Friday, December 20, 2013

Feature Friday – The Naturally Healthy Horse – Casie Bazay


Howdy Folks,
 
Casie Bazay started her love affair with horses as a very young girl, growing up with horses and barrel racing by her fifteenth birthday. She was also born with a love of writing. Little did she know those two loves would combine and set a path for her to follow; helping horses everywhere using the written word.
Life and horses seemed to guide her to creating a successful blog and website, "The Naturally Healthy Horse," where she shares her and others' knowledge of helping horses live healthy and naturally.

Her journey up that path began as a young girl, but received a big push by her barrel horse, Hershey. While Casie was taking time off after the birth of her son in 2007, Hershey became mysteriously lame. So severe was his condition that returning to the barrel course arena was out of the question.

Hershey was only 14 at the time, and no amount of Veterinarian visits, consultations, or money could define the cause, much less cure it. Desperate, and driven to find help for her long time partner, Casie began to explore alternative treatments with Hershey, including chiropractic, massage, and acupuncture. She purchased books on these modalities to learn more about them herself. Particularly fascinated by one book on equine acupressure (which is based on the same TCM principles as acupuncture, only without needles), she decided to attend courses offered by the authors of the book (Nancy Zidonis and Amy Snow of Tallgrass Animal Acupressure Institute) and become certified in equine acupressure. A grant from her Indian tribe, The Chickasaw Nation made it possible for Casie to attend the courses.

"Attending Tallgrass was the beginning of my journey into learning about holistic horse health.  As part of my course requirements, I also took two of Dr. Kellon’s equine nutrition courses, and this sparked an intense interest in nutrition (my horses and also my own.)  I also met a barefoot trimmer while attending Tallgrass (Lu Garnas from Montana), and the things she told me about led me to study natural trimming.  This became another fascination of mine and I eventually learned to trim my own horses." Casie explained.

 She used her newfound knowledge and skills to help Hershey and her other horses. She put them on a forage-based diet balanced in minerals, started giving them regular acupressure sessions, and began trimming their hooves every four weeks.
 
Despite all her efforts, Hershey’s condition remained the same.  She came to a real turning point when she gave up trying to ‘fix’ Hershey in order to ride or barrel race him again, and instead decided to let him enjoy his well-earned retirement and take the best care of him she possibly could.  She began to see Hershey as her teacher.  "After all, he had inspired me to learn so much and led me to take a path that I never dreamed I’d follow." Casie said. "I learned that my love of horses exceeded my love of barrel racing and competing, and I was okay with just taking care of my horses and enjoying them whether I was riding or not."

Soon she began freelance writing for equine publications to share a little of what she’d learned, and continues to learn with others. Her articles in "The Horse," and other magazines were so well received she started her blog about a year ago. The Naturally Healthy Horse, has proven to be a valuable resource for horse owners all over the world about equine nutrition, barefoot hoof care, and acupressure.

"I also write about specific equine conditions such as insulin resistance, Cushing’s, heaves, etc. so people can be more aware of these common conditions.  I never intended to portray myself as the ‘expert’ on the blog, but my goal was to inspire people to get educated about horse health and natural care.  I do plenty of research for each of my posts." Casie explained.
Casie and Hershey
"My four horses, Hershey, Bob, Lee Lee, and Kady often guide my posts. Whatever is going on with them often becomes the topic of my next blog post. I must say that even though the blog is a lot of work, I love doing it!  If it can help even one horse, I would say that it has been worth it."

People and Horses Helping Horses and People is what our Coffee Clutch Feature Friday is all about, and Casie and her horses and blog are doing just that ... Kessy and I hope you'll join, The Naturally Healthy Horse (CLICK HERE). And feel free to send in your questions.
You can join them on Facebook HERE

Gitty Up ~ Dutch Henry.

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