The Healthy Happy Horse

The delight at the opening of the field after a month of no grass! I am adopting a more Equicentral style approach by letting them have limited time on longer grass then back on the grass free areas the rest of the time. Milly is now ready to get back into work having had absolutely everything checked and OK’d by the vet. The sooner I can do that and get her back to burning calories, the better she will cope with access to grass

Setting up a track around the big field has made them race from where they access the field at the top by the woods right round to where the fresh grass is which is half a kilometre round the perimeter. Opal and Matty do this every time I release them to go out onto the grass overnight. Milly realises they have gone so has to play catch up. This has been very successful at getting them really moving and not just cherry picking the best grass because the track is not actually a loop yet so they have to come all the way back the same way to come back up to the woods for water. It’s also excellent cross country training because there are hidden drops and walls to jump on the route round!

Well I feel like a wet but wrung out dishcloth now but the worst of COVID seems to have passed. I am left though with labyrinthitis so feeling dizzy and nauseous and super tired so still unable to do much at all. I let the trio into the arena and they were about as energetic as I feel! Maybe they have synchronised their energy to mine! At least the sun was shining and they all look glowing with health All three then had a roll just after I stopped videoing 😄

It's not easy to find relatively flat routes from our place but this morning we did what is probably the least arduous ride from here which goes downhill for a while, under then over the railway line and near the A9 for a short stretch followed by a long comparatively (for round here!) gentle uphill section on a nice quiet road for a few kilometres. Its a route that has a lot of browsing opportunities too which Milly enjoys! Me droning on as always - I chat with Milly all the time - she's my therapist 🤣 #LightRider #ghostsaddle #bitlessbridle #bitlessandbarefoot #bitlessriding

I had a tractor driver for the day woohoo - lots of jobs done including finally being able to harrow and over seed the top field. I am using a traditional meadow grass mix from Rural Supplies which consists of deep rooted, low sugar grasses (various fescues and Timothy) with the aim of crowding out the remaining dock and ryegrass. I have also rigged up some diy bird scarers (old cd’s) as the last time I did this the pigeons had a feast! Old Fergie as usual did a great job 🚜

Our place

A wee tour of our place so far More to do always of course as is the way of things when you have your own land. More surfaced track planned for this year and more permanent fencing now that we know how the land is used The horses are not on a permanent track here so I suppose it’s more an equicentral style with periods off the grass and access to low sugar rough hillside meadow grass. They burn calories coming back up the hill for water 10 or 12 times a day and in summer I do restrict them to the grass free woods and track during the day with grazing at night It seems to work 🤞

Listen with sound 🤣😂

Achieving level landing and level loading is the gold standard whether barefoot or shod because the only way to prevent long term issues is by ensuring that P3 (probably the most important bone in a horses body) is under the least possible stress in all 3 dimensions. Milly has been a demanding client that's for sure and perhaps she is a horse that doesn't entirely suit barefoot as she has conformational issues that could pose real challenges for remaining barefoot long term. She has canon bones that rotate out (her right fore being the worst). This is a very common issue in horses -(98% of those that rotate, rotate out and 2% rotate in) and one that often lands them in the vet school having an MRI when it has not been effectively managed through trimming or shoeing and results in lameness due to sidebone or collateral ligament desmitis. The old T square method of trimming doesn't work for horses that have lower limb challenges because that is looking at alignment in just two dimensions. Imagining the way the hoof lands and loads in three dimensions is the only way to address these issues. There are now numerous studies into medial lateral balance which I will reference in a new post because annoyingly I can't combine photos and videos in the same post. Rotated canon bones result in the horse landing on the lateral side which therefore takes all the concussion of landing. Then the horse loads on the medial side which therefore takes all weight and pressure as the hoof passes through the stance phase. The muscles on the outside of the leg are stressed on touchdown and the muscles on the inside of the leg bear the burden of the second half of the stride and when standing. Here is a comparison of Milly last November versus two days ago with the benefit of a specific trim plus glue on shoes that are adjusting for her medial lateral imbalance. You can clearly see that even just one day into the new reality she is landing and loading more evenly. Apparently it still t

Off for a long ride today - the start of our 2024 mission to calorie burn and get fit again Interestingly Milly has lost very little fitness despite doing mostly slow arena work over winter. Living on a hill has so many benefits.

First ride out in 2024 I have only just managed to repair our biothane headstall after I stupidly smashed it in the car boot 🫢 We didn’t do a huge ride as it was late afternoon so we did short and fast with plenty of uphill trotting. Milly was good as gold after slight hesitation leaving. She had a good look at things though as clearly there were changes in the landscape that needed to be registered since we last ventured out - like the new black sheep in my neighbours field, random sheep lick tubs on the verge, and spooking at her own shadow 😂 She did very well though and powered up the hills in trot without a thought. We were barefoot too (not booted) as her hooves are much better on winter grass than on summer grass which is something I am going to need to deal with when Spring comes round. Anyway here’s some video with me babbling away in the background - I do say “good girl” rather a lot I’ve realised and the Go Pro was rather struggling with us riding into the low sun but it was just good to be out in the sunshine with no wind and no rain

To get you into the Christmas spirit here’s my wee herd having playtime in the arena. Encouraging horses to play together really can help with fitness, body awareness, herd dynamics and release of energy. Even although I am in amongst them my lot are always very aware of me and are careful to avoid any collisions or physical contact. It’s always interesting to watch the relationships and different personalities when they are in high energy mode like this.