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** My business is based on the knowledge of the horse as a wild animal first, domesticated second. **

A horse in domestication is depending on us for their every need: their need for belonging to a herd, their dietary needs, their mental and emotional needs, and their need for YOU to be a partner for them.

About Me - Becky Overland

My First Horse

I purchased my first horse - Gilligan - 5 years ago from a seller in Wisconsin. I bought him because...he was pretty. I took him for a pre-purchase ride, and everything went well until we started coming back toward the barn. He started trotting. I wanted him to slow down, so I did the "normal" thing and pulled back on both reins. This caused him to engage and go faster. Then he ran at a full gallop toward a large Oak tree. Thankfully for me, I stayed on, although I had quite a fright and cut up my face and shoulder.

I said I would take him! I just KNEW that once we got to know each other, there would be no problems, in fact he would LOVE me and I just KNEW he would. So I bought him and rode him the very first day, just after trailering him to a new place. I was told he needed to "know who's boss" right from the start. I thought certainly I possess the greater intellect, I would win. Over hill and dale we went, I thought I was going to die... But people around me kept telling me I just needed to keep riding him and "show him who's boss" (whatever that means, exactly). I did not feel like the boss though. Actually, I was scared out of my wits! My only other experiences on horses were on school horses as a child (western and trail riding at camp). As a child, it seems one is never scared to ride.

Fateful Day

Then came the fateful day of the emergency ambulance ride to the hospital with me on a back board. Well, good news was no broken body parts. But it felt like it. The pain meds and time seemed to do the trick, physically. Emotionally, I was shattered. I lost my confidence. I had a horse who was trying to kill me, who did not care that I was a "nice person", and I did not have a clue what to do ("perhaps I should seek professional help").

The problems were not just that he ran off with me of course. He wouldn't give me his feet to be picked out (picking his feet out took 45 minutes, at least, with me sweating and panting, and the horse standing in crossties eyeing me with his mischievous eye). Enter Parelli Natural Horsemanship. I have since been much safer, and much more confident in my abilities in understanding horses on the ground and in riding them. No more hospital.  And no more runaway horse! Its all about the foundation of horsemanship: relationship, communication, psychology.

Back to the Vet Check

I neglected that part of the pre-purchase with Gilligan, and got lucky that he really was fine. The vet said he had a "club" foot which would "need corrective shoeing" and a toe crack on the other foot, which would be helped with the shoes also. I guess she meant it would help hold the hoof together. I asked her how shoeing the horse would help him exactly, by what means. She got defensive and gave me no explanation, other than to tell me that shoeing had been done "for hundreds of years." I did not even know how shoes were applied to a hoof, I really was ignorant about the whole thing. But nothing the vet said struck a chord with me that "yes I must shoe my horse because it sounds like it is necessary."

When she left, my (farrier) boyfriend who had owned horses for 20 years, explained the application of shoes in general terms. I did not think that pounding nails through the hoof wall and clinching them over sounded like advanced science OR...shall we say "helpful" to a toe crack situation. I wondered "wouldn't that create more cracks? Putting more holes in an already compromised structure?" It just did not sit well with my logical mind. I also have a background in medicine, and it did not sit well with my academic mind either.

Natural Hoof Care Practitioner

So nothing glamourous, but here I am, a Natural Hoof Care Practitioner. I followed the trail of blood, sweat and tears shed by others to find myself mixed up in a hoof care revolution. Unfortunately when I say "blood sweat and tears" I am being literal. Some of the earliest barefoot proponents DID shed blood (the horses), sweat (their own), and tears (of the owners). I did research. I found some very competent people who made sense, and whose real world methods and holistic approach really worked for the horses. There are so many examples that I cannot list them all here, but I encourage you to do your own research and never take anyone's word for gold. Use your natural common sense, intellect and intuition. No one person has all the answers. The horse has the answers, and we need to start listening.

As an NHCP, I take a holistic perspective. I do not have tunnel vision about hooves, I strive to see the whole horse. I apply the knowledge about lessons from the wild horse, and how horses evolved and adapted..... to allow the horse to grow the healthiest hoof for its needs. My goal is to facilitate the horses own powerful capacity to heal and grow. This leads to a healthier horse, with healthier hooves. Horses ARE Nature in its finest form. Horses are natural born healers, of humans as well as themselves, if given the chance.

I began my training in the AANHCP (American Association of Natural Hoof Care Practitioners) pioneered and founded by Jaime Jackson. The program and I got along very well, and I was near to completion when the Training and Certification Program changed. A Trimming Manual was put out, and it was implied that all horses should be trimmed according to these guidelines. This was not agreeable to my way of thinking about horses as individuals living in different situations, who could not all be treated the same, or trimmed the same way in our human - horse world (domestication). As Pat Parelli says "there are no PAT answers for every horse."

Hoof, Mind and Body

So I did not stop at the hooves, but started inquiring into the body. I could see the relationship between body issues and what is perceived as "hoof" issues. Horses are our mirrors, and the hoof is the window to the whole health of the horse. I started studying Equine Bodywork. I am certified to have completed the requirements for Equine Sports Massage and Myofascial Release through Anam Cara School (www.anamcaraschool.com). There is no governing body for Equine Bodywork, which means there really is no "certification" that one can obtain as of this writing. I have a "Certificate of Completion." I also hold a Level 2 Reiki certification.

Now I am responsible for the care of three horses: Gilligan (he still has that clever eye), Mavis (my "baby"), and Lucita AKA Lucy, who I received as a founder rehab and who has taught me immeasurable lessons. They have each taught me about myself, and about their needs. They have all made me better as a person in many ways (in areas of communication, relationships, cooperation, leadership), and as a caretaker of their species in captivity. I love this quote "why be yourself when you could be somebody so much better?" We could all stand to improve ourselves, for the sake of our horses. They deserve it, and so do we.

Who needs to change?

Here is a final thought for pondering: your local ZOO is required to try to replicate the animal species natural state, habitat, and innate needs more closely than we have done for our horses in modern times. I have hope that the seeds of change are growing. If you do nothing else, make the attempt to naturalize your horses lives. Learn about horses in the wild. Observe them if you can. Stop watching what your friends are doing, and start observing horses. You and the horses can only benefit.