Hamilton Equine Services /SMG Performance Horses

02/16/2025

Today we didn't skip lessons even though we have snow and ice.

We spent an hour in my living room, touching into Colic, prevention, management, important facts.

Why ? Because it's the leading cause in horses ages 1-20 and the 2nd leading cause of death in horses over 20.

See in bringing people into the horse world and industry and helping them obtain horse ownership part of that responsibility is teaching care.

Not only for the horse/s that they purchase but for the success and preparation for their wallets and lifestyle.

Usually new horse owners learn about colic when it's happening and that's not the best for their horse or their wallets.

02/09/2025

Lol

01/29/2025

The only reason I am good at giving advice and have wisdom in this buisness, is because I tell others what I wish someone would have told me, and protect people from things I wasn't.

Each piece of advice is a reflection of lessons learned through my own trials, errors and successes, and my advice given is what I needed to hear, when no one was there to say it. I forged my way through the last 23 yrs with sheer desire to be successful, make a difference one horse at s time and survive the people and tough horses.

In this was my words are not always about being kind, but a calculated response to the struggles I endured.

01/28/2025

01/27/2025

Openings in April thru Aug for 2 training horses each month.

Weanlings, yearlings, 2 yr olds not wanting 1st rides, halter breaking, ground work, ponying, sacking out, ground driving, saddling ect.

Non barrel horses welcome too. Rode in group settings ( while i am teaching lessons) softness, body control and advancing their confidence and cadence. Not breed prejudice

Finishing, patterning, hauling and seasoning.. i have a pretty good line up of races and rodeos and i space for 1 qualified training horse to travel with me and get some going to town life experience.

01/27/2025

Two of my favorite adult ladies got to take their 1st trail ride out with me. Tux and Hotti for the win

It's so fun to help people evolve to become confident leaders and build skills.

01/27/2025

Just another beautiful Sunday getting some horses rode, and some butts in saddle miles

And someone learned not to eat the shavings in the stalls 🤣 he will have the best immune system

01/26/2025

I don't have favorites, but if you watch closely you might argue that lol. When you're turning 30 you get special considerations
I may have tied him close to the hay trailer, so he could eat snacks 😉

01/23/2025

In case anyone wonders what I do all day, I made this very scientific chart 🤣🤣🤣

01/20/2025

01/19/2025

It's a proud day when my 7 month old c**t who's had 2 weeks halter breaking leads for my little lesson girl, all the way to the barn with no shenanigans and she pulled his halter and all. 2nd person to lead him ❤️ his great little mind !!

01/16/2025

A great horse never just quits working or has bad days.
It's our job to figure out why

I was given a wonderful opportunity to study the hock of a 15 year old sport pony that was sadly euthanised this week.

He was competing up to March 2024 but was receiving 3- monthly joint injections of steroids. He was retired properly after his last event due to ongoing lameness in his left hock (hind leg). He was a Grand Prix sport pony. I have no idea what it means but I think he was pretty good.

I’m waiting for vet reports but I have the full history as shared by his owner. I also have X-rays from 2021 and 2024.

This is a story to be told. His owner wants you to be informed. Injecting hocks….
Keeping them going…..

For now, I insist on no owner bashing.
To know better we can do better.

Without my dissection of his hock, his story would be buried with him.

The photo is a joint mouse. It’s a historical name for a intra-articular loose body. Its name comes from it seeing to move like a mouse scurrying around the inside of a joint.

This came out of his hock.

Edited to add- I have a lot more to share with you. The hock joint was a mess. This joint mouse was one finding.

I have his feet too and they are amazing.
At last good feet. Well cared for feet.

Edited yo add more info from Plutos owner

Hey All, Lindsey is busy i think but can you please be aware, the pony wasnt injected 2 monthly, it was only a few times with the few years he was with us, previous owners did this 3 times a year to keep him comfortable. he had xrays in 2021, 2023 (i think this was our first xray) and one during his retirement as he had a flare up. Our wonderful vet did tell us that he is likely to need to be retired, we did try to keep him going for the rest of the season - she saw him in feb and the season finishes in March. Our vet did recommend more xrays also but after all the money we had spent and believing the hock was much the same we didnt do this - i want to make sure the wonderful vets that saw Pluto are not blamed for this. I said to Lindsey that we probably did try to push to get him through the last season and that thinking back we shouldnt have, but we all learn dont we. Please remember that our wonderful vets are here to make sure our horses are comfortable and happy and there is to be no blame on them - they advised retirement probably 3 months prior to us retiring him, now we truely know whats inside his hock we feel absolutely devastated we didnt just retire him immediately - but that blame is not on my vet at all! We have learnt so much from this process, and as you can imagine knowing we should have stopped a few months or more sooner plays on our minds - but i dont think we would be the only ones that do this and dont fully understand how bad it really was. Love you Pluto, you were the coolest!!!

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