Heather Smith Thomas on Care and Management of Horses

Heather Smith Thomas grew up on a cattle ranch near Salmon, Idaho, and while still in high school started writing about horses and cattle. She wrote articles to help pay her way through college at the University of Puget Sound. She has raised and trained horses for 45 years and has been writing about them nearly that long, selling more than 6,000 stories and articles to horse and livestock publications. Most of her magazine articles deal with health care, breeding, training, horse behavior/handling, or veterinary topics (horses and cattle).

Thomas writes regularly for more than 20 farm and livestock magazines and about 40 horse publications, including Chronicle of the Horse, Equus, The Horse: Your Guide to Equine Health Care, and Quarter Horse Journal. She has published 13 books, including the recent Storey's Guide to Training Horses.

Thomas recently wrote Beyond the Flames: A Family Touched by Fire about her daughter's severe burn injury, sustained fighting a range fire, and valiant fight for life; the long road to recovery; and the effect the experience has had on their family. Thomas and her husband raise beef cattle and horses on a ranch in the mountains of eastern Idaho.

What inspired you to write Care and Management of Horses?

I have written several books about horses, most of them for the novice horse person. I wanted to write something for the serious horse person who already has a background in horse care and handling to help further that person's "education.”

I also wanted to write something that put the focus on the horse first and the techniques and nuts-and-bolts of horse care and handling second. Until we understand the horse's basic nature and needs, we do a poor job of caring for and feeding him because our traditions and human convenience are not always in his best interests. I wanted this book to cover intelligent horsekeeping, catering to the horse's basic needs and nature as much as possible, since many aspects of "traditional" horsekeeping were created for the benefit of humans rather than for horses (such as keeping horses in stables or feeding just twice a day).

Most of the "problems" and "vices" we encounter when dealing with horses are actually man-made because of the unnatural conditions in which we keep or manage horses. Even if a person has no way to keep a horse in totally natural conditions (wide open spaces rather than in a stall or small paddock), knowing what is natural and basic for the horse can help us make better choices and find solutions to management problems.

What do you hope the book will accomplish?

I hope the book will stimulate readers to think more about the horse's basic needs when making management decisions or in day-to-day horse handling. Even if it only helps resolve one little problem or clarifies some aspect of horse care that's been eluding or frustrating someone, it will have accomplished its purpose. If it opens the door for further learning, adds a bit to someone's quest for information, or helps someone put more focus and attention on the horse's side of the equation, it will have been worth writing.

What are some of the misconceptions horse people have about caring for horses?

Some people think of the horse as a creature to be fed twice a day (or kept at pasture, out of sight out of mind) and ridden when desired rather than taking on the full responsibility for care, which entails a much more constant commitment to the needs of the horse. Other people make the mistake of depending upon traditional lore (some of the old-timers' practices and words of wisdom are as pertinent in caring for horses today as they were 100 years ago, but other traditional methods may be more harmful than helpful). Some of the ways horsemen have traditionally dealt with problem horses or "stable vices" are way off base because they spring from the assumption that horses should readily adapt to a very artificial environment, when in truth very few can do so. Horse people often tend to think in terms of habit and tradition rather than looking at these things with fresh eyes from the point of view of the horse.

Probably the biggest misconception in caring for and working with horses is that we often expect him to think/behave in a manner that makes sense to us. We can do a better job of understanding him and his needs if we try to think in terms of how he perceives the world and how well he is programmed to be a herd animal.

How can horse people take better care of their horses?

We can always do a better job of caring for our horses if we try to truly understand them -- as horses and as individuals -- and put their needs first. If a horse has a health problem or handling problem or is not happy in his work or his living arrangements, there is always an underlying reason, and it is up to us to discover it and resolve it. Being tuned in to each individual horse can alert the horseperson to a problem when it first starts, giving more chance to try to define and correct it before it becomes a more serious problem, whether it's an illness, nutritional imbalance, foot problem, emotional frustration that surfaces as bad attitude, or "stable vice" or some other type of behavioral aberration.

You have four decades of horse training and raising experience. What are some of the important lessons horses have taught you?

The highlights of those lessons include the fact that horses are all individuals and they cannot be treated the same. This is true regarding feed needs, handling, training techniques, group living arrangements. There is no substitute for really getting to know each horse and being in tune with his personality and emotional makeup and his physical needs (whether it be feeding or shoeing). No matter how much we know about horses, there is always more to learn. For best results in handling and caring for horses, the horseperson (rather than the horse) is usually the one that has to bend in order to get the optimum response from some horses.

Horses can always surprise us. They sometimes give us much more than we expected or dreamed or may elude our attempts to make that perfect bond or partnership. They can make us stretch and grow if we are truly trying to handle and care for them to the best of our ability and not settling for a mediocre horsekeeping situation or poor teamwork. Horses can bring out the best in us if we allow them to stimulate us to achieve greater unity in the horse/human relationship. The main thing is to always realize that we have never seen it all; there is always more to learn.

You are an authentic, hands-on horse person. Why did you decide to learn how to shoe horses, build barns and paddocks, and start young horses?

These things evolved in my life as a blend of interest, passion, and necessity. An early love of horses then became a passion to learn all I could about these marvelous animals that allow humans to partner with them. After I had my own horses, I continued that quest for knowledge about them, particularly health care and hoof care along with trying to understand their ways of "thinking."

I would have become a veterinarian had I been born a decade or two later. When I went to college in the early 1960s, it was almost impossible for a woman to be accepted at veterinary schools. Rather than fight my way into that, I married a rancher instead and continued my "horse" education on my own, reading everything I could get my hands on regarding equine care and medicine (and updating my library of veterinary textbooks over the years).

On our ranch, my husband and I cared for our cattle and horses, becoming as adept as possible in managing their health care (treating sick cattle ourselves -- from IVs to giving fluids via stomach tube -- everything but major surgical procedures, and doing most of the horse health treatment as well). Doing our own work with the cattle and horses was partly economic necessity and partly passion; we care deeply about all of our animals and try to give them the best care possible.

This same hands-on attitude applies to facilities; on a ranch you do your own fence building and repairs. We built our own hay shed for the horse hay (to keep it dry and mold-free), our own calving barn for the cattle. Our horses live a relatively natural outdoor existence (no barn for them), but we have a two-sided cattle shed (our sick barn) that we've used on occasion to get a sick horse out of the weather or to be able to shoe a horse when it's raining.

I have been shoeing my own horses since I was 14 years old. The first time was a matter of necessity when my younger brother and I were staying home taking care of the ranch and cattle for a week while our parents were gone to a conference. He and I were riding range daily to check on the cattle, and riding 14 miles to town twice a week for our 4-H meeting and drill practice. When his horse lost a shoe on one of our range rides and he had to do the 28-mile round trip to the fairgrounds the next day, I found a used shoe in our shed that was the proper size and nailed it on. I had been trimming feet for a couple of years and watching my dad shoe our horses. After realizing it was not that difficult (and Ginger's shoe stayed on!), I began to shoe all our ranch horses. I have been shoeing horses ever since -- not professionally, but just doing the best job I can do with our own ranch horses. Proper care of their feet, which for me includes their trimming and shoeing, has been one of the passions of my life with horses. When you raise a horse yourself and watch it grow, train it, ride it chasing cattle and maybe on a few endurance rides, and are intimately acquainted with how it handles its feet, you have a big advantage over a farrier who only sees that horse at shoeing time.

My horses have been my best teachers and the stimulus for my quests. I always preferred to raise and train my own horses (for use on our cattle ranch) rather than buy an already trained horse, because the horses I raised and trained myself were truly my own, acclimated to our rough terrain and conditions for chasing cattle in the mountains and we fully understood one another.

Your book is full of practical advice. How do the basics of horse care co-exist in our high-tech, quick-fix world?

Horsekeeping is always a mix of art and science; practicality and state-of-the-art new techniques; tried and true wisdom and experience versus popular fads and gadgets. If a person starts with a foundation that always puts the horse first -- particularly the individual horse and whatever idiosyncrasies, problems or foibles he might have, or unique aspects of care that he might require -- then there is a yardstick by which to judge, evaluate or select the things you might be inclined to use or follow in caring for that horse. Horse care must always be a blend of judgments based upon experience and in-tuneness with your horse, mixed with openness to new ideas, new products, new research, so that you can give your horse the very best of care regarding what is "right" for him.

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