Bare Essentials Holistic Solutions

06/26/2023

03/18/2023

10/10/2022

Thankful for this beautiful weather and my baby girl making her first pie.

09/23/2022

09/22/2022

This looks fascinating! I hope you can set aside some time from your busy life to take it in, my horse people. I hope I can too.

08/17/2022

Good for thought as the seasons change.

Can we take a moment to give thanks for the hay crop this year? While we’re at it, a huge shout out and big thank you to all our ! 🌾👏

On a related note, have you been wondering if your horse’s diet should change as you transition them from riding to their off season? (yep, we’re back reminding you about frigid temps 😈). Short answer - probably.

In general, horses that are being given time off or will have a reduced workload over the winter should also have their caloric intake reduced in order to avoid inadvertent weight gain.

This is usually accomplished by reducing calories from supplemental grain/concentrates while maintaining forage intake - all while keeping nutrient, vitamin, and mineral balance in mind.

👩‍⚕️ How does this help you for next year? Horses that do not carry excess weight tend to return to peak fitness faster, and have less strain on their joints and soft tissues.

However, we all know that “in general” may not apply to your specific horse or situation - so get in touch if you have questions or need help determining your horse’s nutritional needs. We know the best people for the job!

☎: (306) 716-7294
💻: [email protected]

07/27/2022

So…. This is happening. Picked up my leadership manuals today, starting to feel kind of official! Hit me with the things you wish you or your child had learned in 4H Light Horse, let’s make this the best year ever!

07/15/2022

This is a great demonstration of why halter/noseband (including hackamore) placement is so important, and as an added bonus for fitting and proper tying of a rope halter.

06/09/2022

LAMINITIS

Spring is upon us, and for some areas, that means an uptick in laminitis cases. Dr. Alicia Nolfi said in one of The Humble Hoof podcast episodes that we should assume hoof-based lameness is laminitis until proven otherwise. Why? Because treating lameness as laminitis doesn't hurt if it isn't laminitis, but if it IS, waiting and not doing anything can lead to further laminae damage, or worse or catastrophic rotation or distal descent.

So how can we identify laminitis and work to get the horse comfortable?

Laminitis in horses can have less-than-obvious symptoms:

🔴Moving more "gingerly" over harder surfaces, especially if they were previously comfortable on them. This is still concerning even if they seem to be moving perfectly fine on soft surfaces!
🔴Trotting instead of their usual canter in the paddock. Walking instead of their usual trotting. Seeming more "sluggish" than normal.
🔴Recurring abscesses
🔴Thin soles- possible symptom of weakened laminae connection causing poor suspension of P3 in the hoof capsule
🔴Heat in the hoof or increased digital pulses
🔴Moving more stiff throughout their body
🔴A "new" sensitivity or soreness after a conservative trim - damaged laminae can become suddenly more painful even with minute changes to the "status quo" the horse was using to compensate.
🔴In extreme cases, rocking back onto hind feet

I know I've said it many times before, but I never view hoof sensitivity, thin soles, abscesses etc as "normal" - to me this is a weak hoof that requires further investigation into diet and metabolic status. A horse with "chronically weak feet" may already be dealing with some chronic laminitic symptoms.

So what do you do if your horse is experiencing laminitis?
🔵Call your vet, and consider getting bloodwork for insulin and ACTH levels, as 90% of laminitis is endocrinopathic. Let your farrier know what is going on.
🔵Remove all access to grain and grass (even w**ds or "grazed down to nothing" paddocks - short grass is stressed grass and sugars can spike!)
🔵Implement the ECIR emergency diet to remove any dietary triggers to allow the horse to become more comfortable - see link below
🔵I prefer to utilize therapy boots like Easycare Cloud Boots with their therapeutic pad inside, to relieve weightbearing on the laminae and prevent distal descent. Many horses become significantly more comfortable immediately in therapy boots. Using boots for rehab allows frequent small changes to the trim to help realign the bony column and hoof capsule. Shorter trim cycles can mitigate the need for drastic trims that can be more painful for the horse.

Once the trigger is found and removed, the horse should become more comfortable. If the horse is still uncomfortable - keep investigating to find a possible trigger!

Please note, the other 10% of laminitis cases include SIRS (Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome, think high fever, colitis, illness, retained placenta, ingestion of a toxic w**d, etc) and Supporting Limb Laminitis due to lack of perfusion in an overweighted limb in an acute injury case. These cases will not respond to diet change or metabolic bloodwork management. Winter laminitis is a subset of metabolic laminitis but also doesn't respond to diet change etc, as it is often due to AVA shunt damage in the hoof causing lack of proper circulation in the winter - it might be similar to the painful feeling that people with Raynaud's may experience in cold weather.

If your horse is experiencing acute laminitis, please join the ECIR forum online at ecirhorse.org - they are a volunteer non-profit group that has over 20 years of experience helping owners to troubleshoot management and recovery of laminitis, and getting horses back to soundness and even productive, happy lives.

06/06/2022

Concerns about horse welfare are not a personal attack. People criticizing the mechanics of harsh bits is not a personal attack. Too often do people try to brush off relevant concern regarding outdated training and care practices in the horse world by labeling it as unkindness.

This attempt to brush it off and label any information that they don’t want to believe as an “attack” undermines the relevant and necessary discussion on modern horse welfare.

It can be hard to learn about the detriments of certain practices that you were taught are perfectly acceptable. I’ve been there. It’s a very difficult feeling to grapple with and it’s often easier to go in denial.

However, regardless of whether or not you alter your training or care practices, it is of the utmost importance to be receptive towards new research even if it just means you being more mindful while you engage in certain training practices, use certain gadgets or keep your horses in certain living environments.

The only way we can continually better our care of our horses is if we are honest with ourselves and open to learning new things, even if it is difficult.

It is not an attack on who you are as a person when horse people speak out about current welfare issues in the sport. Even if you engage in the practices they condemn, they are condemning the practice. Not you being blinded to problems in the industry due to never being taught they are an issue in the first place.

There is a learning curve, a steep one. After all, this is an industry that has misinformation being given to riders left and right. Physics of certain equipment downplayed. Behavioural issues ruled as “quirks” or stereotyped due to gender (mareishness), breed or labeled as the horse just being naughty.

The horse world is unique in how little value masses of people place in behavioural science and proven welfare practices. Experience and years spent showing or doing something of status in the horse world is viewed as superior to research by an awful lot of people.

Then this mindset is passed down to impressionable new riders, eating up the info given to them by a professional who was also taught the whole “this is the way it’s always been” way from someone older than them.

It creates an echo chamber. An “us vs them” mindset between people who engage in more traditional training and care practices versus those starting to head towards science-based training and re-evaluating normalized management practices.

This results in people feeling like they’re being labeled as abusers when information regarding things like modern stalling practices and the risks associated with that gets shared and people express concern for how long many horses spend in stalls.

The reality is, it is just the practice being criticized. We need to share information to do better so we can stop the cycle of riders being introduced to stressed horses with stereotypic behaviours and/or pain behaviours as their first experience with horses.

It causes them to normalize and ignore indicators of poor welfare practices, instances where the horse’s life could be immediately bettered in most circumstances, even just with vet care, enrichment or more thought.

Many of us have been misled. Many of us have used practices that we now no longer believe in. The vast majority of us never intended to hurt our horses, it was the result of a culture that is normalized and entrenched in our community.

Read the full blog here: https://milestoneequestrian.ca/blog/2022/6/4/welfare-discussion-is-not-a-personal-attack

05/09/2022

Nothin better than spending mama’s day with the one that made me and the one the made me a mama … ON HORSEBACK! Yessssssssssss. I hope you all had as good a day as me, honouring yourself and your people in whatever ways you need.

05/08/2022

Finally get to post my .stiina 😍 down here vibin’ wit the homies at The Homesteady with .by.her & fine company.