Cyberhorse Interview with Farrier, Mike Stine

By Toni-anne Collins

“Horses should be retired because of old age – not unsoundness” - This catch phrase is Mike Stine’s philosophy.

Mike Stine is a professional farrier and educator with Registered Journeyman Farrier certification. A member of the Board of Directors for the Guild of Professional Farriers, Mike is also a BWFA Journeyman Farrier and tester. Other certifications include Proper Balance Movement (PBM) in the field of equine biomechanics and Equine Podiatry from Dr. R.F. Redden in Kentucky. Specializing in equine biomechanics and whole horse evaluation, Mike uses this knowledge to understand, correct and prevent problems with equine movement. Referrals for horses needing comprehensive gait analysis and shoeing come to Mike from Dr. Richard Mansmann of NC State University, Gene Ovnicek of Colorado (Equine Digit Support System) and Dr. Ric Redden of Kentucky.

For several years, Mike has presented clinics and demonstrations across the U.S. in major venues such as the Southern Horse Festival, Carolina Classic Horse Expo, and Equitana. Mike has been a guest on “The Horse Show”, Rick Lamb’s syndicated radio show and has appeared on limited access cable television. A new video/TV production “Horse Sense in Horse Care – From Foal to Old” ™ recently aired on Horse TV featuring Mike as the host. The program is dedicated to helping horse owners improve the lifetime care and performance of their horses. Mike conducted a series of clinics in New Zealand and Australia during January 2005 and returned to New Zealand in February 2007.

Awards

Mike offered to share his philosophy with Cyberhorse.

Working in Vet clinics as a clinical farrier Mike has been exposed to extensive performance work. He has worked with dressage horses, jumpers and 3 day eventers who were having performance issues. Mike describes his target group as horses in trouble or those with performance issues. In his clinical work Mike faced a plethora of problems that were not straight forward. In his own words Mike says “I ended up I working with a lot of odd ball lameness where it is like chasing ghosts - you can’t quite get the problem down, you have to read the horse to figure out what is going on.

This is when Mike was drawn to look above the hoof and leg and take a different tack. “Where you can't quite find the exact lameness, if you start addressing movement patterns which may sometimes be at the other end of the horse, or the opposite leg to that affected by the lameness you can find that a lot of times the lameness will start to improve even if we are chasing after effects of an old established pattern”. “Addressing movement patterns will help identify where the lameness comes from and can often lead you to the beginning” says Mike.

Mike’s love of horses and concern for their welfare is constant, “The most important thing is to get the horses going and happy and useful again, living a comfortable life.” Mike’s approach to defining lameness and movement problems is like dissecting the pieces of a puzzle and then putting them back together in the correct place. Mike explains that “Most people expect farriers to look at feet. It is usually the last thing I look at”.

Mike goes on to say “I will look at the horses back and upper body. I want to see how he is muscled - there is a definite relationship between how he is muscled and how he moves. I want to see if his body is square and or if he stands uneven - then I work down the leg alignment. I don’t have a pattern to my initial evaluation, a quick glance; will often have something jump out at me. I am looking for the oddity”. “I am looking for a range of things” Mike informs us. “Is the muscle development even, or is a muscle locked, or is there a shoulder or hip dropped or an oddity in the way the horse stands and of course I look at the balance of the hoof itself”.

Mike reminds us that the horse can tell us many things without speaking a word. “I start looking for wear patterns, for example if a horse is a toe dragger you know he is a toe dragger because of what he has done to his hoof, and yet people often think that he is using his back end well, which of course is impossible if he dragging a toe. I want to know how even that drag is, the horse may be dragging more on one side than the other”.

From Mike’s perspective “You tend to have a pretty good idea of how that horse is going to move before you even see the horse move. As Mike says, “If form follows function, well, function follows form.” A horse can only move well if he is functionally well all over”.

“I start putting patterns together. It tells me a story before I see the horse move. When I see the horse start to move, I already have pretty much of an idea where things are going”. It is not always obvious “There is always the horse that will throw you something you had not expected and this is where it becomes so important that you are paying attention to the puzzle”

Mike goes on to say “You really are piecing the puzzle together, and try to work out what is going on. if he has an issue in one leg, it affects the other leg because of the trans spring load and any compensations There is more to address than just the immediate problem that you are looking at . If he has a strange movement pattern that has been developed over years that has crept up on him you must break that movement pattern and return him to a more normal and correct pattern of movement. If you don’t, over time he will end up with problems based on the compensation patterns. The last thing you want is to end up with a horse where you are fighting multiple problems.”

“It can be like chasing ghosts.”

Always thinking about the comfort of the horse and getting the horse to a happier state Mike continues,” If there is any soreness going on we have to figure out the best way to get the best out of the horse, or release pressure or whatever needs to done to get the horse in a better state and sometimes these things are sneaking up on you and you need to head it off before it becomes a problem”.

Mike comes back to his catch phrase “My big thing is we should retire a horse because it is old not because it is worn out – we all need to figure out how to get that horse in a better state – we have to learn to pay attention”.

Mike asks the question “Why do you look at the back when you are a farrier? You will often see a horse’s back go down, collapse or become weak before a lameness appears. So if I see a horse changing, I wonder what is going to come next”.

Admiring horses’ strength Mike adds “Horses are great compensators and will hide pain as long as they can to keep themselves going. I believe that if you learn to read that it will help you address the minor details that will give you a more comfortable horse and better performance”.

Mike’s experience and observations have shown him “If you have a horse that drops its back there is more going on than the back drop. If he is dropping his back he is probably not coming under at the back end. You also have to look at what that is doing to the shoulders and the front end to compensate. Everything that affects the body effect movement patterns and movement patterns effects wear patterns and compression in the hoof capsule itself, so eventually things are going to start taking place in the foot”.

Although Mike believes an unridden horse would suffer less trauma, injury and pain, he acknowledges that riding is a great past time, “Just the fact that we are riding horses will make a difference to their natural state. Horses were not meant to be ridden, but we all enjoy it. There is a certain amount of trauma caused just by us being on the horse. Although saddles were originally designed to stop humans bruising horses backs with their seat bones an ill fitting saddle can cause all sorts of grief which is often unnoticed as horses are so forgiving.”

Mike gives an example, “If the saddle itself doesn’t fit, and you want your horse to round up the horse will become more and more tense as he tries to push up into the saddle getting pinched as he does. Of course the horse is going to get and go stiff in his back and he will not be able to bring his hind end through. That’s why you have to look at the back and understand what is going on up there”.

Questioning again, Mike asks “So is this a foot pattern or is it a back problem and how does it all tie together. How do we find a way to work through this - how do we work with the horse to help him work through it. If it is a performance horse how can we increase the performance? Is there is anything that we are missing? If you are not looking for it, or don’t understand it is not a case of doing something wrong but you may be missing something that may only take a tweak with the rasp or a minor adjustment which can make a big difference in helping the horse out”.

Mike is constantly letting the horse guide him. “It all comes own to understanding what the horse is saying. All of them in their own way are screaming at us. It just we have to learn what they are saying”.

Mike recommends that we know our horses and are constantly on the look out, “Look at the horses muscle development, is he bracing somewhere, is he locked up, or is there any muscle atrophy or any sign that something is not quite right”.

“They all have a different story to tell. Learning to understand the story, putting the pieces of the puzzle together will help you keep your horse happy and comfortable and even more competitive.” Mike knows that these observations are useful, “Use that information to adjust what you do with your trim or shoeing if you are shoeing the horse, even the barefoot horses if you can keep them going and keep them happy and healthy that is fine too, I have no problem with that either.

The big thing is learning to read and understand your horse; and that is not just for farriers, that is for horse owners as well. If you have a horse that is developing an uneven movement pattern saying “that is just the way my horse goes” is not a real good answer and I am not one that can accept that”.

“If something does not seem quite right, there is bound to be something wrong and we may have to dig a little deeper to find the source. As an owner you are going to have to start knowing your horse and start understanding what is going on”.

Mike explains that not only movement patterns or soreness can alert us to problems, “Take note of, changes in behavior. A horse that has always been easy to handle becomes ill tempered, you have to ask yourself why did he become ill tempered - it may be pain, there are a lot of times when a horse has just been labeled with bad behavior – that could be pain somewhere- so why would he be hurting? Is there any change – has his back changed, have his hips changed, if he stops using his back or a limb properly the muscles will atrophy, and somewhere else he will be overloading and the muscle will start to develop more or maybe develop in an odd pattern. So this tells us that there is something going on and we need to ask ourselves what do we need to address to get the horse more comfortable”.

Keeping horses happy and comfortable is what Mike Stine is all about. Over the coming months Mike is going to share some of his most unusual case studies with Cyberhorse.

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