Equine Extra

21/06/2023

Scraping does not cool your horse faster...

13/06/2023

How many more are put there?

10/06/2023

Good advice, especially if your competing.

Scientist dedicated to animal health and welfare. Interests include evidence!

10/06/2023

This is good advice, share it.

Scientist dedicated to animal health and welfare. Interests include evidence!

12/05/2023

Interesting informtion - have you ever looked at your horse's shoulder confirmation in this way?

20/04/2023

If you know, you know 💛

💪💪'ARE YOU FARM STRONG"? 💪💪
“Farm work doesn’t make you stronger. It doesn’t make you anything. It reveals you.
There’s gym strong and then there’s farm strong. They’re mutually exclusive. The toughest women you’ll ever meet spend their days on a farm.
There are more uses for twine than you can possibly imagine. You can tie up a hole in a slow feeder, fashion a tail strap for a horse’s blanket, mend a broken fence and use it as a belt.
“Well that certainly didn’t go as planned,” is one thing you’ll say quite a bit.
Control is a mere illusion. The thought that you have any, at any given time, is utterly false.
Sometimes sleep is a luxury. So are lunch and dinner. And brushing your hair.
If you’ve never felt your obliques contract, then you’ve never tried stopping an overly full wheelbarrow of horse manure from tipping over sideways. Trust me, you’ll find muscles that you never knew existed on the human skeleton to prevent this from happening.
When one of the animals is ill, you’ll go to heroic lengths to minimize their discomfort.
Their needs come first. In summer heat and coldest winter days. Clean water, clean bed, and plenty of feed. Before you have your first meal, they all eat.
When you lose one of them, even though you know that day is inevitable, you still feel sadness, angst and emotional pain from the top of your head to the tips of your toes. And it’s a heaviness that lingers even though you must regroup and press on.
You’ll cry a lot. But you’ll never live more fully. You’ll remain present no matter what because you must. There is no other option.
You’ll ask for so many miracles and hold out hope until the very last.
You will, at least once, face-plant in the manure pile. You’ll find yourself saying things like, “we have maybe twenty minutes of daylight left to git ‘er done” whilst gazing up at a nonspecific place in the sky.
You’ll become weirdly obsessive about the weather.
You’ll go out in public wearing filthy clothes and smelling of dirt, sweat and p**p. People will look at you sideways and krinkle their noses but you won’t care.
Your entire day can derail within ten seconds of the rising sun.
You can wash your coveralls. They won’t look any cleaner, but they will smell much nicer.
Farm work is difficult in its simplicity.
You’ll always notice just how beautiful sunrises and sunsets really are.
Should you ever have the opportunity to work on a farm, take the chance! You will never do anything more satisfying in your entire life.”
💗💗💗💗💗

02/04/2023

New Horses Wanted 🥳

Do you have a young horse who would look great performing with me in my liberty team?

My boys aren’t old yet but the time it takes to train the next generation is phenomenal and so it’s time to start looking for my future stars 🌟

What am I looking for? 🧐

15 - 16 hands ( 152cm - 162cm )

3 - 6 years old

Geldings

I would love to have more palamino / dun or buckskin horses for my liberty team but equally understand they are not common colours.

Everyone knows I love my Iberian horses and my Welsh Ds but I’m not married to any breed and am simply looking for the right horses to take with me on my adventures.

Must be good with other horses and be able to be turned out happily with others. 

If 5 or 6 years old I would expect the horses to have basic training and be able to be ridden walk, trot & canter

Ideally horses that have been long reined but not essential. However any horses with specific problems being long reined would not suit the job

Please no horses with physical ailments / injurys that you believe can no longer do ridden work but would be fine for liberty. Firstly because I intend to ride then. But also because I’m looking to build the new team of horses I will work with for the next 10 possibly 15 years and don’t want to start with horses who already have physical problems.

Also please nothing that’s going to try and kill me. I have the skills to deal with many of the most challenging behaviours horses can display. But in complete honesty I enjoy working with safe happy horses as much as you do 😂 and healing horses with past trauma is rewarding beyond belief but does slow down the training process and my plan is to choose horses with the best starting attributes to see what the limits of advanced liberty truly are.

No loan horses will be considered.

I can promise a home like no other. With open minded caring people with a passion for horses and what makes them tick.

If you think you have a possible candidate please WhatsApp me +447817795231 with information on the horses with as many pictures and videos as possible

Please to save all involved time, start by sending me the requested information over WhatsApp and we can arrange further calls / meetings.

These next four horses will play a huge part in my careers in many ways. And be the staring leads in many of my up coming educational projects

Big dreams are all coming together 🥰

Photography credit to E J Lazenby Photography

30/03/2023

Conformation can change with age and fitness - do you know if your saddle still fits?

11/03/2023

30/01/2023

What an amazing story it was.

16/01/2023

Easy, secure access to expert knowledge and advice.

Saddle Fitting Know How for Riders and Trainers is brought to you by world-renowned Master Saddler and Master Saddle Fitter Kay Hastilow, who has distilled her 50…

11/01/2023

Does your horse or pony enjoy carrots?

FRESH CARROTS ARE LOW IN SUGAR 🥕

It's time I posted about carrots again 🥕🥕🥕

Carrots - as they are fed to the horse, in a fresh state - are NOT high in sugar or NSC (non-structural carbohydrates). Fresh carrots are - by official human food definition - a low sugar food at less than 5% sugar.

Carrots are around 80% water, so any sugar in them is diluted i.e. they are mostly water.

Grass hay is around 8% sugar as fed, so one medium carrot gives your horse about 3g of sugar, whereas one slice of hay gives your horse about 80g of sugar.

When considering what you feed your horse, if you think scientifically i.e. in a systematic and methodical manner rather than just assuming common beliefs are true, you'll do yourself and your horse a big favour.

Please help me spread the truth by sharing! 🥕🍏🐴

08/12/2022

Snowglobe warning!

01/12/2022

They are always so trusting of us - very sad news.

Rocky the police horse has been put down after suffering serious injuries in a car crash. 💔

One of his injuries had showed signs of recovery but the other did not respond to treatment, police said.

This "severely impacted" his quality of life and he was put to sleep on Monday.

In a statement, Avon and Somerset Constabulary said the force's mounted section was "truly devastated at the outcome".

More on Rocky's story - https://bbc.in/3UivpNs

22/11/2022

When I first got out of veterinary school and started looking at horses prior to purchase (usually referred to as a “vet check” or a prepurchase exam), the horses usua...

07/11/2022

Winter hoof care.

Winter hoof care tips

With wet, muddy conditions upon us we must turn our attention to our horses' feet. Whilst some horses' hooves cope well during the winter, many do not and the damage in some cases may be undetectable until it is too late. As any owner knows, foot abscesses, white line disease, thrush and broken hooves, amongst other problems, are difficult to manage and can be costly too; sometimes causing loss of shoes, severe pain and long-term lameness.

Here are some simple steps to follow to ensure your horse’s hooves are kept strong and resilient during the winter months.

06/11/2022

Very wise words

Wise wise words

31/10/2022

A heartwarming story of generous people 'giving something back'

The parents of Charlotte Cole have undertaken fundraising initiatives since she was killed in 2011.

27/10/2022

A 33-horse hitch harvesting wheat. Circa 1900
What an amazing sight that would have been.

A 33-horse hitch harvesting wheat. Circa 1900

22/10/2022

Anyone visited?

The 'Super Bowl for Clydesdales' is underway in Aberdeen.

18/10/2022

Got a question about saddle fitting? There are over 50 informative posts on Master Saddler & Master Saddle Fitter Kay Hastilow's blog to help you sort out fact from fiction and you can read them all FREE! Visit http://ow.ly/3PXP50LbFuX

Got a question about saddle fitting? There are over 50 informative posts on my blog to help you sort out fact from fiction and you can read them all FREE! Visit http://ow.ly/3PXP50LbFuX

12/10/2022

Interesting read.

If you can’t sit still for the same time you expect your horse to without any enrichment or entertainment, snacks, or anything to do, then your expectations for your horse are higher than the standards you hold yourself to.

Let’s see you stand in one spot, tethered to a post and do so for 20, 30, 45 minutes and not so much as pick your finger nails. No clicking pens. No checking your phone, just stand there and stare blankly, don’t even take a step.

I am guessing you would struggle to do so without getting distracted in one way or another and seeking external stimulation to make the standing around and waiting less boring.

When we’re stuck in “waiting mode” be it in traffic, or in line at the grocery store, we always seek something to keep us busy. We may tap our foot. We may sing. We may run our fingers through our hair. We may get frustrated and yell at cars on the road or food service employees because we let our impatience redirect into frustration.

We are not any more patient than we expect our horses to be. In fact, in most cases we are LESS patient.

So, let this be some food for thought next time anyone suggests you tie your horse to a post for an hour or two so they can “learn patience.”

Because, my guess is, YOU, the human, still have yet to learn the patience you’re demanding from a flight animal in setting those parameters. If we lack the patience to do things the right way, to empathize with the animal we are training, then we are in no position to be teaching what patience is because the lesson in “patience” will actually be a lesson in IMpatience.

Edit: If you took this post as “all tying is bad” then it’s really time to self reflect on why you can’t see any middle ground between developing more patience and not just leaving a horse to figure out something they’ve never been asked to do before or can’t do well yet.

You can teach patience and good tying habits without making it an incredibly unpleasant experience where your horse violently pulls back until they shut down or digs a hole for an hour until they finally give up

There truly is no shortage of better options and if you’re reading this post as an ultimatum against tying, it just speaks for the lack of tools in your tool box if you can’t understand that there’s better and more patient ways to go about teaching FLIGHT ANIMALS what is an unnatural behaviour for them.

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You can support my work for as little as $1 a month by subscribing to my Patreon. You can get free access to behind the scenes, early video uploads, training help, tutorials and more: http://Patreon.com/sdequus

You can also see my website for more about me, my horses & free learning resources: http://milestoneequestrian.ca

11/09/2022

So poignant.

This is beautiful and really lovely. Whoever you were folks, I take my hat off to you 🙏🏼❤️

06/09/2022

Distribution problems with flu vaccination doses mean changes to competition rules ...

Further to the update we issued jointly with BEVA - The British Equine Veterinary Association and the British Horseracing Authority on 17 August, it has been confirmed there are distribution problems with doses of equine influenza vaccination.

Our latest update provides further information on what this means for the UK's equine population, including how vaccination recommendations have been temporarily adjusted for leisure and competition horses.

Full update 👉 https://bit.ly/EIupdate2Sept

29/08/2022

Police horse dies after collapsing at Notting Hill Carnival. Such sad news.

Met Police officers paid tribute to 14-year-old chestnut gelding PH Sandown, who was described as having an 'impeccable record.' | ITV National News

19/08/2022

Chapter oe equine history.

Fury was an equine actor. He was thought to be the most popular horse in the country during the 1950s. He held the title role on the popular NBC Saturday morning television series "Fury", which was also broadcast around the world. He also starred in the movies, "Black Beauty, "Brave Stallion", "Gypsy C**t", "Wild is the Wind", "The Return of Wildfire", and "Giant" with Elizabeth Taylor. He won several Patsy Awards.
Registered at birth with the name of Highland Dale, he was a registered saddlebred stallion (born in 1943)!! Born in Missouri. He died in California in 1972 (aged 29 yrs) and is buried there. He worked only four months a year and earned his owner/trainer Ralph McCutcheon $500,000 in eight years. His Fury fee: ($1,500 per episode) plus 5% of the show's profits. He was ridden by some of Hollywood's biggest stars, including Elizabeth Taylor, Clark Gable, and Joan Crawford. By the time Highland Dale retired, he ranked second only to Lassie in net earnings by an animal actor.

18/08/2022

Saddle Fitting Know How for Riders and Trainers is brought to you by world-renowned Master Saddler and Master Saddle Fitter Kay Hastilow, who has distilled her 50…

15/08/2022

Has there been a horse you will never forget in your life?