Equine Family Massage and Wellness

11/22/2021

Beautiful life for horses

10/13/2021

Track Systems❤️

Many people have not been educated to place the (genuine and not anthropomorphic) happiness of horses as a priority in their management practices. Most people, if they think about this at all, tend to focus more on the horse's health - and usually in relation to how sound he/she is or isn't. (Are they stiff, stocked up, stilty, short-strided, footy, etc.?)

And often people think of 'stall toys' as a way for a horse to not be 'bored.' But boredom for the horse kept in a cage is not necessarily processed as humans experience boredom. For horses, the inability to freely move with others is a direct assault to the messages coded in their DNA as a herd animal and a flight animal.

For those who have discovered the concept of the Paddock Paradise track system, we see the physical health and fitness in our horses living in this manner but also come to see the contentment that resonates with happiness when horses eat the right sorts of things, live in a small band, move freely without close confinement, always have access to fresh water and never run out of safe forage. No mirrors, plastic apples, snuffle mats, cribbing collars, jolly balls needed.... just the basic needs of the horses being met in as natural a manner as possible will allow them to blossom.

09/19/2021

Yvette Running Horse Collin’s recent dissertation may have rewritten every natural history book on the shelf. A Lakota/Nakota/Cheyenne scholar, Collin worked

09/09/2021

The difference a year can make when doing all the right things! What does that mean? It means managing them in ways that uses the healthy, sound, wild and free-roaming horses living naturally in the U.S. Great Basin as the model for their care, lifestyle and diet. Their hooves are simply symptomatic of good health or bad.

08/01/2021

The Hoof is a pump that circulates blood flow to a horse's heart

06/20/2021

Healthy Baby Feet!

https://www.facebook.com/838748389791171/posts/1477724375893566/?sfnsn=mo

01/15/2021

American horses

Rocky Sands, Anishinaabe from Bkejwanong (Walpole Island) talks about when wild horses used to live on Walpole Island. He discusses when the horses were bein...

01/05/2021

Wonderful article about native american horses❤

Horse sanctuaries along the Native American Horse Trail are working to save America’s last Indigenous horses and rewrite official histories that claim they don’t exist.

11/12/2020

Happy Healthy Horses is what all of us want for our horse family. Track systems give horses all that and more

Horse cages. Horse owners as well as boarding/livery facility owners - and show barn owners - must come to terms with the fact that it is inhumane for horses to live half or more of their day in lock-up. Bravo to those who have built a Paddock Paradise track system! And for all those who haven’t but would love to keep their horses in a way that allows them to be physically, mentally and emotionally healthy, we understand that it is not easy. However, there are an increasing number of people around the world creating tracks on leased property (like we did), on small acreages, on large acreage, with naturally great terrain and with all kinds of excavation and modifications in naturally muddy areas. Please educate yourself and you will find that your convenience - or your fun - becomes less important and your horses’s health and happiness is the priority. Network with others who either have or want to create a track. You can do it!

11/11/2020

Track lifestyle and competition go together!

Connor spent all day outside on the track with his herd of 25 horses on Friday. He had his dinner at 5pm (grass nuts, oats and linseed), had a good groom and shine up and then was loaded up with his pal Prince (my wonderful ex racer who is the perfect travel companion) and we travelled to Emirates Equestrian Centre where we achieved our 6th (out of 6 shows) top 6 placing in the 130m division 1 class for this season so far 😍 After collecting our prize (and eating a bag of carrots) he went back to his hay pillow (The Hay Pillow, Inc.) to share some Timothy hay with Prince while I got something to drink and then we loaded back up and went home. After an extra supper of oats (for both) they were both turned back out on to the track for the night by 9.30pm ❤️

I am really really hoping that Connor can give motivation for other owners to allow their competition horses to still be horses; to get dirty and occasionally a little scraped up, to enjoy freedom for the time in between being required to perform and look athletic and amazing...they can still do that and be allowed freedom in between! 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻

I would just like to add that he doesn’t wear any protective boots either outside. Only tendon and fetlock boots while he is competing. The number of horses I see not allowed outside without full protective leg wear astounds me 🙈

11/09/2020

Healthy Horse Feet..make me happy...

Characteristics of health show from the inside out in the hooves. Note the absence of horizontal rings (or lines) on the outer hoof wall and, instead, they are straight and free of bumps, waves and any deformity. Note also the absence of a stretched ‘white line’ surrounding the sole on the bottom of the foot.


And note ‘nature’s horseshoe’ on the bottom of the hoof! This is a term created by Jaime Jackson about the waterline - the most distal structure (when they are standing on a flat surface) in the healthy, sound, wild and free-roaming horses living naturally in the U.S. Great Basin. Thus, this is a ‘wear pattern’ or characteristic of naturally shaped hooves in domestic horses too!

While the hooves are in slight need of a trim, the image should help the reader easily see the waterline and mustang roll - from this angle -more easily than in an image of a freshly trimmed hoof.