20/07/2025
"Natural livery?!! But what's natural about a track system?!! Haynets aren't natural?!! What a load of rubbish!"
I have heard references like this many times over the years, through comments on social media or more recently in person, and I always try to educate people that they are missing the point!
Of course horses living on a fenced track, eating from haynets or feeders, isn't 'natural'.
The point is, we are trying to MIMIC what is natural, as best we can, within a domesticated environment.
A wild horse would constantly be on the move within a herd, foraging and browsing and travelling over various terrain. This is the key to making a healthy horse, for both the physical and mental benefits.
Haynets and slow feeders work because these mimic the horse's natural consumption rate. In the wild, or 'naturally', horses would have to work for their food, using their teeth and lips to tease and work to obtain forage.
We feed hay instead of grass because this is the closest we can get to 'natural" forage. Horses aren't designed to eat lush high sugar grass, the majority of which has been planted by farmers over the years to fatten up beef cattle and to produce better milk yields in dairy cows - both things we certainly don't want for our horses!! Also, once cut, hay stays at the same nutritional value, meaning we know our horses are getting consistent forage day to day, unlike grass that changes daily and has sugar spikes depending on the weather.
Long, stalky, high fibrous and low sugar hay of a variety of meadow species is much closer to what the wild horse was/is designed to eat and digest, plus 20% of forage obtained from up high (hedgerows and trees).
We offer a open barn for shelter that the horses use as they please, promoting free choice that the "natural" horse would have.
Horses live on the track 24/7 all year round, and it's up to them where they go and what they do on the track.
Shoes aren't 'natural', so these are removed and a variety of surfaces are put down to help stimulate and develop healthy hooves, as the natural horse would do.
A track is built to reduce the grass without restricting movement, and hay is placed around the track to encourage them to move even more to forage and obtain food, and keep them busy and stimulated.
Various points of interest are added, in the form of mounds, water features, logs to jump/step over, sand pits, bedding areas etc, to offer enrichment.
We have all now experienced lock down, and the horrdenous feeling of confinement, and how badly this affected our mental and physical well being. So why is it okay to do this to horses?
Once again, track systems aren't natural, I won't argue with you there, but it's about MIMICKING what is natural, which is why we are referred to as 'natural' liveries.
And try as you might, you won't have a healthy horse physically if you ignore the mental health aspect.
It's time to go barefoot and look back to nature. Your horse will thank you 👌🏼
To learn more, follow our page, and if you don't have it already by my best selling book "Horse Track Systems: A How To Guide to a Healthier Horse in Body and Mind" and get your track up and running! Link in comments.
