Yellowfoot Farm

07/03/2025

Still using the heavy arena doors that slam shut in the worst moment? Try a sliding door that snugly fits into the arena siding.

08/01/2022

My favorite horse management style is the “open stable” concept, combined with small pasture rotation.
Do you still spend hours every day for feeding time, separating horses or making sure they don't steal from each other? Do you need seasoned horse people that can follow a detailed page-long protocol when you want a day off? Been there...
Check out the homemade feeding stalls we created from used wall boards at our very first farm in Virginia. They worked well for over 10 years. Above 50" height the boards are spaced, so when a horse lifts his head he can see his friends. Below there are no slots, which prevents horses from getting jealous while they eat. The horses can move in and out freely and are fed directly from the feed room on the other side of the wall. Time it took to feed 4 horses: less than a minute! Some extra hay on the ramp kept the fat quarterhorse busy while the thoroughbred finished her significantly larger dinner. No fuss, no fights, no separating. For the next farm we plan to get the fancy feeding stalls from Sulzberger ;)

25/12/2021

Merry Christmas!

25/12/2021

Don't just give in to "mud season"!
It seems widely accepted that we have to suffer through months of dealing with mud - often mixed with manure, because it's impossible to keep a mud pit clean. Moisture and bacteria are wreaking havoc on the horse's skin, hooves and respiratory system, injuries increase, hay gets wasted and horses pick up loads of parasites.
As you can see on the second picture, things don't have to be like that. A well planned, drained and surfaced paddock is easy to keep clean and lets your horses stay happy and healthy. It saves time and money on a daily basis, increases enjoyment of your horse and satisfies your clients. The investment is usually smaller than you think. Contact us for advice on paddock planning or improvement.

21/04/2020

What is the best hay for horses?
Interestingly, horses are designed for a much more fibrous diet than cows! As far as we know, no animal is actually able to break down the fibers of plants to access the nutrients. That’s why herbivores work together with microbes that get a cozy home in the digestive system and in return “crack” the cell walls of ingested plants.
While cows and other ruminants house those microbes in the multi-chambered stomach and chew the food again after the initial fermentation process, horses are hindgut fermenters (or “perissodactyls” if you like five-dollar-words). This means that they transport the food all the way through the stomach and small intestines to the colon and cecum where it gets stored and fermented, which can take one to two days.
Most of the glucose, fat, and protein absorption takes place in the small intestines, between the stomach and the large intestines. Although the cell walls are not yet broken up at this point, a decent amount of those nutrients can be directly absorbed with the help of bacteria and enzymes. Horses have very strong grinding teeth that can do quite a bit of preparatory work to break up the food.
At first glance, ruminants seem to have an advantage, because the cell walls are broken up and more nutrients are released from the food before it moves to the small intestines. The problem is, that the fermenting microbes also have a taste for protein and glucose. If a cow has a diet with too much fiber, the stomach microbes use up more of the protein and glucose, so there’s not enough left for direct absorption.
Horses can compensate for high fiber content by simply eating more. They quickly absorb the freely available nutrients before the fermentation breaks up the cell walls and squeezes out as much good stuff as possible. If the food has low energy content, horses just ingest more of it and put it through the system faster. This keeps the digestive system moving smoothly, so lots of fiber is healthy for horses!
In a natural habitat, equids would select the stemmy, coarse forage while cows and other ruminants gulp down the green, leafy stuff. To accommodate the big meat and dairy market, most modern grasses in the fields are designed for cattle. This means that most hay is actually too nutritious for idle horses and easy keepers.
Let’s start with healthy mature horses at maintenance: try to find good quality hay that is rather stemmy – and then feed a lot of it, preferably free choice! This way the horses can eat all day long and get the fiber that their gut needs, without receiving excess energy. During the drying process, the hay loses some vitamins, especially vitamin A and E. If no fresh forage is available, you should compensate for that with a good vitamin / mineral supplement.
Now look at the horses’ additional needs and increase energy only as needed. Try to keep your horses on the kind of hay that they can eat all day. Ideally they should be able to get most of the energy and nutrients from hay or grass and concentrates should only be supplemental.
A short fast before a race might be helpful, but generally horses do best if they can eat 24/7. You have “air ferns”? Consider a low energy hay rather than small portions of rich hay and long fasting periods in between. Your horses are hard keepers or hard workers? Increase the energy content of the hay first before adding mountains of grain.
No two horses are alike and there is no “one size fits all” solution. But basing your horses’ diet on fiber and forage will keep their gut sound, their mind sane and your vet bills low.

10/04/2020

Horses have evolved to eat a high fiber diet, and they eat it slowly. In nature, they spend about 14 to 16 hours per day with eating. Horses can eat very stemmy and rough forage grind it with their strong molars. While cows and other ruminants have a large stomach that ferments grass before it gets chewed again, horses have a relatively small stomach. Eating a large meal and “storing it” is not possible for them. The food quickly moves on to the small intestines and then ends up in the colon and cecum after about 6-9 hours – and this is where the magic happens! The large sac-like cecum houses a multitude of microbes that produce the enzymes to break up the plant cell walls. Without those microbes, the horse would not be able to access the nutrients in the forage. This area is where the food hangs around for a long time (sometimes for two days, depending on the type of food).
The small intestines forward the food really quickly by a series of contractions. If there is no new food following, it eventually they “empties out” and this increases the risk for colic. Imagine a water hose: When it is empty, it’s a lot more likely to kink or twist than when it is full!
Horses don’t have a gall bladder, so they can not store the bile that is produced by the liver. This digestive fluid constantly trickles into the small intestine, which gets irritated if there is no digesta (“food slush”) to absorb it. The stomach itself is also not designed for fasting periods. If it stays empty for too long, the digestive acids cause ulcers on the unprotected upper part of the stomach lining.
While it’s easy to see why horses should not be without forage for an extended time, it still might seem impossible to give them hay 24/7. After all, some will overeat and get fat, right? Well – we might see some greedy horses gulp down whatever is in front of them. But one of the reasons for this might actually be the fact that their access to hay is restricted. Most horse owners who switch to free choice hay report that initially some horses gorge on it and gain weight, but after about four weeks the horses realize that the food source will always be there and slow down. More often than not, they even get to a healthier weight than they had when they were fed rationed hay.
We recommend that you consider feeding free choice hay to all horses, even idle ones and easy keepers. Remember that horses are designed to eat high fiber forage – so don’t let them gorge on energy packed alfalfa and rather find a “stemmy” hay or add some straw for them to chew on. Slow feeders can help prevent the horses from overeating or trampling hay.
We will write about slow feeders and hay choices soon, so stay tuned!

25/02/2020

Fully portable pasture shelters, all steel parts galvanized.
Starting at $5.900!
www.yellowfootfarm.com

27/01/2020

An equine nutritionist addresses the different types of salt available and how to pick the right one.

03/01/2020

An innovative hay feeder for horses.

25/08/2019

22/06/2019

07/05/2019

"I truly savor each ride."

07/05/2019

28/04/2019

Beautiful!

04/04/2019