Spirit Keeper Animal Sanctuary

27/10/2025

Lots of needs and projects to make sure we are all set to make our animals comfortable and safe for the winter. PayPal Giving Fund:
paypal.com/us/fundraiser/charity/1213006

24/10/2025

Colorado is a semi-arid state Noble! Glad he found a few nibbles of grass to keep him happy in turnout today.

23/10/2025

💡A systematic review and meta-analysis by the Universities of Bologna and Turin delivers fresh insights into how horses and ponies allocate their time each day and what this means for their welfare and management.

By integrating data from fourteen different studies between 1979 and 2020, and analysing the time budgets of 364 horses under wild, natural-living, and stabled conditions, the research team set out to understand the influence of management, social settings, diet, age, and sex on core behaviours—feeding, resting, standing, and moving.

They found that free-ranging horses spent significantly more time feeding (about 56% of the day) than stabled horses (38%), and that horses kept in groups or grazing also dedicated more time to eating than those fed hay indoors or kept alone.

Female horses and ponies were observed to feed and rest for longer periods than males or larger horses.

In contrast, horses in confined or isolated settings stood still much more and moved less, patterns that in the wild would be unusual and may signal compromised welfare.

The study confirms that management systems allowing horses to exhibit natural foraging, social bonding, and voluntary movement are strongly linked to better welfare outcomes.

Based on these findings, the authors advocate for husbandry that replicates natural conditions as closely as possible such as providing constant access to roughage, group turnout, space for exercise, and varied environments for physical and behavioural health.

The review also highlights the importance of detailed monitoring and encourages further research using emerging technologies to support ethical and sustainable equine care.

📖 Time-activity budget in horses and ponies: A systematic review and meta-analysis on feeding dynamics and management implications,
Journal of Equine Veterinary Science, M. Lamanna, G. Buonaiuto, R. Colleluori, F. Raspa, E. Valle, D. Cavallini.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jevs.2025.105684.

23/10/2025

Noble has been here for just under a week. He’s doing really well. He has seen our vet for an intake exam, been assessed by our farrier, is learning that Winnie’s Cookies are wonderful, and has had a few days to explore the main areas of the ranch.

22/10/2025

https://youtu.be/c7fD7Rs5mpo?si=EuAgpxGlNUY6DeUC

If you want to know more about Lori's work, follow her on YouTube and Patreon:https://www.youtube.com/ https://patreon.com/behaviore...

20/10/2025

Noble day 3: orienting himself to the barn.

18/10/2025

Noble hasn’t quite been here 24 hours yet but he had a full day. He is making friends, got a walking tour of half the ranch, met our farrier (just a meet and greet he didn’t need a trim), became accustomed to his stall and attached run, and we discovered which treats are his favorite and where he likes to be scratched. He also met the barn cats.

17/10/2025

Sometimes I Say No.

And I need you to hear me.

My no might not be loud.
It might look like turning my head, stepping away, or standing still.
But it’s still a no. And it matters.

When I say no, I might be saying:

- “My body hurts, even if you can’t see it.”
- “Something feels off, and I need more time.”
- “Your energy is too much right now.”
- “The environment is overstimulating or unsafe.”
- “I’m confused, and I don’t understand what you want.”
- “I have memories in my body that haven’t healed yet.”
- “I don’t feel connected to you in this moment.”
- “I have a headache.”
- “I trust you enough to be honest.”

No doesn’t mean I’m disobedient.
No doesn’t mean I’m difficult.
No doesn’t mean I don’t love you.

It means I’m communicating the only way I know how.
And when you listen—without force, without frustration—
You become the kind of partner I can trust.

Because trust isn’t built through pressure.
It’s built through presence, patience, and choice.

✨ Every no you honor brings us closer to a true yes.

17/10/2025

We welcome Noble to Spirit Keeper’s Sanctuary for Life Program. He arrived Thursday night around 11:30 pm. Stay tuned for more about him coming soon.

13/10/2025

🦄 Want a happier horse? Research shows playtime makes a difference!

A new study by Jodi Anne Howard and Neville Pillay from the University of the Witwatersrand examined whether play behaviour could help horses cope with acute stress and improve their decision making abilities.

The research involved horses managed under two very different systems: intensively managed riding-school horses and pasture kept horses.

Each horse was exposed to a short but intense noise stressor, then given the opportunity to interact with a large ball (object play), and was subsequently tested in a decision-making maze to see how well they could choose a food reward.

The findings showed that exposure to stress increased negative emotional behaviours and made decision making less accurate, particularly in intensively managed horses.

However, after just a brief period of object play, horses showed more positive emotional states and their ability to make correct decisions improved dramatically compared to both their baseline performance and the stress-only condition.

Notably, while both management style and sex influenced some behavioural responses, play consistently returned horses’ behaviour and emotional state closer to normal.

The study concluded that allowing horses regular access to playful enrichment activities can help mitigate the effects of acute stress, especially in environments prone to sudden noise or restriction, such as riding schools.

These results prove that incorporating play and cognitive enrichment into your horses management is a simple, practical strategy for supporting better welfare and resilience.

📖 Hold your horses: The effect of play behaviour in horses (Equus caballus) under imposed stress. Jodi Anne Howard & Neville Pillay.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168159125002503