March 2006

Taking Natural Too Far

The movement toward natural horse care is a good idea gone too far. Caveat emptor.

Nature has its place, as does going “natural.”

It’s a beautiful image—a wild horse standing on a hill top, head up, luxuriant mane blowing in the wind. Unfortunately, this romanticized, cinematic portrayal of the beauty, vigor, health and soundness of horses in their natural environment isn’t necessarily always the case. They can and do get sick and go lame. They have problems with worms, illness and malnutrition just like any animal.

These glorified images of wild horses have caused domestication to be blamed for many, if not all, problems related to lameness and health, with the proposed solution being “natural” care. …