A post about tracks

I had a great weekend on Long Island running a workshop organised by the amazing Jeannean and while I was there I promised I would put up a blog post with more information about the tracks we have here. 

Tracks are great because they encourage movement and allow horses to hang out together, which lets face it is what they enjoy doing. The horses frequently all choose to occupy the same area of the track  - here are 8 of them in a group and the lower photo is another good example - because its more natural to them than being evenly spread put over a bigger area.

I've written lots about the tracks in the past - there is a post about the different surfaces here: http://rockleyfarm.blogspot.com/2011/07/celery-and-surfaces.html and there is a clip I took of us driving round the tracks which I posted here: http://rockleyfarm.blogspot.com/2014/04/tour-of-tracks.html

I should make it clear that there are actually 2 different tracks, the surfaced one which is what you see in most of the photos, which I use up to 24/7 for the rehab horses, and a grass track (with no surface) which I use in the spring and summer to restrict access to the hay fields and encourage my own horses to work a bit harder for their grass. The latter is out of use in the winter as it would get too wet but its very pretty in good weather...

The main track is not terribly big - it links 3 different yards and an area of woodland together so that the horses have a variety of things to look at and can get out of the prevailing wind or rain if they want to.  We can also feed forage in lots of different places and they have to move to see what is going on around the corner. 

The surface on the main track is a mixture of shingle, stone and earth - there is more details in the first post linked above - and the most important thing for the rehab horses is that it is conformable, so provides support and stimulus for weak hooves. If you are thinking of laying a track yourself, getting drainage right is an essential first step and its easier and cheaper to use existing areas and link them rather than try to create something from scratch.

I hope this has given you a quick guide to our tracks; there are plenty more photos on Instagram @rockleyfarm :-)