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Keep Your Confined Horses Happier

Locate your confinement area so your horse will have interaction and stimulus from the world around them. Photo by Kim Roe

Winter can be a challenging time for riders and our horses. Shorter days with inclement weather can make finding time to ride a challenge. Horses confined in paddocks or dry lots during winter still need something to do. Increasing turnout time, allowing social interactions between horses, and providing sufficient forage …

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Build Your Own Permanent Mounting Block – A Simple and Essential Fixture for Riding Facilities

Helyn, Jasper & the new mounting block. Photo from Alayne Blickle

I discovered the joys of a “real” mounting block about ten years ago when I tore my right anterior cruciate ligament and several other key ligaments that stabilized that knee joint. After the requisite surgery, my wait to get back on my horse was going to be six or more …

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Footing Options for Confinement Areas – Gravel, Sand, and Hog Fuel are the Most Common Choices

Gravel works well particularly in wetter conditions or with more organic soils. Photo by Kim Roe

Footing is an important consideration for confinement areas. Using some type of footing, at least in the high traffic areas, will reduce mud by keeping your horse off the soil surface and avoiding erosion. Less mud equals less chance of nutrients and sediments running off and polluting surface waters, too. …

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Safety Tips for Trail Riding During a Pandemic – Getting Out is Possible if You Use Caution

Photo by Alayne Blickle

Park with extra distance between rigs so no one is tempted to visit closely and so you can comfortably maintain a six to ten-foot distance from others. Avoid trailering with others in the same vehicle by driving separate rigs instead.   Typically, this monthly column focuses on smart, healthy, and …

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Make the Most of Your Social Distancing

by Alayne Blickle (From March 2020 Horses for Clean Water Newsletter)   Over the 40 plus years I’ve owned horses, I have experienced a variety of what were (at the time) frightening outbreaks of equine diseases—Potomac horse fever, Equine Protozoa Myolitis, West Nile virus, and Equine Herpesvirus Neurologic, to name a …

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