| Issue #9 |
New Look for our website!
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Bitless Bridles
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Excessive Toe Length
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Another's Point of View
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Buckaroo Deal-
Horse Blankets
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The Cowman's Prayer
Now, O Lord, please lend me thine ear,
The prayer of a cattleman to hear;
No doubt the prayer may seem strange,
But I want you to bless our cattle range.
Bless the round-ups year by year,
And don't forget the growing steer;
Water the lands with brooks and rills
For my cattle that roam on a thousand hills.
Prairie fires, won't you please stop?
Let thunder roll and water drop.
It frightens me to see the smoke;
Unless it's stopped, I'll go dead broke.
As you, O Lord, my herd behold,
It represents a sack of gold;
I think at least five cents a pound
Will be the price of beef the year round.
One thing more and then I'm through,--
Instead of one calf, give my cows two.
I may pray different from other men,
But I've had my say, and now, Amen
from the website Cowboy Poetry
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100% New Zealand Wool Horse Blankets
Reg. $89.00
available in 4 colors, Navy, Burgundy, Hunter Green, & Sand
Helpful Links
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Our new "Cutting Edge" Website
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2/7/10
Buckaroo John,
In January I unveiled a new and improved Buckaroo Leather website. This new website allows for a better, user friendly shopping cart, product categories and navigation of the site. This new site also allows for cutting edge aesthetics.
The new look of the site is more pleasing to the eye and has a modern, sophisticated look! I encourage all of you to check out the new Buckaroo Leather website and see for yourself. Comments and feedback are highly appreciated.
While visiting the website, be sure to take advantage of our Valentine Special- don't forget your sweetheart!!!!
Now Through Feb.14th
Use this code "val20" And receive a 20% discount on any merchandise or gift certificate
Here is a great gift idea to use your 20% discount on-
Our Beautiful Hermann Oak Harness Headstall and matching Split Reins accented w/hand engraved
Silver Hearts.
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2/7/10
Buckaroo John
On my travels along the horse trail and on the internet, there is a lot of talk about the use of Bitless Bridles or Side Pull Headstalls. I thought I would break down the different types of the side pull headstall and their advantages.
Side Pull Headstalls (aka "Bitless Bridle") (pictured below) are used without a bit, and are becoming very popular in the training arena and for the experienced trail horse and rider. Many Trainers have found the side pull headstall great for horses who do not except a bit very well and are fussy and tense and unable to relax and learn.
It is also excellent for horses that have been injured in their mouth or sensitive due to harsh training conditions.
The side pull is fast becoming the choice in early stages of ground driving and teaching the basics of turning and stopping.
A Quality leather side pull headstall or bridle is designed for the reins to connect to the rings on each side of the horses cheeks allowing the rider to communicate very clearly left and right movement.
Different nosebands are also available depending on how much pressure you want to excerpt on the horses nose. The single lariat rope noseband gives the most in a narrow area across the nose. The double rope spreads the pressure out. The flat leather noseband gives the least amount of pressure for the more trained and experienced horse.
Trainers in the Natural Horsemanship arenas have been using different types of side pull headstalls for a long time.
One of those types of Headstalls is this a quality AMERICAN made western leather hackmore bridle. This hackamore is used by the horse cutters while warming
up their horses before a cutting horse competition.
Some horsemen and women call this Hackamore a loping hackamore (pictured below).
This is a round caveson hackamore designed to fit low on your horse's nose and, because it is round, it works more like a sidepull than a hackamore.
It has our working 3/4" harness leather double cheek adjustment headstall with a hand braided fiador (throat latch), which is adjustable to hold the fine quality braided rawhide noseband-caveson in position. And the fiador is important because it works like a throat latch and is connected to the noseband so if you lead off your horse the noseband will not pull off their nose.
We make it with a high quality 5/8"-8' soft nylon split rein w/poppers for that brokin feel.
To Learn more about the Bitless Bridle and it's proper fit please follow our link to our Buckaroo Leather Blog. On the blog is a video by Farah DeJohnette, an extremely professional trainer, who will demonstrate the Sidepull Headstall.
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Excessive toe length ,
how much can you remove.
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2/7/10
John Silveira
Hello Hello.
The weather's still holding here in California and
everyone's still riding strong. I've been talking about length of toe
lately and the consequences. How much toe can be rasped back is a
controversial subject. Even amongst the Veterinarians it's
controversial , some will say don't rasp much hoofwall at all as it
weakens the foot. Today i'm showing how much i have rasped all along
during my career with never a problem ( over 16 years now ).
There
is a shoeing method out there i will talk about in the next entry that
i believe was developed out of the fear of rasping the toe. The method
is to move the shoe to the rear but "Not" rasp the toe and leave the
hoof protruding over the shoe. I'm not in favor of the method and every
horse i have seen shod this way still has hoof drift , sheered
underslung heels , and out of balance feet , all risky problems that
will often lead to lameness - sometimes permanent lameness.
When
it comes to shoeing horses with that method the problem is the hoof
stretches forward because that excess toe that was not rasped still
comes into contact with the ground as the foot breaks over at a walk
trot or canter. If that hoofwall is too long in the first place just
moving the shoe to the rear is not enough - the toe still contacting
the ground still exerts load on the foot driving the toe still farther
forward. Even though the shoe was moved rearward of the foot the fact
the foot is still too far forward still / usually puts the shoe too far
forward which doesn't support the heels of the foot. When the heels
sink you'll get deep flexor tendon stress and coffin bone rotation (
where the tip of the coffin bone is driven toward the ground ).
The
lack of heel support slows the foot travel , meaning the feet don't
leave the ground as soon as they should. It's laborsome and awkward for
the horse to move in this manner also causing interfering, forging and
other gait problems.
The underslung heels putting the stress on
the deep flexor tendon will also pressure the navicular bones which is
not good. Degenerative bone disease will absolutely cripple the horse.
Underslung
heels are difficult to fix sometimes calling for laying the horse up
for at least 6 months. I'll talk about the fix in the future as well.
The question for now is how much toe can be safely rasped back and
where to place the shoe to accommodate. I've been called out on jobs
where my client informed me their Farrier or the ranch Farrier came
right out and said he's afraid to rasp hoof wall back at the toe and as
a result the horse was coming up lame.
Ok - let me just move
forward here and just say i've rasped toe all the way back to the white
line many many times with no problems at all. In severe cases of hoof
drift I'll move the shoe as far to the rear as possible - I'll place
the toe of the shoe right at the white line and then just rasp the hoof
wall right up to the shoe. The whole idea is to stop the foot from
drifting and stretching forward. The point is i have "Never" had a
problem with doing that much rasping. Of course rasping the foot
farther than the white line i don't recommend. Ok I'll be honest with
you about this last point. It's entirely possible to rasp the hoof
farther than the white line. Here's why.
If the hoof has
stretched so far forward that the white line has moved "Away" from the
sensitive tissue in the foot then it gives you more room to rasp "Past"
the white line. Just so you know ok ? It takes a very experienced
mind and eye to evaluate if it's possible, but honestly , sometimes
it's possible. It's the same as when the common view is "Never put
nails on the inside of the white line or you'll quick the horse".
Sometimes it's possible to put nails inside but only when the "Flare"
has moved the white line away from the sensitive tissue making it
possible to do so. ( I've done it many times ) So here's a picture to
show how the white line can come apparent at the toe when rasping - i
did this purposely on this horse because it was called for.
OK . First off this is only the third time I've shod this horse. The
horse came to me with very out of balanced feet. He's very toed in (
Pigeon toed ) but already improving. The other issue was the long toe I've been talking about here. So what's been done as you can see is I've moved the shoe rearward to start the changes needed to get the
foot back under the horse. By looking right there at the front of the
shoe you can see that little bit of creme colored spot right at the
front touching the shoe. That's the white line. The white area just
above the creme color is normal hoof pigment. The white line is really
not white at all.
When moving the shoe to the rear needs to be
done go ahead and do so. Moving the shoe to the rear has many
benefits. There will come a point soon enough ( maybe one or two more
shoeings of this horse ) where the white line will not be showing
anymore so this is a temporary condition. The minute you start moving
the shoe rearward (when necessary ) you're minimizing the risk of
lameness and that's what shoeing is all about.
Any questions please leave your comments and feel free to contact me personally at John@Care4Horses.com
I
am still giving consultations at no cost ( FREE ) for any horseshoeing
needs as well as conformation and behavior problems. This works out
real well - I've had pictures sent me to evaluate before a horse was to
be purchased. It was explained to me how the horse would be used , and
, well , sometimes after I've seen the photos i wouldn't recommend the
purchase - the horse wouldn't have held up and would most likely have
broken down. So jump on board and give me hollar - this is a limited
time offer.
Ok - there you go enjoy yourselves ,happy and safe riding and remember to always care4Horses
thank you
john silveira
650-921-5287
Author Bio: John Silveira, Farrier, Aikido practitioner, spiritualist, born and raised in San Mateo California the bay area. For information on his shoeing method and the 100% track record just go toCare4Horses and leave contact information.
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Understanding Another's Point of View
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2/7/10
Jay Koch
One of the big mistakes that people make when
working with horses is assuming that a horse thinks like a human. As a
matter of fact, horses perceive the entire world differently than we
do. If we acknowledge that fact, and try to understand that, then we
can communicate more effectively with horses.
A horse is a prey
animal. He is built to stay safe in the wild. His eyes are on the side
of this head so he can see almost 360 degrees around him. Those eyes
are also a long way from his mouth so he can see farther when grazing.
But, most of all, a horses is programmed deep in his bones to run away
from a perception of danger. It is easy to make a horse afraid because
it is in his nature to be afraid. For example, because a horse's eyes
are on the side of his head, he doesn't have very good stereoscopic
vision or depth perception at close range. He can't tell if a puddle or
stream is 2 inches deep or 20 feet deep. If you ask a horse to cross a
small stream, he may balk. To our eyes, it should be simple to see that
it's just a little water. The horse doesn't know that and may refuse.
It may seem like the horse is refusing because he is obstinate or
disrespectful. But, in reality, he is afraid. And he's not afraid he'll
get hurt, he's afraid he will die.
As humans, if we approach the
issue as if the horse is being disrespectful and won't mind, there is a
danger of the episode escalating to something ugly for both parties.
However, if we acknowledge his fear and understand his perspective, we
can work with the horse to show him that the stream is nothing to be
afraid of. Our understanding if his point of view makes all the
difference. When it comes to people we assume that others think like
us. The business owner doesn't understand why the employee doesn't want
to work all weekend. The boss thinks about her business all the time
and how to make it better. The employee only wants to do his job from
8:00 to 5:00, Monday through Friday, then go home to his family. If the
boss doesn't understand this difference of perspective, it can lead to
friction and resentment in the relationship.
My horses have
taught me to try to understand everyone's point of view and that not
everyone has the same perspective I do. When we understand each other,
we can work together.
You
don't have to have a horse to learn how horsemanship will help you be a
better leader. Let me share my life lessons I learned while astride my
horse.
Article Source
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