Wiseman Farms

06/12/2024

Stalls Available
Danville, VA - convenient to Averett University

Board: $710 per month

Includes:
Feed, Hay, Shavings, Beautiful Pastures (night turnout in groups of no more than 4 horses), Quality Fencing
Stall with fan, automatic water, and private attached dry lot.
Facility has large outdoor arena, roundpen, fields and limited trails.
Private Quiet Barn with only a few Boarders.

07/29/2023

07/10/2023

12/06/2022

Mr Bleu, enjoying a post bodywork reset at the lovely . All his friends had been turned out and he just stayed here, and let the magic work.

12/06/2022

10/24/2022

Wise words . . .

07/02/2022

• What does a noseband do?

• Do riders know WHY they use them?

• More importantly, is the desired outcome truely being achieved by the action of using them?

I have found all cases of horses nashing, opening the mouth, being inconsistent or heavy in the contact, head tilting, hollowing, etc, is about having the correct bit that the horse finds comfortable. It is also about the riders hands & the way they use them to communicate via the horses mouth. These are the two things that need correction/attention & NOT the addition of a noseband.

So to correct a horses ‘mouth’ you shouldn't try to ‘stop’ an undesirable trait with restriction (i.e.: tighten the noseband, or worse still, tighten a secondary strap below the bit) - this would cause further discomfort & resistance for something the horse is already expressing is not comfortable, therefore it cannot accept it with a quiet mouth.

And a quiet mouth is NOT a ‘shut mouth’. No living mammal on earth goes around with it’s jaw closed & teeth together - it must remain relaxed & open. Optimum performance cannot happen any other way.

Therefore the conclusion is simple - the noseband really should be a fashion piece, treated like a browband - it serves no purpose/benefit to be ‘used’ to do anything, as any tightness or restriction from a noseband simply makes peak performance impossible. Any horses ‘winning’ with this gear…. imagine how amazing they would truely be WITH A LOOSE NOSEBAND! & here is why:

Did you know:

– On an equine dissection (yes, like an autopsy) any pressure applied in the horses mouth or to the jaw (which causes the hyoid bone at the base of the tongue to move up and/or back in the jaw) renders the hind legs restricted (difficult to move by a human) with effects also evident in the hips, yet the leg can be freely moved when the jaw is released (when the hyoid bone is allow to sit lower & forward in the jaw/mouth). This is fact.

– The job of the jaw is to act like a pendulum to give the horse correct balance & allows the horse to have awareness of limb placement. This relies on the TMJ (temporomandibular joint) of the jaw to be pain & pressure free.

– The jaw of the horse is a reflection of the pelvis. If the jaw is stuck, the horses pelvis will be too. This is seen in the obvious evasion of head tilting to allow the pelvis to move if the jaw cannot.

– closing the mouth & closing the gullet (over-bent) when riding causes the hyoid bone of the tongue to become blocked, which is directly connected to & tightens the muscles at the base of the neck through to the chest. This also makes it hard for the horse to swallow - causing excessive saliva/foam to pour from the horses mouth.

So in light of these facts - here is the positive side of having a loose, caveson noseband (or none at all!):

+ The horses mouth becomes a reflection of it’s acceptance of the reins aids & how much they understand the communication of their rider

+ The horse has nothing to resist against - as there is no restriction.

+ A calm yet mobile mouth means they are light on the reins & relaxed through the neck so they can easily swallow

+ Freedom to the jaw will allow freedom in the pelvis & hind legs

+ Your horse has 100% chance of giving you it’s best performance!

It’s time we all stopped just using items of gear, because that’s what they sell in the shops ~ but really think about how we are trying to train our horses to understand us & give them the best chance of producing what we really want ~ HARMONY

© Love Your Horse

04/06/2022

01/21/2022

All creatures GREAT and small. Dr. Barker is doing some manipulating during a chiropractic adjustment to determine how best to treat this patient. This guy receives regular chiropractic care to keep him feeling at the top of his game!

09/30/2021

A thought-provoking read.
By Jane Smiley
Most horses pass from one human to another - some horsemen and women are patient and forgiving, others are rigorous and demanding, others are cruel, others are ignorant.
Horses have to learn how to, at the minimum, walk, trot, canter, gallop, go on trails and maybe jump, to be treated by the vet, all with sense and good manners.
Talented Thoroughbreds must learn how to win races, and if they can't do that, they must learn how to negotiate courses and jump over strange obstacles without touching them, or do complicated dance
like movements or control cattle or accommodate severely handicapped children and adults in therapy work.
Many horses learn all of these things in the course of a single lifetime. Besides this, they learn to understand and fit into the successive social systems of other horses they meet along the way.
A horse's life is rather like twenty years in foster care, or in and out of prison, while at the same time changing schools over and over and discovering that not only do the other students already have their own social groups, but that what you learned at the old school hasn't much application at the new one.
We do not require as much of any other species, including humans.
That horses frequently excel, that they exceed the expectations of their owners and trainers in such circumstances, is as much a testament to their intelligence and adaptability as to their relationship skills or their natural generosity or their inborn nature. That they sometimes manifest the same symptoms as abandoned orphans - distress, strange behaviors, anger, fear - is less surprising than that they usually don't.
No one expects a child, or even a dog to develop its intellectual capacities living in a box 23 hours a day and then doing controlled exercises the remaining one.
Mammal minds develop through social interaction and stimulation.
A horse that seems "stupid", "slow", "stubborn", etc. might just have not gotten the chance to learn!
Take care of your horses and treasure them.

09/29/2021

Sedgefield Hunt School
Photos by Lydia Cox

07/10/2021

""When a lot of folks can't get a horse to operate on a feel, in a snaffle, what most are going to tell you "hell, get a little more bridle, get a little more shank on it, get a chain on it" and then when he's really wanting to flip over then "tie his head down". If he really runs into the tie down then "get a bicycle chain over his nose".............I mean it DOESN'T STOP, IT BECOMES MEDIEVAL WHAT THEY DO.
But when you get a horse to where he's operating on a feel; it doesn't make much difference what you have.
Whereas a lot of people leave the snaffle bit because they flunked out, they failed...............and then they go and get another bit.
Of course these tack salesmen love that. They go and get another bit and then they flunk out in it, ruin their horse. Then they ruin them in that, then get another bit and then pretty soon they've got a whole wall full of bits and they still can't operate the damn thing.
All that money they've wasted on bits; they could've probably bought a decent saddle for the horse so he didn't have to put up with the junk they were riding in. Now that would have been something that would have been worthwhile.
So if you don't get it done in the snaffle (the basics that a horse needs, the fundamental movements that all horses need to do for whatever you have in mind for them) before moving on to something else, well............you're not going to get it."" - Buck Brannaman.

Image of Buck is by Heather Kessler - https://www.facebook.com/kesslerphoto

05/20/2021

It will be fun to see how this c**t develops! Thank you, Victoria!

Hollymead Happy Accident "Whoops", a coming three year old Connemara stud c**t out of Hollymead Swan Bay and by Morning Glory's Ilyushin.

Owned by Wiseman Farms

04/20/2021

Training Horse: Storm, coming 4yr old Morgan gelding.