De Frates Horsemanship

12/23/2025

12/22/2025

Winter Solstice: we made it! On this, the shortest day and longest night of the year, I always like to take some time to reflect on all that the past year has brought me with gratitude and acceptance. I also like to take a moment to set my intentions for the next year with joyful anticipation. I welcome you all join me in my annual practice by reflecting on your year and then answering these three questions for yourself.

1. What word would I use to describe my experiences this past year?
2. What word do I want to represent next year?
3. My ultimate goal for this next year is _____.

My answers this year:
1. Affirming
2. Realization
3. Publish a book

12/03/2025

'Tis the season, for vacation that is!

Your horse deserves the best. Why pay some rando to throw food at your horses while you travel when you can bring them to the professionals and give them a vacation too!

All-inclusive vacation lodging is just $50/day and includes luxury overnight accommodations, daily housekeeping, two meal tickets per day, unlimited room service, laundry services, and one daily activity!

In other words, we provide housing in our stall/paddock combos, daily cleaning, feeding of your hay 2x a day, feeding of your pre-packaged grain/supplements as needed, blanketing, turnout, and professional eyes on your horse daily. We will give meds as needed, treat any basic cuts and wounds, and provide with you daily updates of your horses vacation. Training sessions/rides are also available for an extra $50/session. All horses must be fully vaccinated. Contact Dana for details or to check availability. [email protected], 408-548-7669

11/26/2025

Every week, I bring all of our pregnant mares out of pasture for a bit of exercise and a spa day. Bling, who who is foal with an Epic Titan baby, is not having it. She says, “The only running I’ll be doing is running up the food bill. Cookie me.”

11/22/2025

Well, I made it into the paper again 🙂 They didnt get my story quite right, but the quote is accurate. Not sure how I feel about being the only “cilivian” quoted.

Santa Clara County leaders have slammed the brakes on a rezoning plan that South County farmers, winery owners and equestrians warned could threaten their businesses and the future of Silicon Valley’s iconic — but vanishing — rural vestige.

11/18/2025

Supervisor Arenas‘ referral to reset the RZA‘s passed unanimously at today’s board of supervisors meeting. Thank you to the 30+ people both in person and on Zoom, who spoke up in favor of this referral. We still have a long way to go for the draft amendments to resemble something workable for small farms and horses, but now we have a way forward.

11/18/2025

He’s a man on a mission!

11/17/2025

Hades, our newest assistant trainer, helping me get a 10m walk in for a client horse in-between storms.

11/13/2025

ACTION NEEDED

She did it! Supervisor Arenas got her proposal for the RZA next steps (called a referral) on the agenda at the next Board of Supervisors (BOS) meeting on Nov 18. Many of us who got a sneak preview of the referral are extremely supportive. Now, we need your help to ensure it passes.

1. Please review the referral.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DcozSc0vZVBV1xbiGPYxFayQVv0pJZW5/view?usp=sharing

2. If you agree, let the BOS know that you want them to approve the referral via email. Feel free to use this as a template.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xgxq2pMHKBzDbzR5kKAcu6mLKs7rbO3mIVMrAhgdIj0/edit?usp=sharing

3. Attend the meeting in-person or virtually on Tuesday Nov 18.
Here is a link to add the meeting to your calendar. https://calendar.google.com/calendar/event?action=TEMPLATE&tmeid=MTF1Njh0b2p2bWRyYnZrdnBlMGI4bGc3MzYgZGVmcmF0ZXNob3JzZW1hbnNoaXBAbQ&tmsrc=defrateshorsemanship%40gmail.com

11/12/2025

Some food for thought.
We craft our clinic schedule incorporating this idea of seasonality and rest, along with our breeding and foaling schedules, to ensure both our horses and our own welfare. We are not robots and everyone needs rest!

What do you think?

Equestrian Sport has undergone a dramatic cultural and structural shift in the past few decades. Historically, the rhythm of horse competition followed the seasons: spring and summer shows, then autumn winding down, with the appearance of no-stirrup November focusing on the rider, and then winter serving as a natural rest period when horses and staff recovered.

Many breed-related disciplines still keep to this schedule, but why are we not seeing the continued trend in the hunter/jumper and dressage areas of sport? Remember, horses weren’t always these high-profile athletic machines that we see today. The show schedules used to mirror the agrarian roots of horsekeeping, when horses were part of a larger seasonal cycle of work and rest. So, where is the compromise between welfare and sport?

With the advent of year-round competition circuits—like the Winter Equestrian Festival in Florida or the Sunshine Tour in Europe—the old “off-season” has vanished. Prize money, sponsorship, and the prestige of continuous campaigning and chasing points and end-of-year awards have driven owners to keep horses in work far longer, and staff must adapt to an endless cycle of preparation, travel, and competition. Horses are noticeably tired, more injuries surface, and staff fluctuations are all a part of the larger picture in recent trends. The topic is certainly gaining traction in the show community, so let’s take a deeper look at what a rest and recovery period during the show year might look like.

Equine physiology is resilient but not inexhaustible. Like human athletes, horses need structured rest to prevent overuse injuries, including tendon strains, joint wear, and metabolic stress. Veterinary science suggests deliberate “down time” periods of at least 6–8 weeks annually, even if light hacking or turnout continues. In addition to routine veterinary visits, we can trust our close veterinary resources to help create individualized downtime.

Psychological rest–such as turnout, pasture time, and lower pressure work–is as important as physical. I used to follow the Pony Club handbook for conditioning and resting my horses, creating a weekly and monthly journal and calendar for each of my horses. Over the years, I started scheduling time for myself on a calendar, a novelty you might assume, but this sport is just as much mental discipline as physical discipline.

Staff, grooms, riders, and trainers face burnout when the calendar is relentless. Without a cultural shift in the sport, rest will not be prioritized. Unions in other industries have recognized the cost of fatigue on both performance and welfare—equine sport has yet to establish strong guardrails for well-being. I touched on thoughts of creating a union in previous articles. I cannot say it’s the perfect solution, but without regulation improving upon welfare as a new societal norm, reinforcing the principles is exponentially more difficult. If we cannot ethically police ourselves, our governing body must step up.

📎 Continue reading Katie Derer's article at https://www.theplaidhorse.com/2025/11/10/from-burnout-to-balance-protecting-horse-and-human-through-structured-rest/

11/11/2025

Another day, another meeting about the county zoning ordinances.

Today’s meetings were with supervisor Sylvia Arenas, and her staff, Victoria Lam and Patrick McGarrity. We’ve had the pleasure of being in several meetings with them, and if you have attended or watched any of the planning department outreach meetings, you’ve heard them yourselves. These wonderful humans have been consumed with ensuring they’ve heard as many affected voices as they possibly could over the last couple months and today will be sending what is called a referral, to the board of supervisors for Santa Clara County. This referral will put their recommendations for the next steps regarding the draft zoning amendments on the agenda for the November board of supervisors meeting on Tuesday, November 18. Their recommendations? In a nutshell, and in the words of Mr. De Frates Horsemanship, “do better and try to win.”

In all seriousness, however, the recommendation is for the planning department to do a complete reset on the amendment process, this time, including key stakeholders in all affected industries, like equestrians. The proposed changes would be put on pause until the planning department is able to do more research and estsblish an agricultural task force to assist in drafting ordinances that work. Specifically regarding horses in Santa Clara County, the recommendation is to pull the discussion regarding Equine uses into its own separate process that would fast follow the rest of the ordinance changes. Their referral is loaded with wonderful recommendations that clearly demonstrate just how well Supervisor Arenas and her staff have been listening to us. This is a huge win for all our agricultural industries. 

This still needs your support however. Once the agenda is confirmed, the Board of Supervisors needs to hear from you and know that you support this plan. This can be done via calls and emails. I’ll draft a sample letter tomorrow. If you can, come to the meeting either in person or virtually as well. Meeting details to follow as soon as I have them.

Thank you all for your continued support. Your voice has made a difference.