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You Are Here: Home > Hoofcare > Articles > What is Wholistic Hoofcare?
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What is Wholistic Hoofcare?
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The word "Wholistic" is the same as the word "Holistic". I have added a "W" at the beginning of the word to help remind us that Wholistic means to consider the whole being.
The term "Wholistic Hoofcare" describes a complete daily care system. A wholistic style of hoofcare requires that the horse owner take into consideration all parts of horse keeping as important variables in hoof health. Each part of horse keeping, of which I often describe as "environmental factors" can include
everything from nutrition to saddle fitting to footing, plays a role in the health and functionality
of the horse's hooves.
Wholistic hoofcare can help to allow a horse to remain barefoot throughout its entire working life in
all disciplines. It can also be used to rehabilitate horses from many diseases, deformities, and lamenesses.
Wholistic hoofcare is a method used to return horses to a lifestyle that is more in harmony with their
physiology and maintain their hooves in a manner that allows them to become fully functional.
From the dictionary, Holistic means: to emphasize the organic or functional relation between parts and wholes. Therefore, it is recommended that a wholistic hoofcare program only be used when the
horse owner is interested in providing:
- An environment and feeding program that is in harmony with the horse's biological needs, origin and nature.
- Health care (alternative and/or conventional) for any part of the horse's mind/body/emotion/spirit that needs it.
- Hoofcare that restores functionality to the hooves.
Traditional farriery,
veterinary, and medical training and services are mostly geared toward treating the symptoms of a problem.
Wholistic hoofcare and wholistic healthcare are geared toward treating the cause(s) of a problem.
For example: If a horse's hooves are tender when on gravel, the traditional farrier will generally
recommend the nailing of metal shoes to the hoof to mask the symptom (pain). However, wholistic hoofcare will
search for the cause (environmental factors, lack of function) and will begin to restore any functions
to the hoof that have been lost over time or through lack of proper hoofcare or environment.
When only a symptom is masked, the problem still remains, and most often does not correct itself.
The symptom/problem is simply hidden from our observation. When the cause of the problem is found and fixed, the symptoms disappear and do not return.
This is why we recommend using a wholistic veterinarian, wholistic hoofcare practitioner, and
complementary services of other wholistic practitioners. The wholistic mindset allows humans to help the horse
heal from the inside-out and allows horses to live truly healthy lives.
...every part of a horse is connected to all the other parts...
We must continually ask ourselves: Is this good for my horse's mind? Body? Emotion? Will it be harmonious or harmful to his biological needs for survival?
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When we look to the horse's biological needs for survival, we find many of our own shortcomings. Horses have evolved over millions of years to require constant movement, variety of grasses, herdmates, fresh and unpolluted water, and adequate shelter. The further we come from providing these things, the more likely our horses are to become ill in any aspect of their biological makeup.
Wholistic horse care follows the belief that every part of a horse is connected to all the other parts. No part of the mind, body, emotion or spirit can be separated from the whole. If your horse's hoof is unevenly trimmed, he will begin to move differently to compensate. This compensation often leads initially to sore muscles, secondarily to misalignment of the skeletal system, and finally to habitual inefficient movement patterns and behavior problems. The same can happen from ill fitting saddles, unbalanced riders and shoeing practices. The nutrition a horse receives can affect every organ, every bone, every tendon, every square inch of skin.
A long, hard ride that results in muscle soreness which isn't resolved may cause the horse to travel uneven and wear his hooves uneven, eventually causing the spine to become misaligned. Now, because the muscles are sore, hooves are uneven, and spine is misaligned, the horse's mental and emotional body is affected from the pain or soreness and he begins to exhibit signs of agressiveness when handled, or resistance when ridden. At this point, several systems have been affected and the agressiveness or resistance cannot be fixed without looking at ALL the parts of the whole problem. While traditional wisdom may tell you that your horse needs a trainer (which often only results in the horse becoming more stoic, rather than healed), wholistic wisdom may tell you that you need to treat the muscle soreness, imbalanced hooves, spinal misalignment, habitual inefficient movement patterns and the mental/emotional damage.
The information on this site is not meant to diagnose or prescribe for you. This information is not intended to be used as medical advice and is for informational purposes only. Cheryl McNamee-Sutor is a certified mentor hoof groom, wholistic bare hoof specialist, horse trainer, reiki practitioner, and an educator and distributor of therapeutic-grade essential oils; NOT a licensed doctor or veterinarian. If you are sick, injured or otherwise unhealthy, please consult with a licensed doctor.
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