Is your horse on a lay-up? Are YOU on a lay-up? Stall rest, whether it’s for you or your horse, doesn’t have to be boring, or a waste of training time. Bone up on your horse’s ground manners, or learn some new games and skills that will increase your bond once saddle-time is back. Try some of these groundwork and games lessons the next time riding is off-limits!
Groundwork: Manners. So many horses lack basic manners, and it gets even worse when a fit horse is suddenly taken out of work […]
Winter barn prep… in September? Well, we might be in the dog days now, but autumn is just a few weeks away, and, depending on where you live, winter may be hard on its heels. So even though your thoughts may be on keeping cool, it’s time to consider how you, your horses, and your barn will fare at keeping warm this winter.
Blanket Inspection. It’s time to open up those scary contractor’s bags and tack trunks where you’ve been storing the winter rugs, brush away the dust and spiders (we’re sorry) and […]
When you’re designing your stable, seemingly hundreds of tiny details become very large decisions. Stall doors are one of those decisions that can affect your daily life at the barn, whether it’s your business or your hobby. Sliding, Dutch, grills, yokes — what’s the best stall door for you?
Sliding doors (as shown in the French Hill Farm project) are popular in barns and often come in prefab stall kits. They take up less space because they don’t intrude on the barn aisle, making it easier to lead or cross-tie horses in the aisle. Because you […]
Hay nets, hay racks, hay feeders, hay bags, hay on the ground… it seems like the only thing we can agree on as equestrians is that horses need hay. The science of actually feeding that hay can get pretty complicated and pretty opinionated, pretty quickly! Some horsemen swear by hay nets, but others never really master the art of stuffing the flimsy things. Others prefer a trough feeder or a mat on the ground, saying that horses shouldn’t reach up for hay. And busy boarding stables often swear by hay racks, which allow for quick, efficient feeding by grooms […]
Recently, the equestrian world saw a 37-year-old pony make headlines in the UK for winning a dressage competition. The judge told Scrumpy’s rider that the spunky pony looked like a four-year-old.
While not every horse is going to be fresh as a colt well into their golden years, it’s still possible to maintain the happiness and soundness of older horses with smart senior care.
First, know your horse. Memory is faulty, and so when senior horses go downhill gradually, losing condition and good health without the changes to their body being glaringly noticeable, horse […]
The equestrian lifestyle is not for those afraid of work. Whether you have a staff of grooms or you’re mucking out after work every day, there’s going to be a certain level of physical labor in your life as long as horses are involved. Sometimes, it seems like there’s too much horsekeeping being done to get any horse-enjoyment in! That’s when a few minutes saved on daily tasks can start to add up very quickly.
Strap Down the Scissors: Yes, you can break open a hay bale by using a piece of baling […]
As the dog days of summer roll in, nothing seems less appealing than putting on leather boots and a hard hat before a nice broiling ride in the sun. But training schedules wait for no one, and if you’re prepping for the fall show season, you know you can’t give up riding just because of a little sweat. (Okay, a lot of sweat.) Luckily, there are plenty of options these days to make summer riding, if not a breeze, then a lot more comfortable.
Go techie: Technical fabrics are made to wick away moisture or allow […]
The following post has been provided by one of our guest authors and colleague, Travis McFeron.
The recent article in The New Yorker, “The Really Big One,” by Kathryn Schulz has caused a considerable amount of discussion and worry in the media and among some people in the region who have read it and were not previously not familiar with the Cascadia fault system. My initial impression of the article was that while it was fairly accurate in many respects, some of the wording seemed a bit sensational in nature. Overall the article does a very good job of spotlighting […]
