Ember Ridge

09/25/2024

As we enter the fall, and soon winter, hay production slows.

The unwanted horse ads start to appear.

“Beautiful pasture ornament available, very sweet and kind. Cannot be ridden. But only 6 years old so lots of life left!”

Or

“Retired senior horse. Very arthritic so only pasture sound. We love her but can’t justify keeping a horse we can’t ride. We also can’t keep weight on her and she costs too much to feed!”

There are not enough homes out there for horses that have health issues and are “less desirable” due to not being rideable.

Not saying it’s fair but it’s the reality.

If a person doesn’t love a horse enough to keep them through their retirement, expecting a stranger to do so does not make sense.

In fluke cases, sure you may find the unicorn retirement home that has no bad motives and actually intends to keep the horse until they pass.

But, the fact of the matter is that these types of horses are most valuable when sold to auction, usually for meat.

And if the person who lamed them or owned them into their senior years doesn’t care enough to take care of them for life, a stranger with no attachment to the horse isn’t particularly likely to.

Are there some incredibly generous and kind strangers who do this? Yes.

Are there enough of them to keep up with the “demand” of all of these unwanted horses? No.

Rather than rolling the dice and hoping that these unwanted horses will find a soft landing when they’re given away for free or cheap, consider what kindnesses are within your power to offer them.

1. You could keep them, because an unrideable horse generally costs the same as one who is ridden.

2. If you’re unwilling to do so because of their health issues and lack of “usefulness”, you could give them a humane ending with euthanasia.

Horses don’t fear death like people do. They live in the present moment. They don’t spend time worrying about their mortality or if there’s life after death.

So, if that present moment is a miserable existence, that is what their life is. Miserable. That is their reality.

If all they know in the moment is suffering, that’s what their life is comprised of.

Passing off the unwanted horse to be someone else’s issue in lieu of giving them a humane ending may feel more noble because it extends longevity of life, but it doesn’t factor in quality.

A horse being passed off from home to home, always a second class citizen due to being unrideable, isn’t a kindness.

It is humans continuously evading accountability for the care of the horse and instead passing the horse off to be someone else’s problem.

It is the humans feeling morally superior for doing so because they think keeping the horse alive is a kindness.

Even if the life is no life to live.

Or even if it is condemning the horse to be taken to the auction and sold to a kill buyer.

Love your horses enough to love them through their lack of rideability or at least give them a humane end if it’s between that and rolling the dice and throwing them into a market that is already flooded with unwanted horses.

Horses should hold value whether they’re rideable or not but currently, that’s largely not the case.

Rather than ignoring that fact, people need to be honest with themselves about what they’re actually doing.

What their choices put their horses at risk of.

Let your elderly horse pass in the home they’ve known for so long instead of throwing them out into a new environment as soon as they can no longer be ridden.

Give your lesson horses the gift of retirement after they’ve kept your business afloat instead of pawning them off when they are no longer useful.

Or give them the gift of a good death instead of just making them someone else’s problem.

If you do not love the horse that you’ve spent years bonding with enough to keep them through their “less desirable” stages of life, why would a stranger be more likely to do that for you?

Winter is coming. Don’t throw your damaged horses to the “wolves.”

Part of owning horses is caring about them enough to give them a good end.

If you feel like a bad person for euthanizing them because you know retiring them would be the kinder option, that’s likely a sign that you should buck up and keep them into retirement.

The answer is not playing Russian roulette with your horse’s quality of life.

Stop pawning old and lame horses off onto other people.

There is not the amount of kind and caring homes available that people are making it out to be.

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Share your input with us for planning at Rancho Corral de Tierra!

03/08/2024

Reverse the Closure of Pebble Beach Equestrian Center

11/02/2023

Love this!

I can’t stress enough the importance of NOT feeding a fancy mash when it gets cold, rather add warm water and 1-2 Tbs of salt to your horse’s existing feed.

It’s the fundamental rule of feeding horses- transition over the course of 1-2 weeks. Cold and hot weather are already stressors! There’s no reason to add to it by throwing in a new feed (or hay for that matter.)

10/13/2023

To give him the life saving care he deserves to get through this, I am asking for your help to ease the burden of the vet bills with no ...

10/09/2023

Good morning!

10/07/2023

On Friday, October 6, 2023, Chuck got his wings, and heaven gained another cowboy. Chuck passed away peacefully at home, surrounded by loved ones. Chuck and his wife Nancy came to Ember Ridge in the early 2000s, and they quickly became family. Chuck was a man of little words, but if you were smart when he talked, you would listen because there was always a lesson. What he said was good, true and from the heart. He was tough and caring to those that he loved. He loved helping and watching people with their horses and was filled with pride when they would succeed. He always had the right tool or gadget, always found the solution to any problem. Chuck was a cowboy, a horseman, a friend, an uncle, a grandpa and a main pillar in the Ember Ridge family. He said many times his house was where he slept but the ranch was his home. He was tuff and full of grit no matter the pain he was a caretaker and a man of pride and humor till the end he didn’t stop or dwell in the hard times he always kept going and looked forward to the next ride. At the end of his life he looked forward to seeing his wife, best dogs, horses and riding in heaven. He was a legend in his time.
“I had good horses good dogs good wives and good family, I had a good life” -Chuck

He will be forever missed but never forgotten.

Gathering Sunday October 8th
Ember Ridge Big barn at high noon

10/06/2023

“I was scared today.

I was scared to get on, scared to walk out the yard because I had a bad ride the day before. One bad ride, and it made me scared.

I didn’t know why. I’ve had 1000 bad rides. I’ve had 1000 falls. I’ve broken bones and bruised my pride on countless occasions, but today I was scared.

Why? Because confidence is fragile. It takes months and years to build and seconds to lose and yet we are so careless with it.

When we get on a horse, we wear a hat to protect our head. We wear body protectors, gloves, boots...

We pay so much attention to protecting ourselves physically, we forget that our minds are not invincible, and our confidence certainly is not.

Your bank of confidence needs regular deposits, not just from others... but from you. Self confidence is the most valuable currency in life.

When you go to get on, and you hesitate, you falter and you start to ask yourself “can I do this?”, chances are, your account is almost empty.

Every time you laugh and say “oh no, I’m no good” or “so and so is 10x better than me”, you make a withdrawal from that account, and before you know it, your account is empty and you’re scared to get on.

But every time you say “I’m really pleased with how that went” or “I think I rode that really well”, your balance increases.

We need to learn to give ourselves a break, pat ourselves on the back and allow ourselves to feel proud of where we are - after all, most of the time we’ve worked bloody hard to get there!

Recognising your strengths is just as important as recognising your weaknesses. Never allow yourself or anyone else to empty that account.

Confidence is valuable, don’t bankrupt yourself.”

Author- cromwellandlucy

10/01/2023

09/23/2023

Not a joke...

Have you ever wondered why you can have a 15 acre field and part of it is chewed down to nubs and the other part has grass a hand high, But your horse is constantly grazing in the chewed down part?

Grass 6 inches and taller has less sugars than grass under 6 inches.

For every inch drop below 6 inches, the fructan (sugar) content rises.

Grass under 6 inches is stressed like it's a Monday morning with a project deadline. It uses sugar to repair itself.

Stop mowing your fields short.

Stop grazing your chubbys on chewed down grass. (this is why grazing muzzles are so touted...they keep the horse from being able to get much short grass)

(We aren't saying let your fields be 3 feet tall, by the way. The optimal thing to do is keep them 6-8 inches tall and graze them in small areas there)

09/22/2023

08/22/2023