Fabulous Feathers:

Management of certain horse breeds involves the need to keep long feathered fetlocks free of fungus and bacteria, clean and ready to show. This work covers grooming, bathing and daily care practices to adopt to ensure breeds such as Shires and other heavy horse breeds, Gypsy Vanners and Friesians that are prone to health issues due to their feathers stay fabulous.

Should Your Horse Take The Wrap?:

Horses aren’t born with boots and bandages and survive perfectly well in the wild without being adorned with expensive leg ‘clobber’ that makes much money for the equestrian trade. Horses’ legs are barely visible with certain styles of leg gear, wrapped from coronet band to above their knees it sometimes gives pause to even this dressage lover. Barrel racing to showjumpers, the driving force behind leg wraps and boots may not be the best option for keeping your horse sound. In fact, they may even cause damage. This article offers insights to the matter of whether it is wise to give the boot to horse boots.

Bringing Home Baby:

Having recently retired from horse breeding after 25+ years, 2022 marked the first time in many years that Nikki and her husband Paul (also a GP rider) purchased a weanling. “Bringing home baby is very different from raising and rearing a horse you’ve bred yourself and many new owners are prone to errors in working with a new baby on the farm. Commonly it will be the only ‘little fella or lass’ on the property and special care is needed to make sure things go as well as possible and the weanling reaches its potential,” explains Nikki, “We’ve imported weanlings from Europe over the years but they’ve always had similar age company when they arrived at our farm. Working with an adult herd and one baby is quite a different story.” Learn the do’s and don’ts and some key points that should not be overlooked to grow up a youngster into a confident adult horse.