Photo copyrighted Rick Crider
A Union County farrier will help inspect distance horses before they are sent to the Endurance World Championship.
“I was pretty excited about it,” said Mike Stine of when he was approached by the U.S. Equestrian Federation (USEF) to help prepare the horses for the 100-mile event in Malaysia this fall. “I thought: ‘This is pretty cool’.” Stine owns land with some older horses in Marshville, but his horse expertise has taken him all over the world as people seek him out to help their horses perform at the highest level.
The USEF considers Stine to be one of the best, but that has not changed his style. As he sat in Alice Jules coffee house in Monroe, he ran his dirty hands through his unkempt blond hair; his stained boots telling of his profession.
That’s how he likes it, and that is his style of doing his job. Some might say that he shoes horses. Although that is technically the definition of what he does, how he decides on the shoes is what makes him special.
When it comes to shoeing a horse, a “thirty-second of an inch can make a difference,” he said holding his fore-finger and thumb up against his eye to illustrate the minute margin for error. “It’s more than just nailing a shoe on the bottom of a foot,” he said with a smirk.
When a horse runs, it drives off its hind legs for power and speed. Stine said that if a horse is not shoed properly, it could be wasting energy and forfeiting power. For example, its hoof might turn on the ground and fling energy off to the side, not harness it in the full thrust for speed. To demonstrate this point, Stine balled his right hand illustrate a hoof, and rotated it from side to side while pre-tending to stride. That sideways motion does not propel the horse forward, so it is wasted, said Stine. Stine also said that a horse can be ruined if pushed too hard if it has any structural inconsistencies. A horse that has been ridden wrong could develop unbalanced shoulders. If that unbalance is not compensated and a trainer pushes the horse too hard, the horse could be at a serious injury risk.
“You want to get the best out of the animal, without destroying the animal doing it,” said Stine. To do so, Stine uses multiple senses to determine problems. He told a story of one horse he was asked to look at. Its gait looked normal at first glance, said Stine, but after listening to its footsteps, Stine noticed an uneven beat every fourth step. He determined the culprit to be a leg that was out of step, something barely visible that was making the horse lose power.
“A lot of it is learning to watch movement,” he said. “You have to start putting the puzzle together. … A lot of people don’t truly know how to watch a horse.”
Stine said there could be any number of reasons that a horse is not performing including skeletal structure, running style, weight and a even bad rider that causes the horse to “develop an abnormal pattern.” “It’s learning to pay attention to stuff,” he said adding that many problems can be traced to hoof problems, especially on the hind legs, which is why his work is important. “You gotta get the motor running right to get everything else to go,” he said referring to a horse’s hind section where it gets much of its power.
After elaborating on his profession and the work that he will be doing with the U.S. endurance team, Stine reflected on some advice that he was once given. “Work the horses to be even, don’t work the horses evenly.” By that he meant that every horse is different and needs to be treated as such and with some extra attention, almost any horse can be helped to run evenly, thereby generating serious power.