Moor Horses Livery

05/11/2023

outing today for a little but of SJ at Badgeworth 😍 well done girls you smashed it 💪❤️

17/10/2023

📢 WE HAVE 1 X STABLE VACANCY 📢

11/10/2023

https://www.horseandhound.co.uk/news/lorry-driver-plea-led-lights-hacking-638174

The British Horse Society is also recommending riders invest in LED lights to wear while out hacking (library image)

06/08/2023

06/08/2023

Well today's final dressage of the series was our last event for the year and what a year its been! 😍

I cannot thank you all enough for all the support you have shown this year 💜

A huge well done to our dressage champions 🏆 🥇 👏 you have all been fabulous!

Please follow the link for todays pictures, the lovely Nicole is uploading as we speak!
https://photographyforyou39.pixieset.com/moorhorsesdressage-2/

03/08/2023

📢‼️ENTRIES CLOSE TODAY ‼️📢

31/07/2023

‼️🏆🎖WILL YOU BE OUR SERIES WINNER🎖🏆‼️

📢LAST DRESSAGE OF THE SERIES, THIS SUNDAY📢

📢‼️ENTRIES CLOSE THURSDAY 3RD‼️📢

19/07/2023

‼️LAST DRESSAGE SHOW OF THE SERIES, SUNDAY 6TH AUGUST ‼️

📢 GET THOSE ENTRIES IN 📢

02/07/2023

The photos from todays dressage are up 🤩😍 Thank you Photography For You ❤️

Photo collection by Photography For You

28/06/2023

*DISCOUNT ALERT*
As I have some new followers I thought this is a perfect time to introduce myself. So… hello!😄 my name is Nicole Thomas also known by the name Noodles to my friends… don’t ask😝

Here’s a few random facts about me:
🐶 I’m 30 years old but deep down not a day over 21 if anybody asks.
🐶I have 2 pets, Barney and Pickles. Although Barney would argue he’s more ‘child’ than dog!
🐶I absolutely love horses.
🐶I am 1 of 4 siblings... Christmas is carnage!
🐶 My favourite adult drink is definitely gin with ALL the toppings.

Now, I have a question. Anybody who guesses this correctly will be put into a draw to win 10% DISCOUNT on any photoshoot with me so here we go.

My last random fact is… There is one food I do not like, in fact I hate! What is it??
Get commenting, I think you’ll be surprised!
And whilst we’re here, I’d love to get to know some of my followers- what is one random fact about you?

Please take the time to have a look through my page and give me a message if you want to know more, I’m super bubbly and I will try my best to adjust to every clients needs whatever this may be.

Due to the demands of my Photography buissness alongside my full time job I’ve had to recruit some help manning this page- my sister! She will be running my social media side of things. Once I hand over I’ll make sure to introduce her to you.

Enjoy, and good luck,
Nicole 🐶🐴🐱

27/06/2023

‼️Dressage this Sunday ‼️

Entries now close on THURSDAY 👌

📢GET THOSE ENTRIES IN📢

26/06/2023

🤩🤩

25/06/2023

Wow what can I say.. you lot never fail to amaze me! 🤩

Another successful MHL Summer Show, we had the best day full of fun, friends & laughter! You all scrubbed up well 😉 and looked blooming fantastic!

As always, we couldn't do this with out the support from you all. My aim when I decided to run these events was mainly for our local horse community for a fun stress free day at local level!! It's great for confidence boosting, youngsters & to kick you out your comfort zones to have a local event on your doorstep 😊

As always.. A huge thank you to our judges who gave up their time for us Sanders & Zoe Nettleton. We couldn't do this without you.

All of our wonderful volunteers, stewards, chef, car park attendants 😉 Thank you! 😍

Our SPONSORS, thank you so much for your continued support! Bescoby Equine Vets were our In Hand Champ sponsors & Danielle Bradley CEqD - Equine Dental practitioner our Ridden Champ sponsor who kindly donated a FREE dental visit for our lovely overall winner 🤩🏆 D. N. Farriery thank you for your prize donation for Class 1! 😍

Lastly, our lovely photographer Photography For You, you worked super hard today covering both rings in the heat 🥵 thank you!! Nicole is working super hard to get your photos uploaded as we speak, please like & follow her page for updates!

That's a wrap guys, maybe you'll see us next year?! 👀

DONT FORGER DRESSAGE NEXT SUNDAY!! 😉

See you all soon ❤️❤️

24/06/2023

🌞The sun is shining & we are ready for our Summer Show tomorrow 🌞

‼️Few reminders‼️

📢Entries on the day ARE welcome📢

🌭Cash only for entries & food/drink🥤

🐎Warm up ring is located next to ring 2 this year 🐎

Its going to be a hot one so please stay cool 😎 and don't forget water for your horses 💧

If you or horses are struggling, please come & see me and I will have ice packs, shade and water available.

😍 We can't wait to see you all tomorrow 😍

23/06/2023

‼️ Second Show of the Dressage Series NEXT Sunday 2nd ‼️

📢 Get those entries in 📢

14/06/2023

Thank you to everyone who came to our talks at Fitzroy Court Stables, Moor Horses Livery and Wick Riding Stables and donated money to the charities Avon RDA Group and The Gambia Horse and Donkey Trust - you raised £130 that will be split between them. Most importantly a HUGE thank you to our vet Amber, who has spent her evenings presenting talks around the area 💜

14/06/2023

📢‼️ PRE-ENTRIES CLOSE MONDAY 19TH JUNE ‼️📢

For our Summer Fun Show to go ahead, we will need some more Pre Entries, to make it fair on those who have already entered 🙏 so if you are yet to enter or entering on the day, PLEASE could you let me know so I can prepare.

Alot of time and effort goes into running these events and with a very successful show last year, I was asked by many to run the show again this year, for this to happen we need your support from our local community 🥰

We have fabulous sponsors this year who have donated some lovely prizes. Fantastic judges who have given up their time to support us and off course it wouldn't be possible without all my volunteers who help me run the events! We have more classes this year for everyone to get involved in. Its just a day of pony fun 😍😍

I hate to plead and this is a first, but I have to with this as its such a big event to hold if not worthy!

Any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

If you need an entry form, I can email one over to you 😊

Thank you!! ❤️

07/06/2023

‼️ 18 days to go until our Summer Show ‼️
📩 Message us if you need a entry form 📩

04/06/2023

Our first Dressage out of the series and what a fantastic day we have had 😍 Can't wait to see who will be our champion!! 🏆

A huge thank you to our judge Jayne Smith Equestrian & her lovely writer Kelly.

A blooming big WELL DONE to all the competitors, you were fabulous & looked very smart!!

Thank you to all the supporters & helpers, I couldn't run these events without you 😘

📷 Nicole our lovely photographer from Photography For You has already uploaded your photos, please like & follow the page. The link is below, any problems please give her a message. 📷

https://photographyforyou39.pixieset.com/moorhorsesdressage/

📢 Don't forget our Summer Show is on 25th June & Pre-entries close on 19th!!!📢

📢 Our next dressage is on the 2nd July and entries close on 27th June!! 📢

‼️So if you haven't already, get those entries in to avoid classes being full!‼️

🥳 We can't wait too see you next time 🥳

01/06/2023

‼️25 days to go untill our Summer Show ‼️

📩 Message us if you need a entry form 📩

30/05/2023

📢‼️TODAY IS THE FINAL DAY. Entries close midnight tonight for our first event of the series‼️📢

‼️🏆🎖WILL YOU BE OUR SERIES WINNER🎖🏆‼️

🦄🏆CLASSES ARE FILLING UP, SO IF YOU HAVENT ALREADY, GET THOSE ENTRIES IN 🏆🦄

⏰️⏳️Times will be posted in the next few days ⏳️⏰️

🍔🥓 Please remember - Food & Drink available on the day is CASH ONLY 🥓🍔

29/05/2023

‼️🏆🎖WILL YOU BE OUR SERIES WINNER🎖🏆‼️

📢‼️Entries close tomorrow Tuesday 30th ‼️📢

28/05/2023

Thank you Champions Choice Rosettes for always doing the best rosettes 😍😍

‼️🏆🎖WILL YOU BE OUR SERIES WINNER🎖🏆‼️

📢‼️Entries close Tuesday 30th ‼️📢

23/05/2023

‼️ONLY 7 DAYS UNTIL ENTRIES CLOSE FOR OUR FIRST SHOW OF THE SERIES‼️

📣 IF YOU HAVENT ALREADY, GET THOSE ENTRIES IN 📣

30/04/2023

‼️📢1 Month to go until our first Dressage of the series 📢‼️

📣 If you haven't already, get those entries in 📣

🎖Numbers will be limited🎖

‼️ Entries for the first Show closes on 30th May ‼️

27/04/2023

‼️SCHEDULE UPDATE‼️

📢 Due to demand, Rare & Foreign breeds has now also been added as a IN-HAND Showing class aswell as ridden!! 📢

📣 PLEASE SHARE 📣

27/04/2023

27/04/2023

📢‼️Summer Fun Show 25th June 2023‼️📢

Our Schedule is now finalised and will be out in local tack shops soon! 😍

We cannot thank our sponsors enough for contributing and donating prizes!

Last year was a huge success and I cannot wait to see what this year brings. We have some amazing Judges and some classes for all abilities.

Any queries, please message me.

🤩If you'd like a schedule & Entry Form please message me, or you can collect from your local tack shop 🤩

Don't forget our Summer Dressage Series starts soon (schedule pinned to top of page) so be quick and get your entries in!!

Sanders
Rachel Hawkins Photography
Zoe Nettleton

20/04/2023

📢📣Those attending our Bescoby Equine Vets talk tonight, dont forget your loose change for charity donations 📢📣

Please use the car park gate only and make sure gate is closed behind you 😊

Sorry no dogs allowed and smoking is only permitted in the designated areas.

‼️Spaces available ‼️

See you all soon 🤩

16/04/2023

‼️ THIS THURSDAY 20TH, only a few spaces remaining ‼️

Please message me if you'd like a space ☺️

📢📣Amber from Bescoby Equine Vets will be joining us for a talk on Backs & Eyes 📣📢

Fun Fact: Amber has a very special interest in eyes, after her pony was one of the first in the UK to undergo bilateral cataract surgery.

Free entry with Tea, coffee & biscuits 😋

However, donations to the vets charities is much appreciated.

Please contact me to book a space, numbers will be limited 😊

03/04/2023

What is the longest a horse can safely go without food?

More and more I see horses and ponies stood for long periods of time with no hay or haylage. Usually under the guise of a “weight control diet”. So how long can a horse be without food before damage is done? And what damage is done?

For those with a short attention span, I’ll give you the answer to begin with - 4 hours, maximum.

Why?

Horses are grazers. They are designed to eat constantly. They have no way of storing their acids and digestive enzymes, they’ve never needed to. They have no gall bladder to store bile and their stomachs release acid constantly, whether or not there is food in the stomach and intestines.

A horses stomach only holds approximately 8-15 litres. Depending on the substance eaten, it takes on average 4-6 hours for the stomach to completely empty. After this, the acids and enzymes start to digest the inside of the horses stomach and then the intestines. This causes both gastric and intestinal ulceration. It has been estimated that 25-50% of foals and 60-90% of adult horses suffer from ulceration. But I won’t go into detail about this, there is a lot of information around about ulcers.

So is that it? Are ulcers the only concern?

No, having an empty stomach is a stress situation for a horse. The longer they are starved, the more they release stress hormones, cortisol predominantly. Cortisol blocks insulin and causes a constantly high blood glucose level. This stimulates the body to release even more insulin, and in turn this causes fat tissue to be deposited and leptin resistance. Over time this causes insulin resistance (Equine Metabolic Syndrome). All of these mechanisms are well known risk factors for laminitis and are caused by short term starvation (starting roughly 3-4 hours after the stomach empties). Starving a laminitic is literally the worst thing you can do. Over longer periods, this also starts to affect muscle and can cause weakness, and a lack of stamina so performance horses also need a constant supply of hay/haylage to function optimally.

Let’s not forget horses are living, breathing and feeling animals. We talk about this stress reaction like it’s just internal but the horse is well aware of this stress. Door kicking, box walking, barging and many other stable vices and poor behaviour can be explained by a very stressed horse due to food deprivation (we all have that Hangry friend to explain this reaction). Next time you shout or hit a horse that dives for their net, remember their body is genuinely telling them they are going to starve to death. They know no different.

But surely they spend the night asleep so they wouldn’t eat anyway?

Not true. Horses only need 20mins REM sleep every 24 hours (jealous? I am!). They may spend a further hour or so dozing but up to 22-23 hours a day are spent eating. So if you leave your horse a net at 5pm and it’s gone by 8pm, then by 12am their stomach is empty. By 4am they are entering starvation mode. By their next feed at 8am, they are extremely stressed, physically and mentally.

Now I know the cob owners are reading this mortified. I can almost hear you shouting at your screen “if I feed my horse ad lib hay he won’t fit out the stable door in a week!!”

I will say that a horse with a constant supply of hay/haylage will eat far less then the same horse that is intermittently starved. They don’t eat in a frenzy, reducing the chance of colic from both ulcers and over eating. Cobs included.

However I’m not suggesting you sit your cob in front of a bale of haylage and say have at it! There is a difference between ad lib and a constant supply. There is much we can do to reduce calorie intake and control weight whilst feeding a constant supply.

The easiest is small holes nets. There are many. Trickle nets, greedy feeders, nibbleze, trawler nets etc. My personal favourite is the Shires Soft Mesh 1”. They don’t cost the Earth, they are easy to fill and they don’t have knots so are much gentler to the teeth. Now often I suggest these types of nets to owners and the owner tells me “Oh no, *** won’t eat out of those” 🙄 this is nonsense. If he was left it, he would. Remember, you can give a normal net and one of these for them to nibble at after. Better than leaving them with nothing at all.

A few other tricks, hang the net from the ceiling/rafters, it’s harder to eat out of a net that swings. Soak the hay, a minimum of 4 hours to be effective. Mix with straw but be sure to introduce the straw slowly and make sure it’s top quality and a palatable type eg Barley or Oat, otherwise they won’t eat it.

Don’t forget exercise. The best way to get weight off a horse is exercise. Enough exercise and they can eat what they want!

And lay off the bucket feed and treats! Horses on a diet require a vit/min supplement in the form of a balancer but that’s it. The odd slice of carrot or swede won’t do any harm but no licks, treats, treacle, molasses, cereal based rubbish. Even if it says low sugar or the marvellously misleading “No added sugar”! Your horse would rather have a constant supply of hay, I promise.

Written by Vikki Fowler BVetMed BAEDT MRCVS

A few edits for the critics-

Firstly, feeding a constant supply does not mean ad lib feeding. It means use some ingenuity and spread the recommended amount of daily forage so the horse is never stood with out food for more than 4 hours. I am not promoting obesity, quite the opposite, feeding like this reduces obesity and IR. This can be done whilst feeding your horse twice a day as most horse owners do. Just think outside the box for your own situation.

Secondly I am in the UK and this post is UK specific, use some common sense when reading. Yes in warmer climates, soaking hay for 4 hours is dangerous and studies show 1 hour is plenty in hot weather but in the UK’s arctic climate, a minimum of 4 hours is required. Equally the UK feed exclusively grass hay. I can not comment on other types.

Thirdly, yes every horse/pony and situation is different, but this is a law of nature and all horses have this anatomy and metabolism. How you achieve this constant supply is individual, the need for it is not.

Fourthly, the use of hay nets in the UK is very very high. I’d estimate 95% of horses I see are fed this way and very very few have incisor wear or neck/back issues as a result. Yes, feeding from the ground is ideal, but a constant supply, I feel trumps this. Again with ingenuity both can be safely achieved.

Finally, straw can be fed to horses safely, introduced very slowly, with fresh water always available, plus a palatable and digestible type of straw which will depend on your area. Again many horses in the UK are bedded on straw and most of them eat it. This is not a new concept to us.

Final finally 🤦‍♀️ and I feel I must add this due to the sheer number of people contacting me to ask, feed your horses during transport!!! I am astonished this is not normal in other countries! Again in the UK, we give our horses hay nets to transport. We don’t go 10 mins up the road without a haynet and a spare in case they finish! Considering we are a tiny island and we rarely transport even 4 hours, we never transport without hay available. I have never seen an episode of choke due to travelling with hay available. If you are concerned, use a slow feeder net so they can’t take too much in at once.

If you get to the end of this post and your first thought is “I can’t do this with my horse/pony, they’d be morbidly obese”, you haven’t read the advice in this post thoroughly.

02/04/2023

Not a joke...

Have you ever wondered why you can have a 15 acre field and part of it is chewed down to nubs and the other part has grass a hand high, But your horse is constantly grazing in the chewed down part?

Grass 6 inches and taller has less sugars than grass under 6 inches.

For every inch drop below 6 inches, the fructan (sugar) content rises.

Grass under 6 inches is stressed like it's a Monday morning with a project deadline. It uses sugar to repair itself.

Stop mowing your fields short.

Stop grazing your chubbys on chewed down grass. (this is why grazing muzzles are so touted...they keep the horse from being able to get much short grass)

(We aren't saying let your fields be 3 feet tall, by the way. The optimal thing to do is keep them 6-8 inches tall and graze them in small areas there)

20/03/2023

📢📣Amber from Bescoby Equine Vets will be joining us for a talk on Backs & Eyes 📣📢

Fun Fact: Amber has a very special interest in eyes, after her pony was one of the first in the UK to undergo bilateral cataract surgery.

Free entry with Tea, coffee & biscuits 😋

However, donations to the vets charities is much appreciated.

Please contact me to book a space, numbers will be limited 😊

27/02/2023

Thank you all so much for entering our first ever competition 😍😍

Our Winners have been picked by a random generator and the results are in!!

Congratulations!!! If you message the page, we will be in touch with your prizes 🥳

Well done to all those that entered and keep an eye on our page for more to come this year!

Don't forget our Summer Dressage Series and Summer Fun Show, plus lots more 🦄

Thanks again everyone for all your support ❤️

Love Team MHL 💟

14/02/2023

📢📣SAVE THE DATE📣📢

Moor Horses Summer Fun Show will be returning on 25th June! 😍

We are working on the schedule, so hopefully that will be out over the coming weeks!

⬇️⬇️If there are any classes you'd defiantly like to see, please drop us a comment below ⬇️⬇️

If you would like to sponsor any of our classes, please get in touch!! ☺️

11/02/2023

09/02/2023

We love our monthly newsletter from Bescoby Equine Vets 😍

I couldn't help but share their latest update on laminitis!

With spring around the corner, this will be a massive concern for many horse owners and sometimes the hardest time of year!

I think this is a great offer to get your horses tested just in time for the deadly spring grass!! 🫣🌱

If you are interested, please contact Bescoby Equine Vets

☎️01275 403123
📧 [email protected]