Oroville's Own: Phil Morarre is a Natural Horseman
Source: Oroville Mercury-Register
Oroville, CA
April 27, 2008

Phil Morarre is a natural horseman with an innate understanding of equine deepened and expanded during nearly 50 years of riding, training, care and study.

"I grew up in Maryland and had horses since I was a teenager," says the 64-year-old Oroville resident. "I just seem to be able to connect with them, with all animals, really."

Morarre owned and rode horses for pleasure but discovered that he was able to make a difference with horses that had "behavioral problems."

As the years passed and Morarre moved through careers as a professional musician and then as an entrepreneur owning his own leather goods shop in Massachusetts, his bond with horses was a constant.

In 1980 he put his successful leather goods business up for sale and followed his heart in 1982 to California.

"I moved here because of a woman but I always thought California was calling to me ever since I was 18. I just never got up the initiative to check it out before," remembered Morarre. "I loved it the first time I saw it. I still do. You couldn't get me to move."

In the early 1990s Morarre "discovered" natural horsemanship and began studying the methods of pioneers in the field like Pat Parelli, John Lions and Clint Anderson, gleaning from each of them what worked for him and his style of horsemanship.

"Natural horse training just made sense to me and my understanding of animals. I'd already been using many of the techniques; I just didn't know they had a name. Then one day a friend asked for help with a horse and offered to pay me, light bulb went off in my head," he says, laughing. "I could get paid for what I love to do. So I started training people and their horses."

Natural horse training, Morarre said, is asking for cooperation from the horse without coercion using body language the horse understands. It requires, he says, understanding equine psychology and approaching the horse as a horse and not as a human.

"You have to become a herd member and stay one notch ahead of them. They love whoever is above them in the pecking order of the herd and if you position yourself that way, connect with them that way, they will follow you any where," he explains.

"Not even the strongest halter can keep a horse with you and under control if they don't want to cooperate. With natural horsemanship you can keep them under control without having to touch them. I like the idea and the feeling of riding with without a bridle. I like to ride when the horse is taking you where you want to go because it wants to not because it has to."

In 1998 one of Morarre's clients referred him to a Web site, Tribe Equus, about natural hoof care and what he found there "clicked" with him.

"I just started reading and had the sense that it was right on. It was like the awakening I had when I started pursuing natural horse training and I began to learn all I could," he said.

Morarre began to study and train with early pioneers in the natural hoof care field including Debbie Dutra and Martha Olivo, and it wasn't long before this natural horseman became a natural "hoofman."

"Natural hoof care is trimming the horse's feet to what would be the physiologically correct form for that horse and not using shoes. The feet are responsible for a lot of blood circulation for the horse. When the hoof hits ground it expands and draws in blood when it lifts it contracts and forces blood back out," said Morarre. "An ancient Greek equestrian once said, 'The horse has five hearts and four of them are on the ground'."

Natural hoof care soon became Morarre's primary business, trimming about 125 horses per month using a small angle grinder with a flap disk — not the traditional farrier's hoof knife, nippers and rasp tools — to shape each hoof as if that horse were in the wild. This, he says, gives the animal balance, comfort and overall better health. Through this kind of care,

Morarre has been able to eliminate founder, laminitis and navicular syndrome in numerous horses returning them to good health and allowing them to be ridden again. These are all debilitating conditions sometimes requiring the horse to be "put down," Trail as well as performance horses can do their "jobs" without shoes if natural hoof care is provided, says Morarre.

In addition to trimming the horses, Morarre also gives clinics all over the U.S. teaching horse owners, vets and farriers the art of natural hoof care. Through his Web site, www.softouchnaturalhorsecare.com, Morarre also sells natural hoof care instructional DVDs and provides information about trimming and links to other hoof care providers.  

"I have continued to learn from others in the field and the very best teachers of all — the horses. I have taken what I've learned from each of these teachers, along with my own experience, and applied this broad base of knowledge according to what works best for a particular horse," he says.

"What I have developed from all of this is my own style of trimming, customized to suit the individual horse and am able to teach others."