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About us
We bought our small farm a few years back, as we just were not happy living in a subdivision. I'd say that is pretty normal, since my husband was a rancher in Belgium, and I lived there for 20 years. We missed the country! So we bought this wonderful little log cabin with it's 5 acres. My husband redid all of the fences (to be safe for our horses), and rebuilt up the shed and built a new barn. Once all this was done, the first farm animals be brought to our home were 3 Pgymy goats. Oh they are so cute, and follow you around like puppy dogs. Then we have our 2 dogs that are mixes of who knows what, both from the pound. They are the best!! After that it was rabbits, then fish, and then horses. Still thinking about chickens. lol
Any way, the reason I decided to have a barefoot boarding facility is because of my rescue mare Burta. When we had gotten her and her 2 month old colt, she had the worst feet ever. I was very worried, as I had been told that she was looking like she was getting Navicular Disease and this is incurable (or so they say)! The poor girl had been through so much already, as she was not very well treated before. I couldn't stand the idea of her being in more pain. I had a couple of traditional ferriers come out and give her a trim, but she still didn't seem to be much better. I started to research the internet to see what could be done. This is how I fell upon different information about having your horse barefoot.
HMMMMM!! What a concept, all my life I had been told that you HAVE to have shoes on your horse if you are ever going to ride him any where. But yet, going barefoot did seem so logical. How is it that the wild mustangs do so well out in the nature?
I've been out to visit the round up corrals for the mustangs, and I have to say, these horses had hooves tough, tough, tough and nicely rounded. They looked so healthy! With the research I've done, I found that domestic horses often don't live as long as our wild mustangs. How can this be so?
I found a wonderful website by Marjorie Smith which really opened up my eyes to the fact that there are different kinds of trims! The trim for shoes, a pasture trim and the barefoot trim, none of which are the same! Thanks to her, I was able to learn a lot. And realized that this is the way I needed to go for my mare and colt. So now the search was on for a barefoot trimmer. I had called a lot of people, and finally I was told about Barbara Dunn. I gave her a call and explained my situation. She was so understanding about my fears and came out right away to look at my mare. Barbara is like a walking encyclopedia and so helpful, I have learned so much from her. But what was the most astounding is how just after One Trim, my mare was already doing so much better. Barbara explained to me that her feet were so out of alignment that it was hurting her to pick up her feet. Especially the back ones. (Believe me, I had a heck of a time with her on that). Barbara warned me that this was still not going to make it perfect, just better, and it would take time for her to transition. But that was ok for me. We had all the time in the world. But after this first trim, my mares attitude had changed completely from an unhappy camper, slow mover, grumpy attitude to a horse that now would come running up to me, let me clean her feet with NO issues! I couldn't believe the change! After about 4 weeks, Barbara came back to check on her, she did do another corrective trim, but even she was surprised to see how fast my mare had adapted (and no more swelling on her leg). But then, I listened to Barbara, she had suggested that we put rocks in the areas where they have to come in and eat. Like this the hooves trim a bit on their own and they become tougher, making it possible for horses to walk on anything. We've played around with the different ways to do this, and this summer we will be putting in some concrete with pea gravel on top of it. So the rocks don't sink into the ground during the winter months. But we also have pasture that is on a slope. This forces our horses to get exercise, if they go down, they have to come back up to be fed. This exercise keeps their circulation going strong, which is really, really important.
Barbara has studied Dr. Tia Nelson's methods, as well as Dr. Hiltrud Strasser and Pete Ramey. She is a certified barefoot trimmer and a John & Josh Lyons Certified Horse Trainer. She's a leader in 4H and a wonder with training wild mustangs! You can find her website in My Favorite Links Page.
I decided that I wanted to be more knowledgeable and started reading up from all of these wonderful people. You can find more information on My Favorite Links Page.
I really want to open up peoples minds to another option. As quite often, when a horse is diagnosed with Navicular Disease or any other lameness problems, they are put down. It has now been proven over and over again, that most of these horses can be saved if just given the time to heal by going barefoot.
Please read up on the different links available. You can also find articles that I have written in Pet Friendly Magazine.com These magazines are free and in over 300 locations, you can find these locations on their website and you can even read the magazines on their website. Wonderful stuff in there with lots of information about local events.
With all this said, I wanted to create a place where people could have their horses barefoot, or start going in that direction. You do need the right environment for it to work, and every horse is different with the transition time needed. But we are willing to help you and your horse with this. In some cases, their life depends on it!
Any way, the reason I decided to have a barefoot boarding facility is because of my rescue mare Burta. When we had gotten her and her 2 month old colt, she had the worst feet ever. I was very worried, as I had been told that she was looking like she was getting Navicular Disease and this is incurable (or so they say)! The poor girl had been through so much already, as she was not very well treated before. I couldn't stand the idea of her being in more pain. I had a couple of traditional ferriers come out and give her a trim, but she still didn't seem to be much better. I started to research the internet to see what could be done. This is how I fell upon different information about having your horse barefoot.
HMMMMM!! What a concept, all my life I had been told that you HAVE to have shoes on your horse if you are ever going to ride him any where. But yet, going barefoot did seem so logical. How is it that the wild mustangs do so well out in the nature?
I've been out to visit the round up corrals for the mustangs, and I have to say, these horses had hooves tough, tough, tough and nicely rounded. They looked so healthy! With the research I've done, I found that domestic horses often don't live as long as our wild mustangs. How can this be so?
I found a wonderful website by Marjorie Smith which really opened up my eyes to the fact that there are different kinds of trims! The trim for shoes, a pasture trim and the barefoot trim, none of which are the same! Thanks to her, I was able to learn a lot. And realized that this is the way I needed to go for my mare and colt. So now the search was on for a barefoot trimmer. I had called a lot of people, and finally I was told about Barbara Dunn. I gave her a call and explained my situation. She was so understanding about my fears and came out right away to look at my mare. Barbara is like a walking encyclopedia and so helpful, I have learned so much from her. But what was the most astounding is how just after One Trim, my mare was already doing so much better. Barbara explained to me that her feet were so out of alignment that it was hurting her to pick up her feet. Especially the back ones. (Believe me, I had a heck of a time with her on that). Barbara warned me that this was still not going to make it perfect, just better, and it would take time for her to transition. But that was ok for me. We had all the time in the world. But after this first trim, my mares attitude had changed completely from an unhappy camper, slow mover, grumpy attitude to a horse that now would come running up to me, let me clean her feet with NO issues! I couldn't believe the change! After about 4 weeks, Barbara came back to check on her, she did do another corrective trim, but even she was surprised to see how fast my mare had adapted (and no more swelling on her leg). But then, I listened to Barbara, she had suggested that we put rocks in the areas where they have to come in and eat. Like this the hooves trim a bit on their own and they become tougher, making it possible for horses to walk on anything. We've played around with the different ways to do this, and this summer we will be putting in some concrete with pea gravel on top of it. So the rocks don't sink into the ground during the winter months. But we also have pasture that is on a slope. This forces our horses to get exercise, if they go down, they have to come back up to be fed. This exercise keeps their circulation going strong, which is really, really important.
Barbara has studied Dr. Tia Nelson's methods, as well as Dr. Hiltrud Strasser and Pete Ramey. She is a certified barefoot trimmer and a John & Josh Lyons Certified Horse Trainer. She's a leader in 4H and a wonder with training wild mustangs! You can find her website in My Favorite Links Page.
I decided that I wanted to be more knowledgeable and started reading up from all of these wonderful people. You can find more information on My Favorite Links Page.
I really want to open up peoples minds to another option. As quite often, when a horse is diagnosed with Navicular Disease or any other lameness problems, they are put down. It has now been proven over and over again, that most of these horses can be saved if just given the time to heal by going barefoot.
Please read up on the different links available. You can also find articles that I have written in Pet Friendly Magazine.com These magazines are free and in over 300 locations, you can find these locations on their website and you can even read the magazines on their website. Wonderful stuff in there with lots of information about local events.
With all this said, I wanted to create a place where people could have their horses barefoot, or start going in that direction. You do need the right environment for it to work, and every horse is different with the transition time needed. But we are willing to help you and your horse with this. In some cases, their life depends on it!
