June 11, 2019
Rose and I have started the summer of 2019 off with more lame and foundered horses then ever before! This is what I have done for almost 50 years now and finally hitting my stride! We went to a lot of places where the animals were on the ground and we were blessed enough to help get them up and now recovering. I do not take the place of your veterinarian but can offer care and help when need it. A Farrier has to know when to call in the medical profession when needed. One more thing before I talk about Laminitis. We will be bringing a new equine technology this summer in our clinics and for those looking for the up and coming equine occupation. Thermal imaging will be available through Rose and I to do complete body scans on your equine companion. Better then x-rays with no radiation and in the field technology that can assist the veterinarian, farrier, chiropractor, and dental practitioner to aid in their treatment of your horse. We are hoping for some big things and Rose and I will be demoing the camera and also doing fairs, rodeos, livestock shows and more in the coming months and years! Hope to see you at one of our clinics this year too! Now for a little discussion about Laminitis (this will be on going as I cannot cover everything in one article!). Most associated with over eating it can root itself in pregnancy for a mare, drinking water when too hot, running the horse on hard pavement, moldy hay or food source and more! Funny thing about all these things is you don’t see this in the wild. Man has created an environment that does not allow the horse to do what it has always done naturally. We have given them illnesses and diseases through our desire to hold them on OUR terms not theirs! In their natural environment a horse grazes almost 12-20 hours per day and walks about 16 miles to gather their food. A far cry from the very high concentration of feed today and the lack of exercise. It must be noted that when I talk to horse owners they are always shocked to find out that their horse does not have a gall bladder. Unlike people that store bile in the liver until needed to digest fats the horse is constantly making small amounts of bile along HCL with the intake of roughage in their diet. A brief note from an article says, **Most mammals secrete enzymes in their saliva but horses do not. Physiology of the stomach: the stomach secretes many digestive juices needed for the digestion of feed. These include: Hydrochloric acid (HCl)- HCl is a strong acid required to activate certain enzymes. HCl is also secreted to kill bacteria and microbes that enters the stomach” Can you overdo your horses need for fats? Of course. We tend to feed heavy when smaller meals are more tolerated. We feed on our schedules and figure its easier to feed on one trip to the barn then two or three! When the truth is that feeding spread out over the day is not only more effective but safer. Better handling of calories based on your horses requirements! You thought keeping a horse was easy! Silly you! With the advent of slow feeders ( www.porta-grazer.com) a horse can now go back to eating all day whenever the need arises just as easy as in the wild. They will also not waste the food and end up eating off the ground and getting compaction from ingesting sand and dirt. (Boy have we given them enough things to think about besides eating!) Horses benefit from the slow feeders by better digestion and no stomach ulcers. Boredom is a whole other subject but you should note that in order to maintain your horses overall health its important that you keep him mentally engaged. After all, they are here to be ridden and used and your veterinarian, farrier and all other practitioners will be thankful for your handling and control of your horse! There is a website called www.all-natural-horse-care.com that can be a source of information to better aid in your learning about the barefoot horse. Just remember in your reading and study…that you understand that all situations do not use the same procedures and get results. Each one of us in the field brings a new layer of knowledge and I just pray that it is effective as a teaching tool and furthers your knowledge to know all you can about the care of your animal. It never hurts to question your equine practitioner! Remember they are there working for you!!! Ask questions and get involved! If you don’t feel you are getting your questions answered Please reach out and get the answers you deserve. That includes your Farrier as well! Your horse will thank you for it! I always keep my customers engaged. I want them to understand what is happening to their horse and why. It’s a learning process for the horse owner and me. After 49 years I learn everyday and seek to find answers to questions that come up and new problems that I find. Part of teaching is realizing that you may not have all the answers but can seek to find them or develop new techniques that aid in treatment. First treatment, we have found, is to begin administering a prebiotic and probiotic. It helps to start stabilizing the digestive and intestinal problems. If the horse is suffering from compaction or other blockages a vet must be called immediately! We have found that a great many of our horses are literally eating and starving to death! These horses have no problem eating but converting the food to body weight. Today the need for probiotics and prebiotics cannot be overstated! Horses because of the way we feed, lack of pasture grazing, medications (including wormers) and much more have ruined their once efficient digestive system. Its common sense to me at least that what does not happen in the wild should not happen in our care…but it does! We have given our horses a whole new set of issues…I call them “people problems” for lack of better words. Here we go…saddle up and hang on! Horses hay is getting lower in protein and more contaminated each and every year! Yes, that hay you buy…has it ever been checked for protein content or chemical sprays?. Our customers have reported protein content to have been as low as .7%. That’s correct! Less then 1% protein! Not bad enough but almost unheard of to find hay ground not treated with good ol’ Roundup. It is causing more problems then horse and pet owners realize. It’s a problem for people too…but don’t get me started on that … at least not yet! So what as horse owners do we do about the traditional ways we looked at laminitis. First we need to get our horses gut health back to normal and not feed anything but good quality hay, fresh water, use natural wormers, stay away from sugars (artificial and added) and build the prebiotics and probiotics back up for intestinal health. There are many other symptoms of poor nutrition or inadequate nutrition. Let’s focus on stopping the horse that is predisposed to getting laminitis from getting lame! A stalled horse is never a healthy horse by having to fight with lack of exercise, confinement, and boredom. Its up to each horse owner to take the time to see their horse gets the exercise or activity that keeps them tuned in. I use the words “common sense’ a great deal in my writing. I feel like so many things should be basic to just understanding that I take for granted that maybe not everyone understands. I try to be simplistic. I just want the concepts easy enough to grasp and something that will stay with you long enough to get the job done as correctly as you and I can. As horse owners we need less ‘intervention’ and more ‘interaction’ with the ‘do it yourself mentality!’ I will be talking about laminitis a great deal as it is the second leading killer of horses. Obviously I get taken into other areas and feel like certain things need to come out and be said. I apologize for the lack of staying on subject but in all honesty my clinics are like that too! I love getting sidetracked as I think the diversion is good for the learning experience. With that said…I will continue this again as I can now focus on getting this webpage back going as my absence was because of a broken computer. Now…its just me and this phone and so far more reliable then the computer ever was and can do so much more! God Bless you all, and Rose and I will see you on the road or at least in passing. I cannot thank all those that have used our service and trusted in the hands and compassion/passion for the horses I care for and love. God has blessed me greatly with all of you and your animals!
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Farrier’s Corner
Let me introduce myself. My name is Craig Campo and have been a resident in the Pacific northwest since 1977. I graduated from one of the first Farrier Schools back in 1970 in a little town of Porterville, California. The founder of the school was also the head of the Farrier Science class at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, California. His name was Ralph Hoover a true pioneer in Farrier Science and Horseshoeing. After some 12 years of shoeing horses I became restless with not putting what I had been learning to good use. You see I am a type A personality and am constantly striving to be better and to continue learning no matter what I do. So I started to see some things that I wanted to change. Understand that I love horses and enjoy meeting the people that I serve. My ideas were always ahead of their time but I am finding that the wagons are finally circling as people understand more about their animals. I was ahead of my years trying to show people new natural ways to do things when the established show people, judges, veterinarians, and the like always fought what I had brought to the table. I started putting things in place after seeing horses coming in from BLM. Horses that roamed freely as their ancestors once did with little hoof problems and certainly none of the lameness and diseases of ‘kept’ horses. Once you put a shoe on a hoof the structure of the hoof becomes weakened by the nails. The shoe now protects a sole that has been rasped down and no longer protects the hoof…elevates the frog so it no longer has contact with the ground and healthy blood flow to the hoof. Chances of punctures, canker, corns, contracted heels, white line disease, and a host of others all for the protection of a shoe? Even judges at halter want the fronts of horses shod! If you haven’t caught on by now…I specialize in Lameness. I work with synthetics to rebuild hoof walls when necessary and use boots for sanitary reasons when treating punctures, frog problems, etc. I cannot cure a rainy day but try so hard to bring the animal less pain through an easier and more humane treatment. I was taught to always go from the easiest to more extreme measures to achieve results. It has been MY experience that moving to quickly promotes more damage and injury then what it cures. I had always believed that my job was to SERVE the Horses with best I could do and to give the owners value for the services I can and do provide! In the end for me…it is not about money…but about the animals. I have done and will continue to do those horses to the best of my ability and knowledge as long as the good Lord has me working! Thank you to all my new customers…and may we become good friends over the coming years! Cannot wait to take a picture with your horse and add them to my wall of accomplishments…the rebirth of the Barefoot Farrier! |
AuthorGraduate Farrier since 1970. 50 Years of experience. ArchivesCategories |