Barefoot Living at Oxhey Top

29/01/2025

Why feed hay when they have access to grass? A question I often get asked!

The answer is fibre fibre fibre!!!

Horses need fibre in the diet and hay is a great source, it provides more than what the grass can. Regardless if the green summer grass or the died back winter grass my horses seem to prefer the meadow hay.

They normally get netted hay but because I was at the end of a bale and no nets left to fill they got it loose, spread out on piles across the winter field.

28/01/2025

The old boy might be a bit wonky but he can still canter on his own accord.

Exhausted the joint supplement market, not overly keen on Bute unless we need to. So here he is on CBD (by Hempine).

This horse was struggling at one point and I wasn't too sure what road we were heading down but the CBD has worked wonders for him!!

He was also a cheeky boy the other day when I went to catch him, he kept cantering off! But it absolutely fills my heart that he is comfortable to move around this much ♥️

For any info - CBD support for horses & dogs community ✨

26/01/2025

Can't wait to get this out on the track!

Balemate 🤩

12/01/2025

Before & After of today's farm project, it might look a bit better once the snow clears and when the piles of wood are moved. But all that's in the first picture has now been dismantled 🙌🏼

And another scrap skip also filled up with metal 💪🏼

This little clear up will open the yard up some more, making the space look a bit bigger and hopefully easier to make some future plans 😁

Thanks to my team of helpers today 🫶🏼

08/01/2025

How do the horses cope in the snow?

Well just fine I think! They are nice and warm under their rugs, perhaps too warm for my liking but with it due to hit -7 tonight in our area it will be more like -9 on our hill so I'd rather know they were warm!

They have hay, mixture of netted and loose, one hard feed a day at the moment extra sloppy and then they have grass access. I move the fence every couple of days so they get new long grass, the reason I don't open the whole area is because they'll trash it and waste the grass.

The top track is currently closed off due to me doing some other work on it, but I'm not sure they'd venture up there anyway.. the snow drifts are higher than the wall in some areas!

Anyone else track or field as snowy as mine? 😳

01/01/2025

TRACK BUILDING 2023-2024

30/12/2024

New year, new outlook?

As I’m tidying up the thousands of photos on my phone I found these old ones of when I took ottos shoes off. Back then I didn’t know anything was wrong with them, professionals always said they were fine or when lameness issues arose the shoeing was altered. So why would I think any different?

The more I spoke to people, the more research I did, the more reading I did I very soon came to realise they were such such unhealthy feet and it’s no wonder he ended up being lame.

The feet were thrushy, he had under run heels, they were contracted and trimmed incorrectly. In the time leading up to going barefoot he had different vets, different hoof care providers and had gone through wedges and then ibex pads with filler, using open shoes and egg bars. Decisions and trust I put into others regarding the health & welfare for my best friend.

I’m not saying go and take your horses shoes off now, but maybe go into the new year thinking about your horses foot health and how you can improve it.

Could that thrush be recognised and treated? Is the trim and shoeing the best it can be for your horse, or even the right trim or shoe. Is the hoof balanced? Do the bars seem over grown? Are your horses heels on the floor? Are the heels squeezed together?

Photos of Otto’s feet and how they transitioned. Last photo is of one of Capi’s hooves - to show a nice healthy foot with an open heel.

Remember - No foot, no horse. Your horse is only as good as the feet that carry him.

I use Horse Leads products to help treat and keep thrush away and keep those hooves healthy. Combined with a 6 weekly trim by Rhi’s Holistic Hoof Care, Rhi has also given me the confidence to trim myself too over those 6 weeks.

27/12/2024

🧡🧡🧡

01/12/2024

Huge congratulations to Graveney Equine: Horse Track System, what an achievement!

It’s not just a win for Graveney, it’s a huge win for the equestrian industry moving forward 🥳

Congratulations to Graveney Equine: Horse Track System on becoming Livery Yard of the Year 2024 sponsored by Westgate Labs!

28/11/2024

The boys had a bale net go out last Monday to help them and myself out over the snowy period.. I planned to empty the rest of it out today as it’s now basically on the floor. But I was greeted by this, I mean come on guys 😂 💩

Obviously some of the hay at the bottom is wet and ruined but there was loads of dry hay left! It’s now dotted around in piles as loose hay for them to finish. Anything left will be raked up and added to the ‘sheep lasagne’ this weekend.

20/11/2024

When you get sent photos of the horses 😍

19/11/2024

When you get them a shiney new shelter for winter, freezing temps over night and snows all night .. did they use it ? NOPE 🙄

12/11/2024

Love this post, we’re all in different situations and have different priorities. The important thing is to keep improving for our horses health & well being 😊

Balance, or "You Are Enough"

This year has been a very mixed bag for horses and their guardians. The weather has been less than ideal, and the hooves have been showing the results of this: especially the amount of abscesses and white line separation have gone through the roof. A lot of overweight horses have stayed overweight. So a slap on the wrist for all of us because we've clearly not created the environment that our horses thrive in and not taken the measures to improve anything. Right?

Actually, I'm letting you guys off for a bit. Because I've seen you struggle through it. I've seen what you HAVE done and how much you are fighting against what's outwith your control.

Yard rules, turnout limitations, ignorance of suitable grazing, lack of availability of suitable grazing! Then the same for hay - if you're lucky enough to be allowed to choose what you get, your hay comes untested, and often the second bale comes from a different field/cut than the first, and testing isn't really a choice.

Every single one of my clients/their horse(s) has/have different circumstances and needs.
Not everybody can rent or own their own field where they can do what they want, and even an own field isn't necessarily covering all your horse's needs.
We often have to choose our top priority because we cannot tick all the boxes.

Why not move yards if the current one isn't the real deal? Sometimes moving away doesn't create an improvement, despite what it said on paper. I've also seen people move away from what seemingly was the best choice for their horse, and they found paradise elsewhere. It's tricky!

Does that give us an excuse to be satisfied with the status quo? Absolutely not. We need to keep trying to make even the tiniest improvement, so next year our horses have a better chance to be healthy and stay sound. If your horse is showing signs of low grade inflammation/laminitis, we need to ask why and what we can do to counteract. If your horse is overweight, let's explore more options of how we can change that.

So see how you were off the hook for a bit there - that's you back on! Less judgement on people trying their best, and more rolled up sleeves trying to help those people and all our equines. Let's roll up those sleeves!

11/11/2024

We did it! The horses have a proper shelter!!!!
(I know they probably won’t use it 😂)

Big thanks to my amazing team of family & friends who help build this flat pack, still a few more touches to be done but for now we rest (for a day or two).

The horses have been on the track near it for a week however I opened it to them today. Capi followed me up as I had a bag of treats, I scattered them inside and outside the shelter to coach him in but he was a big scaredy cat as one rustle of the treat bag and he was gone! I’ve never seen that horse move so fast in my life 💨 He ran straight back to Otto who wasn’t even in our eye line.

I took Otto to the field shelter using a head collar as he’s Mr Easy, he took one look, I said come on and in he went eating all the snacks I’d left on the floor. Capi continued to make a song and dance, fire breathing dragon and all that. So I left him to it as he’s a horse that needs to figure things out on his own terms and in his own time, hours later I was sent a photo of Capi in his new shelter 🥰

Next I need to save up a couple more 🥕 and invest in some Jelka mats for out front.

But for now, I can sleep better knowing the horses can pick if they want over head shelter or not.

😃😃😃😃😃😃😃😃😃😃😃

04/11/2024

Sneak peek 📸

Never underestimate a woman that’s got something to prove 😅

Been putting an extra shift in since Thursday, my body feels broken but the field shelter is finally here and up!! Minus a few finishing touches 😬

Today I laid more paving flags (reused/upcycled) to make a hard standing area for their new water station. Just need to add some pipes for the IBC tanks, the guttering so we can actually harvest water and some mats for the flags as I presume they could be slippy when frosty (sure I’ve got some grass mats somewhere I can reuse!).

I’d love to add a little water buffet station too!

Big up to my amazing friends & family, I couldn’t do all this without them 🥰

26/10/2024

Oh I’d love one of these t shirts 😍

14/10/2024

Evenings cleaning 🧼 ft. My little mate

05/10/2024

🙌

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