And just like that we have Track #2 🤩
I am so excited to have a second track installed on the property, and my girls are going to be thrilled with their new home! Thanks to our contractors at Hauser Site Services 🚧 We have electric tape inside of the track, and a second line of tape to make a double fence between them and our boys 🐴
We'll be working on getting rid of more of the grass over the next week or so as well as moving the sheds around and then we'll introduce the ladies to the field 🐴
So excited to have them right behind my house instead of up by the road!
We finally have a sign to go up on our corner sign post on the farm at Belfast Rd.! When the old owner moved he took the farm's original signage with him, and it's taken me a long time to pick a replacement sign to go up there- it's finally here and we're all so excited!
The girls got hosed off to keep cool and Stella had a roll 😆
Today their field was scraped to dirt by our wonderful contractor of Hauser Site Services to keep the girls off the grass & weeds!
☀️Seniors☀️
Senior horses more often than not require special care, especially during extreme weather. In this heat it's important to keep an eye on our seniors!
A senior horse is described as a horse 20 years or older who also shows signs of aging such as dental changes, body condition changes, immune decline, changes in dentition, etc.
Like any other age of horse, it's important to offer free choice salt options, plenty of fresh cool water, shade, and of course forage options in that shade.
But senior horses can also come with a special set of needs, and each horse is different. Seniors may need to be kept in a cooler barn with a fan if there is not adequate cool shelter outside. Seniors may need to be encouraged to consume salt and water more than younger horses, which is where soaking feeds/forages comes in handy. Many seniors also suffer from conditions such as PPID (Cushings) with a heavy coat, Anhidrosis which can quickly cause overheating, dental issues that make it harder for them to get proper nutrition, heaves or asthma, general heat intolerance and more. This makes it extremely important to monitor your seniors closely and provide them with extra resources.
Hosing, extra salt and/or electrolytes both free choice and added to feed if needed, staying inside or under a fan or plenty of cool shade, plenty of fresh cool water, fun water options like salt or clay or mint for example, watery treats like cucumber and melons for horses who can safely have them, frozen lick treats, and clipping horses with shaggy coats are all great examples of extra care you can provide your senior horse.
Many Senior horses are still ridden which is wonderful! It is however important to give them a break and keep them safe during this heat, so they can resume riding once the temperature, humidity, and/or air quality is better.
At 29 years young, Emma is our oldest horse at HSF, named after her. I've had the honor of knowing Emma 20 years this month💕
Emma is c
After Fred had a full week on the track to detox and prepare😆 we put the boys out in the shady grass field for the day to escape the heat 🤞🏻☀️ All 4 of them were thrilled! They'll get to enjoy the shade tomorrow and Sunday before it's back to the track on Monday
Another Horses in the Heat Tip!
Let's talk about water 💦
The average full sized horse drinks 10-12 gallons of water daily. That's a lot of water!
How to offer water: Providing large tubs (troughs, or buckets) of clean water in the fields and stalls 24/7 is ideal. Water tubs should be scrubbed/cleaned out daily to prevent any gross build up or contaminants. In the summer it's important to keep water in the shade when possible to keep it from getting too hot. Similarly in winter keeping ice broken to keep water accessible is important, and adding a small heater can make a big difference! Horses have been observed to prefer warmer water in cold weather and colder water in hot weather.
When does drinking change: Seasonal changes (hot vs. cold weather), amount and type of exercise, and type of forage consumed all play a role in how much our horses will drink.
For example, horses being ridden in hot weather will drink more than horses resting in cold weather. Another example is that horses grazing daily on live grass pastures will consume much of their additional water through the grass, where a horse eating mostly dry hay will need to actively drink more to meet their hydration requirements.
How to Encourage Drinking: One of the easiest ways is to provide plenty of loose, free choice salt options, provide salt licks, add 1-2tbsp. of salt to your horse's diet if they won't use loose salt/salt licks, add electrolytes to your horse's diet, or even making a salty water bucket option in a separate location from their fresh water source. There are also equine hydration additive products to put in water, sold at stores and online.
Water is a crucial resource for horses, especially during times of high heat. Horses are incredibly proficient at heating themselves up, but remarkably poor at cooling themselves down. Keeping horses hydrated is a very important step in keeping them healthy all year!
Signs of Dehydration: Weakness, trembling, stiffness, tying up, increas
Tips for the Heat-
Fans, shade, hosing, frozen ice treats, and resting to stay cool are all great ways to help our horses beat the heat. Don't forget to provide plenty of cool fresh water and salt during this heat wave too!☀️
🧂 Salt can be provided as loose free choice in a bucket/bowl, as a salt lick, or added into their feed (1-3tbsp).
🧂Horses are not as efficient as cows at licking salt licks, and not all horses use them, so adding salt to grain is the best way to ensure they get enough. Loose salt is the next best way, though not every horse will eat loose salt either.
🧂Mineral salt, white table salt, and electrolytes are all different. Regular salt or table salt (and pink himalayan salt) is needed daily, while electrolytes mostly need replenishing during intense heat, sweating in high humidity, exercise with sweating, etc. Daily electrolytes can be good, but are needed less than regular salt by most horses year-round. Mineral salts are great fed loose and free choice.
🧂💦Salt can also be added to a small bucket of water to make a salty drink that some horses may like. A flavored electrolyte is another great water additive. Make sure to always also provide fresh plain water too!
💦 Be sure to provide plenty of cool water, ideally kept in the shade, at all times and especially during this heat☀️
Video: Stella (left) and Emma (right) licking one of their mineral blocks. They also get salt and/or electrolytes added to their soaked feed during high heat.
We have a snapping turtle living in our stream crossing 🤩 🐢
A good after bath roll for Miss Stella 🛁
I was so looking forward to Jordan showing off his new versa grip glue ons at our Open House at Heaven Sent Farm! Unfortunately he had other plans... plans of destroying bellboots and shoes and becoming barefoot the way he was clearly meant to be 😆
If only his bone structure agreed with him he could stay like this!
He'll stay barefoot until it dries out some and we can re-prep his feet for his shoes. I'm determined to give them a go because they truly do seem to make him more comfortable. Barefoot is just clearly his preference atm 😆
It's a bit wet out there today 😅☔️
The horses are all happily hanging out with hay in their sheds.
Here's a great view of what our fabulous stream crossing looks like in heavy rain 🌧️
Here's the next part, where you can see the actual dynamic between Jordan and Poe eating together.
You can see that Poe is relatively submissive to Jordan in this situation, mainly because Jordan is Mr. Boss out there😆
The beginning is where I was a bit too close which I think made Jordan more concerned about Poe, in sort of a race to finish before she takes it sort of way. Although it may have been Fred-induced from the background, I'm not entirely sure. There's no true aggression, Jordan is perfectly fine sharing, but Poe stays alert as Jordan does move him out of the bucket a few times, although if you look closer it does seem that it may be Fred's presence coming from behind them that pushed Poe out of the bucket the last 2 times. .
Then the video ends as Bulldozer Fred takes over.
I'm not advocating for letting your horses share or not, I just wanted to share what I think are very interesting behaviors.
Here is a super cute video of Jordan and Poe sharing a bowl of their breakfast🐴
People often worry about feeding horses together in the field, and it can be a truly complicated and dangerous task.
We have worked incredibly hard with our horses for years (starting around 5 years ago with our original two) getting them comfortable eating in a group. A lot of it has been ensuring they stay separated by 1-2 humans 95% of the time to eliminate food snatching and are allowed to feel safe with their food, which I believe leads to knowing that someone other than themselves will step in to protect their food. We also look at each horse's individual stress levels and ability to be calm eating around others, and go at the pace of the horse.
After a while many of our horses lose a lot of their food insecurity due to continuous forage and in my opinion low grain diets.
Poe is a beautiful example of a horse who used to be relatively aggressive during feeding time due to resource guarding, yet here you can see him happily sharing Fred's left over beet pulp with Jordan because he feels safe (and full) enough that food bowl time serves more as enrichment in some ways for them than it does a true meal anymore.
Next I'll share a video of their back and forth behavior behind this sweet video🐴
Did you know we actually have 6 cats on the farm?
I don't share them often on here anymore because they live inside my house and never made it to being barn cats 😆
A mama and her 5 kittens were brought to me to "foster", but I think we all knew I could never just foster them😅 They got here exactly 7 days after I took over the farm, and now they'll be 3 this month! (Mama will be roughly 4) ♥️
Such a beautiful day even in the wind today ☀️💨 The boys went out because they were a bit too spicy to stay on the track all day, but they settled due to after a good run in the field 🌾
The boys will follow the food cart anywhere 😆🍽️
Jordan coming in for dinner with a beautiful sound trot in his EasyCare Inc. Protective Hoofwear Versa Glue Ons 🙌🏻🤩
This is his first set and they are holding up beautifully, we're exactly 2 weeks in today and we love them! His traction is excellent, his movement is fluid, and his feet still look great! I do hate trying to pick them as there's only a small hole exposing the sole so I'll probably go with the plugs for the next round to eliminate some of what gets stuck in there to hopefully make cleaning easier🤞🏻
Check them out in person April 6th at our Open House at Heaven Sent Farm!
A frosty morning with Stella ♥️
