Best Horse Practices Podcast

This is Episode 17 of Season Three and it's time for another Coaches' Corner with Jec and Amy Skinner. They answer a listener question from Lisa, who asks about proper lunging practices. It's a great back and forth, short and to the point. Or I should say points, because there are several.

Before I get to sponsor mentions, I wanted to take a few minutes to talk about a few things I've been up to and pondering. Last week, I traveled to Elko, Nevada, as I've been doing for each year for over a decade. I attended the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering, met up with a bunch of horse folks, checked out the great gear shows – where they sell everything from wild rags to ropes to four thousand dollar saddles. This year, a group called the Outside Circle Show held a panel discussion around mental health and substance abuse in the cowboy community. As far as I know, it's the first time this community has done something like this. Panelists told their stories of addiction and pain and the struggle to get help. It's a topic that's dear to me and something I've written about, so it was great to see the conversation get started. So, maybe you are saying, wwaaiitt a minute, Maddy, this sounds like the very warm and fuzzy kind of topic you disdain. What's up with that?

Warm and fuzzies, as we mentioned in Episode 10 of this season, are strategies, practices, ideas, methods, marketing, and proclamations that may indeed serve the human and her need to feel connected and in a relationship, but, in fact, don't serve the horse one bit. Or, even worse, they confuse or neglect the horse.

Mental health and substance abuse challenges matter because unwell owners and riders affect their horses in myriad ways. And not everyone is able to leave their stuff, their bad mojo, their violent tendancies, their pain, their reactivity in a handy paddock mailbox before they get with their horse. (My reference is to a fun video that Best Horse Practices Summit presenter Daniel Dauphin shared, in case you're wondering.) If we can become a more supportive, a more listening, a more resourceful community, I think the horses would be better off. So hats off to those starting the conversation. It's overdue, for sure.

One more little item -- just a vernacular clarification regarding the use of the term 'motorcycling' that Amy and Jec mention. That's when a horse falls through a turn. The horse is out of balance and dropping the inside shoulder. Direction and speed become difficult when a horse is motorcycling, Amy described to me.

How to fix it? That's a topic for another upcoming Coaches' Corner and not addressed here.

Our title sponsor is Lucerne Farms, producers of quality forage feeds. Forage is chopped, packaged hay. Sometimes it's alfalfa, sometimes timothy, sometimes blended, and sometimes with a touch of molasses. Always scrumptious. After hay and grass, it's pretty much the best alternative and a great way to supplement your winter feeding. Check them out at Lucerne Farms.com or at your local feed store.

Big thanks to Redmond Equine and Pharm Aloe – for generously sponsoring our podcast. Check out Pharm Aloe's aloe pellets and Redmond's Rock on a Rope. We think your horses will love them.

We thank Kate's Real Food and Patagonia WorkWear for their continued support.

And this just in – Redmond Equine is sending a complimentary syringe of Daily Gold Stress Relief to everyone who drops a tip in our donation jar. Pretty cool and a $15 value. If you get something of value from our podcast, please consider making a donation. We sure would appreciate it.

That's it. Another episode in the can and out of the barn. Thanks for listening, y'all!

This is Episode 16 of Season Three. Another special episode!

We offer this week another recorded Question and Answer session with presenters at the Best Horse Practices Summit, an annual conference I direct, with academic and arena presentations. In this session, Dr. Sheryl King moderates and presenters Josh Nichol, Patrick King, and Jec Ballou offer answers. Dr. King also chimes in with her thoughts.

The questions for this session are:

• What are five basic skills your horses should know to set them up for success?
• Is it ever appropriate to have physical correction?
• What are the five skills that horse owners should have in order to interact well with vet and other equine professionals
• What are the skills every vet or other equine professional should have?

Our title sponsor is Lucerne Farms, producers of quality forage feeds. Forage is chopped, packaged hay. Sometimes it's alfalfa, sometimes timothy, sometimes blended, and sometimes with a touch of molasses. Always scrumptious. After hay and grass, it's pretty much the best alternative and a great way to supplement your winter feeding. Check them out at Lucerne Farms.com or at your local feed story.

Oh, and two more little bits:

I want to mention Steeped Coffee. It's a new company based in Santa Cruz. Near Jec Ballou, in fact. Steeped sent over a box of their coffee bags, with several different roasts. Delicious.

And Jack Wolfskin. It's a German company with excellent gear for outdoors-y people, which we all are, of course. Years ago, I met the owner when I was working on a guest ranch in Montana. And I've been keeping tabs on the company ever since. I'm testing the Waldsee Jacket as a winter layer and I love it.

Just a note, in case you didn't recognize some additional voices: that's presenter Pepper Landson, who speaks about the large animal vet shortage and offers a potential solution. And then I add some thoughts on the para vet paradigm in Afghanistan.

Big thanks to Redmond Equine and Pharm Aloe – for generously sponsoring our podcast. Check out Pharm Aloe's aloe pellets and Redmond's Rock on a Rope. We think you'll love 'em.

We thank Kate's Real Food and Patagonia WorkWear for their continued support.

Just a gentle reminder that we have a donation page set up. If you get something of value from our podcast, please drop a tip in the jar for us. We sure would appreciate it.

This is Episode 15 of Season Three. A special episode!

You listeners might know that I direct the Best Horse Practices Summit, an annual conference with academic and arena presentations. This year, it was held in Kentucky and we had many fabulous presenters on everything from colic to stockmanship to saddlefit. At the last minute, however, Dr. Doug Thal, a veterinarian from New Mexico, came down with Covid and was not able to present. We needed to improvise quickly and decided to fill his presentation slots with two Q and A sessions. We asked attendees for questions and we had a group curate them – basically weeding out questions that were inappropriate or directed at just one presenter.

Pepper Landson, who delivered a great women's leadership elective during the Summit, agreed to moderate it. So the voices you will hear are Pepper, Amy Skinner, Daniel Dauphin, Katrin Silva, and Nahshon Cook. At the very end, you'll hear Allanna Salmon, a Summit steering committee member, who speaks up with some thoughts.

In case you have any trouble hearing the prompts. Here they are:

• Do you have thoughts on bringing a horse from a harsher form of training to this better, more attuned way of training. Are there things to be cautious about?
• Exercises or ways for keeping yourself regulated, centered, and to maintain energetic clarity?
• What are your thoughts around training young horses in today's modern settings and facilities?
• How do we open up our community to a more diverse population?

This is a bit longer than most of our episodes, and the sound is not as spiffy, but I promise, it is well worth it.

Thanks to the Summit board for giving us permission to air it here.

Our title sponsor is Lucerne Farms, producers of quality forage feeds. Forage is chopped, packaged hay. Sometimes it's alfalfa, sometimes timothy, sometimes blended, and sometimes with a touch of molasses. Always scrumptious. After hay and grass, it's pretty much the best alternative and a great way to supplement your winter feeding. Check them out here or at your local feed story.

And thank you, Redmond Equine and Pharm Aloe – for generously sponsoring our podcast. My favorite product from Redmond is Rock on a Rope. I'm actually watching one of my horses lick this chunk of salt right now. They love it.

And Summiteers may be familiar Pharm Aloe because many found complimentary Pharm Aloe pellets in their swag bags. Check out links to their pages in our show notes.

We thank Kate's Real Food and Patagonia WorkWear for their continued support.

And, hey, thank you, thank you to those who donated last week. Yep. We have a donation page set up. If you get something of value from our podcast, please drop a tip in the jar for us. We sure would appreciate it. Donate here.

This is Episode 14 of Season Three. And in it, we give Wise Ass Wallace the mic again to talk about two juicy topics: helmets and colt starting competitions. Wise Ass got some help from the likes of Mark Rashid and Amy Skinner on the colt starting bit. And around helmets, he had some communication with the board of the Best Horse Practices Summit.

WiseAss is having his day because of what Jec and I see as a troubling trend we are in the horse world. There seems to be an increased focus on what we're calling the warm and fuzzies.

We define the warm and fuzzies as strategies, practices, ideas, methods, and proclamations that may indeed serve the human and her need to feel connected and in a relationship, but don't serve the horse. Or, even worse, they confuse or neglect the horse.

We sometimes see this audience sucked into the belief that they are making real connection and real progress with their horses. The reality looks a whole lot different; the horse is left in the dark and the so-called journey is nefarious at best. The result is a whole lot of sanctimonious feel-good sessions among this population of warm and fuzzy followers. How is the horse helped and what's getting accomplished? We are not sure.

WiseAssWallace is a long-time, beloved guest columnist for Cayuse Communications. From his pasture in southwestern Colorado, he's on a quest to improve horse-human connections and make lives better for his fellow equines.

WiseAssWallace has a series of videos and articles which we will link to in the show notes. In this episode, we're featuring two short pasture monologues. WiseAss has an entire library of recordings, videos, and articles. We'll link to them in the show notes.

Our title sponsor is Lucerne Farms, producers of quality forage feeds. Forage is chopped, packaged hay. Sometimes it's alfalfa, sometimes timothy, sometimes blended, and sometimes with a touch of molasses. Always scrumptious. After hay and grass, it's pretty much the best alternative and a great way to supplement your winter feeding. Check them out at here or at your local feed story.

And thank you, Redmond Equine and Pharm Aloe – two sponsors with no-nonsense products for your horses. Check out links to their pages in our show notes.

We thank Patagonia WorkWear for their continued support.

And, hey, we have a Donation Page set up. If you get something of value from our podcast, please drop a tip in the jar for us. We sure would appreciate it.

That's it. Another episode in the can and out of the barn. Thanks for listening, y'all!

Jec interviews Alicia Harlov, owner of the Humble Hoof and the Humble Hoof podcast.

In their conversation, Jec and Alicia talk a lot about horse management - things that might not seem like they have anything to do with hooves. But, of course, everything has to do with hooves and hooves are like canaries in a coal mine. I mean, the wellness of a hoof can tell you a lot about the whole horse, its environment, its diet. If the hoof is unwell, then something is likely off in the way that horse is being kept, like too much grain or not enough exercise. It's a really great interview and I hope you enjoy it.

Otherwise…How are you doing?

I'm smiling here because Jec and I have spent several recent episodes talking about the cool and clear, not the warm and fuzzies. So perhaps you all have thought that we don't really care about how horse owners are doing. As in: If warm and fuzzies are about feelings and Jec and Maddy are contesting the value of warm and fuzzies in horse owning and riding sphere, then that must mean they don't care about feelings or how horse owners are doing or any of that.

Of course, that's not what we meant. In a nutshell, our lean towards cool and clear has to do with what's best for horses. But, of course, we're interested in how our listeners are doing. Let us hear from you. Would you like to give us any push back around our push back of the warm and fuzzies? Are we off the mark?

Winter is dark and cold. It can be hard to ride or spend any quality time with our horses. At the moment, there are history-making floods in California. Jec reports that her horses have been in standing water, with nowhere to go. Here in Colorado, we've spent about a week shoveling and have about two feet of snow.

We would love to hear from you. Send us an email and let us know how you're getting through these long nights.

Our title sponsor is Lucerne Farms, producers of quality forage feeds. Lucerne is a small company in Aroostock County in northern Maine. They make forage, from timothy and alfalfa, a great option if you are looking to add calories to your horses' diet this winter. Check them out here or at your local feed store.

I wanted to clarify a few things Jec and Alicia mentioned.

At one point, Jec states that when horses have a hoof concern sometimes their back muscles deactivate. By this, she means that the small stabilizing muscles switch off. She sees it especially in Western Pleasure horses. You may see a stillness or kind of a numbness to a horse's back. One telltale sign is that the end of a horse's tail will be still when ideally it should be swinging from side to side.

Alicia mentions ECIR. That's the Equine Cushing's and Insulin Resistance Group.

We thank Redmond Equine and Pharm Aloe – two sponsors with no-nonsense products for your horses.

We thank Patagonia WorkWear, which makes some pretty awesome gear for crappy weather and hard work. Like the new waffle crew. A great baselayer. Order a size up as it fits snuggly. Our next Patagonia WorkWear giveaways – two of them – will be awarded to folks who give us feedback around the warm and fuzzy versus the cool and clear conversations we've been having.

We're starting up a donation page. Please support our podcast. It's a labor of love and we keep the sponsorships to a minimum so we don't have to muck up our episodes with a lot of talk about selling and buying of stuff. Consider sending a few bales of hay our way.

This is Episode 12 of Season Three and in it, Jec interviews Amy Skinner for a Coaches' Corner.

Jec and Amy continue a thread that we have recently introduced to our podcast. It's a pushback from what we see as a trend towards the warm and fuzzies in horse circles. By warm and fuzzies, we mean attending to methods, promotions of hacks, and proclamations that may indeed serve the human and her need to feel connected and in a relationship, but, in fact, don't serve the horse one bit. Or, even worse, they confuse or neglect the horse.

Can we respond to the warm and fuzzies with cool and clear conversations and practices? Yes, we can.

I'm starting to form theories around how we in the horse community got to this place. It's a pendulum thing, for sure, away from a dominance-based approach. But it's also a result of the pandemic and how very hard that has been for us. When we zoom out, it's completely understandable to see that the next pandemic would be or already is around mental health. When we acknowledge mental health challenges, we look to self help, self improvement, and being open to understanding what ails us. Since horses are a big part of our identities, we rope them into the equation.

What do you think? We are eager to hear from you. Let us know by commenting or contacting us here.

Our title sponsor is Lucerne Farms, producers of quality forage feeds. Lucerne is a small company in Aroostock County in northern Maine. They make forage, from timothy and alfalfa, a great option if you are looking to add calories to your horses' diet this winter. Check them out at lucerne farms.com or at your local feed store.

Furthermore:

We all have our biases in how we consider our horses and our horse time. I like to think I've gotten closer to what matters by having a decent foundation in the more science-based aspects of horsemanship and horse keeping. For instance, what I know about horses' digestion, metabolism, and physiology supports how I take care of them. Developing a good seat and good hands improves as I learn better to recognize how my horse is carrying himself and how I impact that carriage, for better or for worse. There is feel, there is study, and there is overlap.

Sometimes we muddy the waters by working on ourselves while also trying to do right for our horses. I get that! Sometimes it can be downright maddening to consider the levels of awareness we might bring to our partnership. I think Amy and Jec did a great job of elucidating the challenges for riders in today's world. I'm excited for them as they're headed to Portugal with Patrick King for some work and fun. Professional development. Riding with Luis Valenca in Lisbon.

We thank Redmond Equine and Pharm Aloe – two sponsors with no-nonsense products for your horses.

And, hey, our next Patagonia WorkWear giveaways – two of them – will be awarded to folks who give us feedback around the warm and fuzzy versus the cool and clear conversations we're having.

This is Episode 11 of Season three and in it, Jec interviews Dr. Sheryl King, this year's keynote speaker at the Best Horse Practices Summit in Kentucky.

In this conversation, Jec and Dr. King discuss a few myth-busting ideas around horse management. It's a good segue from last week's introduction to the anti-warm and fuzzies campaign-- maybe we should call it the cool and clear-zies dialogue? Cool and clear are what nights are like lately, here in Colorado. Maybe not just cool. Downright cold. Single digits.

My guess is that a lot of folks want to put their horses in when it's cold like this. I don't know if this makes sense to me. For starters, stalls aren't that much warmer than run-in shelters. Secondly, horses need to move and be with buddies. They need to move to help their digestion. Moving helps keep them warm. Moving is what prey animals like to do. In my observation, moving helps lower their stress.

Years ago, when my horses and I were living in Maine, we had a hurricane come through. I had big stalls without doors and watched them choose to be out in that weather, rather than in. During a hurricane.

Jec and Dr. King talk a lot about the need to check ourselves when we consider horse habits versus human inclinations. "Tucking in for the night" is not a thing for horses. I mean, it IS a thing because some of us make it so, but it's not a thing for horses left to their own devices.

Also, blankets.

Putting blankets on horses takes away horses' natural ability to thermoregulate. Except in very few specific cases, horses are decidedly not better off with blankets. Save your money, listeners. Yes, they will benefit from extra hay in the winter. But spare them the "storm shield" or "viking extreme weather" garments. Please.

Our title sponsor is Lucerne Farms, producers of quality forage feeds. Lucerne is a small company in Aroostock County in northern Maine. They make forage, from timothy and alfalfa, a great option if you are looking to add calories to your horses' diet this winter. Check them out at lucerne farms.com or at your local feed story.

For links to King's research and other myth-busting articles, head to this Best Horse Practices page.

We thank Redmond Equine and Pharm Aloe – two sponsors with no-nonsense products for your horses.

Don't forget to check out the great selection of books at Cayuse Communications and on Jec's store page. There is still time to order books for Christmas and Cayuse has a Buy one get one free offer going on.

This episode marks the beginning of what Jec and I believe will be intermittent commentary on a troubling trend we are seeing in the horse world. Led by certain entities - and by entities, we mean individuals, teams, and the programs and platforms they generate - there's an increasing focus on what we'll call for shorthand the warm and fuzzies.

Let's define the warm and fuzzies here as strategies, practices, ideas, methods, marketing, and proclamations that may indeed serve the human and her need to feel connected and in a relationship, but, in fact, don't serve the horse one bit. Or, even worse, they confuse or neglect the horse.

The target audience for the warm and fuzzies is the recreational woman rider. We sometimes see this audience sucked into the belief that they are making real connection and real progress with their horses. The reality looks a whole lot different. The horse is left in the dark and the so-called journey is nefarious at best. The result is a whole lot of sanctimonious feel-good sessions among this population of warm and fuzzy followers. How is the horse helped and what's getting accomplished? We are not sure.

We'll be talking about this development in On the Fence segments as well as Coaches' Corner episodes with guest trainers. If we are striving make horses' lives worthwhile and productive, we feel it's incumbent on us to call out bad practices – even and really, especially, if they make us humans feel good.

Who better to kick off the conversation than our own WiseAssWallace. WiseAssWallace is a long-time, beloved guest columnist for Cayuse Communications. From his pasture in southwestern Colorado, he's on a quest to improve horse-human connections and make lives better for his fellow equines.

WiseAssWallace has a series of videos and articles. In this episode, we're featuring five short pasture monologues as WiseAss holds forth on the concept of feel, on gear, and naughty habits humans develop. We're running them one after another, in short order. You can read and watch all five here or if you're so inclined, just circle back and listen to Wallace again here.

Our title sponsor is Lucerne Farms, producers of quality forage feeds. And Lucerne is this fantastic company in northern Maine. And forage is chopped, packaged hay. After hay and grass, it's pretty much the best alternative. Way wiser than grain. Check them out at here or at your local feed story.

And thank you, Redmond Equine and Pharm Aloe – two sponsors with no-nonsense products for your horses.

We thank Kate's Real Food and Patagonia WorkWear for their continued support. Comment or send us a suggestion and you'll be qualified for our monthly Patagonia WorkWear drawing.

Don't forget to check out the great selection of books at Cayuse Communications and on Jec's store page. There is still time to order books for Christmas and Cayuse has a Buy one get one free offer going on. So git to it!

Thanks for listening, y'all!

This is episode 9 of season three and in it, Jec interviews Andria Massie, an integrative therapist who works with her husband, Dr. Keaton Massie, in Oregon. Together, they run Massie Veterinary Service.

Here, Jec and Andria discuss rehabilitation and also the trend in collaborative care, one might even call it palliative care for horses. Some interesting ideas, especially for high level performers and well-resourced owners.

Our title sponsor is Lucerne Farms, producers of quality forage feeds. And Lucerne is this fantastic company in northern Maine. And forage is chopped, packaged hay. After hay and grass, it's pretty much the best alternative. Way wiser than grain. Check them out at Lucerne Farms.com or at your local feed story.

It makes sense, right? Everything is connected to everything. We can help our horses by knowing more about differing aspects of their being – from anatomy to physiology to nutrition to conditioning and biomechnics and hoof care. As Jec and Andria point out, we can insist that the professionals talk to one another and reach some common course to follow. But we can also arm ourselves with at least a junior scientist-level knowledge, empowering ourselves and helping our horses in the process. And…who knows, maybe saving some money in the process.

We thank Redmond Equine and Pharm Aloe to our sponsorship family. Redmond mines ancient sea salt in Utah. My horses have been licking it and loving it for over 10 years. Pharm Aloe produces the most effective aloe vera products for gut health. Check out the many testimonials, sent in from owners of healthy horses.

Jec interviews Dr. Stacie Boswell, a vet and author based in Montana. Stacie wrote The Ultimate Guide for Horses in Need, a book about the care, training, and rehabilitation for rescues, adoptions, and horses in transition.

Here, Jec and Stacie discuss horse stress:

How does stress manifest in horses? How can we help them?

As you might imagine, I have two cents on this. Most stress for horses is caused by us humans. How we handle them and how we keep them directly impacts their physical and mental well-being – or, as Dr. Boswell describes it, emotional and physiological state.

Fresh off the brilliant keynote address by Dr. Sheryl King at the Best Horse Practices Summit in Lexington, we know that keeping horses on grain, in stalls, and away from a group setting all put horses at risk for colic. The Three F's are what I keep in mind: Freedom, Friends, and Forage.

All the supplements in the world won't help a horse as much as turnout with other horses.

Jec makes reference to EHV1, that acronym stands for Equine Herpesvirus, an extremely common virus among horses which most of the time has little or no serious impact on horses. When it flares up, however, it can cause respiratory, neurologic, and other harmful effects.

One more thing: Thank you, thank you for all the feedback on our last episode. It was overwhelming, gratifying, and heartwarming to hear your messages of support and to learn about your journeys and how you're working through them.

Our title sponsor is Lucerne Farms, producers of quality forage feeds. And Lucerne is this fantastic company in northern Maine. And forage is chopped, packaged hay. After hay and grass, it's pretty much the best alternative. Way wiser than grain. Check them out at Lucerne Farms.com or at your local feed story.

We welcome back Redmond Equine and Pharm Aloe to our sponsorship family. Coincidentally, both Redmond and Pharm Aloe offer products related to reducing stress-related complications in horses.

We thank Kate's Real Food and Patagonia WorkWear for their continued support. Did you know? All ya gotta do is comment or suggest a podcast topic or send us a training question here and you'll be automatically qualified for our monthly Patagonia WorkWear giveaway.

Don't forget to check out the great selection of books at Cayuse Communications and on Jec's store page.

Thanks for listening, y'all!