Fine Print Farms

09/09/2025

09/08/2025

DON’T MISS OUT!We still have one participant spot in module one Plenty of room for auditors. We have 3 participant spots in module two with plenty of room for auditors. Module 1https://www.tntfarmsqtrhorses.com/event-details/making-the-connection-with-lorre-mueller-and-tarrin-warren-module-1Module...

09/08/2025

Signed limited hardback edition of Horse Brain Science: The Neuroscience of Ethical Horsemanship by Dr. Stephen Peters ✅ What makes this Limited Edition one-of-a-kind: 1. A beautifully crafted, case-bound hardback with a full-color cover, wrapped in a full-color slipcase dust jacket. 2. Each copy ...

09/05/2025

08/31/2025

Beyond GRATEFUL for this rain.

We have gotten well over an inch here!

It will dry up fast and be nice and green!

💧stay on paths up to the barn - no walking on grass.
💧work horses in arenas until grass area is dry.
💧DO NOT drive out back to the paddocks.

08/29/2025

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈𝐬 𝐄𝐩𝐢𝐩𝐡𝐲𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐬

Epiphysitis is inflammation of the growth plates in young, growing horses. It shows up most often in weanlings, yearlings, or 2-year-olds and can look like big, puffy joints. While it is not the same as OCD or a joint injury, it can affect future soundness if ignored.

What to look for:
- Puffy, warm joints in the knees or fetlocks
- Shortened stride or stiffness
- Lameness that comes and goes
- Legs that begin to angle or “knock” in severe cases

The main causes are rapid growth, calorie-rich diets without enough minerals, and too much concussion on developing joints.

The good news is that with early management, most horses do well. A balanced diet, slower growth, controlled exercise, and careful monitoring can turn things around.

Epiphysitis is like growing pains in kids. The sooner you notice and adjust, the better chance your horse has at staying sound long term.

𝐃𝐨𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐗 𝐕𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬
xxvets.com ◦ (940) 514-9500

08/27/2025

🔥MYTH🔥
Once a horse has had laminitis and/or rotation they will never have a normal foot.

Did you know it is entirely possible to have a healthy functional hoof after laminitis?
The hoof below suffered a bout of laminitis resulting in a small bit of rotation last season. So, how did we get back to a healthy hoof?

🔥How?🔥
Identify the causal factors in the first place.
Diet, Exercise, veterinary care, and hoof care all play a role getting your horse back on track. This is a team approach, everyone works together for the good of the horse.

- What dietary chages can you make for your horses health? chronically overweight horses and easy keepers are prone to metabolic issues. Look at your hay, pasture time, grain amounts, and treat in take to see what can be better managed on your end.

- Your veterinarian is your biggest asset!
Blood work to address insulin and acth levels.
Pain management medications to control inflammation within the foot and keep your horse as comfortable as possible. Radiographs to assess what damage has occurred inside the hoof capsule and help guide your farrier through the rehab process.

Hoof care! Finding a professional that is familiar with working on laminitic/ foundered horses. Do they have tools to help your horses comfort ? Are they willing work with your vet and have an open mind to trying new things? Are they skilled at reading radiographs? Do they understand the biomechanics of trimming a rotated hoof?
Is their way the ONLY way?!
💣several groups have proclaimed they have the secret to fixing these cases…. the magical recipe everyone wants….Do your homework, there are many ways to achieve results. Right handed farriers don’t cause rotation, leaving toes grow for months biomechanically doesn’t help your horse, and poor trimming is not the cause of every case of laminitis💣

Exercise?
Once you get to a comfortable state and have a healthy enough hoof movement/ exercise helps with metabolic issues and increases blood flow!

08/22/2025

THE EWE NECK…

With a postural ewe neck, the solution is not to simply lower the horse’s head and neck to camouflage the problem.

Because the head and neck lifting is not the problem.

The problem is, when the lift doesn’t originate in the sternum and the base of their neck.

When the sternum is dropped and the first few vertebrae at the base of their neck (C6–C7) are falling forward into a more horizontal alignment, the horse cannot lift their neck from the base.

Instead, when their head comes up, there’s an abrupt angle change in their cervical spine.

That’s what creates the classic ewe neck appearance… bulging underneath, hollow on top.

The answer isn’t to have them drop their head until the rest of their neck ‘matches’ that horizontalization.

Yes, some horses are conformationally lower in the base of their neck.

Yes, a horse dropping their sternum and the base of their neck during grazing is healthy and natural.

Yes, allowing the horse to stretch forward, down, and out is a vital part of interval training.

But horses are designed to have access to dynamic balance… which means being able to lift their sternum and verticalize the base of their neck when needed.

If a horse can’t access that, it will affect them both physically, and emotionally, both under saddle, and in their daily life.

We can’t access this by tractioning the spine into a false lift from front to back...

Every verticalization of the dorsal processes brought on by traction will be matched by a horizontalization of C6 and C7.

Further, this traction can block the horse’s attempt to seek balance from back to front.

We can’t address this by focusing on the front end or only working in certain gaits.

This requires the participation of the WHOLE horse, mind, body, and spirit, with their full range of motion, and their full range of gaits.

Inspired by Ada Draghici Relationship-Based Horsemanship’s recent fabulous discussions exploring this.

Photo credit Horses Inside Out and Sustainable Dressage

08/22/2025

This🙌🏽

08/21/2025

The Body Doesn’t Lie

I’m a little (a lot) increasingly worried and frustrated about the postures I am seeing horses worked in. I saw a post yesterday of a horse being worked in side reins comparing day one of using them to day two; day one — bracing; day two — horse sucking behind the side reins, opening mouth, compressing the wither (and everything else) to avoid pressure.

The day before that, one professional rider riding a 4 year old hyperflexed with draw reins in one clip and a tight martingale in another.

The day before that, a client told me that another therapist had told them to just shut their horses mouth with a flash to stop contact evasions… when in fact this horse is experiencing significant discomfort.

Today, a video saying if your horse leans on the contact to just give them a sharp upward motion of the rein to get them to sit back… because there surely isn’t a physical or rider issue why they do that!?

IF you DON’T think what you are doing is wrong, LOOK and FEEL your horse.

If you’re ignoring their signals in every other way, their body won’t lie. If you’re doing everything right, they’ll look right.

If you’re constantly battling with the same issues, if your physio keeps noticing a tight poll/lacking muscle/stiffness, if you can see your horses ligament clicking and flicking over the top of their neck every time you change bend, please please widen the gaze and realise — this is not right, this is not normal for their body, what is going wrong?

There is no shame in breaking away from a trainer you’ve used for years; or changing from a saddle you once loved to a new one; or giving your horse a little while off whilst you sort your body out and make sure you’re not hindering them. This is the part of the “sport” (I hate that word in this context) that has been so massively overlooked of late.

Even if you’re a professional rider only riding a horse for 30 mins a week, we are our horses GUARDIANS on this planet. Every interaction means we should care for every part of them whole heartedly. If something isn’t right, they will try and tell us however they can — big or small.

Speech and panic over… resume your day 🙃

08/21/2025

Is stress free training possible?

You love your horse and you want what’s best for them. That’s admirable and a quality to never lose.

I want you to consider how we’re wired for a moment -

A newborn foal is born, and feels the first pains of life- cold, hungry, thirsty. It is driven to the first and most important task of life: standing on brand new wobbly legs to seek the comfort of mother and food. Stress drives the foal to seek comfort and growth.

We want to care for our children, but the stress that drives a baby to walk is probably a maddening amount of frustration- their desire for doing something or getting something is limited by their physical ability to move, and so begins the frustrating endeavor of trying to make their uncooperative body match their desires - days and weeks of frustrating falls are part of this process of growing new skills.

I watch horses integrate into a new herd - the newbie is driven off hay and water- it’s hard to watch, but their desire for safety forces them to display acceptable behaviors to the herd to be allowed in. Interfering with this can lead to diminished social skills and reading of expression- an essential skill for wellbeing in a horses life.

Do we need to put unnecessary stress on the horse? No. Do we need to be rough and unfair? Of course not. We can guide them fairly, with confidence and clarity. We don’t have to make them twist in the wind when we could provide support and help -

But don’t forget that the nature of growth requires some stress, by design. It’s a healthy and essential part of life. Our attitude toward and mindset makes all the difference.

I love my son dearly, I don’t want him to suffer, but I understand he has to develop - but he wants to lift this flake of hay to help more than anything. Should I interfere and lift it for him, reducing momentary stress? Or does his frustration lead him to developing ability, self reliance, and self confidence ? Wouldn’t avoiding momentary stress lead to the long term greater stress of lacking skill, lacking confidence, and lacking the ability to problem solve?

Here he figures out how to lift smaller pieces at a time - because of his frustration and stress, he develops a way forward.

You can’t avoid stress - you can only choose between short term pain and long term pain - the pain of having no confidence or skills - which is much more stressful, and much more harmful.