Arashi's Story

My daughter was leasing Shadow, and I was living vicariously through her. I was one of those children who lived, breathed, and dreamed horses. If it didn't involve a horse, I didn't want to pretend it, play it, or read it. I can't remember a time when I didn't love horses. But I lived in the middle of nowhere in the middle of Alaska. No horses around for hundreds of miles. And moose don't take kindly to being ridden. ;)

When I was about 9, my family moved to Fairbanks, an area with (drum roll) HORSES! Of course I was immediately nagging my mother to get me riding. And she did. For a while. But then it became too expensive, too much trouble to drive to the stables, blah blah... typical parenting thing. And my dreams of riding and owning a horse were slowly starved into submission somewhere in a dark corner in the back of my psyche.

I got married, I had kids, I got into a job or several jobs that burned away my hope of ever doing anything *real* with my life. Then I got a divorce, I moved to GA, and brought my kids to live with me. My daughter was about 9 at the time. Can you imagine what she said to me nearly the moment she moved here? "Hey Mom! We could have HORSES here!" The apple doesn't fall far from the tree? And in keeping with the apple theme... I told her "Honey, they're really expensive, we don't have time....." *sigh*

So a couple years down the road, I find myself living vicariously, as I mentioned, through my daughter and her leased horse. We had decided that we would definitely buy Shadow from her as soon as I could get the money together.

I was at the stable with my daughter one sunny day, when the instructor at that time pulled into the drive with a horse trailer. She proceeded to back out of the trailer the scraggliest, most terrified, weak looking, scrawny excuse for a horse I'd ever seen. Of course, I took one look into his eyes and .. the rest is history. He was rescued from slaughter, my boy, my heart. A roughly 5 year old cremello QH gelding, and he was to be slaughtered?? I still can't wrap my brain around that one.

The farrier proceeded to tell me that he was an albino (!), that because of his genetic inferiority, his hooves and coat would be weak (!!), and that I'd never be able to work him without shoes. He had flat feet, the farrier told me. I asked what flat feet meant in a horse. He hemmed and hawed and ... didn't have an answer. I tried looking up flat feet online. I couldn't find much. I decided just to wait and see what was going to happen.

Arashi and I have gone through much together. He's my therapist, a great humbling factor in my life, and yet - he's my port in the stormy seas of life. His name is japanese, Arashi Rei. He didn't have a name when we got him, so I wanted something that reflected his coloring. It means Storm Spirit. And it has come to reflect much more than just his coloring.

His feet responded very well to just being allowed to move. I made a point to walk him on gravel for at least 10 minutes every time I was out to see him. This was well before I knew anything about 'natural hoofcare.' I just used common sense. If you want tough feet, you toughen them up, right?

When I first started seeing concavity, I thought I was hallucinating. But slowly, it really started happening. Just being allowed free movement and being on a good diet was already making a huge difference. Then when I called Cindy to trim Shadow and Eve, of course he was included. That's when I learned about flaring and separation, etc. We started bringing in his flares, and working the hooves. He now has absolutely lovely, concave, low back feet. His fronts are coming along really well, too.

The horse that 'could never be ridden without shoes' is now happily stomping across gravel or anything else, with or without someone on his back. Rocks? Who cares. Arashi was my port in a storm when I had to weather Eve's transition. Arashi gave me hope. And Arashi is absolute proof that a white hoof is just as tough as any other hoof out there.