Hilltop Farm Nana Glen

07/11/2023

Tune up Tuesday 😅 The poles are out and endless possibilities for exercises 🤪 Here’s a trot/canter pattern.Thanks to Angela and Albert for demonstrating 😊

25/10/2023

It was hot 🥵 today, let’s hope the cool change comes through and brings some rain 🌧️ 🤞

17/10/2023

Not a great start to the Fire season 😞 it has been 10 years since we have had any fires through hills behind us and nothing has been done to reduce the fuel that has been created from the rainfall that has been in excess over the past few years, I really hope we can get through this summer unscathed but it’s not looking good 😢

13/10/2023

Big day for our not so little Victor today, castration is really important to help these male horses live a better life and thanks again to Dr Oliver Liyou from EVDS for making his first experience with needles a positive one 😊 all vaccinated and microchipped he is all set for hopefully a long and healthy life 🤞, special thanks to nurse Imogen on National Vet Nurses Day you guys are awesome and we appreciate you all ❤️

08/10/2023

This Saturday four of us from Hilltop made the trek to Murwillimbah for The Power of Pink a fantastic fundraiser for Breast Cancer. We rode for all the friends we have lost to cancer and for all the survivors 💗 We proudly wore our hearts for Chris Duver taken way too young to such a horrible disease and hope that all money raised helps find a cure, for myself the list is getting all too long, for Chris, Mascha ,Kate,Bronwyn and my grandmother you are remembered always 💔

05/10/2023

Big thanks to EVDS and Dr Oliver Liyou and nurse Imogen for coming and doing one of our annual dental days today, dental health is such an important part of your horses wellbeing 😊 and Oliver has been coming and looking after our horses for over two decades now 😃We are very grateful to have him in our area and appreciate his care and advice for our horses 🙏❤️

18/09/2023

Please be aware that snakes are out and about, we had not one but two brown snakes in the arena today 😱 Keep an eye out for them and make sure you don’t look at your phone while walking along, you may just tread on one!!

05/07/2023

Nice little read while you’re having a coffee break 😊

German dressage star Helen Langehanenberg explains the training quality of submission and shares how you can develop it in your horse.

03/07/2023

Photo dump for June, the cold weather is here with lots of frost but beautiful days 😃

01/06/2023

Photo dump for May, the most beautiful autumn weather, perfect for riding it has been fantastic to see so many people out enjoying their horses ❤️

30/05/2023

❤️ make the commitment, spend time with your horse, know your limits, be fair to yourself ❤️

16/05/2023

Always good to remember especially in our climate where it really doesn’t get that cold 👍

❄️ 𝙒𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙄𝙨 𝘾𝙤𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙜…

🐴 Is anyone else in disbelief that it is May already and that winter is only 4 weeks away?! I hope the following leaves you with some handy tips for managing your equine friends throughout the next few months.

🧥 Let’s rip this Band-Aid off and start with the most controversial topic of winter… Rugging.

🌡️ Despite how cold we may feel, equines have a thermoneutral zone of approximately 5°C - 25°C. This means that most horses do not feel cold unless it is below 5°C, and do not feel hot unless temperatures exceed 25°C. Of course, we need to take into consideration factors such as clipping, wind, rain, and the fact that we know our individual horses best; however, it is vital that we don’t go reaching for the rugs unless temperatures are dropping to the lower range of a horse’s thermoneutral zone, or unless we know that our individual horse does not cope without extra layers for any given reason (ie. age or body condition score).

🧬 The fact of the matter is, over-rugging is a huge contributor to metabolic disorders and obesity in equines. Using rugs inappropriately means a horse is not capable of regulating their body temperature and metabolism how they are designed to do so. 𝘕𝘰𝘵 allowing a horse to lose some condition during winter may result in obesity, further metabolic issues, and laminitis as they enter spring ‘well-covered’ and proceed to inhale all of the lush, green, and sugary spring pasture.

🐎 I can hear everyone internally screaming. “𝘔𝘺 𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘴𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘚𝘜𝘗𝘗𝘖𝘚𝘌𝘋 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘸𝘦𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘥𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳?”

⚖️ Yes… it is how horses are physiologically designed to regulate their body condition. Now I am not saying a horse needs to become underweight or malnourished during winter months, but it is normal and actually healthy for them to lose some kilograms during winter to prevent spring-induced health implications which are far worse than a couple of ribs being visible.

🦴 And with that being said… A glimpse of ribs does not necessarily mean your horse is skinny, malnourished, or emaciated. Society has conditioned us to accept overweight and obese horses as the normal and this is why we are seeing more and more metabolic conditions diagnosed. Being able to feel/slightly see ribs is 𝘏𝘌𝘈𝘓𝘛𝘏𝘠.

🌱 Winter can often be used as an advantage to owners who are struggling to keep weight off easy keepers. If you’ve owned easy keepers for several seasons then you know how challenging spring pasture can be. Get ahead of spring and allow your easy keepers to drop some condition by not rugging them unless absolutely necessary, not over-feeding them good quality hay, and continuing to exercise them if and where possible. A fat, fluff-ball of a pony may look cute but it is a ticking time bomb if not managed carefully.

🌾 Harder keepers can be a little more difficult to manage during winter, but that is not to say they need to be over-rugged either. Over-rugging does not do their metabolism any favours and may further reduce their ability to regulate their body condition even once winter has passed. This category of horses will often benefit from an increase in quality roughage ie. good quality grass hay fed ad libitum. Digestible fibre aids to keep a horse warm from the inside-out, as microbial fermentation in the hindgut produces heat as a result of the process. Additional warmth may be achieved by adding a legume hay to the diet such as lucerne hay which is an excellent source of quality protein that produces increased heat when fermented.

🏇🏻 It is often hard to separate horse’s needs from the needs of humans; however, it is essential to remember that they are a completely different species who are biologically unlike us.

🍎 Please feel free to share. It’s really important that we get on top of metabolically-challenged and/or obese horses who are predisposed to life-long health implications that have been created by humans. Similarly, putting measures in place to prevent our harder keeping horses from too much weight loss during winter months sooner rather than later could take some pressure off of feeding management once winter really sets in.

🤝🏼As always; rain, hail, or shine I am available for Equine Nutrition Consultations should you need a helping hand with managing your horse’s dietary needs, weight control, external health, internal health, or performance.

https://stableisedequine.com.au/product/nutrition-consultation/

15/05/2023

❤️ the horse is always the best teacher and they always continue to amaze me with what they put up with!

Tuesday Tip

Mirror, Mirror on the wall who is the kindest of us all.....

Every phase of our life is there for us to learn and grow. Most lessons come uninvited and the best answers are often found when we are least prepared for them.

As rider's we constantly look at improving ourselves, learning new ways to train, better ways to school our horses and all the way thinking that it is us who have to teach our horses to become better. But this is exactly where I want to challenge your thinking.

Who is teaching whom?
Sure we are improving our horse's fitness, body strength and movement patterns.
But who is the teacher and who is the student?

I recently started to work with a young lady who has severe disabilities. Her inability to communicate with words makes conversations interesting and her physical disabilities create a lot of tension in her body. This compromises her posture and balance.

However, her love of horses and her pure determination makes her the most amazing person to work with.
So as we are embarking on our journey together we very quickly found that Scotty, one of the horses I often use for lessons, was talking to us.

He is letting me know very clearly when the rider is tensing up and losing balance. The way he 'spoke' is through changing his body posture and the way he moves. When the rider is unbalanced, he compensates by bracing himself to be able to balance HER better. As soon as she relaxes, engages her core a little and straightens herself up he relaxes, softens through his body and neck and willingly walks in a straight line.

We start our lessons by getting the rider to breathe out and relax and I can tell by the horse's behaviour when she has let go. Scotty starts to breathe out too, softens his jaw and relaxes through the neck and body and eventually starts working 'on the bit', lifting his back and coming through from behind.

Our lessons aren't focused on schooling the horse and we don't talk about "getting the horse working on the bit" either. It happens by default. By me focusing on the rider, getting her relaxed and more balanced the horse reflects every change the rider makes.

So my question to you, able and disabled body riders, how much is your horse compensating for you?

The more I teach, the more I learn. And the more I listen to the horses, the more I am in awe of them, how misunderstood they are.

We think we know better, but do we?
We label horses as naughty when they don't go straight or drift and resist.
We call horses LAZY when they don't go forward because we block them and we call them HOT when they run through the hand break we put on.
And we create stories and 'humanise' horses to make sense of what they do and why they do it. When all the times horses just respond to what they feel in the moment they feel it.

I am not suggesting you stop schooling and training your horses and I am not saying that there aren't times when we have to be firm to get the results we are after. What I am saying is please listen to your horses' feedback, be prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt and check if you have asked AND allowed in a way that your horse can do what you are asking it to do.

Horses try so hard to please and they are always able to forgive the mistakes we made yesterday. You know what it is like when you have tried and tried without achieving what you want only to find that when you make one subtle change and..... voilà there it is. Like magic, your horse just changed.

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the kindest of us all...... The horse is!

02/05/2023

Photo dump for April, the change of seasons lots of great sunsets a bit of rain and a little bit cooler 😊

02/05/2023

With the days getting shorter it is hard to fit a ride in after work but here at Hilltop we have lights 😄 Cost is $20 per horse make sure you book in so I can show you how to turn them on/off.😊

23/04/2023

Motivation Monday 💕One of the most important elements for success 🙌

08/04/2023

Happy Easter everyone 😃 I hope the Easter beagle finds you 😋🥰

04/04/2023

This is our why? here at Hilltop ❤️ missing from this photo Shayne (photographer) and Michelle G who both had great results but most of all achieved their own personal goals 👌, everyone is on their own journey and to have support of each other along the way is a blessing 🥰 Grafton dressage April 2023 so proud of you all 😊

04/04/2023

Yes 🙌 ❤️

⁣𝗥𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘄𝗵𝘆⁣
⁣
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In the last week or so, I’ve talked to lots of riders who feel under huge pressure from the unsolicited advice and opinions of others. What they SHOULD be doing with their horse…⁣
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I’ve had it myself with my new youngster - others, who I wouldn’t ask for advice, telling me I’m doing too much, or I’m doing too little, or what I need to be doing, or what I should be doing, or what I should be aiming for……⁣
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I was lucky enough to attend an excellent focus group on Saturday with a sports psychologist and coach designed to help riders who compete improve their mindset. This was the first one, I’m sure there will be many. And something struck a chord - he asked us Why? Why we have horses, why we ride, why we want to compete. ⁣
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All too often we forget our why - the joy of it!! Weighed down by the opinions and judgement of others, by comparisons, etc, we forget that we chose this because it brings us joy.⁣
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So today remember why you started. Remember it’s your horse, your hobby, your sport, your life, your choice. ⁣
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Drown out the negative voices, distance yourself from the energy vampires, move away from the comparison crew. Instead, find a coach who you trust and who inspires you and work from there. Find your crew, trust your support team. ⁣
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💫 Remember your why⁣
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💫 Find the joy again⁣
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💙 Breathe better, move better, ride better⁣
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Maeve ⁣
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03/04/2023

Photo dump for March, it was 🥵

12/03/2023

🖤🧡

05/03/2023

Motivation Monday 😊

28/02/2023

Photo dump for February 🤪 In case you were wondering the cat’s names are Shadow (black one) and little red Rocket 🚀 (ginger one), they have both settled in really well, the ginger one is perfect, the black one I suspect has been an indoor house cat and is a little out of his comfort zone 😂Victor is growing nicely and is maturing into the most beautiful liver chestnut 😊, still keeping me guessing on his last white sock though 🤔

27/02/2023

Motivation Monday 😊❤️

12/02/2023

Congratulations to our very own Angela Muller who has taken a job at the Pines Performance Centre with her two horses Byalee Morning and Albert, working with Alexis Hellyer and Elliot Paterson , we wish her all the best and look forward to following their adventures ❤️

05/02/2023

Another one stolen, just like our beautiful Britney who disappeared without a trace 😞💔

🐾🆘💔 STILL MISSING BONVILLE NSW - 💰REWARD OFFERED BY OWNER FOR SAFE RETURN 💔🆘🐾
“Dougie” 2Yr Old Microchipped & Registered Male French Bulldog. Unfortunately Dougie was not wearing a Collar. He suspiciously disappeared between 6-7pm whilst it was raining.
🆘 Missing from BONVILLE NSW since 30/01/2023.
🆘 CONTACT Katrina: 0419182429
https://www.facebook.com/katrina.mccormack.9?mibextid=LQQJ4d
Ref: Messgs

30/01/2023

After what seems like forever and a couple of failed attempts we have finally received our two rescue cats 🐈 🐈‍⬛ 😀They are settling in really well and hopefully will keep the mice under control 😅 They need some names so any suggestions will be greatly received 😊Should add they are both boys 😂

12/01/2023

Friday Funday 🍾🍾🍾 2023 here we come 💪😃

03/01/2023

We are back up and running again, we hope 2023 is a much better year for everyone and you get to spend lots of time with your gorgeous ponies ❤️🥂😄

24/12/2022

Last lessons done for the year 😄 We are taking a break from now until the New Year 😅 Thankyou to all our wonderful clients who have persevered and continued on through yet another difficult year! I really feel that next year will be fantastic and all the hard work from the previous years will pay off 😃 It takes a great team to keep our horses in top shape and I would like to thank Marcus O’Brien Farrier for keeping our tricky feet in order! Rebecca Hill from Equine Biomechanics for making such a difference to the way the horses perform, Oliver Liyou and his team from EVDS for keeping our horses mouths in top shape and always being available for any advice 🙏Onwards and upwards and thanks again to everyone who has helped this small family run business survive, Merry Christmas 🎄 and Happy New Year 🥳

14/12/2022

Workout Wednesday, first of the Christmas trees 🎄 , complete with beagle present 🎁 😂

30/11/2022

New tests for next year 😀

27/11/2022

Motivation Monday ❤️

27/11/2022

Fantastic day for us at Hilltop, the birth of a beautiful big c**t by Remi Vigneron out of our own home bred mare Finesse by Fishermen’s Friend 🥰 Isobelle and Dynomite successfully completed their first PSG 👏 Angela and Albert won the flatwork trophy for Glenreagh pony club for the second year in a row 🥂👏The highs and lows of horses 😜 keeps you on your toes 😂

10/11/2022

👍❤️

Developing any sort of real expertise in any of the dozens, probably hundreds of the way humans interact with horses comes down to several factors.

1. Access to expert help.
2. Access to suitable horses for that pursuit.
3. An open willingness to learn.
4. Available time for lots of practice.
5. Willingness to practice.

If someone has good help, a nice horse, is open to learning, is able and willing to spend lots of time practicing and studying, it seems quite likely that in a few years, that person should be well on the road to becoming the real deal.

But take away any ONE of these 5, any single one, and think how much harder it will get.

No good help means we go along not knowing what we don’t know.

No suitable horse to ride or drive limits us in some ways more than others, We can still be good at, say, breeding, judging, but we will be lacking in the more physical skills.

Lacking the willingness to accept that we need to learn? That stops many dead in their tracks.

Lacking time to practice? Add years to getting there.

Lacking willingness to practice? Same drawback as number three, the wrong attitude to proficiency.

Sure, it is never “that simple.” But think through these five, see what you would add, see if you disagree with any of them. It is YOUR progress, or lack thereof you are dealing with, so it is your deal to figure out how far you want to go.

02/11/2022

Proof that anyone can make it if they work hard enough and dream big enough, even a small town kid and her ordinary pony 👏💪So very proud of you Isobelle and Dynomite ❤️

NSW rider Isobelle Muller is proving you don’t necessarily need an expensive steed to enjoy success at the higher levels – or to have fun!