No Bits..

No Shoes..

      This section of our web site deals with man-made equipment and devices, commonly put on horses to facilitate their being handled, trained and used by human beings.  Today, at a time of what some horse owners are calling "the natural horse revolution, the use of certain, conventional pieces of horse equipment, most notably horseshoes, bits and saddles, are being called into question.

       In my estimation, virtually ALL advocates and practicioners of natural horse care and horsemanship believe that horses should be kept barefooted, without nailed-on shoes, to the greatest extent possible, which is to say, preferrably, spending their entire lives "shoeless".  Many consider this to be essential to the overall physical well being of horses, as well as the prevention of sometimes devastating and life threatening physical problems, such as severe laminitis (founder).

      Also in my estimation, probably less that half of the natural horsemanship advocates ride horses without the use of bits, while almost no one, these days, does an extensive amount of riding without a saddle of some sort.  Opponents of bits say they interfere with a horse's breathing, as well as being painful.  And, opponents of saddles say they do all sorts of bad things, including giving a horse a backache.

      The discussions, on each of these natural horsemanship issues, addessed individually, may be accessed by clicking on the appropriate photo above, for the particular item of interest.

(This is one of the not yet fully developed sections on this site.  And, temporarily, some links may be unactive and some item reports may be incomplete.  Most noticeably, there has not yet been time to create a page about the question of "NO SADDLES?", where, incidentally, the overall view that would be expressed is an agreement that such a concept is needlessly extreme, but that a variety of serious considerations for the horse should be taken, depending upon individual circumstances, and with no preconceived, overall preference for either english or western saddles.  Elsewhere in this section a few somewhat incomplete pages have been posted in the belief that, even in their not fully developed state, they contain basic information which may be helpful and of interest.)