Natural Horse Care "Natural Horse Care" refers to all those factors that contribute to the most natural and healthy life style for our domestic horses.  It encompasses the natural barefoot trim, proper living facilities, proper diet, and LOTS of movement over terrain that is as natural as possible.  Barefoot Trim:   I have mentioned this already and there are some excellent sites you can find on my Links Page.  This trim is NOT what most farriers do when you pull the shoes and just get their feet trimmed.  Very different.  Try to find a natural hoof care trimmer in your area.  Also, try to read as much as you can about it and start educating yourself about the hoof structures and you will begin to understand what the difference is. Living Facilities:  Horses need some type of shelter from cold rain, snow/sleet/freezing rain.    They need some type of shade during the summer and a wind break for those really windy days.   This can be simple or elaborate, but the horse should be able to access the shelter when needed, yet still be free to roam about when he wants to.   Pictured on this page is an "open barn" with the east side completely open.  The loafing area is 12' x 60' and has a layer of sand topped off with 4" of pea gravel.  Underneath that is a layer of geotextile to prevent the gravel and sand from sinking into the ground.  The stalls are 10' x 14' and are composed of corral panels which help prevent any horse feeling claustrophobic when confined.  The floors are dirt topped with rubber mats.  The west wall is closed so hay and other things can be stored.  Gates to the "stalls" are kept open except for the occasional times when a horse or horses need to be confined.  They are free to come and go and can either graze on pasture or eat hay from one of the metal tanks that are kept filled with grass hay.  With a few shade trees on the pasture, the horses can be comfortable yet have a relatively "normal" life.  The horses living here are MUCH happier than their stall-confined cousins.  Simple open sheds, which allow the horse to come and go and have access to pasture, will work just as well for your horses.   Locking him up in a nice tidy, clean stall may be convenient for the owner but it is grossly unfair to the horse.  Horse's have evolved moving about most all day and it is extremely unnatural for them to be confined in a stall most of their life.  They need areas that drain well and do not become mud holes during the rainy season.  There are as many solutions to a drainage problem as their are variations in the terrain on which they live.  Look at your set up with a critical eye and figure out how solve your drainage problems.  It may involve having sand, rocks or soil hauled in to build up low areas or having a tractor do some dirt moving for you or installing guttering or French drains or whatever.  You may even need to have a "sacrifice" area where the drainage water is directed.  Whatever the solution, you should be able to come up with a plan.  Why worry about this?  For one, it is very messy to have to trudge out in the mud to take care of your horses and horses actually do not like to stand in mud/water all the time.  Given a choice, they will seek dry ground.  For another, if their feet are always wet it will encourage thrush and fungus in their feet and maybe even "scratches" (an infection of the skin on the back of the fetlocks that can spread around and up the leg).  Another reason is for pest control.  Mosquitoes, flies and ticks all carry diseases to you, to your horse and to your dogs & cats, besides being just downright annoying.  They also all love areas that are kept moist and areas that have tall vegetation.  So, try to keep the grass/weeds mowed down and do what you can to eliminate areas of mud or standing water.   If possible, placing pea gravel about 4-6 inches deep in locations where the horse will have to walk over it frequently is a nice thing.  This helps stimulate the hoof and helps to exfoliate the sole.  Movement is very necessary to the overall health of horses (as it is for humans!).  If you are not blessed with pasture (or if your horse needs to be removed from pasture due to being insulin resistant), at least give him as much ground as possible.  Place his hay in various locations so he will have to move around to get it all.  If you have more than 1 horse/mule/donkey, and if they get along together, then allow them to run together in order to stimulate movement and play.  The more movement they get, the better off they will be...for their feet, their entire body and their mind.  If the terrain is varied and if it has some natural rocks, all the better!  Obstacles are good, too.  They will cause the horse to use his body by bending, negotiating around or over the obstacle and develop his muscles/tendons/bones...everything.  Natural obstacles are great, but you can also improvise and build some.  Use your imagination. The key here is:   Protection from the elements, companions if possible and MOVEMENT.   The more the horse moves, the better off they are.  It improves their hoof structure (assuming a barefoot trim), it improves their metabolism and it improves their attitude.  Nature designed them to move and to do so barefoot.  However you achieve this with what you have to work with is up to you.  Just remember that you don't have to do what everyone else does.  Be creative. Diet: Beautiful Lush Green Grass:   Most people this is the best possible thing for horses.  Unfortunately, this is not necessarily so.  Horses were designed by nature to walk/trot long distances each day (getting exercise and burning calories) and to eat from somewhat sparse forage.  On average, wild mustangs will travel 10-20 miles per day.  Sometimes, the forage is more lush, of course.  But, they are still moving about if for no other reason than to go back and forth to their water sources.  Not so with our domestic horses.  They may have lush pasture with a water tank or pond conveniently nearby.  So, they do move but not that much.   With rich pasture and without a lot of exercise, these horses can become obese.  Obese horses are at risk of developing health problems (such as Insulin Resistance) just like humans do.   Those "easy keeper" horses are actually horses with very efficient metabolisms.  Given enough exercise and moderate diet, they will do great.  However, give them lush pasture, too much hay or too rich hay, grain...the problems are developing.  If you even think your horse might be at risk of IR (insulin resistance), please go to the ECIR website and read all the information that they offer.  Don't be lulled into a false sense of security, however, by the pictures on the website of the IR horse.  That horse is a severe case.   In the early stages, they do not appear that obvious.  A simple blood test can determine IR.  However, your vet may not really understand how to interpret it and simply go by what the lab says is normal (and those values are horribly out of date).  Again, read all the info. on the ECIR website so you will know what test to ask for and how to interpret it.  If your horse is IR, then you will need to learn a lot more about nutrition if you want to keep him/her healthy.   Simply put, the sugar, starch and fat content of your horse's diet (including what is in his pasture, hay, etc.) should be kept low.   The minerals must be balanced.   There is help available to show you how to do that.  It is not as difficult as you might imagine.  Depending on how much exercise the horse gets and how severe is his IR, he may not be able to tolerate any pasture without developing laminitis as he gets older.  Most people do not understand all of this.  Many vets are unaware of the 'sub-clinical' cases of laminitis or that the problem even occurs. If you are riding your horse fairly regularly and if you are observant, you may notice that your seems a bit "off" periodically.  Yet, a day or so later he seems fine again.  If you take him/her to the vet, they do not find anything wrong.  You begin to suspect that you are crazy.  Yet, it happens again and you just decide that your horse is just "old" and probably has arthritis or some other some such excuse.  I know...I went through a similar pattern for a few years.  But after studying the problem, I finally realized that it was indeed more than just getting older (he was only 13 y.o.).  He had sub-clinical laminitis.  It would apparently resolve, only to recur over and over.  Nothing that would show up on x-ray.  Finally, I gave up on vets and farriers, pulled his shoes & balanced his diet and watched him gradually become sound.  A correctly balanced was critical to his recovery.   Your neighbor, your farrier, your friends, the feed store may try to offer advice, but likely they do not truly understand it either.  Only listen to those who have experience with these types of issues or you will find yourself buying supplements and feeds that will not help and may make things worse.  I now buy individual minerals & a few vitamins and mix my horses feed myself.  Much cheaper than buying those high-dollar supplements and actually much more effective. (Anyone who is interested in learning how to do the same can contact me and I will be happy to help them.) Well, what about those horses who do not have metabolic problems and appear healthy on pasture?  Great!  You are lucky if that is the case!  That will make it much simpler for you and for your horse.  Still, watch their weight.  Don't let them get skinny, but don't make them fat, either.  Be careful about anything that you put on your pasture...such as chemicals or fertilizer.  Most equines will do best with the natural growth.  If you add a lot of nitrogen, this will increase the nitrate content in your grasses which can cause some serious problems if the nitrate content gets too high.  Before you add anything, do your homework and make sure that the end result is what you really want.  The county extension office is a good source for determining what, if anything, your soil may need added.  (Be sure the extension realizes that you are grazing horses and not cows.)  All things being equal, time on pasture is very beneficial for most horses.  They will get a varied diet, exercise and socialization time if there are other horses with them.  Also be sure that they have plenty of clean water available.  On hot summer days, they can drink a lot of water and they need it.   Provide loose table salt  for your horses to eat at will.  The smooth tongue of the horse is not able to get enough salt for their daily needs during warm months.  I do provide the white salt blocks in my horse's sheds, but also add iodized table salt to their daily rations to be sure they are getting enough.  NEVER give them the red mineral blocks or red minerals of any kind.  That has iron in it and no horse needs any additional iron in their diet.  (There is MORE than enough iron in our soil, in our pasture grasses and in our hay in this country.  Way more than enough!)  They get more than enough from their diet.  Horses are not like humans and they do not get iron deficient.   Excess iron builds up in their system and liver and eventually causes lots of problems.  Do NOT feed your horses "free choice" minerals, either.  There is a common misconception that a horse will pick and choose the minerals that their body needs.  This is simply not true.  Horses do have a taste for salt and will consume salt if they are deficient in salt.  They also have a taste preference for sweet things and will consume those minerals blocks or mineral mixes because lots of them have molasses and/or grain added to them.  They can actually consume too much of a mineral that they do not need from such sources.  So...free choice salt, Yes.   Free choice minerals, NO!   Mineral blocks, NO!   Note:  If you provide a separate source of iodine (such as Source), you do not want to also provide iodized table salt...rather just provide the plain table salt. Grain...give this only as really needed.  Most horses that are not in heavy work can do fine with pasture and/or good quality grass hay.  If you must give grain, don't go for the high protein and high fat formulas.  The type of added fat used in these feeds is usually the inflammatory type.  Excess protein is just wasted and will cause the horse to need to drink more water in order to flush the excess protein out.   Adult horses, at maintenance or light or moderate work don't need more than 10-12% protein.  Also, try to avoid feeding the "sweet feeds" which are loaded with molasses.  And don't start throwing supplements at them without understanding if they really need those particular supplements and without understanding the purpose for them and the proper amount to give.  Most of the commercially mixed supplements, no matter what they proclaim and no matter how much they charge, usually consist of very minute quantities of any particular vitamin or mineral.  Seldom enough to make any difference if the horse actually is deficient in something.  Yet, lots of owners buy these very items and feel they are doing something beneficial for their horse.  If you want to add supplements, do your homework.  Send in hay samples for analysis and balance the minerals according to the analysis.  (If you have trouble finding the sources to help you with this, send me an email and I will give you some more links.)   And don't believe the old myth that horses know what minerals they need and will instinctively eat the right thing.  This is just not the case.  Don't throw everything at them and expect them to pick out the correct things.  That myth is apparently gaining in momentum, but it is nothing but a myth!  This is not meant to be a thorough explanation on how to care for your horses.  There are lots of very informative websites by people who have been doing this for a lot of years.  I've simply highlighted some of the basics if you truly want to provide the best living conditions for your barefoot horse so that he/she can develop healthy hoof structures.  The secondary health benefits are just icing on the cake!