Meet the Herd
Foxy
I’ve had Foxy since she was 4 months old. She has always been a very active and sweet horse. Her mild manner is a sharp contrast to her build and energy level. At 14 hands, she is on the short side, but she’s built like a truck and has the energy to get it moving.
Her muscular build was not enhanced by the expensive bagged horse feed I fed her in the past. Her thick torso became barrel like and impossible to keep a saddle on. She developed mutton withers, and even with shims, I was never happy with the fit of her saddle.
When her weight was up, she also had wide flaring of her rear hooves.
Every farrier that trimmed her just couldn’t help themselves, they had to file that flare down and make it look right!
And after every trimming, she was sore for weeks while her hooves grew back out.
When we know better, we do better.
Foxy has been on the track for a year now, and since the change, she has lost significant weight. Not only that, her withers have shrunken to the point that her saddle fits like a glove without any shims!
Foxy moves constantly throughout the day. She is very strong and athletic and loves to move. She is the driving force within the herd!
After being on the track for a year, she looks very fit and her flares are smaller and less noticeable. Coincidence?
Make sure to follow Foxy’s progress over the next few months as we begin the next phase of her development.
Porsche
I’ve had Porsche since she was a foal. I bought her from a breeder who raised Andalusians. She’s nine years old now (2023). She’s a big girl at 16 hands and has a personality to match… She’s my personality plus girl…always the first to greet me when I arrive at the track. She’s very expressive and loves to run down the hill after a fresh drink from the water trough.
She has never had shoes on her feet, but even so, her hooves were unusually pinched thin and narrow. Porsche never seemed to get sore feet, she just never had very ‘correct’ feet.
As she got older, Porsche put on weight like the other horses did. She developed a hard crested neck. She had a very large midsection and fat pads around her tail.
When we know better, we do better.
Now that Porsche is on the track system, she moves quite a bit more than she ever did in the past.
As a result of the increased movement and improved nutrition, she’s lost a considerable amount of weight and she looks toned and athletic.
Her hooves are no longer pinched -- they have rounded out and her frog has widened.
They are healthy and absolutely rock crunching!!
Thea
She was pretty wild when I got her. She was 3 years old and had never been handled. She was one of a large herd of young horses whose owner was frequently working out of town. The owner knew she needed attention that he couldn’t give her and so he gave her to me. She’s 13 years old now (2023) and much calmer than when I first met her. It has been a tremendous challenge getting her to this point, but she has taught me more than any other horse.
When I was feeding all the expensive feed and fertilized hay, she became obese.
Her neck was cresty, rock hard, and tender to my touch. Although her hooves never looked all that bad, she walked gingerly and appeared sore often. At the time I had no idea what was wrong.
She didn’t want to move around much when I would do groundwork with her.
I believe now that her feet must have been hurting her… or maybe she just didn’t feel like moving all her weight around.
When we know better, we do better.
Things are very different now that Thea is living on the Track.
She is eating hay from nets and she has to climb the hill every time she takes a drink – gone is the expensive bagged horse feed.
From all of the movement and improved nutrition, she is no longer obese.
No more hard crested neck, and no more sore feet!
We are beginning her training again and we are hoping to get her out on these mountain trails in a short time.