Each year around Valentine’s Day, we are reminded to think more about how much the people we love really mean to us. Love can be defined as looking after the welfare of those you care deeply about. Love often causes us to care more about the comfort of loved ones than we do our own. Everyone who has children has felt feelings of concern for their immediate and long-term welfare.

We all love horses or we wouldn’t be in this business of caring for their feet and keeping them comfortable. We are anxious for their immediate and long-term welfare. Indeed, we believe it is our responsibility as stewards of these magnificent domesticated animals to provide for their several needs.

Several years ago when we moved to Northwest Nebraska to fulfill a long-time goal of opening a private horseshoeing school, I attended a local horse auction. That day I bought several horses to use for training students. Today we have the largest and most varied collection of horses in the country exclusively used to train aspiring farriers. Many have been donated by caring owners that wanted their horses to be used to train future farriers.

One of the horses I bought that day was a dun pony that we named Ginger. She was severely foundered and had white line disease. We were told that she belonged to an incapacitated rancher that could not take care of her. No one wanted her when all the horses were sold to help settle the estate. After we brought her home, we made a video of the students removing the excess hoof horn from and applying therapeutic shoes to the neglected feet of the pony. We posted it on YouTube.

We have since made a follow-up video that shows her condition both last summer and this winter.  You can watch that video here.  She has been sound for several years and, along with other ponies kept outside in a large pen, is loved and ridden by my grandchildren. I believe that horses can sense our feelings toward them and they often can feel more deeply than some humans.

Many years ago I was given a horse by a woman who could no longer keep it due to zoning law changes. The horse had been in a pen with another horse for twenty-five years. When I got the horse home I put it in a lush pasture with other horses, provided shelter, a salt and mineral block and water. It went over to the corner of the pasture, put its head down and in two days it was dead. I had the vet do an autopsy. He said, “I find nothing wrong with this horse, but from what you have told me about its background, I think it probably died of a broken heart.”

I told my mother about it and she wept. As a life-long horse person she had learned that horses often have feelings that are deeper than those of people. She said, “That horse died from lack of companionship and encouragement.” (Sometimes this happens to people too!).

Foot care is a most important part of horse care. Horses need space, quality forage, water and companionship. In addition, they need vaccinations against deadly and debilitating diseases, regular deworming and protection from parasites and a safe environment. If we truly love our animals, we will provide these things for them.  We will discuss these things in our next blog.