Rehab horse places

At the moment my horses are enjoying the snow  - they are unclipped this winter and are revelling in the winter weather, stuffing themselves with haylage then mooching off to the fields for a roll in the snow!

I will be taking horses in again for rehab from the 1st March this year. We only ever have a small number of horses here at any one time and we are almost booked up but there are 2 places left at the moment so if you would like one of the last spaces do get in touch with me on the usual email -  nic@rockleyfarm.co.uk

Workshops for 2019

Since I've been back from my awesome NZ trip I've been working on the workshops for this year which is really exciting. 

The format for the workshops will be similar to last year, with people welcome to bring shod or barefoot horses and we will spend time looking at each horse individually.

The idea of each workshop is to give owners skills which they can use to assess their horse's movement and tools which they can use to improve their horse's health.

So far the dates we have are: 

2nd March 2019: Writtle University College, Essex

Contact Cloe Lambert for information and to book: cloe.lambert98@outlook.com

6th April 2019: Long Island, NY, USA

Contact Jeannean Mercuri for more information and to book: neanpiggy@me.com

19th May 2019 Aberdeen, Scotland

Contact Julie Bradbury for more information and to book: juliejcb@hotmail.com

There will be further workshops for May onwards and I will post the details here as soon as they are finalised. 

In the meantime if you are interested in hosting a workshop during summer 2019 please get in touch: nic@rockleyfarm.co.uk

Thanks everyone - looking forward to seeing you all!

An experiment: self-trimming hooves on a horse not in work

First of all, Happy New Year and I hope that 2019 is a kind one to us all.

I'm now back from an incredible trip to New Zealand and although I am missing the summer sunshine and the wonderful people it is fantastic to be back home.

While I've been away there have been no rehab horses here and our own horses have had a holiday - free access to the fields and the tracks and no work at all.

One of the questions I am most often asked about self-trimming hooves is how horses cope if they are not in work - its a common assumption that self-trimming is only feasible when horses are doing significant road mileage each week.

Well, I must admit I have never tried giving our horses quite as much time off as they have had this year and I thought you might be as interested as I am to see how the feet have managed.

I never trust photos to give a true picture of hoof health so I will add straightway that his landings are still good - heel first and with good media-lateral balance. I don't think I have ever seen him so hairy but I rather like the teddy bear look for a change!

The hoof wall is a little longer than when he is doing high mileage on roads but the white line is tight and the frog and heels are solid and in great condition.

Despite the fluff still a beefy digital cushion. For reference, this horse has not been trimmed for 10 years and has been out of work for 3 months.

 I can't abide the feather (ack!)  - that may have to go fairly soon...

As with the LF, basically fine and ready to do more or stay the same, whichever is an option.