Equinox Horse Farm

12/25/2023

Merry Christmas from our horse to yours!

11/13/2023

Henderson Equine Vet at Equinox 11/17 call for appt. (585) 226-5560

11/01/2023

It’s a snowy morning! It’s been hovering around 30 degrees for a few days and we got snow yesterday. Just an inch and it will melt when it gets into the 50’s in a few days. But that first snow is always a shock to the system! ⛄️❄️

11/01/2023

Even the chickens carved pumpkins!!

11/01/2023

Another fun and Happy Halloween 🎃 at Equinox!!

10/16/2023

This past Saturday we did something a bit different for us, we participated in a Horse Show! Not just any horse show mind you, but a FUN show hosted by our friends at Nash Hill Equestrian Center. They did a super job, from excellent indoor staging areas, creative classes, and yummy food… they thought of everything! And best of all, the Fun Show was indeed fun!

Now, I want you to know that our horses are NOT show horses, they are more like the toys in Rudolph - from Misfit Island. Let me introduce them and their riders:

Our longest resident is Say Choycer “Choyce”, an 18 year old ex race horse that has PTSD from his racing days. He hates being groomed, hates being saddled, and is just generally a loner… but somehow he loves his young rider- Cayla. They rocked the walk/trot youth division.

Next we have Grey Goose, another ex racer but this time a Standardbred pacer. Funny thing is Goose the very last horse I would ever think of hooking to a cart. He is all quick cat moves, attitude and personality. He missed the memo on how Standardbreds are quiet and sensible. He’s come full circle with Aliyah who was the first one brave enough to show him as a kid, also first as an adult!

Shiloh is a TWH, he is a kinda lazy guy, learning a new work ethic. He’s steady and brave, but not really motivated. Perry, retuning to his boyhood love of horses, is doing a great job riding Shi!

Domino- Domi is a Gypsy cross, he’s my first Gypsy horse, and I must say, I’m smitten. He came to Equinox two and a half years ago, half gelded and full of buck and balky attitude. Saturday he was amazing. Calm, patient and brave, even when the spider rode him! So true to his heritage.

Midnight, formerly Mister is another Tennessee Walking Horse that came to us last year when a very persistent friend offered me a deal too good to refuse. He is a sweet boy that had more go than whoa when he arrived, and has since settled into a wonderful steady trail horse with his two main riders, Lisa (pictured with the big smile)and Susie.

Despite the varied backgrounds of horses and riders, we all worked together to do this and we had a day filled with fun, small triumphs and camaraderie. 🐴💕🤠

10/13/2023

🍁UPDATE-ONE OPENING LEFT🐴
Equinox has an opening for full care board. Fall/Winter trail riding, spacious 65x105 indoor arena, mud controlled paddocks with access to hay 24/7. Large, comfortable run in areas. Just outside of Ellicottville,NY. Contact 716 307 2380 for more info and to schedule a visit. Your horse will thank you for it! 🐴💕

10/10/2023

We caught a quick ride on this glorious fall day! Linda joined us on Domi, and Dawn is looking through the ears of Widge! Susie and Midi did great as usual, and Sherrie was all smiles with her boys Tico and Rio. 🍁

10/01/2023

Another great ride! EBC LV for a late lunch. We live in such an amazing area, all of this is literally in our backyard. How lucky are we! Annette on Hunter, Janet on Shane, Kim on Chip, Lisa on Midnight, Sherrie on Tico, Staci on Sweet, and Dawn on Domino.

09/27/2023

When I first got out of veterinary school and started looking at horses prior to purchase (usually referred to as a “vet check” or a prepurchase exam), the horses usually fit into one of three categories. The first category was the horse with no problems noted at the time of the exam. That decis...

09/25/2023

It has been some great riding weather! Discovered some new trails, rediscovered some old trails. We figure about 6 miles as Dawn forgot to turn on the trail tracker until about half way!

09/25/2023

SECOND DATE: OCTOBER 6th

We are excited to share that our barn is going to be a host site for Henderson Equine Clinic.

Dr Bonny and her staff offer a full range of routine veterinary care, lameness evaluations and treatment, rehabilitation, reproductive services, certified veterinary chiropractic therapy, and certified veterinary acupuncture.

By allowing clients to trailer into our facility we can all benefit from this top notch veterinary service without having to trailer to Avon. The barn call for our location will be split between all of the clients seen here on the day of the call. We are planning on offering this on a monthly basis.

The first scheduled day is August 3rd. Please contact Henderson Equine directly to schedule your appointment.

Equinox is located at 6864 Sodum Rd, Little Valley, NY 14755. We have easy trailer access and parking.

Equine clinic providing veterinarian horse care in Avon and the Genesee Valley area in NY including ultrasounds, dentistry, lameness exams, mare, foal, stallion wellness, stallion collections, semen shipping, artificial insemination, equine breeding, equine dentistry, equine floats, vaccinations, wo

09/25/2023

Equine clinic providing veterinarian horse care in Avon and the Genesee Valley area in NY including ultrasounds, dentistry, lameness exams, mare, foal, stallion wellness, stallion collections, semen shipping, artificial insemination, equine breeding, equine dentistry, equine floats, vaccinations, wo

08/16/2023

My sweet Soleil, first time with a rider other than myself. Linda Welch gave him a great ride!

08/13/2023

Ollie is having no trouble unwinding!

08/13/2023

Welcome Danica and her beautiful boy Ollie!

08/13/2023

It’s been a good week on the farm. Time to rest, right Shane?

08/09/2023

For all of my friends that own, train, or care for horses. This is a MUST READ...

What is the longest a horse can safely go without food?
Answer from a veterinarian-
More and more I see horses and ponies stood for long periods of time with no hay or haylage. Usually under the guise of a “weight control diet”. So how long can a horse be without food before damage is done? And what damage is done?

For those with a short attention span, I’ll give you the answer to begin with - 4 hours, maximum.

Why?

Horses are grazers. They are designed to eat constantly. They have no way of storing their acids and digestive enzymes, they’ve never needed to. They have no gall bladder to store bile and their stomachs release acid constantly, whether or not there is food in the stomach and intestines.

A horses stomach only holds approximately 8-15 litres. Depending on the substance eaten, it takes on average 4-6 hours for the stomach to completely empty. After this, the acids and enzymes start to digest the inside of the horses stomach and then the intestines. This causes both gastric and intestinal ulceration. It has been estimated that 25-50% of foals and 60-90% of adult horses suffer from ulceration. But I won’t go into detail about this, there is a lot of information around about ulcers.

So is that it? Are ulcers the only concern?

No, having an empty stomach is a stress situation for a horse. The longer they are starved, the more they release stress hormones, cortisol predominantly. Cortisol blocks insulin and causes a constantly high blood glucose level. This stimulates the body to release even more insulin, and in turn this causes fat tissue to be deposited and leptin resistance. Over time this causes insulin resistance (Equine Metabolic Syndrome). All of these mechanisms are well known risk factors for laminitis and are caused by short term starvation (starting roughly 3-4 hours after the stomach empties). Starving a laminitic is literally the worst thing you can do. Over longer periods, this also starts to affect muscle and can cause weakness, and a lack of stamina so performance horses also need a constant supply of hay/haylage to function optimally.

Let’s not forget horses are living, breathing and feeling animals. We talk about this stress reaction like it’s just internal but the horse is well aware of this stress. Door kicking, box walking, barging and many other stable vices and poor behaviour can be explained by a very stressed horse due to food deprivation (we all have that Hangry friend to explain this reaction). Next time you shout or hit a horse that dives for their net, remember their body is genuinely telling them they are going to starve to death. They know no different.

But surely they spend the night asleep so they wouldn’t eat anyway?

Not true. Horses only need 20mins REM sleep every 24 hours (jealous? I am!). They may spend a further hour or so dozing but up to 22-23 hours a day are spent eating. So if you leave your horse a net at 5pm and it’s gone by 8pm, then by 12am their stomach is empty. By 4am they are entering starvation mode. By their next feed at 8am, they are extremely stressed, physically and mentally.

Now I know the many are reading this mortified. I can almost hear you shouting at your screen “if I feed my horse ad lib hay he won’t fit out the stable door in a week!!”

I will say that a horse with a constant supply of hay/haylage will eat far less then the same horse that is intermittently starved. They don’t eat in a frenzy, reducing the chance of colic from both ulcers and over eating.
Don’t forget exercise. The best way to get weight off a horse is exercise. Enough exercise and they can eat what they want!

Written by Vikki Fowler BVetMed BAEDT MRCVS

A few edits for the critics-

Firstly, feeding a constant supply does not mean ad lib feeding. It means use some ingenuity and spread the recommended amount of daily forage so the horse is never stood with out food for more than 4 hours. I am not promoting obesity, quite the opposite, feeding like this reduces obesity and IR. This can be done whilst feeding your horse twice a day as most horse owners do. Just think outside the box. Hang a hay bag or hay net*is one solution. Every horse/pony and situation is different, but this is a law of nature and all horses have this anatomy and metabolism. How you achieve this constant supply is individual, the need for it is not.

*the use of hay nets in the UK is very very high. I’d estimate 95% of horses I see are fed this way and very very few have incisor wear or neck/back issues as a result. Yes, feeding from the ground is ideal, but a constant supply, I feel trumps this. Again with ingenuity both can be safely achieved.

Final finally 🤦‍♀️ and I feel I must add this due to the sheer number of people contacting me to ask, feed your horses during transport!!! I am astonished this is not normal in other countries! Again in the UK, we give our horses hay nets to transport. We don’t go 10 mins up the road without a haynet and a spare in case they finish! Considering we are a tiny island and we rarely transport even 4 hours, we never transport without hay available. I have never seen an episode of choke due to travelling with hay available. If you are concerned, use a slow feeder net so they can’t take too much in at once.

If you get to the end of this post and your first thought is “I can’t do this with my horse/pony, they’d be morbidly obese”, you haven’t read the advice in this post thoroughly.

Thanks Trish!!

08/05/2023

BY Maddy Brown One of my biggest frustrations in this industry is the lack of understanding and consideration for the role that lesson horses play. So often, I see riders complaining about lesson horses for a huge variety of reasons: for their perceived lack of quality or value, for having to ride o...

08/03/2023

Trapping a horse in a stall---

Outdoor horses get hurt, absolutely, and sometimes they die. But a stall-bound horse leads a daily life with no way to move, and movement is critical to well being.

I know that for many, there's no choice, but for all the risks of having the horse live out, more stress is caused by being stuck in a 12 by 12 stall.

No easy answers, but if your horse is a stalled horse, get it out every single day as long as possible. This little cartoon is right on point.

07/31/2023

Equinox currently has an opening for one horse, possibly two. Our philosophy is that horses that are allowed to “be horses” are healthier, happier and easier to work with. We also promote horsemanship that respects the horse as a being, supporting them with gentleness, compassion and understanding.

Equinox is located at 6864 Sodum Rd, Little Valley, NY.

The facilities at Equinox include a 105 x 65 indoor arena, a large grass outdoor arena, an outdoor wash rack with heated water, a large tack barn with individual tack storage, and heated bathroom.
There are several 10x 10 matted box stalls that are available for layup, rehabilitation or special needs.

We have 60+ acres of private trails, cross country schooling jumps and trail access to State land with unlimited trail riding opportunities!

Equinox keeps horses in small herds based on personality and needs. All of the horses have access to large group run in areas, unlimited fresh water, and 24/7 pasture or hay. We have 45 acres of pasture divided into large fields for rotation, horses are generally on pasture from May until November, supplemented with hay as needed. During winter months they have access to large paddocks with covered, netted round bales.

We are a close knit group of riders that believe in helping and supporting one another. We are easygoing and friendly. We love to trail ride and to have fun- parades, costume parties, musical drills, clinics, horse yoga… we are up for just about anything!

If you and your horse would be a good fit for Equinox, contact Dawn at 716 307 2380

07/31/2023

What a perfect day for a ride at Allegany State Park. 8.2 miles! The horses were perfect, and we had such fun! Can’t wait to go again, how lucky are we to have this just a few miles from our farm!

07/19/2023

Oh my! What a fun day we had, core strengthening with Kimberly Tilly-Robbins and the a trail ride. Our custom work out with Kim was amazing. Ladies, show us your balls!

06/25/2023

Rainy Saturdays are still fun!