Composting Horse Manure

9:38 pm

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Equine Care, Facility Planning & Design, Products, Projects

Effective Composting of Horse Manure for Your Garden

One constant dilemma facing horse owners, no matter what your discipline, is manure disposal. Horses create manure continuously, and it has to go somewhere. The ubiquitous manure pile that so many barns have used over the years is, unfortunately, a less attractive and useful option as farm properties grow smaller and closer to their neighbors, and as municipalities and water management boards seek to discourage run-off into streams, rivers, and aquifers. What to do with all that manure just piling up?

Try composting!

Compost can create useful […]

English Saddle Fitting

8:53 pm

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Equine Care

English Saddle Fitting 101

Saddle fitting; it’s the most glamorous, exciting, fun part of your entire equestrian career. Well, not really. Saddle fitting is actually something many of us would rather just skate by and hope for the best. Good saddles are expensive, and that moment when you realize that your best buddy saddle doesn’t fit your new best buddy horse — well, let’s just say it’s not pleasant.

So how can you tell if your saddle is doing a good job of fitting to your horse’s back? Here are a few steps for […]

Five Foaling Kit Extras

8:35 pm

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Equine Care, Misc.

Five Foaling Kit Must-Haves You Might Have Forgotten

You’re not a doctor, a veterinarian, or even a midwife. But this spring you’re going to be called upon to oversee a birth, and be prepared to step in to make sure the newborn and mother are healthy and happy. Sound familiar? You might be a horse breeder.

If you are not ready for this yet and are just starting to consider breeding, and not sure how the find the right stallion for your mare; this link to our article on choosing a stallion offers a few […]

Keeping Indoor Horses Happy

7:02 pm

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Equine Care

Stall rest. Bad manners. Poor weather conditions. Even too small a property.

There are plenty of reasons why some horses can’t get much turn-out time. And while there’s no question that horses benefit from as much free turn-out as possible, there are options to keep your horse healthy and happy even with reduced exercise time.

Hay

What’s more important to a horse than hay? Not much. Eating quality roughage round-the-clock is what your horse was born to do — all that jumping and galloping is just a bonus. A horse […]

Five Boots (and Wraps) to Keep in Your Tack Room

7:05 pm

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Equine Care

Five Boots (and Wraps) to Keep in Your Tack Room

Even if you don’t work your horse hard enough to warrant performance boots or daily wraps…

it’s important to have these five boots and wraps in your tack room. You never know when you might need them!

Bell Boots

Bell boots are there for your horse when his horseshoe nails are not. If your horse has a big expressive trot that is just made for tearing off shoes (look at that overreach of stride! Listen to that clink of metal! Oh… drat!), then bell boots are for you. Yes, they’re annoying to look […]

For Your Consideration: Pet Trusts

6:18 pm

1 Comment

Guest Author Farmgirl, Misc.

Pet Trusts: Important Considerations for Your Pets

If we are lucky, we will have many pets who bless and enrich our lives for many years.

Unfortunately, we are going to grieve for them many, many times throughout our lives since their life spans are so much shorter than ours. However, if we persist in pet ownership, at some point, our pets are bound to outlive us.

We have all seen emailed pleas for pet rehoming for suddenly homeless and loveless pets who have lost their owners, since it is human nature not to want to recognize […]

Great Horse Movies

6:10 pm

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Misc.

What’s your favorite horse movie?

Horse movies run the gamut from believable to ridiculous, from sappy to inspirational, and they cover all the equestrian bases — barrel racers, eventers, and Thoroughbred racing have all been depicted by Hollywood. The best horse movies, to us, show off horses and horse-people at their very best, without going too far off the rails with impossible plot-lines. Here are some great horse movies to enjoy during one of those rare moments when you’re not at the barn!

Seabiscuit: This 2003 movie saw the acting debut of Hall […]

Clipping Guide

10:01 pm

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Equine Care

Essential Clipping Guide for Your Horse’s Comfort

With winter settling in for the season, horse owners across much of the country have to make a decision: to clip, or not to clip?

Most horses are happy to grow a full, luxuriant coat of fur to keep them warm through the nastiest winter storm. But keeping a horse in work with all that hair can be a challenge. If that fuzzy winter coat gets soaked with sweat during a work-out, it could be doing more harm than good.

If you’re ready to get out […]