this picture you can also see that the outer bars has fallen and that the shape of the hoof is deformed in both the outer regions, the hoof capsule is a bit rotated and the toe is cut at an off angle relative to the frog.

A toe that is cut in this way robs the horse of its push off ability at the front of the hoof. In turn, this means that the work load will be more directly on the front of the coffin bone and it was visible in the sole, nature had padded the coffin bone by adding on to the sole.

Since I am new in the area and most hooves I've seen looks like these I missed all this with the toe, sure, I could see that the toe was cut off angle - but the consequence of the cut and removal of the tip of the toe for the horse Kerstin enlighten me of.

Here we nippered the toe of the hoof, the structures you can see in the picture are (from folding rule and down) the insensitive sole, the blood supplied part (red dots) of the sole nearest the coffin bone, inner wall and the black stripe at the end is the outer hoof wall.

In the current hoof the hoof capsule had migrated forward more than 2 cm in relation to the foot. I guess the feeling for the horse is as if I (size 39) would walk around in a pair of 45's, I would have a hard time knowing where I really have my feet and where I put them in the world.

As with anything else, it was life itself that brought hooves in focus and I'm learning everything I can to give my horses hooves that fit their feet. Everything under the motto: No hoof, no horse.

What can a horse carry?

The last blog post this year will be about the horse's back. The purpose of the blog entries on hoof, mouth and back is to make us, who spend part of our time with horses and make use of their abilities, more aware that we are asking for something that the horse certainly can perform (and with honor!) but at the same time is contrary to its nature as an animal called horse.

When one gets involved in a thoughts it often happens several things simultaneously that really sets the own thoughts on spin. One student told me the following. During a visit to a friend in a barn, a horse was standing in the aisle. My student stroked the horse over the back and the horse lowerd its back - Don't tuch him over the back, the owner said, he is in pain. And that was obvious, but when the box was cleaned out the owner saddled the sore horse and took it for a ride. Where is the logic in this? One would expect a back that touchy would hurt bad when ridden.

Later that week I got a tip on an article written by Stormy May that added a few more sticks on the fire light going on in my head. The article is about what happens to the horse when we place our weight on its back. My post is a mixture of extracts from the article and my own words.

In "Journal of Veterinary Science" Volume (Vol14 (11), 1994)  the well-known veterinarian and saddle fitter Dr. Joyce Harman published an outcome of a study.

"For the purposes of this study, saddles with pressure up to 1.93 psi (pound force per square inch)  were assessed to have good fit, between 2.0 and 3.38 psi, but persistent pressure points, to have moderate fit and saddles that exceeded 3,4 psi or had persistent pressure points throughout the session was considered poor fit. These figures come from preliminary data showing that it was difficult to find an English saddle with a lower pressure than 0.75 psi, which is the highest pressure in the capillary bed, pressure exceeding 0.75 psi shuts off the blood flow in the arterial capillary bed. "

It is important to note that Saddle Tech preassure measuring tool, used in these studies, had sensors that have been developed to evaluate the risks of pressure sores in bedridden people and only measures pressure up to 4 psi. Modern sensors, such as the FSA (Force Sensing Array) developed by Vision Engineering Resaerch group (verg Inc) in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada can read a lot more pressure. In a test with Western saddles with good padding, measured normal "pressure spikes" between 8.25 and 14 psi. (Wesley, ED, McCullough, E, Eckels, S, Davis, E, Article # 9329, 2007, "The Horse" magazine).

The pressure that occurs on the tissues under the saddle is propagated down through the muscles to the bone structures found underneath. Research on pressure ulcers in humans have shown that tissue death begins near the bone long before redness and skin lesion is present.What have happened with the horses that have visible wounds or scars in the saddle area?

The muscles longissimus dorsi and trapezius, which the rider sits on, the horse has developed since Eohippus (between 60 million and 45 million years ago) to facilitate mobility. This structure was never designed to carry weight in the form of a pressure from above. In many horses, you can see a marked muscular atrophy just behind the scapula up at the withers. Nevertheless, I have heard a coach say that he did not want to have horses with muscular backs because they become so difficult to saddle.

Pressure from the saddle and rider on the horse's back occurs independent of use. When blood is pushed out of the tissue and comes back, it feels like a thousand needles sticking in the body part. We have embedded sensors that ensure that we change position from time to time, when the pressure on a single point has been too high for too long. For a horse that is ridden, it is difficult to stow the weight on his body that way. It can try to attract your attention by taking shorter steps, swishing tail, scratching himselves against the fence /riding school wall, nip at the leg, have ears back or even bolt or buck.

What is emphasized in the article is that it is all too common with today's horsemanship, to dismiss the horse only possible way of communicating, body language,  as disobedience and as such it should be corrected - often with "stronger pain in the mouth, on the head, ribs and flanks, probably in combination with a longer session under saddle" writes Stormy May.

Now neither the author nor I are proposing to forbid riding but I share the conclusion that increased knowledge of the horse's movement mechanics would be a fantastic Christmas gift that would please both rider and horse.

I have searched both articles Stormy May refer to online but without success. It seems like an interesting task for 2013 to gain more knowledge on the issue. I would like to know more about how each study has been done.

As always, when it comes to our relationship with the horse, it is we who must strive to interpret the horse's signals/language - the horse already has full notion of us, as the true humanist it is.
Now I take Christmas holiday and will return after Twelfth Night. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Bitting, episode 3

We who choose to engage in horses, be it pleasure riding, competative riding, driving, harnessed horses or racing must at all times be aware that we choose to do something that the horse was not originally intended to make.

The horse is not designed to bear weight on his back, pulling heavy loads, have metal shoes (or any hoof protection for that matter) on the hooves or bit in his mouth. That it allows to let us make use of it is due to the fact that the survival strategy of the horse is silence. The horse is basically a docile animal, an animal that seeks to minimize conflicts because, in the wild, that has saved lives. The horse devotes no time to unnecessary quarrel, it is pre-programmed to find their place in a hierarchy, and to be responsive.

The horse, like the dog, has proven to be a useful companion for us. Their different characteristics has improved and simplified our lives and now that we who live in developed countries no longer need them for our livelihood they enhance our leisure time.

I have no moral qualms about owning and have a horse (or dog). What I strive for is to make the life that my horses will live with me as "a little bad as possible" by learning everything I can about the well fare of horses. Keeping a horse is compromising the horse as a biological being and the better compromise the fewer degrees in hell for the horse - a little brutally expressed.

Dr. Cook has devoted much of his professional life to research and to issues that he defines as bit-related problems. Just as Lena pointed out, some of the behavioral problems he connects to bitting can occur for other reasons. To me, it means that there are more variables to consider in this multifactorial equation that horse ownership entails. Leave no stone unturned ...

In his research, Dr. Cook compared the skulls of domestic and wild horses. What he has seen in the tame horses are so called bone spurs, micro cracks in the bars and deformed teeth, damage completely absent in the wild horse. That is damage to the hard tissue, a horse dentist may see friction damage to the tongue from a bit that slid back and forth across the tongue, sores on the inside of the cheek, crushing, pressure sores on the palate, etc.

Certainly, many of the injuries are resulting from careless handling and improper fitting of the equipment, absolutely! With better educated of horse owners, many of the problems are eliminated. Note bene! Not even bitless bridle is completely without effect on the horse if they are ill fitted or handled roughly.

Dr. Cook notes"By removing the metal bit out of the horse's mouth, you can address many problems, but one can not expect that all problems are cured.

A horse that previously had recurring throat noise will not stop sounding bad, a horse who developed permanent deformities of the airways as a result of bit use will still be handicapped by deformations.

If you remove the bit it heals no lameness other than "rein lameness" nor can it replace proper training of the horse so it correctly understands rein aids (slow down, stop and turn). All horses with bit caused nerve pain does not stop shaking its head from one day to another when the bit is removed. A few never stop. " (this is a translation from a swedish translation so...this one can deviate from the original english text.)

We need as riders and drivers to understand that the horse does not automatically understand our signals, that we need to train the horse to the language of signals we choose to use. When I was with Rune Olofsson in Sollebrunn he told me that 98% of the horses he had re-educated in riding had problems because they had never been taught the signals for start and stop properly, they did not know what was expected of them. The basis for all training is that the horse understand the signal for forward, stop, back up, left and right. When the response to those signals is established, the horse is ready to perform movements that combine these directions.

But there is another aspect of bit that concern the horse's physiology. When the horse has a bit in the mouth it stimulates the digestive system, which means that the horse's body is programmed to low activity and a lowered head/neck position while you want the horse to be alert, ready to perform and with raised the head/neck.

In the horse's throat, there is a switch function which opens or closes the passage of the air ways and esophagus. The horse breathes through the nose and when breathing, the lips must be sealed so that the mouth is free of air. With a bit in the mouth the lip seal is broken and air is swirling into the oral cavity, at the same time the stimulus on the tongue results in production of saliva that needs to be handled. When the horse swallows, it can not breathe and when breathing it can not swallow. It is a physiological impact of the horse as biological beings, and it has consequences.

A short note on why I chosed Dr. Cook's bridle. Amaretto has a convex nose and thus makes a rope halter or bosal tipp forward/downward and end up being in the wrong place. The nose band on the bitless bridle can be fasten and is thus kept better in place.

The signaling system is similar to the one I have when I worked Amaretto in rope halter, the headstall also conveys the signals from the reins that the direct and indirect rein aids create. Hackamore has never been an issue and the bridle that looks like a wheel with spokes I have not tried.

I was at a lecture given by Per Larsson on bit and bitting, he showed a picture of a bit called "Liberty", he graded it to be hot, really hot actually and it could "correct" the horse inducing so much pain that the horse either surrendered or went crazy ... we have an ability to paraphrase we humans, Liberty - freedom to whom?

Bitting

Is anyone else, besides me, wondering if we really have our 24 hours daily and an average of 30 days per month? It feels like it was only a moment ago that I had the last sip of bubble to celebrate the New Year - and soon it's coming up again!

Kerstin Kemlén is a good friend of mine and as a person she is one that goes to the bottom of all issues she is faced with. She is a owner of harness horses with a strong focus on performance. It was a question of performance that led her into the subject bits and bitting and its consequences for horses. In the beginning the question was one of solving a problem for a specific horse in her stable which drove her to explore the topic, but now it has become a question of  horse health in general.

Early on Kerstin came in contact with Dr. Robert Cook, who developed a bitless bridle, and they have had an extensive email exchange over the years where Kerstin has raised questions and Dr. Cook answered by the best his of understanding and ability.

The essence of Dr. Cook's research is that bit, regardless of form, material or the quality of the riders hand causes damage to the horse. The damage can range from physical injuries from bit on bars, tongue and teeth into njuries that take a little more time to develop such as breathing disorder and behavioral disorders.
 

Just as traditional horse shoeing affects the horse negatively the tradition of brideling does the same thing. This colorful image taken from Dr. Cook's website shows by the scale the relative sensitivity to touch the different body parts of the horse have. The red areas represent the areas with the highest amount of sensory nerves. As you can see muzzle and mouth are areas very sensitive to touch.
Being a horse owner is to be aware of what you compromise with and why. I myself have chosen to shoe my horses this fall, and although I know that it costs in the form of hampered hoof mechanism, I´d take it rather than to have a horse rip itself.
I have bitted bridle in the tack room, but I ride using Dr. Cook's bitless bridle. And of course there is a difference in experience! The horse is a good deal stronger in bitless, 16 times stronger compared to a bitted horse according to Kerstin (who happily and readily calculates everything). Such a difference most certainly have an effect on the relative balance of strenght (if I can use that word) between horse and rider.
So when my horse gets Mr Hot in the Hat, that strenght it's really apparent ... but I have not felt unsafe despite some lively gallops. It is possible to make a one-stop rein with the bitless bridle and there is every opportunity to get a low-key communication via the bridle.
The difference is the feeling in the hand, there is no sensory feedback via the reins as one gets when the reins are attached to a bit the horse's mouth. It's actually quiet in the reins ... no chewing, no movement and it's really how it should be according to Dr. Cook. When the horse is working it has its mouth closed and it is still, it is only when the horse eats it should open the mouth and chew.

The hoof - a genious invention

Last fall, I was down to Iotas Hovbalans in Dalarna and took a course in Applied Equine Podiatry with KC LaPierre.
It was an interesting and thought-provoking course with many, for me, new perspectives on how the horse's hoof works and how it responds to the load that the horse is exposed to.
In the middle of his career as a farrier takes KC a place as an apprentice in a forge. The intention was to become such a skilled blacksmith that he could form any kind of horse shoe that he needed. During his two years as an apprentice the foundation for what would become KC's mantra was created: structure + function = performance. When he completed his apprenticeship period and returned to his profession as a blacksmith, he could really forge any shoe  atany time but there were still horses that he could not help. It led him on the path he walks now.
KC seeks to shift the focus of farriery from craft to science. Farriery became a profession that ceaced to develop as a new era of technological development began, and this in turn makes today's farrier trained with knowledge from the day before.
The basic thesis is that a healthy horse is dependent on healthy hooves whose function is to manage and distribute and utilize energy. Farriery in turn is designed to neutralize energy. This leads to a collision between nature and human demands and leaves the horse's hooves trapped in the middle.
KC has defined every part of his mantra: structure + function = performance. The structure is the internal components of the hoof and each component has a specific function that will work in harmony with all the other parts. Within the hoof there are several different types of tissue; blood-filled, not blood-filled, soft tissues and bone. The performance refers to how well a hoof can meet the requirements that the chosen activity imposes on the hoof. A recreational horse can function with lower demands on hoof performance than a racehorse in full racing condition. It may seem like a given truth, you do not drive Formula 1 with a SAAB V4 and hope for a top position, but according to KC lacking that insight is nonetheless quite common.
Domestic horses are living under very different premises than wild. It allows KC sometimes choose to talk about shod and unshod horses to emphazise that shoes may actually be the best compromise for some horses. Barefoot is always best for the horse, provided that its hooves have the qualities needed for the task. In shoeing the horse the hoof's natural mechanism is always adversely affected but if the job the horse is expected to perform also affects the horse negative, it may be better to have the horse shod.
Today there is are alternatives to iron shoes in the form of boots, various two-component gadges as "hoof wraps", plastic shoes and sole guards. A remark KC made is that, according to him, some of them does not take sufficient account of how the hoof defacto is built and that, indeed without nails, still hampers a proper foot function.
I have had my horses unshod in the summer but has been, because of lack of an alternative to shoes with studs, shood my horses now as the ice came. My horses are out 24-7 in a hilly forest pasture with a creek that runs through the pasture. When the creek begins to freeze and the water from the overlying wetlands continue to flow it floats out of the stream bed and freezes to ice on the ground. Our place is  popularly known as Märsfallet just because a mare slipped badly in the wake ice.


Personally I'm hoping for a snowy winter without periods of thaw because then I can take off the shoes at the end of December and then put them on again in March /April when spring with its icy periods comes. It is a compromise with the desire I have, but it's a conscious compromise, and I have (thank goodness!) a farrier that is open to dialogue.
KC comes to Boden in June and to give a 5 day course, read more about it on Kerstin's website. I recommend the course strongly!

Bone-Tendon circumference

A question in the Swedish blog in regard to Bone-Tendon circumference (BT-C) has brought about this posting - how do you go about calculating the load the horse has to carry?

The pressure that the horse's legs are subjected to consists of its own weight, the rider's weight and the weight of equipment and should  really be expressed as kg/square centimeter or pounds/square inch. The formula used in this case to estimate the weight the horse has to carry on his forelegs creates a relationship between weight and BT-C. (A way to construct a more handy mathematic formula that may not fully follow ingeneering standards and recommendations.)

total weight / (BT-C x 2)

The way to go is as follows

1. Sum up the weight of tha horse, rider and equipment. 
2. Measure the TB-C just below the carpus. You can, if you want take measures from both front legs, divide by to ang get the average BT-C for your horse.
3. Divide the total weight by the BT-C.
4. Divide the sum from paragraph 3 with 2.

The guideline is a sliding scale where below or close to 13.4 kg /cm (75 p/inch) is good and up to 14.3 kg  cm (80 p/inch) is acceptable but when it approaches and exceeds 15.2 kg /cm (85 p/inch), you have to be observant of the increased risk of injury.

This is to give a guideline to the rider, but should not be seen as a simple truth! On a long term basis you might be able to increse BT-C by low impact training. The weight can be adjusted. Some extra pounds on horse and /or rider can be dealt with, the equipment may be changed. The horse's conformation, hoof size and status, the work they are expected to perform a number of other factors also matter - and it is important to remember that.

The U.S. Cavalry's own measurements from the 20's and a study by the Kentucky Equine Research (2008) focused on how horses respond to load verifies the conclusion made by the cavalry, a horse should carry a maximum of 20% of its body weight. (NB: a measure calculated with the assumpion that the horse is not obese)

And a quotation that summon the upcoming summer in Sweden.

"Horses make a landscape look beautiful."
Alice Walker

Not every day is a sunny day

It's been a long and dreary winter for me this year. I'll refrain from comment on the details but just want to list a few highlights.

* Icy fall
* Injured horse
* 3-year-old blonde tagging
* Husband with heartbeat interference
* Hoof and farrier worries
* Lots of snow (90 cm on the farm - a record)
* Icy spring
Amarettos unfortunate fall last autumn led to lameness in the hind, neck pain in front and a sore back in between. Luckily, Anna Semrén, a skilled vet and chiropractor, gave him a treatment that gave him a good direction. Any exercise that required equipment were put aside and I devoted myself to "clicker training" this season.

The fact is that the horses were set aside this winter because the decision to try clicker training evoked a lot of thoughts about myself as a learner, coaches and training methods and the horse as a trainer.

Over the past three years I have educated myself in everything from horseback riding to horse handling and horse health. I've been a good student, but sometimes I felt like I was just repeting stuff like a cockatoo. And this winter I was flooded with questions - What am I? Where am I? There were many late nights mucking out with the pitchfork in my hand and thoughts in my head. I had lost myself in all that new. Why am I doing this? Why do I have horses? What goals do I have, it is my goal or other´s goals? What relationship do I have to horses? What relationship do I want to have? What dreams do I have? Why am I an unhappy horse owner, I love horses!

Luckily winter is followed by spring and with that the opportunity to see life in a different light. I have a friend who I learned to know just a few years ago and although it is far from often we meet I see her as a good friend. We can discuss high and low and enjoy a good laugh together. This good friend sent a text message and invited me for a ride, and (holy moly!) I could say yes.

She had chosen Mustang to be my companion for the day. Mustang is a 18 year old North Swedish draught horse stallion who has been with her for 17 years. He has been trained in all sorts of riding styles, from ordinary "riding school riding" via western to academic riding and now he is trained in accordance with what is called "power creating riding". He has been involved in almost everything other words.

For me however it was the first time I rode with double reins - it took me a while to get the reins organised in my hands and finally being able to find Mustang out there in bit end of the reins. Before we rode out, I was informed that Mustang could give me a swift trot, but it was just for me to hang along.

So when trotting was introduced it was in a rather healthy pace. But not only that, he put a little pressure to the bit as he asked a question and he waited for my reply. I replied.

He asked again. I replied.

He asked again and now with some power. I again gave the same answer.

My answer was accepted, and with it, he allowed me to ride him (he laid great emphasis on my reply, had I given the wrong answer, he had taken me for a ride ...)

My answer was no release, nor any increased pressure on my behalf or correction or demand that he would ease off. I only promised that I would carry myself - and then he carried me.

We had a wonderful canter on the way home. He came into a calm and healthy canter, and we left the party behind us. Mustang rolled on with carriage and rhythm, and when the road was bare, I gave him more space and he lenghtened his stride. It felt really wonderful to give before it was time for me to take back.

I got credit for riding Mustang so well and it pleased me of course. But Mustangs praise is more valuable, I cleared his quality assurance system! Although the dialogue was between Mustang and me, my promise to him is a promise to all horses - I carry myself.

Thanks Mustang for taking me from winter dwelling to canter euphoria! Now I feel a longing for horseback riding and I've got Mustangs blessing.

"Riding is very much like nuts and bolts - if the rider is nuts, the horse bolts."

To perceive what's really there

Most horse magazines have instructive articles in order to educate their readers - and I think that's ok. But if the intention is to educate then I think editors have to raise the standard for the pictures they present in the articles!

The picture goes over the center of the magazine so the thigh and hand disappears in the folding but it is still possible to see what I am going to point put.



First we have the rider. She is collapsing in her right side, keeps her eyes on the horse's ear, her wrist is turned in such a way that she puts pressure on the bit, her hip joint is locked and that results in a raised knee and heel.



Then there's the horse. The neck is over bent with the third cervical vertebra as the highest point, the rider's "contact" via the reins pulls the bit out of the mouth and it both pinches the lower jaw and deforms the corner of the mouth (if it is a regular snaffle, it has folded in the horse's mouth and is pressing on the palate), the glands in the junction between cheek and troath is badly crushed, the airways are restricted and the tongue is coming out of his mouth.

We humans are visually oriented creatures, what we see shapes our perception of reality and thus our perception of what is right and normal. That is why pictures are so important (good pictures that is!) which leaves us with good role models and educates us to see and recognize quality in both our own and others riding.

"A horse can lend its rider the speed and strength he or she lacks - and if the rider is wise it is never forgotten that it is just a loan."

Am I changed by horses?

I have previously mentioned that every horse I meet is like a university of its own. No horse I've met have been the same and every horse I've ever met has left me with both new valuable insight and a changed personality.

In a good relationship, both parties receive and transmit, there is a give and take and mutual influence. I can still feel deep gratitude to the horses that in one way or another has given my relationship with horses a nudge in a different and in some cases a new direction.

The first and foremost is Sandina, my first horse, who patiently showed me that there was another way to communicate with a horse when mounted. I experimented with, among other things, the thoughts presented in Sally Swift's first book and took centered riding lessons for two years. Setif (Sandinas filly) took me to the next door. She showed me that my body and I needed to find each other and straighten out various twists and misunderstandings, she showed me the way to the Alexander Technique. Salvia (a true Thellwell pony!) led my husband and me towards Natural Horsemanship (NH). And once again Setif, opened a door, this time to Classical Equitation when she needed to be rehabilitated in a manner that was not soul-destroying for her. I would be able to continue with more examples - the point is that my horses leads me...

The universities I have in the pasture now makes sure that I continue my training and reflecting.

Amaretto has showed me that if something works on the first try, we can do something else. To repeat, for me to feel confident that he can (which he could indeed!) is nagging. And nagging is not appreciated neither by horses (nor children).

Shy Boy, who now should be called Unshy Boy, have thaught me that you can not train horses with slaps. Shy Boy has his own history and is perhaps the closest I will ever get to a "wild horse". In the beginning he was shy but had a sympathetic attitude to people.

NH is a general concept for training horses using methods of controlling each part of the horses' body and although the term is used as a generic term, there are differences between trainers. In the style I have trained in accordance with the last few years there is a so-called "three-stage rocket" in training of horses. I ask the horse with my body language to for example give the hind, I reinforce by swinging the end of the lead rope in the air and as the last step, I let the end of lead rope hit the horse.

Nota bene,if Shy Boy comes too close to me when I pour up water and I give him a thouch with my elbow, he takes it with equanimity. If he pushes on me, and I resume my space that also works without a hitch. But on one occasion as I would have him to give his hind (to cross a hind leg over the other) and went through all three steps and let the end of lead rope land on his loin he was really scared and we suffered a crisis of confidence.

This happened a while ago and I've carried it around me in my thoughts. One theory I have is that when my telling him off were associated with our respective bubbles/ personal space, Shy Boy has recognised that he crossed a border. When I wanted him to give his hind, there was no natural connection on his part as to why I should give him a flick with the lead rope - a slap. He was inattentive, but he was not "in my zone."

The incident has caused me to study how Amaretto react when I get to stage three and cause the end of lead rope to touch him and he responds, not with fear but with a grievance.

So this is a question that I, as a university student, currently is thinking about. Does slapping actually work in training and raising horses? A thought that in itself should not be awkward since slaps are not included in the upbringing of my children.

"Teachers open the door but you have to go inside."
Chinese proverb

A conscious horse owner

Natural horse keeping is a theme for many horse owners.I would say that it's an aim to strive for but almost utopic. I would like to see more horse owners looking for a more conscious horse ownership. And with consciousness, I think we actually have to acknowledge that any form of horse keeping is a matter of compromises and that we compromise with the horse's needs and our desires.

Something we must never forget is that the horse never compromises! The horse lives in the consequences of our decisions, our compromises. This means that we as responsible horse owners need to acquire enough knowledge to make as intelligent compromises as possible.

For me, the concept of horse keeping includes feeding, hoof care, equipment, training (choice of trainers and training methods) - basically all that I do that involves and affects the horse.

When I bought my first horse after 18 years as a riding school pupil, I believed I was well prepared. It was an illusion. I have now owned horses for 20 years and I am far from finished with my training and is still learning and thereby always willing to change the compromises I've made so far.

At the beginning of my horse ownership the horses were stabled in the traditional way, pasture during the day - stall at night. In 2003 I moved to my own farm. That was they way I started. Until one winter day in 2005 when the horses took down the gate to the pasture and went into the barn. They made sure to crack a post that made it impossible to mend the gate and from that moment my horses have had free access to both pasture and barn. I now know that I'd never switch back to the traditional way of keeping horses!

Keeping the horses in an open stable is not a lazy way of keeping horses, it also requires work, but of a different nature. My barn is insolated but the only heat source is the horses, and the barn only get as warm as the heat the horses generate if they are inside with with the doors are closed. So, as a way to meet my needs (and the vet and farriers) a heated management area to get a descent working environment during the chilly part of the year is on my "want list".

The way I feed the horses have also changed over the years. In the early years I fed concentrates (oats and sometimes barley) and four times a day the got hey. For a couple of years they had free and unlimited access to forage, but even if I have a relatively large pasture it is far from the size a horse needs to have the opportunity to roam around the kilometers they do in the wild. Free access is still free access but not unlimited access. I give the horses plenty of hay in slow feeding net which both prolongs the eating time and keeps the amount of forage in check. The period with free and unlimited access turned out to be a health concern for the horses, they became too fat.

For the majority of horse owners keeping the horse in a boarding stable is the only available option. That doesn't nescessarily has to be bad, it only accuires different demands on the compromises.

As far as shoeing, I know of two stories of why horses were shod (just as there are two creation stories in the Bible). One is that the horses' hooves were subjected to more wear and tear when they became "vehicles of war", another is that when they became a vehicle of war they were kept in stables, often spent too many hours in wet bedding and the health of the hooves were affected. The shoe became a way to keep the fleet running in spite of bad health in the hooves.

The methods of barefoot trim which I think is most usual is the wild horse model, Equine Podiatry and the Strasser method. Among both farriers and barefoot trimmers there are both good and poor performers, but also better and worse methods.

As a horse owner, you do not need to train as a farrier or barefoot trimmer but I think we have an obligation to educate ourselves in the hoof mechanics, if for no other reason than to be an informed consumer who can protect the horse. Whatever you choose - have the hooves cared for on a regular basis. Select a farrier/trimmer that comes to you based on the interval your horse needs. By being a knowledgeable and informed consumer, you are also a good customer.

Bit or bitless. Early in the history of riding we acquired control of the horse's head, we needed means to manage steering and adjust the speed. It still applies today and whether you choose to ride with or without a bit, you should keep in mind that NEVER let your hands go backwards. Your balance is best maintained through a vertical seat and not by hanging on to the reins and thereby the horse's mouth. The horse's mouth has no place for the bit, it must learn to deal with the bit with its tongue and a bad fitting bit can really hurt the horse. I suggest you do this experiment: Take a pen and put the pin header (pin inside the pen) against your gums (corresponding to the horse's bars). How does it feel? How much pressure can you stand?

Whether you ride with a bit or bitless, it's the quality of your hands that determines the quality of the communication, school your hands - establish touch. If the horse feels heavy in your hand, difficult to regulate with regard to both speed and turning, it is you who created the resistance! To make use of draw reins or sharper bit says more about the rider (or trainer who recommended it) than it does about the horse if you ask me.

It can be recommended to vary between riding with or without a bit, and please try to ride in rope halter (or neck strap) at some point. If nothing else it'll give you an opportunity to exercise your own humbleness as a rider. (I recommend that you try this in an enclosed area.)

Remember that the horse has silence as its survival strategy, it reveals no pain with the slightest sound. This means that we as horse owners need to be more observant of the horse so that we "hear" their silent invitation to communication.

"Everyone wants to be right, but few question if their perception of right is right." FM Alexander

(Recited from my memory, might be a different wording)