Active Horse Agistment plus

27/09/2025

Thank you for your interest in Cowgirls Gathering. If you have any questions at all, please Contact Us.

26/09/2025

Meet our educators: Toma Harper

You’ve all heard about track systems, but have you ever wanted the chance to ask an expert in person? Here’s your opportunity!

We’re thrilled to welcome Toma Harper, founder of Active Horse Agistment plus, to the Moreton Bay Horse Expo. Toma specialises in creating track-system and environments that encourage horses to move, graze and interact naturally, all to support their physical health and mental wellbeing.

Don’t miss your chance to hear from Toma, ask all your burning questions and discover how natural management and track systems could transform your horse’s lifestyle.

Buy tickets to the expo here: https://www.horse-expo.com/pricing

26/09/2025

Horse expo is coming up quickly as well !! Can't wait for this 🥰 Who's planning on coming ??

23/09/2025

This is where you will find me next weekend 😍
Come along for education, entertainment, shopping and drinks by the fire 🐴

23/09/2025

Oh I love this 👇❤️

“Trust me, this horse is pampered.”

🫧🧽What People Often Think Pampering Means:

• A spotless horse with not a speck of dirt or sand on them

• Braided and kept in permanent “show-ready” condition

• Living in an isolated stall inside a spotless, polished barn

• Bathed daily, sometimes multiple times a day

• Tack gleaming, polished until it shines

• Constantly clipped whiskers, ears, and muzzle for a “clean” look

• Limited turnout so they stay “safe” and don’t get a scratch

• Ridden or exercised on strict schedules so they stay trim and polished, even if it doesn’t match their natural rhythms (“he only has to work for one hour a day”)

All of these things make HUMANS feel good. They fit OUR picture of luxury. But horses don’t define pampering the same way we do.

🐴 What Pampering Looks Like to Horses:

• A full hay net or grass buffet so their stomachs are never empty

• Rolling in dirt or sand to scratch, shed hair, and coat themselves naturally (like in this photo 🤣)

• Mutual grooming with friends, scratching each other’s withers in exactly the right spot

• Safe Turnout with space to move freely, stretch their legs, or gallop when they feel like it

• Shelter they can choose to step into or out of depending on weather

• Comfortable footing that keeps hooves strong and joints supported

• Play and exploration, whether it’s a new log to chew, a ball to nudge, or just time to be curious

• Positive interactions with humans, where training is cooperative instead of coercive

✨ A horse isn’t pampered because they look like a showpiece. They’re pampered when their needs are met in the way horses understand.

22/09/2025

Free Webinar!
- What is a Track system
- Benefits
- How to get started

For people who don't exactly know what a Track is yet, but are curious.
Please share with your Track curious friends 😄

1 Hour Friday 4 Pm AEST
Comment a 🐴 and I'll send you the link 🙂

21/09/2025

A trend that works well for horse owner ship !
Some of the things I believed myself for a long time.

21/09/2025

Send a message to learn more

19/09/2025

Haha just discovered this in my camera roll. My daughter filming an unfiltered video of our hay rounds.
Relaxing music is playing (Sacred Earth)
said music not working for my toddler since she's still screaming 😂
My face and Bears face is very concentrated and the rest are taking what they can get from the hay cart before it goes into nets😂

17/09/2025

I guess you can call this nerves kicking in !

Had a dream last night that I FORGOT to show up to my presentation. I was at the event sitting there and all of the sudden I remembered that I had to do a presentation and it was hours too late 😆
Hopefully that won't happen 😂

12/09/2025

Love this advice 🙌🐴

Got The Barn Sour Trail Horse Blues?

Here are some thoughts on managing, or preventing, a trail horse's anxiety on the way back to the barn, or trailer.

First some tough love: you need to be focused on the trail on your horse, not just talking to friends and checking out. If you don't focus on your horse until they start doing something that calls your attention (usually negative) you have no baseline of communication built - plus, the horse is not looking to you for support, and so they will not look to you when they get anxious if you haven't been there. Trail riding is taking your horse into battle - you need training and partnership to get there!

Some things to do BEFORE trail riding:

- practice teaching your horse to focus (ie YOU focus on them, and help them come with you), and be balanced in a safe place they are not nervous in. You need to be able to get good alignment, good shoulder mobility (moving them easily), and decent bend. Your horse needs to be able to lenghten the stride, shorten, halt well, back up, and have decent transitions.

On the beginning of the trail ride BEFORE anxiety comes up you can:

-make frequent small requests, check in - lenghten the stride a little, shorten it a little, serpentine around natural obstacles, pass your friends and play leap frog so your horse is comfortable in lots of positions, pay attention to the horse and PET THEM sometimes! Let them know they're doing well before they have an issue.

So that ON the trail when you start finding anxiety come up, you can:

- get the horse in alignment first. A rushing horse is crooked, so get them aligned and then -

-make small changes often. Little lengthenings, use the energy theyre giving you productively! Make some bending lines if you have space, leap frog your friends and use the horses in front of you as a bumper (make sure your friends you're riding with are paying attention and have some control of their horses too - try to ride with folks who have calm horses so you can feed off their energy for your horse).

-Don't fight the horse and pull them the whole way! Preparing ahead goes a long way, but in the moment USE the energy for movements, bends, serpentines, keep them focused and help them! Don't just sit and pull the whole way home or you'll really convince the horse this whole deal sucks and they can't wait to get back to the barn to get rid of you.

lastly, when you get back to the barn or trailer, do some work to calm them.

I don't like to put the horse away anxious and convinced anxiety is solved by getting back to the pasture or trailer. Do something they're good at and you know they can focus on easily until they feel a little better, pet them, thank them for their hard efforts, and put them away.

A lot of this anxiety is preventable with better training - but, sometimes it happens from past training or just life getting lifey. How you manage it makes a big difference to your horse.

Ride with good folks who will help you and are paying attention. Don't put your good horse into hot water by riding with people who don't pay attention with neurotic horses they aren't willing or able to help - be smart, stay sharp, and have some empathy : you're riding your horse into battle, and they need some help and some tools. Practice focusing their minds and balancing their bodies in your everyday life and you will find, little by little, their troubles melt away when they're with you -