Horsekeeping

Arrow Lane...my ponies' home :) It is about 1/2hr away from my place, but only 35$/horse/mo

One of the important elements of barefooting, involves horsekeeping...or how we house our horses. A healthy bare hoof needs lots of movement and if possible, access to different terrains. To be healthy, a horse needs open spaces, if possible grazing (if no health issues like Insulin Resistance exclude this), a variety of terrain, and horse companionship. This doesn't guarantee perfect feet by any means (a lot more is involved), but it will help immensely and help with the over all health of the horse. A horse is not meant to be locked in a 12x12 stall (or even a stall with a run) and segregated from other horses. It was meant to interact in herds and roam 20 miles a day in search of food and water and escaping predators. Of course sometimes we just can't provide 100 acres and a herd of horses over lots of different terrain. We often do not own our own property and have to board our horses where ever we can afford. But often we get caught up in how we were taught horses SHOULD live (after all, who wouldn't want a warm and dry stall, deep in shavings, a blanket on when it is cold, hang out near, but not with other horses that could kick, bite, or harass the poor horse?), but not the reality of how they really DO live (cold to a horse is not cold to a human...horses are the most comfortable at 40F...when we'd be shivering!...and even with some pecking going on in a herd, horse friends are much better than loneliness) . Anyway, I am not perfect either, but I at least try to provide freedom to move in a large area, and other horse companions.
The mares have the best deal most the time, I think. Though at times like last night, listening to the rain beating on my window and the wind howling, my human mind worries that they have no blankets and only some trees to shelter under (which since I am not there, I don't know if they will choose to go up in the woods or not..). But it is not too cold and they look fine everyday after a storm, when I go out to feed them the next day. It sure is hard to fight what think is comfortable or not, and try not to put that on a horse. I do relent though when it get cold (under 40) or rains non-stop for more than 2 days...at that point, they don't get much relief and their coats won't dry out and they do get cold when the wet fur mats down and the wind howls across the pasture from the bay. So I often watch the weather forecasts and try to get their blankets on while they are still dry, if a long rain is predicted. Today it was only supposed to shower though, and it turned into a beautiful, sunny day. So they dried out nicely and my worries flew away. :)

The back gate of my pasture...I often feed from here in the winter, as there is less mud to go through and the hill on the left shields the horses from the wind howling off the bay at least a little... The girls are on the hillside near the woods, and the woods extend a ways back. Sometimes I think there is a bear or cougar that prowls through there, as the girls are really wary of the woods on some days and will pop up their heads and go flying away from there when I can't hear or see a thing...















Here is a closeup of them from the bottom of the hill...and the top. You can see how they have certain "paths" that they use to travel around the pasture. The rain has made them show up well. I spread the hay in smallish piles across the sides of the hill...it drains water well if it rains and it makes them work a little more by moving across the hill and eating at a slant...















This is the other side of their pasture..the brown corner is their favorite loafing area, and most years it is past the fetlocks in mud. This summer a local tree service dumped a bunch of wood chips in there (look into that if you have mud...they often have to pay to dispose of their woodchips and will give em to you for free!) and that has helped IMMENSELY... The other picture is of their water source. There is a seasonal creek that runs through the pasture from about October-May/June and creates two ponds the ponies can drink from. They also have a water trough (to the right of the right pond) that is hooked into a well and has a float valve that keeps it full all year long. Often I will feed on the far side of the hill, and they will graze and eat hay there, and have to wander around/over the hill to get water a few times a day.















This is the loafing area...from one direction........and the other... There is still a little mud in some areas, but it is mostly water/chip mix and not that muckboot sucking stuff that it normally is. The chips were a mix of Redwood and Eucalyptus...it smelled really good for the first few months. The gate is the bottom gate that we usually pull the horses in an out of the pasture from.















The girls and the ponds from up top again, The house up top is the pasture owner's (I rent) and the barn on the left is where we keep our hay and tack. The pasture on the right is rented by another couple that have four horses and also rent a large pasture behind the barn. On the left is another pasture that runs up to near the barn and has three horses in it as well, rented by another gal. I REALLY wish I could own this place! So much land! I could rotate pastures, put an arena in in the pasture behind the barn (pretty level back there) and Bayside is mostly out of the fog zone in summer and gets pretty warn...oh well, one can dream... Here is also a pic of our gate area...we need more chips here :( We also keep a halter per horse here. I know a lot of ppl say not to leave out halters cause of thieves, but there are never horse thefts around here. Heck, you can't GIVE horses away here and there is no real livestock auction close by that would be worthwhile to take horses to, even for sale to a meat buyer. It would take more in gas and hassle to drive to an auction, than it would prob bring in for the sale of the horse. Besides, we have had the horses escape and go walkabout across the street and such, and to have halters right there helps with passersby or the land owners or whatever...














Here they are today (the other pics were yesterday)..I fed on the front side of the hill this time. In the right picture, you can see a good example of the hill principle...Jazz has to tuck her butt under her to eat on the slant. This works her muscles while eating and teaches good balance and use of her body as well. A win-win situation :) As you can see..no, I do not have a mud-free environment...they don't have gravel or other rough stuff to walk around on (thus we use boots when riding on hard/sharp footing), and not a shelter in site besides trees. But they have fresh air, lots of room to move and run, grazing (in late spring-summer I have to be careful as they otherwise get TOO much grass), and fresh water. And they have each other to build a small herd. So all in all, they live a pretty good life :)

And now....for some panoramic shots...my camera has that feature and I thought I'd play around with it a little. I also embedded a video at the end of this post, that gives a good walk around view of the pasture area :)