The SELF TRIMMING horse

TO ATTAIN SUCCESS WE NEED TO ENSURE THAT NUTRITION, SURFACES AND EXERCISE ARE ENHANCING THE GOALS OF A SELF TRIMMING HORSE
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DIET - is it optimum for the health of the horse.  Is it forage based?

Check out the blogs written here from ECIR and Sarah Braithwaite.  SCROLL TO THE END of them both for the feeding suggestions.

Feeding Notes from ECIR

Feeding notes from Sarah Braithwaite

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HOOF HEALTH - is it healthy?  Does the horse land heel first on locomotion in a walk?  If you answer no to this, then this needs to be addressed. 

Often it is to do with frog health such as thrush.

Or - The diet

Or - the amount of movement - or lack of

Or - inflammation of the body/overall health
Seek help from a trimmer who understands this

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MOVEMENT - this is essential to the successful recovery of your horse and its hooves.  It is essentially the single most important thing you can do for your horse - and you by the way.

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HOLISTIC VALUES  are hugely important for your horses overall wellbeing

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To ensure the whole horse health is met

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=  Allow as much free movement as possible - daily.  Consider a track system, or Equicentral system
=  Herd life ?  Isolation is not helpful for a herd animal.  Paddocked seperately does not mean companionship.

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Lets get started ! --

MOVEMENT PROTOCOL ideals for self trimming

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= Vary the work so that the horse is not doing the same thing day after day.

    ~ mix it up = in hand, long reining, leading from another horse - or bicycle

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=  Ensure there are regular breaks between work sessions to allow recovery

    ~ a safe rule to start is 1 day on/1 day off

    ~ then when walking comfortably - 2 days on/1 day off

    ~ Recovery is important,  commit to a maximum of 4 days a week of work during the 

        'rehabilitation'  period of 12 weeks

=  Make sure that the increases in work level/intensity are GRADUAL

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     ~ Only increase when you are happy that the horse is CONSISTENTLY comfortable at this worklevel/intensity.

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      ~ At any stage if the horse becomes uncomfortable - DROP BACK the work level/intensity to where  they were successfully comfortable.

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=  When changing work levels - only change one thing at a time

     ~ eg.

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   * You could add in faster work

  *  Ride a longer duration

  *  Work on a tougher surface

 *    Do work that is more intense

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Only do ONE of these things at a time.

Once you are comfortable with that change and consistently doing well - THEN  you can make another change.

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=  Be careful, but dont be over cautious

     ~ Find the balance between doing too careful and not doing enough

        OR

     ~ being too bold and doing too much

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Heres an example timetable to help you get started.

• *  Lead out on grass verges with period on tarseal
• *  Lead out on tarseal
• *  Ride on grass verges with period on tarseal
• *  Ride on tarseal
• *  Set a distance to ride that the horse is comfortable to continue on for a distance.
•     eg 5km?  10km?   more?    less?
• * Adjust the work level as you become successfully comfortable.
•    ~  longer duration?
•    ~ hill work
•    ~ add in a tougher surface
•    ~  increase in speed (this could be done increments too)
•    ~   other (riverwork, beach, etc)
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  Hit a roadblock/issue??  Stopped imroving?  Go back and revaluate - Diet, Hoof Health and the Holistic values of your horse
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SIDENOTE

Dont be afraid to sometimes get out your rasp and adjust the hoof is you see inbalance that could be hindering improvement.

This might be

Splits in the hoof wall - a sign of unbalanced wear - balance to the limb, NOT the hoof

Excessive bars that arent wearing off