On Hooves and Living Conditions

In my last journal entry, Janet Grant left a comment with a query, which I thought I would address here today. Janet wrote:

Lynne, I have been reading your blog since the beginning and don't recall you having a discussion about the horse's feet. I am involved with the Paso Fino's, as you know, and they are very prone to founder. With your herd, do you ever have to trim their feet? Are their hooves in really good health because of the herd's constant movement? What percentage of their food are they getting from you in the form of hay and what are they getting from the land? I suppose my real question is what are we doing wrong! I think the Pasos have been bred in South America for 500 years, are recent immigrants, and don't tolerate our rich grass.

I specifically haven't devoted any prior journal entries to hooves, because I have not immersed myself too deeply in the study of the "natural hoof" and therefore feel rather unequipped to discuss or advise about such things. Nevertheless, there are some experiences and observations which have occurred here at Ravenseyrie that might be of interest to those who have studied hoof ailments intensively or those who have horses with less than perfect hooves.

Kevin and I did attend a barefoot hoof clinic held on the island in early May. Kate Romanenko was the instructor/farrier and she offered first a lecture and then worked on some of the horses that participants had brought to the clinic. I'm sharing some of the photos I took. Kate did an excellent job of relaying the benefits to natural horse keeping and stressed again and again how important it was to remove shoes and get horses out of their stalls.

Natural hoof advocate, Kate Romanenko

There appear to be many issues that trigger abnormalities in hoof growth and overall hoof health such as genetic heritage, environment, nutrition and what humans might "use" their horses for.

Kate Romanenko helps a horse with a severe case of founder

Here at Ravenseyrie, I put a lot of trust in the varied environment to supply the horses with everything they require to maintain themselves the best hooves suited to their lifestyles. Most of them have no issues that would require intervention from us, not even one nip or need for rasping.

Bella, pictured here with Belina and Zorita as they move across the autumn landscape

The registered Spanish Mustang mare, Bella, who came to us as a yearling, has always had poor hooves (flat, prone to flares and wicked cracks) and during the spring of her second year suffered from a laminitic episode that required some specific trimming on her front hooves. Despite a brief period of being distinctly lame, Bella continued to keep up with the movements of the herd, which more than likely hastened her recovery. While today Bella's hooves are still not "perfect", their shape and growth patterns have improved a lot and she has not had any further episodes.

Zeus, the Thoroughbred gelding, has massive hooves that, like Bella's, would persistently flare and crack. Zeus was often "ouchy" especially back in the old days after the routine farrier's trim. The first year here at Ravenseyrie, Zeus suffered from a bad abscess, but again, like Bella, despite being distinctly lame, kept up with the movements of the herd and quickly recovered on its own without digging it out or soaking it. Today, Zeus' hooves are much stronger and while surface cracks continue, the flaring has stopped and though they sometimes get ragged-edged, his hooves now self-trim to a nice looking shape which appears to suit his needs incredibly well.

I don't think that Zeus and Bella will ever have "perfect" hooves, but it appears that their hooves have adjusted to their environment in ways that have improved them and allow them to lead very active, energetic lives. It's possible their hooves are less than ideal due to genetic heritage and while micro-managing by highly skilled farriers might keep them looking more like ideal hooves, I suspect that the environment of Ravenseyrie actually does a better job of making them better functioning hooves despite their less than picture perfect appearance.


Occasionally, we will do a light trim of the toe or quarters on the mules, whose hooves seem to take longer to self-trim. From time to time each of the other horses will have a chip, crack or break in the quarter as their hooves go through the process of self-trimming, typically this is noted during the seasons when the ground is moist.

At Ravenseyrie, the horses are fed hay generally from December to early May. The hay is a first cutting of mixed prairie grasses combined with flowering herbs that grow among the grasses. The hay is put up into the large 500 lb round bales, off from which we peel copious amounts two to three times a day and spread this out into numerous piles wherever the herd has chosen to be on the landscape depending on the weather conditions. The amount we put out is based on the condition of the horses (both physically and mentally) and how harsh the weather is. In addition to hay, we feed one scoop (approx. 3 cups) of whole oats per horse (foals not included, though they nibble a little of it) in the morning. While we continue to offer breakfast oats even after we've stopped feeding hay, there is a period of time in late June and early July when the horses stop coming up for oats altogether...it is a time when I feel most unneeded by them--except that when I hike out to see them they remember how good I am at itching places they cannot reach themselves. Occasionally, we hand feed apple and compressed alfalfa cubes as special treats.

Kevin hands out some apples to Mistral's group

The horses at Ravenseyrie experience seasonal changes in body weight, gaining weight in the spring, losing a bit during the late summer, regaining again in the autumn and losing a bit over the winter. In March of this year, we noted that Ciente and Mistral had lost much more weight than normal and so supplemented their breakfast oats with black oil sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, fenugreek seeds and alfalfa cubes, which were no longer required once the early spring grasses flushed over the landscape.

There is no barn here at Ravenseyrie, so the horses take shelter in the forest, selecting for themselves the spots most advantageous to their comfort depending on the prevailing winds. The horses are almost perpetually on the move, except when dozing, and while they move less in the bitter winter weather, they nonetheless continue to traverse their territory. The horses obtain water in spring and autumn from the numerous seasonal ponds and creeks upon on the table land. In summer, when these sources dry up, the horses go down the rocky bluff to slack their thirsts in the the lake. In the winter they eat snow or visit the few spots in the landscape where the ground water under the snow doesn't freeze.

In addition to grazing the grasses and herbs, the horses at Ravenseyrie also browse on branches, leaves, bark, roots, even dirt at all times of the year. In previous journal entries I have also showed the horses partaking of the mineral/salt block we put out for them.

Here we see Animado seeking out and eating earth

Many breeds of horses, even though highly domesticated, nevertheless have metabolisms adapted to surviving and thriving in a landscape that presents them with seasonal changes, environmental stresses and constant interaction with herd mates and other wildlife. Our well-intentioned habit of taking horses out of these landscapes to make their lives easier, more comfortable and more convenient for humans to have them available to "use" for their own whims and desires comes at a huge price in overall health and well-being. Most domestically kept horses are lacking appropriate physical and mental stimulation, are fed too much and exercised too little, and their human handlers are scrambling furtively to tinker with elements they can never fully comprehend in an effort to create an equilibrium in an unbalanced situation. Even horses that are out on pasture are often on "improved" groomed pastures which are too rich and lack diversity.


I am not learned enough to give advice to those of you who are having health issues with your horses...I can only relay what the daily lives of the Ravenseyrie horses is like and perhaps this will reveal something about how beneficial it is to embrace even the hardships of a natural environment. I hope, Janet, that you can find a way to implement some or all of these "wilderness" elements in ways that help your Paso Finos.

We Are the Cold

Snow Buntings of Ravenseyrie, living with us up on the East Bluff for the fourth consecutive winter...when the snow is gone, so are they...

Kevin and I have a special phrase that we affirm to each other as a means of summoning up the motivation, strength and courage to go on about our winter chores here at the Ravenseyrie Sorraia Mustang Preserve on Manitoulin Island.My wonderful Kevin, fetching firewood on a 10°F morning at Ravenseyrie

This morning, with the calendar showing that it is indeed March the third, but with the thermometer reading -18°F, our special phrase was expressly called for: We are the cold! Sometimes this phrase is accompanied by a double "high-5" and Sumo-wrestler-type grunts and finished with a resonating, "Hoo-waah!" Then we are psyched and ready to take our heavily layered, bulked up forms out into the purple freeze of pre-dawn and bring the herd their breakfast. (A variation of this pep rally--complete with 'burly-man' stretches--takes place when we have to push a new 800lb bale of hay upright in the shed so that it's ready for peeling off layers at feeding time.)

Ever since last Thursday's snow and wind storm, we have been getting frigid temperatures again. Each night it has dropped down to the minus teens (°F) and only rising up to plus 8 to 10°F during the day. Mostly, there hasn't been but a light breeze, though on Sunday, that breeze was strong enough to bite, so we sledded out the herd's meals to the lee-side of the north forest. The sun was warming up this particular windbreak through the entire day, making for a nice place to pass a winter's day eating, sleeping and playing. I took my camera out after the late day hay was laid out and took some photos to share. Before I share them, I'll put in an image taken yesterday afternoon as some of the herd weaved the way up the "Zen Elm" trail to the windbreak where we had fed them the prior day...this will give you a sense of distance...I snapped this photo while looking out to the north while the camera was poised on a tripod inside the house:
And these are the photos taken on Sunday from the comfort of this nicely situated windbreak:

Belina

Bella

Animado and Jerry

Left to right: Belina, Altamiro, Interessado and Ciente

Left to right: Mistral, Fada and Altamiro

Zorita

Zeus, who is taking a break from his hay to rub against a tree

I don't have photos of Dee and Doll from this session, but I'll make up for it by showing some of them in the next sequence of photos.

I'd like to take a pause from the photos for a bit though to discuss just how difficult a winter this has been for the herd. I know there are readers of this journal that are devoted to "natural horse-keeping", as are Kevin and I, so what I have to relay may interest you. We expected we would be feeding more hay this year due to having one new mare and three foals added to the herd and we ordered enough hay to compensate for these extra mouths. What we didn't plan for was to begin feeding almost three weeks earlier than usual and then having to feed especially heavy because of prolonged deep-freeze temperatures. We are putting out almost double the amount of hay than what was required last year, and feeding double rations of oats as well. Nearly everyone has lost weight this winter, but none moreso than Mistral and Ciente. Our horses and mules appear to cope very well with the harshness of winter in a semi-wild setting...but I do wonder if they would perish if like truly wild horses, they had to totally fend for themselves? I doubt there is enough forage on the 360 acres open to our herd to supply them with enough to eat during a harsh winter such as this.

Mistral is twenty-nine years old and is typically an "easy-keeper", but obviously the extreme cold has been taxing his energy reserves. He remains robust in spirit, but I want to see him robust in body again.

Ciente is our coming four year old Kiger Mustang mare. With Interessado still nursing off her and a growing foal inside of her, this sweet young mare (who is not an "easy-keeper") has never had opportunity to build up any energy reserves and so like Mistral, is looking much too thin. It's in these times when if not given special assistance the horses' immune systems may become compromised and leave them open to contracting a number of illnesses. We have been sneaking Ciente compressed alfalfa hay cubes and last week have begun providing both her and Mistral a high protein processed feed supplement. Typically I don't like sweetened, highly processed feed, (I like knowing the full ingredients of what I'm eating or what I'm feeding others) but these two horses are obviously requiring more than what we are providing at the usual meal times and we feel a "quick pick-me-up" is called for. If I had a barn, I could separate them from the rest of the herd and provide them extra meals, but that's not an option available just now. No one steals Mistral's supplement, but we do have to stand guard over Ciente in order for her to eat her ration. It's tricky all the way around, and I think some of the other herd members are becoming affronted because they aren't getting these extras. I've been rather beside myself with worry at how thin Mistral and Ciente are...Kevin reminds me that in less than eight weeks I'll be beside myself with worry because everyone will be getting too fat on the new spring grass.

Yesterday, before the late day meal was finished, Dee, Doll and Zorita left their remaining hay to the others and they went out in search of those delicate green shoots that are singing a song of spring from beneath the deep snow.
The half-Sorraia/half Sulphur Mustang mare, Sovina's Zorita digs for grass beneath the snow

Doll and Dee dig through the snow for succulent green grass shoots

Last evening, as the sun quietly slipped lower down the blue dome of the sky, the temperature sank as well, making for some exquisite colors while the herd took their leave from their dinner site and migrated off to the east sector to spend the evening digging for grass shoots and nibbling on twigs and bark. Once again, I had the camera set on the tripod and took these photos from the expansive windows of our house--with views like this, I just think I must be the luckiest gal on Manitoulin Island. Sure it's been damn cold here, and the snowstorms have been especially wicked this year...but it seems like a fair trade for all this magical beauty...at least that's the way Kevin and I feel...after all, "we are the cold!"

Zorita looking very primitive and exquisite in the late day sunglow


The herd slowly crosses over to the east
Good night ponies and mules! See you for breakfast in the morning!