Wittonstone Equestrian

05/07/2024

🎉SUMMER PARTY 🎉 Cambo school and Air Ambulance Fundraiser

Thank you to everyone that donated, sponsored, helped to set up and worked on the bar to make this event a huge success.

Our sponsors for the night were
Ben Robson Builders
JJ McEwan Groundworks
JBH Design
Henzell Enterprises
M & A Wilson
The D**e Neuk Inn
Taylors Agriculture
Reader Construction

We have made a total of £4721.15 which will be split between The Great North Air Ambulance and Cambo First School. They will recieve £2360.57 each today.

13/06/2024

💕

𝙽𝙴𝚆 𝙿𝚁𝙴𝙼𝙸𝚄𝙼 𝙻𝙸𝚂𝚃𝙸𝙽𝙶: Wittonstone Equestrian
𝙻𝙾𝙲𝙰𝚃𝙸𝙾𝙽: Morpeth, Northumberland
𝙲𝙰𝚃𝙴𝙶𝙾𝚁𝚈: Livery Yard
𝙳𝙴𝚂𝙲𝚁𝙸𝙿𝚃𝙸𝙾𝙽: "We are a small family run livery yard within our working farm near Longwitton, Morpeth. Offering large indoor stables, individual or small group turnout and floodlit arena. We are in the middle of Morpeth Hunt country and also close to other neighbouring hunts and close to miles of off-road riding. We are 10mins from the A1 and other major roads and we have many competition centres close by."
𝚅𝙸𝙴𝚆 𝚃𝙷𝙴𝙸𝚁 𝙻𝙸𝚂𝚃𝙸𝙽𝙶 𝙷𝙴𝚁𝙴:
https://www.liverylist.co.uk/yard/wittonstone-equestrian/

08/06/2024

06/02/2024

The feral yard cat looks happy 🙈

02/02/2024

𝒀𝒊𝒌𝒆𝒔! 𝑰𝒔 𝒎𝒚 𝒉𝒐𝒓𝒔𝒆 𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒆𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕? 𝑺𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝑰 𝒃𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒅? 😦

This morning, I received a targeted ad with this article in it:
𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘀𝗲 𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗲𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁? 𝗡𝗼𝘄 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝗰𝘁…

I was intrigued. It's the middle of winter. We have 47 days until we enter the Vernal Equinox (aka 𝗦𝗣𝗥𝗜𝗡𝗚🌼). If our horses are losing an appropriate amount of weight, surely this is a very good thing given spring is around the corner?

Perplexed, and keen to understand why I should worry, I opened the article to read the opening sentences:
"𝑪𝒂𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒔𝒆𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒉𝒐𝒓𝒔𝒆’𝒔 𝒓𝒊𝒃𝒔? 𝑨𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒆𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓? [...] 𝒊𝒕’𝒔 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏!"

Now if I were an everyday horse owner this article would have most certainly instilled a level of 𝐏𝐀𝐍𝐈𝐂 in me. The sort of panic that would mean I'd be likely adding a bit more hay into this evenings haynet or, changing their feed slightly. I may even take this action despite observing 𝗻𝗼 𝘄𝗲𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝗹𝗼𝘀𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗺𝘆 𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘀𝗲, or my horse having a body condition score greater than 3/5.

And this is where I take issue my first issue with this article and many like it.😠

⚠️𝐈 𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝗲𝗻𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐢𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐰𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫!⚠️

We should expect our horses to be at a body condition score of a 𝟮.𝟱 or a 𝟯 right now in order to allow for controlled gains in the spring. A body condition score of a 2.5 is where ribs are 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗯𝗲 𝗳𝗲𝗹𝘁. Seeing ribs is 𝗔 𝗚𝗢𝗢𝗗 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗚 for many horses right now (February). Furthermore, 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘 𝐇𝐎𝐑𝐒𝐄 should be prone to losing 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 weight in the winter. It is healthy and natural, but sadly many horses don't lose at all!

On the hope the article would redeem itself, I read on to see it trigger a big worry in many horse owners: "𝒊𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒖𝒑 𝒂𝒕 3𝒂𝒎, 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒃𝒆 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎 𝒕𝒐 𝒆𝒂𝒕?". For many, the answer will be no and they will be uncomfortable with that, leading to further panic.

With little hope left, I finished the article only to see absolutely no mention of body condition scoring or accurate weight measurements. The key markers for identifying if you need to feed your horse more were largely based on rib visibility, I found nothing advising the reader of how to do a body condition score or what a healthy weight range would be for their horse. Readers were left without any guidance on how to assess if the article's message was appropriate for their own horse, they were not encouraged to think objectively and this is the problem.

In a world where information can be shared freely, I want to urge everyone to think critically about how that information will affect your day. I listened to a podcast lately which spoke about how we wouldn't allow 100 people into our bedroom when we were just waking up on a morning, but with our increasing online presence we sort of do that anyway when we scroll through our phones after our alarms go off. This is why we need to be mindful of what we consume daily.

Things to bare in mind here:
💵 This article is written as a promotion with a feed company, so it's purpose is to market feed.
📉A weightloss over the winter is essential for most horses
🐷Overweight horses will need to have carefully monitored dry matter intake in order to get them to a healthy body condition. This could mean having no hay at 3am in the morning if stabled.
🦴Seeing ribs is not a marker for overall body condition score. You need to consider the whole horse. I have body condition scored horses (usually Thoroughbreds or Arabs) where you can see and easily feel their ribs but they are in fact OVERWEIGHT. Some breeds have very sprung ribcages and carry very little fat over that area.
🐴 Of course, there will be some horses who are poor doers and will need further nutritional support when the weather is poor but they are in the 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 of the UK demographic of horses.

If you are unsure about your horses body condition score and weight, speak to your vet or book a consultation with me. 📩

Please share! ↪️

02/02/2024

This is me and I wouldn’t change it 🤣

lol

13/01/2024

Finally some sun 🌞 🐴

16/12/2023

04/12/2023

Cold few days ❄️🎅

11/11/2023

Lovely morning 🍁🌞

09/11/2023

Well done Erin. So we’ll deserved 🥰.

20/10/2023

😂🙈

🌧

03/10/2023

🐴weekend staff wanted🐴

To join our team of long term staff and to assist in covering one or both days on a morning 8-11/12 with all yard duties. could do more hours.
Must be over 16 for insurance purposes
Must have own transport or a reliable lift
Must be able to work alone and to a high standard
Must be confident with all horses and young competition horses.
Riding not necessary but is a possibility.
We can be flexible with hours etc but most important thing to us is that the horses are cared for to the highest standard and no corners cut.
References may be required. Please pm if interested or call/ text Beth 07725977707

24/09/2023

The most lovely time of year 🐴

19/09/2023

Mittens is too tired to play 🤣

19/09/2023

TIme to get clipping… wet mud you can’t brush is never fun 😬🙈

19/09/2023

Last nights arena view 🤩

15/09/2023

Happy 1st birthday Mischief and Mittens 🥰🐱

14/09/2023

Centre lines don’t get much better than this one 👏🏻

10/09/2023

This weather is lovely 🌞