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From: Mark at lazy r ranch To: Steve, Cherry Creek Stables Topic: Rody's progress report Howdy Steve, Yes, i have to agree.  the stalls at Cherry Creek are more for real horses, not what passes for "enormous stalls" in much of Washington state, specifically at the previous place up north near arlington. [see "Horse Idiots" below.] About Rody, above: Barn name: "Rody" [previous barn name was "Rory" - dumb name, huh, for a TB like this?] Campaigned under the competition name: "Ain't She Sweet?" US Jockey Club reg: WANNABEAJUMPER (unraced) Topline: by Grand Passage, by Son of a Buck, by Buckpasser, by Tom Fool out of BUSANDA, by War Admiral, by Man O War. Steve, do you recognize any of those TB runners' names, all the way out here in Washington? Rody may be the best eventing horse in Washington State (highly likely in my opinion, based upon: (a) her level of training, (b) who performed the training, (c) her athletic abilities, (d) her breeding and pedigree, (e) and her complete and absolute ability to focus her attention ENTIRELY upon the rider - to the exclusion of all other stimuli, and to respond immediately, enthusiastically, specifically and exactly to that stimuli: every ask or aid from the rider). Unfortunately, after being shuttled between a couple of "riding experts" for three years, Rody ended up ... » in TINY stalls: being boarded at a place with "enormous 10 foot by 10 foot stalls." [in other words, the same size as a 3' x 3' coat closet is for a human = not enough room for the horse to take a single full step forward.] » with highly RESTRICTED exercise: being turned out "regularly" for exercise. The place claimed:  "six days a week" for "a few hours per day". [in other words: once a week Rody was locked in her closet 48 hours straight without exercise!  All other days she was confined within her 'horse-closet' for 20-22 hours a day.] » in bad turnouts : with incorrectly designed + inadequately sized and shaped turnout areas:  A small, square paddock is not an exercise area (see "bad turnouts" under "washington horse idiots" below). » on bad footing 100% of the time: Rubber mats are not footing. Neither is hog fuel or saw dust (ref: "horse idiots" below) » most likely being fed "cow feed" and "Cow Hay": Horse eat grass. That's about all they need, if they have the ability to get minerals and trace elements on their own. Granted, dense populations of equines on small acreages ... (continued under "idiots" below) » with bad horseshoing and hoof-trimming: ... Steve, and they wondered why she was becoming unsound, and would not perform at the level which they thought she should be performing (of course, it was the horse's fault, not the rider's fault that the rider was not performing as expected!). Can you believe it? The above resulted in this magnificent, highly trained (Level IV dressage + Grand Prix Jumping) mare becoming (temporarily) lame and unsound. When Rody ended up on my lap, she would not walk out of her open stall into the free choice, lush pasture to eat grass (how much do you suppose that her hooves hurt, when a horse won't eat fresh green grass because she would have to take four or five steps to get to it?). The previous owner had thrown Rody into the trash can, for disposal, destined for a dog food can (see "Horse Idiots in Washington" below). When I first laid eyes upon Rody, I was shocked that an English Thoroughbred of this (obviously) high breeding, conformation, and quality would be thrown in the garbage. "Just exactly what kind of idiot would do this?" I asked myself. See answer below ... That's when I took her to Cherry Creek, got her off the rubber mats + wood bedding (Kentucky TBs go on straw, for the idiots out there), put her in a healthy-sized stall, lost the "walking on tippy toes" type of hoof trimming + horse shoes, began feeding her correctly (please stop feeding horses cow feed, Washingtonians), never again exposed her to the boot-sucking, hoof-restrictive, highly-damaging "soggy sawdust + tiny turns" riding arena so popular in Washington; and gave her FREE CHOICE exercise most of the day. Within a few weeks, she was entirely cured of her "lameness." It took a while longer for me to help her forget the bad conditions she had been exposed to previously, and for her to eagerly + enthusiastically begin doing what she was capable of doing with her hooves again (maybe a handful of horses in the state could match what she can do with her hooves, but I doubt it because I have not yet seen it). The "help" involved: replacing the years of bad horse maintenance, burying the bad memories beneath good memories, taking control of her hooves, gaining the horse's respect and trust again, and eventually winning her heart.  Horse Idiots in Washington (who think they are experts, and no they don't know who they are)   ... hell, Steve. I don't know what to say. let's start here ... 1) Sawdust is NOT bedding, ever (i.e. "wood pellets") Neither is infected wood splinters (i.e "hog fuel") 2) Hog fuel for paddocks is worse than rusty nails + concrete. You'd be better off - and the horses would prefer - standing in mud, than standing on half-rotten, germ-riddled, manure-packed and hoof-rotting hog fuel. Hog fuel is also the most anti-environmental + money-wasting equine footing/flooring surface imaginable (hog fuel intentionally & virtually permanently: clogs the earth's drainage; thereby creating highly-concentrated agricultural nutrients borne in stormwater runoff, which carries the nonpoint source pollutants straight to the nearest surface water or into the ground water, and which requires enormous quantities of your money + your time to "mitigate" or "bio-remediate" once the runoff is created. Then you follow the archaic/obsolete/ANCIENT technology from the 1970's BMPs, that they like to specify + design out here. My God, people. please get at least partway past the 1970's, if not into this century ...) 3)  Corn is for feeding livestock (feeder calves, dairy and hogs, etc.). Barley is for beer. Oats isn't much better than corn. GRASS forage is what horses are DESIGNED to live on, and they don't need much else. That's about all they need, if they have the ability to get to deposits of minerals and trace elements on their own. Granted, dense populations of equines on small acreages means they can not meet all their nutritional requirements by foraging grass pastures alone. Hence, on small acreage horse farms, supplemental feeding may be required. In those cases, the only correct feed is: grass that is brought in from outside (aka "dried & baled grass"). Of course, working horses may require even more supplemental feeding, but still the most cost-effective method of providing correct supplemental nutrients is: more nutritional and/or increased rations of GRASS or HAY. Hay with high lignin content (i.e. mature "canary grass") is correctly considered: either "cow feed"  - because cows can digest it effectively, they are rumens; or as "diet hay" for horses - because the digestion of high-lignin content hay by horses results in a negative caloric profile activity (that is, it consumes more energy/calories for the horse to digest lignin fiber, than the horse derives from the hay's digestion); or as "a cold weather feed supplement" - because the horse burns enormous quantities of calories while trying to digest the lignin fibers, resulting in the production of excess body heat within their cores. 4) Bad Turnouts: I have grown tired with all the incorrectly designed + inadequately sized and shaped turnout areas. A small, square paddock is not an exercise area, it is a standing around and loafing area. If the horse cannot reach a gallop occasionally + sporadically (whenever its body tells it to run), then the horse is not getting exercised. Walk/trot/canter is not sufficient exercise maintain a horse's health, and to stave off "sand colic" [oddly enough, "sand colic" is not caused by horses eating sand! Consider: (1) horses do not ingest sand, and (2) millions of horses live their entire lives on sand and never develop sand colic. Sand colic is caused by: the restriction of ADEQUATE exercise, period. Therefore: IF: your horse is denied adequate exercise; AND-IF: the horse has demonstrated a proclivity to develop "sand colic"; THEN: you better get it on a regular regimen of psyllium supplement ... until it is correctly maintained.] ... Steve, there is a lot more, but frankly I don't have the time or the patience to teach people that don't want to learn, because they have higher priorities than the truth.