Owl Canyon Hoof Care and Rehabilitation

Blaine St. Peter   Ft. Collins, Colorado              970-420-5496

  

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                            Welcome to Owl Canyon Hoof Care and Hoof Rehabilitation! 

                                 Serving Northern Colorado and Southern Wyoming

              Blaine is Easy Care's Dealer of the Month for October ! Read the story here :

                             http://easycareinc.createsend4.com/t/r/l/fjhutk/xiitlvr/v                   

Levi, Founder Case

Bonner, Navicular Case video 3 months into rehab after navicular syndrome diagnosis

Extended Care Services at Owl Canyon Hoof Rehab


Blaine St. Peter uses natural hoof care techniques to optimize the hooves ability to heal and transition to a healthier barefoot life. He works with veterinarians and horse owners to reverse the affects of founder and navicular to return the horse to optimal hoof health.

 

 Click Here                                                For a must read article explaining the       benefits of proper hoof trimming and the   use of hoof boots to attain soundness and biomechanically correct movement.         

This is the Easy Boot Glove and it is the latest in hoof protection from Easy Care. User friendly and comfortable for the horse. A great tool for the transition period to barefoot, or for horse that needs protection  in difficult terrain. Easy Care offers many different types of boots, but these are the most popular with my clients and are the easiest to use. The company has a lot of useful information about the barefoot horse on their website. Visit them at EasyCare.com.

 

 

This hoof belongs to a 17 year old Arabian who always had problems keeping shoes on because of his weak thin hoof walls. When he would lose a shoe, his hoof walls would get ragged and broken. Now after properly transitioning to barefoot he can go in any terrain all day long without a single chip in his hoof walls. He is never stalled and is in a natural environement that encourages movement over varied terrain. This greatly contributes to his overall health as well as to the natural tendancy to maintain good hoof health. The walls and sole are much thicker and stronger.  He is a true gravel cruncher . 

This hoof belongs to Pearl, an FEI 100 mile endurance horse. She was the number one ranked horse in the Rocky Mt. Region and number nine nationally for Best Condition in 2008. This picture was taken after the race in which Pearl traveled a total of 110 miles barefoot at an AERC ride in New Mexico. I do recommend booting for rides over 30 miles, but this horse vetted extremely well. Many shod horses were pulled from the ride at the Vet Checks for stone bruises. Some parts of the trail were over lava rock and the soles of the barefoot horses were well callused and ready for it.

This a is a good example of how I trim the hoof to mimic the natural wear of the wild horse hoof. She is owned by endurance rider Tennessee Mahoney of Ramuda-Run.com

Why I Don't Shoe My Horses

A very good article about natural hoof care and the bare foot horse by my great friend   Rachel Chao MS

By Rachel E. Chao

Ó2007 Natural Hoofworks, LLC. 

If you ask 3 different horse owners their opinions on any different subject, you’re likely to get 5 different answers.  It can be confusing and terrifying when the advice you receive is contradictory, and everyone giving the advice claims that if things are not done precisely their way your horse will inevitably colic/founder/smell bad/ lose a limb/grow a fungus/become a social pariah/etc. 

I believe that most people shoe their horses because they believe it is in the horse’s best interest.  I know that is why I used to keep my horses shod.  I trusted the advice I got from more experienced horse people and professionals.  It never occurred to me to question the use of horse shoes, because literally all the horses I ever came into contact with were shod.  My horses needed shoes to protect their feet from rocks and gravel and pavement, just like I needed my boots to protect my feet.  It would have been cruel to do the kind of hard, fast mountain riding I liked to do without giving my horses the benefit of shoes.  Not only that, my horses did not have the best feet to begin with.  Their angles always looked too low to me, I could never get them to grow enough heel to “stand them back up”.  Without the shoes to keep them from wearing away the heel, how could I ever get the angles better?  Also, when I did pull their shoes for a few weeks a year, the feet immediately started to crack and chip and lose chunks.  It appeared that the only thing holding my horse’s feet together was the shoe itself. 

Click Here to see the Complete Article

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