DreamPower Horsemanship

01/17/2025

For horses in the evacuation zones of the Moss Landing Power Station Fire.

01/17/2025

Playing with horses hands free and other fun stuff today in Leadership 2 Partnership💜.

01/16/2025

The first DreamPower New Volunteer Orientation of 2025 will be Saturday, Jan. 25 from 10:00 -11:30 am at DreamPower Horsemanship (7460 Crews Road, Gilroy, CA). Anyone who does not feel well in any way should not attend this orientation. Healthy and interested volunteers ages 14 and up are welcome. High school, college and community service hours available. Horse experience appreciated but not at all required! Please spread the word and invite a friend to help make our world a better place, starting at DreamPower! We hope to see you there.

01/16/2025

Congratulations to Tera DeLong!! As of today, you are a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist! We are very proud of you!!

01/15/2025

There is one opening in our fun "Farm Friends" social and emotional skill building group. Farm Friends meets Tuesdays from 3:30-4:00 and is for children and teens ages 10-14, who want to learn the skills of social success while having fun on the farm. Farm Friends features from an animal-rich curriculum teaching the social skills and emotional intelligence skills needed for success in relationships and life. Farm Friends groups are led by Dr. Cherié Page, Licensed Psychologist. To sign your child up, please contact DreamPower Horsemanship on Facebook, or email [email protected]. Please share with any families you know who might be interested. Thank you!

01/15/2025

The Taji 100 starts in two weeks! You can participate from anywhere in the world where you have internet access! Here's the goal:
1) Walk, jog, run, hike, or elliptical 100 miles, or
2) swim 25 “metric miles”, or
3) cycle 300 miles, or
4) row 200,000 meters within the 28 days of February 2025.
You can register and pay the fee and get some really cool race swag, OR you can join for free and participate but without the swag. DreamPower Horsemanship has a team and we'd love to have you join Team DreamPower for the last Taji 100. (This is the last year this event will be held.) Here's the link to register https://taji100.com/?fbclid=IwY2xjawH09JFleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHS4Fnuv4_jLgX5HP-bTOcCPpvdR-Eqzk2PuuLvqXTx1TJkstk-YL6m4P5A_aem_Hot50B366psjlEbpqbdX0g

01/15/2025

This is what learning looks like. 🤗 A little awkward, a little funny, a little courage and the exciting entrance to new adventures! We can all learn from Tulips.

01/15/2025

Good information for horses in cold and colder temps.

🥶 Why should you feed more hay in the winter?

We see it every year. On the first warm day of spring, the owner pulls the horse’s blanket, and to their surprise, ribs are showing. We understand that when the vet says to feed more hay, many people see dollar signs dancing in their heads. 💸Some people will choose to feed an extra cup of a fat supplement rather than add an extra two flakes of hay. To make things worse, horses can be great at wasting hay; they walk, trample, p*e and p**p in it. They may waste 10-25% of what is offered, resulting in needing to feed even more volume. 👎🏻

🌡️ It’s important to feed more hay in the winter though. Lower critical temperature is the temperature below which a horse needs additional energy to maintain body warmth. The lower critical temperature estimate for horses is 41°F with a summer coat and 18°F with a winter coat. This number is affected by the horse’s coat length, if they get wet, if they are blanketed, whether they have access to a shelter, and their body surface area to weight ratio.

For every degree below 18°F the horse requires an additional one percent energy in their diet. 🔥Microbial fermentation of forage in the horse’s hind gut acts as an internal furnace to keep the horse warm during these brutally cold winter days. Some believe that feeding more grain will keep a horse warmer. But digestion, absorption, and utilization of grain does not produce as much heat as the microbial fermentation of forage.

Lastly, it’s important to remove your horse’s blanket from time to time during the winter to monitor body condition. An ideal body condition score (BCS) is 5/9 where you can’t see the ribs but can feel them with light pressure. 🐴

If you have questions about your horse’s BCS or whether you’re feeding enough (or too much) hay this winter, our vets are happy to evaluate your horse and go over feeding recommendations.



📸 The Horse

01/14/2025

Nyki and Tulips in the light of the Wolf Moon (the first full moon of the year).

01/14/2025

It’s time to register for the LAST Taji 100! This is it. Sign up and join Team DreamPower! Walk or run 100 miles between Feb. 1-28. Sign up soon to get the cool medal and coins.

A small batch of the 2025 medals arrived! Yay!

You will get the 2025 medal and all 7 coins! The medal has a magnetic base so you can interchange/ customize your Taji medal to your liking.

Only a small amount of medals arrived, so there will still be a lot of packets shipped with no medals initially. Have no fear. If you are one of the 1st 3,750 signed up for paid registration, you WILL get a medal and coins.

As of 0800 hours (8am) PST, we have about 2,100 paid registrations.

Team Red, White & Blue

01/13/2025

Brave rider. And this is why it’s important to teach your horse to load into a trailer. Way to go, Kalyna!

This deserved a spot on our feed. .fedorowycz.eq was helping evacuate horses out of Topanga and when this horse wouldn’t load, she rode it 14 miles to safety. Kalyna is brave beyond her years and we are so proud to know her. Thank you, Kalyna!!!

01/13/2025

Sooo proud of these girls. Nyki and Tulips II wore their blankets with all the straps connected for the first time. They got to wander around loose and roll in the blankets. The ponies are so calm and good natured. We love them!!

01/12/2025

It’s a beautiful sunny Sunday and volunteers are at the ranch taking care of horses’ physical and mental wellbeing. 💜 Thank you all!

01/12/2025

The horses (and ponies) at DreamPower right now range from 7 months (Nyki) and 8 months (Tulips II) to 30 years (Cowboy). And we have things to learn from all of them. 💜

01/11/2025

Author Martha McNiel will be signing copies of "Poppy and Daisy's Big Adventure" today (Saturday, Jan. 11) from 12-5 pm at Barnes & Noble (6825 Camino Arroyo) in Gilroy. This is the true story two formerly wild Chincoteague Ponies who now live and work in Gilroy. Please stop by and get your book signed and pick up some stickers and bookmarks from Poppy and Daisy. We hope to see you there!

01/11/2025

Leadership 2 Partnership had a lovely training opportunity with a guest donkey today. Thank you to Brandon and Gravy for helping our horses and ponies meet a new longears friend today.