About Successful Natural Horsecare

and Sarah Bell (ND. DO. MRN. MBNOA.)

Contents

My Goal with Horses

My aim is to ride, hunt, compete, happy healthy horses that are kept and looked after, with their health and well being as my main priority.

Why?

Very simply if they feel well in themselves, they become a joy to ride and the bottom line, they will also be safer to ride.

It is for these reasons that I have endeavored to understand and learn all that there is to learn about natural horsecare and from all that I have learnt I am now in a position to share this knowledge.

Fundamental Principles

My principles of health and well being come from the foundation blocks of Naturopathic medicine which I trained in and have practiced and lived by ever since.

The following diagram outlines naturopathy:-

There are three parts to a triangle, if these three parts are all in balance and working properly, then together they make and create optimum health.

If however, any one of these three areas are out of balance, this will then affect that person/horses overall health. So:-

• Biochemical (nutrition, herbs, minerals)
• Physical (exercise, movement,flexibility)
• Mental (psychological, how they think feel, communication etc.)

  By keeping these three principles in ones mind, when you hit problems these three aspects can be a helpful way of checking through and seeing which area needs addressing.

  
  Three Areas of Health

  So to summarize all three areas need:-

  • addressing and understanding.

  We have endeavored to do with our horses and this is what we share here with you on this site.

  
  

  Education and Training

  I trained at the British College of Naturopathy and Osteopathy in London (it is now called the British College of Osteopathic Medicine) for 4 years and then set up a practice working with patients and their many different ailments.

  
  Doing Groundwork with a Rearing Mare

  At the same time I worked with a very experienced french Naturopath and Osteopath who taught me a great deal about health.

  My father a Medical Consultant throughout his career branched out into different areas within the medical establishment. He was not afraid of doing things differently and standing his ground. His open/alternative approach throughout his life, I think may well have helped me not be afraid of studying and looking at things differently.

  I then married, continued working and had three children. Having looked at health in an alternative way I did the same with education. The end result being that our three children are educated at home.

  
  One of our Daughters

  Here is a picture of our youngest daughter. (The tea-towel on her pony is so her trousers don't get dusty!)

  As with all the horses, when he arrived his shoes were taken off and he is ridden in a bitless bridle.

  Here he is wearing a Monty Roberts training halter, an easy halter for children to use as well as adults.

  (You can also buy these halters on eBay.They come in different sizes and are extremely useful. (The suppliers of the halters will also have a training DVD made by Monty Roberts which shows you how to use the halters which is worth buying.)

  My Riding Background

  I had always wanted to ride. After marrying I started learning.

  My husband had ridden all his life and competed at a high level so he had to put up with a novice rider ñ for him challenging sometimes, to say the least. However, it kept me motivated as I wanted to be as good as him.

  We were living in London and our horses were in full livery two hours away.

  Later moving out of London enabled us to look after them ourselves. At this stage I had no knowledge of how to look after a horse. I had a lot to learn.

  With no training and no knowledge in horsecare everything that I was learning I questioned and looked to see how to care for horses from a more natural angle. This was what I had been doing with patients and with our children and their learning - so for me it was a normal way of thinking.

  
  

  The Changes

  Very soon I quit stabling them and kept them turned. I quit using chemical wormers and cut out sugared and molassed feeds.

  Their health improved.

  Behavioral Problems

  I was also finding tricky characteristics with which to deal with. e.g. nappy horses, horses not jumping, difficulty leading, not standing still when you get on them, head tossing etc. (All very frustrating and often frightening when the horse is not listening to the rider.)

  So I studied and read all I could on Natural Horsemanship natural horsemanship. I went around the country attending natural horsemanship clinics. What I learnt coincided so much with the way I had been trained and my further studies that it was easy to start putting this into practice with the horses.

  The horses got better, they became polite and easier to handle and ride.

  
  

  The Reason for Removing all the Shoes

  I then met a dressage rider, Lucinda McAlpine who kept all her horses barefoot. She explained why she kept her horses barefoot and how shod horses slip on roads etc. etc.

  Shortly after speaking to her, my husbands horse, 'Nick' a beautiful dark bay 16' hand thoroughbred, who had competed in the National Team Chases, slipped on the road and smashed his pelvis.

  This beautiful horse in his prime was shot later that day.

  This horse had needed a fair amount of schooling. I had worked hard on him over the previous six months and he had been ready to start hunting and competing again that season.

  So a week later after loosing him, I took all the shoes off our horses, we had 10.

  I then started to learn about keeping horses barefoot and how to trim their hooves. There was a lot to learn.

  
  
  

  The Challenge

  I knew nothing.

  Some of the horses were fine, some became quite sore and some abscessed heavily. I studied hard and finally found a barefoot trimmer who was able to help us.

  But we still had a long way to go, unbeknown to us at the time, for us to achieve really sound barefoot horses.

  The problem that we have had, has been understanding how to get really tough hooves. We hunt our horses and therefore we can be in the saddle for many hours and cover all types of terrain.

  
  

  What I Had To Do

  I needed to understand all the different factors which are necessary for us to create tough hooves.

  If we we had been eventing, show jumping or just hacking, i.e. doing a discipline when the hours in the saddle was a great deal less, it would have been much easier.

  Due to our requirements I have had to delve very deeply into the subject of barefoot horses and it has required me to really study how the horse moves, the importance of balance, feed, living etc.

  One of the things we got wrong was the trim and this was even with the help of a barefoot trimmer. The correct trim is fundamental to the well being of the horses hooves. See the Barefoot Trimming page for more information.

  There are many different trimmers out there but I would recommend you understand the basics of trimming yourself, even if you are having help, after all it is your horse and you need to spot if things are going wrong.

  
  

  To Summarize

  This thought, "how to do things more naturally," and have horses that are listening, are safe and a pleasure to ride has been like opening a can of worms, having opened it I could not put the lid back on.

  Why.........?

  Why did I persist when all we had were lame, sore horses? The word that comes to mind is passion:-

  It was my absolute determined passion to resolve all the problems that came our way and that hindered their soundness.

  I was and still am, passionate about it, why? because it's like driving a Rolls Royce instead of a clapped out mini, once you have ridden a barefoot horse:-

  • there is no turning back.

  So this site sums up all that we have had to learn. The rewards of riding and keeping horses more naturally as well as barefoot are enormous and well worth the effort of learning and understanding how best to achieve it.
  

  
  

  What is in this Site for You

  This site should make it easier for anyone wanting to look into natural horse care. It should save you time and solve some of the many questions and queries you are having.

  I have endeavored to keep it simple, practical and not too detailed. So what ever level of horsemanship you are at, you will be able to gain and benefit quickly from the knowledge I have acquired, without feeling overwhelmed.

  This site will reduce some of the daily frustrations and questions you may be having trouble with solving.

  I suggest in your search for answers and solutions rather than try everything all at once take a step at a time, each day:-

  • add something,
  • sort something,
  • learn something,

  and you will be amazed how quickly it will accumulate.

  Secondly, talk ONLY to people and friends who will support you in your endeavors. Never let anyone stop your dreams and ideas.

  
  

  Updates

  As Jaime Jackson recently said to me, Sarah, natural horse care is always a work in progress."

  So with this in mind I will continually update you and let you know of further developments or sites that I think you will find helpful - subscribed to the RSS feed for this.

  
  

  Contact Us

  If you would like further help and advice with your horsecare please fill in the Contact Form. If you wish to give us any feedback on this site that will help us and others who visit it we would appreciate it.

  
  

  Support

  When I have cried and cried and felt utterly stuck as to how to achieve performance with natural horsecare I was given tremendous support and encouragement from my husband and children and one or two very special people.

  
  

  Alicia Mitchell

  I was extremely lucky at the beginning in having a special girl, Alicia Mitchell work here and help us for the first two years of our natural horsecare and barefoot work.

  She then went on to train and qualify with the AANHCP and is now a qualified trimmer and full member of the AANHCP.

  
  

  Laura Armson

  Then a very special person, Laura came here and has worked with us ever since.

  Her work and support has been outstanding. Never once did she ever doubt that what we were doing was possible and without her work, support and input we would not have been able to achieve all that we have done here.

  It is difficult to sum up into words all that she has done to help us.

  This support and trust helped keep me focused when things went wrong, which they did, many times and when that happened we went back to work and studied more and looked to see what it was that we were still needing to learn.

  I hope this site will give you similar support.

  
  

  Some Of The Many Thoughts That Have Helped Me.

  "Excellence is the commitment to completion" Bob Proctor from "You Were Born Rich"

  
  

  "One can choose to go back towards safety or forward towards growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again."
  Abrahma Maslow - 1908-1970 Psychologist

  
  

  "You can conquer almost any fear if you will make up your mind to do so. For remember, fear doesn't exist anywhere except in the mind."
  Dale Carnegie 1888-1955

  
  
  
  
  
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