Purpose

The idea behind Functional Horsemanship, Helping horses by Helping People is to provide a forum for information relating to Care for the Horse not limited to but initially covering such topics as Hoof Care, Horse Supplements, Horse Feed, Training Methods and other information specifically for horse owners who do not have the ability or financial means to get information or education in any other manner, or, simply for people who wish to view information from all sources then decide on what information they may want to put in their saddlebag of knowledge.

This idea started years ago as I ran a 52 horse capacity private Horse Stables with a wide (and I mean wide!) range of knowledge or lack of knowledge demonstrated on a near hourly basis by the people boarding horses there. I served as an Army Range Rider and Law Enforcement Conservation Officer riding 1.2 million acres of mountainous and desert country bordered by cattle ranches and small horse operations. Having been called by people to look at or work with horses with problems, most of the problems I have seen are people problems resulting from their lack of knowledge and unfortunately sometimes a lack of caring.

I am also continually asked questions almost on a daily basis, from inexperienced and experienced horses owners alike, on issues such as horse health and hoof care, horse behavior problems, training, nutrition, horse feed, and trailer training to name a few. That taught me several things among them is that there are a heck of a lot of horse owners who just don’t know much about horses and are failing to educate themselves for some reason or another. But it also gave me hope that if people know better they will do better and that better is giving a horse a fair life.

There are many people, perhaps thousands, that are much more qualified to talk about Horse Training, Horse Nutrition, Hoof Care and especially Veterinarian subjects such as Diseases, Vaccines, Horse Dentistry, etc.,…… however many of these experts are outside the reach of the common horse owner. There are many owners of one and two horse operations that may have inherited horses, or whose family who has always had horses, or who are getting into horses for the first time as a hobby or sport, and a lot of these people just don’t know what they don’t know. My intent is to reach those people with the result being a safer and better relationship between the owners and their horses, and ultimately a better life for horses.

Working and riding horses is an inherently dangerous activity. We highly advise horse owners to seek hands on instruction and advice from professional trainers as well as seek a Veterinarian’s counsel on horse health issues.