Abbotts View Livery: Barefoot and Back to Nature

19/11/2025

It's times like these I'm glad I have a truck!

No "duvet days" in stables here for our horses.

Free choice to be inside or out as they please, 365 days a year, whatever the weather.

Anyone clipped, underweight, old or prone to feeling the cold has an appropriate rug. The rest have their full winter coats to keep them toasty, as nature intended ❄️🐴

18/11/2025

First frost this morning ❄️

18/11/2025

Absolutely excellent post.

It's so obvious to me that a lack of movement causes a whole host of issues but it's fantastic to actually have the scientific research to back it.

Definitely be referencing this in book 2! 🙏

Your horse’s skeleton is built for impact — not confinement.

Three decades of equine bone research makes one thing painfully clear: Horses kept in box stalls lose bone density.

Not metaphorically. Literally.

Confinement triggers the same biological process humans call osteoporosis — and it starts fast.

Key findings from the research:

- Horses moved from pasture into stalls and worked only at slow speeds began losing bone mineral content within weeks.
- A single short sprint per week (50–80 m) dramatically strengthened bone.
- Corticosteroids mask pain and increase risk of further injury
- Good nutrition cannot override a lack of mechanical loading.
- A skeleton that doesn’t experience impact simply cannot stay strong.

All of this is drawn from:
Nielsen, B.D. (2023). A Review of Three Decades of Research Dedicated to Making Equine Bones Stronger. Animals, 13(5), 789.

So what does this mean for our modern domesticated horses?

It means bone weakness is not inevitable.

It’s a management problem.

It means many “mysterious” pathologies — stress fractures, suspensory injuries, joint degeneration, chronic compensation, recurrent lameness — are downstream consequences of bone that never had the chance to adapt to the forces nature designed it for.

Box stalls create osteoporosis.

Osteoporosis creates a whole lot of other pathology.

Your horse doesn’t need to be an athlete. But their bones require impact. Free movement. The ability to respond to their own nervous system’s cues to trot, canter, play, stretch, and even sprint.

Turnout is not enrichment.

Movement is biology.

Bone health is built — or lost — every single day.

A question I encourage every owner to sit with:

If you knew your horse’s bones were weakening in silence every day they stood still, would you keep managing them the same way?

Because in the end, it’s not confinement that keeps a horse safe.

It’s a resilient skeleton.

And only you can give them the environment their biology requires.

Change begins with us.

17/11/2025

It's safe to say Nino's introductions are going well 🥰

He spent his first full morning out on track with the whole herd today, and most of the time was spent playing bitey face game 😂

A Nino sandwich!

17/11/2025

Beautiful Willow the Warmblood enjoying her retirement ❤️

She's absolutely thriving at the moment 🙏😍

16/11/2025

😭😠

16/11/2025

Back in July I had the pleasure of hosting a talk and tour all about Track Systems for World Horse Welfare

It was a fantastic day, with lots of keen questions and learning, and I am now featuring on their webinar in just a few weeks time, so you can join in too!

⏱️Join us on Wednesday 3rd December at 7pm to learn all about Tracks!

Click the link to register:

https://worldhorsewelfare.zoom.us/webinar/register/2917629533101/WN_XCRGat4nT8eMjRsgXQ2AlQ

16/11/2025

So I gave up waiting for one to come up second hand 😅 and treated myself to a new Christ Lamfelle ba****ck pad 🥹

It's absolutely gorgeous and oh so comfy!!

I've wanted one of these for years, but never really had a "reason" to justify buying one. But ...now Buck is semi-retired, it's the perfect excuse 😂 It's super lightweight, and really comfy for me to ride in when we're mainly riding at walk with the odd trot and canter. It's also easy and light for me to take off and carry it he gets hot and itchy during a long ride in the woods. (He has very sensitive skin!)

I get a bit saddle sore when riding at walk for long periods of time, and wouldn't want to just ride ba****ck as I worry about the pressure from my seat bones on Buck's back, as well as getting a dirty butt!

I absolutely love the feeling of ba****ck riding, feeling how his body moves and changes beneath me with such clarity.

It's also great fitness for me, focusing on using my core and balance, and, great for my ankle (since my accident it gets very stiff and painful when stationary in a stirrup).

I bought it from Horse Dream UK who's the UK importer for these beautiful pads, and currently has a sale on!

P.s. yes I have very long legs and that is always much more obvious without a saddle and stirrups to take them up 😂 I'm wearing the beautiful Equine Splendour riding tights too 😍

16/11/2025

It's gotta go somewhere!

One of the most common mistakes I see on tracks is people not considering water diversion. Even if you fully surface the whole track, a flash flood can cause a heck of a lot of damage.

Designing ways to divert the water is key;

In this video we installed this drain to collect water during heavy rain and divert it around the barn into a drain instead of running through the barn which it did previously.

The best way to see where water runs naturally is to go outside during heavy rain fall and see where it naturally runs and collections with the lay of the land. (Take pictures and videos or you'll forget!!)

Then in the spring/summer, you can add in drainage based off what you observed in the winter!

We touched on this on my most recent track consultation last week with a lovely lady in Canada and I thought it deserved a post. If you need help setting up or improving your track, visit my website linked in the comments!

15/11/2025

A month's worth of rain in a day (33mm recorded). Yuck!!

All the horses are still choosing to be out munching in it, making good use of their Jelka Group top clean mats pathways and feeding stations that lead off from the hardstanding 🙏

Use AVL5 for 5% off Jelka Mats 💪

15/11/2025

My boy 🧡

How amazing is this before and after??

We need to create the opportunities for the body to open.

To do this successfully, we need to have a conversation with the body.

This may seem an abstract concept to some, yet the tissues of the body are always in communication with each-other, and ourselves whether we are treating or training.

The mind and body do not work in isolation, but do so together in a constant feedback loop, therefore regardless if we are training through a psychological and behavioural approach or we are working with manual application, we are talking to both.

There are multiple factors that can allow the door of the body to open, and also factors that keep the handle a little stuck.

As we head into Winter, with a climate that continues to present unpredictable extremes, we need to consider the important elements that we can provide for our horses, in mind and body, to function the best that they can.

Whilst we can create the opportunities for the body to open, little and often, I feel a vital part of this if for the horse to want to open their body, and they will only do this with one thing; safety.

On my most recent visit to the gang at Abbotts View Livery: Barefoot and Back to Nature in Buckinghamshire, I saw AVL mascot Buckthorn for a treatment session.

Buck really settles in to a treatment, is open in his conversation and receptive to how I work with his body, and as a result?

His body opened up, in mind, body and spirit.

15/11/2025

Horses having choices about where they spend their time is super important, but even more so in extreme/bad weather.

Yesterday we had a months worth of rain in a day (reported 33mm)!

In the UK and similar climates the winters are wet, cold and muddy, and having hard standing on a track system, during this season especially, is absolutely essential.

Horses need to be able to get out of the mud and weather as and when they please, and we watched the herd take turns to use the barn for shelter and then go out and forage throughout the day. The horses only choose to walk through muddy areas and not stand and rest in them; instead they rested on the hardstandings or in the barn. However when the mud dries up a little, it's the perfect consistency for a good mud roll!!

We treat all the horses as individuals and those who needed rugs, had rugs, and those who needed extra/easier hay time, got it. A big shout out to my super grooms for working through it and keeping a close check on horses and changing rugs where necessary.

With global warming we're only going to see more flash flooding and "all at once" rainfall so we need to prepare for it as best we can 🙏