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Strong Spirit Stables LLC, Sunset Trail, Welch, MN (2026)

09/06/2026

Motion is lotion…

So if a horse starts struggling the more work or turnout they get, this is the very first place I recommend owners look…

No foot, no horse.

Or maybe… no heels, no horse.

Excessive heel trimming has been popular off and on in both the barefoot trimming and farrier world since I started trimming 25 years ago, and long before.

It’s something I’m constantly having to rehab, that has a huge impact on the whole horse… from hind end issues, to lack of engagement or suspension in the gaits, to horses being ‘footy’ on difficult terrain due to the lack of vertical depth in the foot, to body-wide dysfunction and discomfort, and an overall decline in performance.

It can be pretty insidious, because some horses have a narrower window for error than others when it comes to the equilibrium between their flexor and extensor systems.

As well, if heels start out low, and a practitioner doesn’t put effort into correcting them, the heels may not necessarily be getting trimmed too low, they just aren’t growing at all, due to overload in the back of the foot, so the practitioner may mistakenly believe they are setting the heels at the appropriate height, since they’re at the sole plane.

This is one area in particular where I see desperate owners pouring a huge amount of money and energy into symptoms, without ever getting to the origin of the problem.

We can’t bodywork or chiropractor or train our way out of this problem, because those things can’t compensate for an ongoing mechanical problem in the foot.

A lot of these horses will go years being ‘not quite right’ before they start to break down and show obvious symptoms.

The tell-tale red flag is the broken-back HPA, Hoof Pastern Angle.

This is often exacerbated, like we see in the first few pictures, due to the horse being reluctant to load into the fetlock and the back of the foot.

I believe the rehab horse below was one misstep up away from a tendon or ligament injury…

If there’s one thing I could encourage everyone to educate themselves about, it would be how to observe HPA and be on the lookout for a broken-back HPA.

It’s simple enough owners can keep an eye on it without needing a ton of technical knowledge or experience.

The Equine Documentalist has some of the best educational content on this out there, including references to the science of the toll BBHPA has on the tendons and navicular area.

The photo above is from their article on Navicular…
https://www.theequinedocumentalist.com/the-beginning-of-the-n-navicular/

I feel like I’m seeing an uptick in this style of trimming again. It’s normalized in certain camps, but eventually, many of these horses begin to show declining comfort or performance and a need for increased intervention.

It’s so incredibly important that we listen to the science, listen to the horses, and not our own egos or beloved gurus.

I attribute prioritizing HPA as the main reason my own horses have stayed sound over the years.

I also think it’s a big reason why they don’t require boots or shoes or a lot of interventions like bodywork, etc.

Nowadays, there’s really no excuse for those of us trimming or rehabbing to not be educated about this, and we need to be educating owners.

Another great article…
https://www.theequinedocumentalist.com/the-truth-about-hoof-pastern-axis/

Adequate vertical depth in the back of the foot goes beyond simple heel height.
Pictures of the caudal development of this foot, including frog, in the comments…

09/04/2026

It is alarming how many people browse horse sales ads and completely miss the distress happening right in front of them, as clever marketing has normalized extreme stress, pain, and fear. Buyers scroll through videos completely unaware of equine body language, frequently mistaking a horse ‘gaiting’ fast down the asphalt just to show off the “smooth, gliding ride”. In reality, that horse is often hollow-backed, tense, and rushing from concussion pain or sheer panic. Similarly, horses with dull eyes, tight muzzles, and frozen postures are routinely praised as "quiet and bombproof beginner horses," when they are actually shut down and experiencing learned helplessness. Even the phrase "forward and spirited" is often used to mask a horse that is rushing just to escape a heavy hand, a harsh bit, or chronic physical discomfort. Because the equestrian community has been conditioned to look at a flashy surface rather than true biomechanics, signs like pinned ears, swishing tails, braced jaws, and hollow spines hide in plain sight.

We must stop letting marketing blind us. We must refuse to normalize what is clearly a horse’s physical cry for help. Their bodies never lie.

09/02/2026

The Overuse of Previcox / Equioxx in Horses
(And Why “Better Than Bute” Isn’t the Standard We Should Be Using)

Previcox and Equioxx are both forms of firocoxib, a COX‑2 selective NSAID commonly prescribed for pain and inflammation in horses. COX‑2 selective means the drug targets the inflammation‑producing COX‑2 enzyme while sparing more of the COX‑1 enzyme that protects the stomach and kidneys, however they still reduce the protective prostaglandins that keep the gut lining healthy- and are not "ulcer free".

These drugs are often described as “safer than bute.”
But here’s the truth: bute is well‑known to cause significant gastric and hindgut ulceration when used long‑term in a high percentage of horses, so being “better than bute” is not exactly a meaningful measure of safety.

The FDA‑approved Equioxx label clearly states: not for use beyond 14 days.
Yet in my practice, I see horses on it for months… even years.

NSAIDs are not preventative, they do not heal anything.
Long‑term use can come with real consequences.

In both human and vet medicine, it’s well‑established that chronic NSAID use can contribute to:

• gastric ulcers
• colitis
• kidney stress or damage
• reduced blood flow to the digestive tract
• hindgut irritation
• systemic inflammation over time

So while owners are trying to reduce mild to moderate MSK discomfort, they’re often doing it at the cost of the digestive system, which ultimately drives more inflammation long‑term.

Pain is communication.
Masking it without understanding the root cause often leads to bigger problems long term.

To be clear, this post is not stating that NSAIDS should not be used, medications absolutely have their place. However many owners are unaware of the long term side effects. Risks and benefits should always be considered. For those who take this post as denying seniors horses comfort- it is not that. Unfortunately I see many young and middle aged horses on long term NSAIDS. I like to ask "at what cost"?
And the answer will be different for everyone!

If you want to read more- head to my blog!

https://kcequinewellness.ca/blogs/equine-wellness/lets-stop-overusing-previcox-equioxx-for-horses

If long term medication is not for you, and you're looking for a holistic approach to help your horse heal naturally head to my website to book your consult now.

Apply for your consultation today:
https://kcequinewellness.ca/pages/holistic-nutrition

Follow KC Equine Wellness on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/kcequinewellness

Check out my blog:
https://kcequinewellness.ca/blogs/equine-wellness

08/29/2026

Psych Saturday: Two Roads

This may be the hardest Psych Saturday I have ever written. Not because of the complexity of the ideas or because of personal vulnerability. Rather, because I know that it can be (and will likely be) misinterpreted, misapplied, and/or misused at some time in some way that could lead to real harm. Yet, I feel strongly that avoiding difficult topics and hard conversations doesn’t serve anyone. So here it is, stated as plainly as I know how. My only ask is that your search for and embrace the two non-negotiable conditions I lay out below and keep those in mind as you contemplate what I am sharing.

Two horses come into the barn the same week, and you could say they need the same thing.

Both need to trust a person. Both need to feel safe enough to learn something. If you stopped there, at the level of what they need, you might reach for the same approach with each of them. And with one of them you would be making a serious mistake.

The first is young. Barely started. She has not met much of the world yet. She spooks at the tarp because the tarp is new, not because she has concluded that people bring tarps to hurt her. Nothing much has been written on her. She is not defended. She is unwritten.

With her, the work is what most of us were taught. Be clear. Be predictable. Ask small, and be clear in your ask. Let one good experience sit on top of another until they add up to something she can lean on. It is slow, it is not complicated, and it works.
The second horse has met plenty of the world. What he learned is that closeness is a trap.

He is not unwritten. He is written as if the world were a dangerous place. He is braced before you get there. And here is what took me a long time to understand: you can do everything you did with the young mare, patiently, kindly, for months... and it might simply roll right off him.

Not because he needs more time. Because good experiences cannot get into a system that has already made up its mind. He is not evaluating you. He decided about people before you showed up.

So the second road is not a slower version of the first one. It is a different road.

What it needs, at some point, is an interruption. A pattern that has closed around itself has to be opened before anything new can get in. Something has to happen that the old story does not account for. Usually that means a limit, held clearly, firm enough to interrupt what he is doing and give a scattered system something solid to organize around.

And this is the precise place where the whole thing goes wrong, in barns and in families and in therapy rooms.

"Some horses need firmness" is one of the truer sentences in horsemanship. It is also the favorite sentence of every rough hand who ever ruined an animal. The idea that a creature sometimes needs to be interrupted is the most abusable idea in this work, because it hands you permission and never mentions where permission ends.

So it comes with two conditions, and they are not negotiable.

It must not harm.

And it must resolve to safety.

Both. Not one. The interruption is never the point. It is only ever the first half of a sentence whose ending is: and then we came back, and you were all right.

That second condition is the one that gets dropped. And when it does, you get the counterfeit, which looks nearly identical from the outside and is a completely different thing. Pressure applied, and then... nothing. No return. No softening. No coming back together. Just a creature who got interrupted and left there.

That is not rehabilitation. That is stress with a story attached to it.
The research on children says this about as clearly as anyone could. Hard experience buffered by a relationship, one that reliably carries the child back to safety, is tolerable, and it can even build capacity. The same hard experience without that relationship is toxic. Same stressor. Two completely different outcomes. What changed was not the difficulty. What changed was whether anybody brought them back.

I think about this with people constantly. The difficult conversation that never gets repaired. The consequence handed down and then left to sit. The parent who is very clear about the limit and never quite finds a way back into the room afterward. Every one of those is the first half of a sentence, delivered as though it were the whole thing.

And when you do give the whole sentence, something happens that the gentle road cannot produce.

Because there are two kinds of trust, and they are not the same substance.

One says: I have always been comfortable with you.

The other says: I have been through something hard with you, and you brought me back.

The first is lovely, and it is fragile, because it has never been tested and neither of you knows what you are like when it counts.

The second has been tested. That is what it is made of.
The young mare will get there the easy way, and that is a gift, and I would not trade it.

But the horse who has already decided about people cannot get there that way. He does not need us to be gentler. He needs us to be trustworthy in the hard place, which is a different thing, and a harder one, and it asks considerably more of us than simple kindness does
Bring him back. Every time. That is the whole road.

~ Paul

08/28/2026

Have you ever found yourself standing at a crossroads in life, completely unsure of which way to go?

Like you’re standing at a fork in the road, looking down two different paths, and neither one feels completely clear.
You pray.

You ask God for direction.
You ask Him to close the wrong doors and open the right ones.
You ask Him to make it obvious.
And then you wait.
And wait.
And sometimes, if I’m being completely honest, I find myself asking…

“𝐆𝐨𝐝, 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐈 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐘𝐨𝐮?”

“What is the answer?”
“Which way am I supposed to go?”
“Please just show me.”

I’ve been there lately.
I’ve been asking God for clarity, for direction, for some indication that I’m moving toward what He has for me and not simply wandering around trying to figure it all out on my own.

And then today, during a lesson with a client, I heard myself say something I’ve said countless times before:

“𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐬𝐞 𝐠𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐞𝐲𝐞𝐬 𝐠𝐨.”

So look where you want to go.
If you want your horse to turn, you have to first look in the direction you want to go.

Your horse feels where your attention is.
Your body follows your eyes.
And your horse follows you.
And as those words came out of my mouth, I felt that quiet, unmistakable nudge from the Holy Spirit…

“𝐈’𝐦 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮, 𝐭𝐨𝐨.”

And suddenly, the lesson wasn’t just for my client.
It was for me.
Maybe God hasn’t been silent.
Maybe I’ve just been so focused on trying to figure out the entire road ahead that I’ve forgotten to look at Him.
Maybe I’ve been asking Him to show me the destination when He’s simply asking me to trust Him with the next step.

𝐅𝐢𝐱 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐞𝐲𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐨.

And if you don’t know exactly where that is yet…
Fix your eyes on Him.
Look toward the things you do know.
Toward peace.
Toward obedience.
Toward growth.
Toward love.
Toward the things God has already placed in your heart.
Toward the life He is calling you to live.
And then keep your eyes there.
Because there will always be distractions.

Fear will tell you to look behind you.
Doubt will tell you that you’re not capable.

Other people’s opinions will try to pull your attention in a hundred different directions.

And the enemy would love nothing more than to keep you staring at everything except the One who is leading you.

But God says, 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐚𝐭 𝐌𝐞.
Trust Me.
I know the way.
You don't have to see the whole road.
You don't have to understand every turn.
You don't have to have the answers today.

𝐉𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐤𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐞𝐲𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐌𝐞.

So maybe this season isn’t about God giving me a map.
Maybe it’s about learning to trust the Guide.
Maybe I don’t need to know exactly where I’m going.
Maybe I just need to know 𝐖𝐡𝐨 𝐈’𝐦 𝐟𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠.

And today, I’m choosing to fix my eyes forward.
Not because I have it all figured out.
But because I know the One who does.

“𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐥𝐚𝐦𝐩 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐲 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚 𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐲 𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐡.” — 𝐏𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐦 𝟏𝟏𝟗:𝟏𝟎𝟓

One step at a time.
One day at a time.
Eyes fixed on Him.
And trusting that when it’s time for the next turn…

𝐇𝐞’𝐥𝐥 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐲.

08/27/2026

At a recent clinic I did in Maine, a spectator asked me to sign her copy of the book I wrote called The Principles Of Training.

She asked "Can you write something that will tell me that it's all going to be alright between my horse and I?"

I wrote in her book and handed it to her and said "I wrote the same thing in your book as I write in every book". She opened her book and read

"To (her name),

Enjoy the Journey.

My signature"

She looked at me quizzically, and I said to her "I can't tell you everything is going to be all right between you and your horse. At times things will not be all right, and that's perfectly normal. So when that happens, and it's going to happen, then your attitude about what is happening is more important than what is happening. Understand that it's a Journey, with highs and lows. "

One of my favourite quotes Ive ever read is by music producer Rick Ruben who said "Impatience is merely denying reality". This lady was wanting me to write something in her book to deny reality, but what I wrote was to get her to be ok with whats happening. It's gonna happen anyway...

08/26/2026

It’s so satisfying to see the postural changes in these horses when you compare their before and after pictures.

The top photo is from the day he arrived, and the bottom photo is from today. His back is slowly getting stronger, and you can really start to see the difference in how he is carrying himself. These changes don’t happen overnight. They come from consistency, correct movement, building strength, and giving the body time to heal and reorganize.

Little by little, he’s learning to use his body in a healthier, more balanced way—and watching that transformation happen is one of my favorite parts of this work.

Progress isn’t always dramatic day to day. Sometimes you have to step back and compare where they started to truly appreciate how far they’ve come.

08/26/2026

Black Jack was lending some of his comfort and confidence to his buddy Custer today.

I got them both out and about together to see how Custer would handle the after-work traffic on the gravel road. We made our way through the pine trees, tall grass, and all the sticks and branches along the way—giving him plenty of opportunities to think, navigate, and figure things out for himself.

Sometimes the best preparation isn’t about asking a horse to do more. It’s about giving them the chance to experience more, in a way that allows them to build confidence without feeling like they have to figure it all out alone.

I thought this was a great way to prepare Custer to head home tomorrow. Hopefully, he’ll get to continue his adventures by being ponied along by both his horse mom and his human mom.

And Black Jack? He was the perfect teacher today—quietly lending Custer a little confidence simply by being there and leading the way.

Strong Spirit Stables LLC

09/06/2026

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08/29/2026

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