Our horses live in a big herd, even my show horses!

I have always wanted to give my horses as much freedom as I can and allow for as much social interactions as possible. We have been very blessed that our new farm is full of character and offers much variety for the horses. It encourages the horses to move in many different directions and cover much distance every day. The horses self-exercise and only require a few trims a year. They are all barefooted.

The big herd offers a lot of social interaction and the horses hang out in pairs or small groups of their choosing but overall the whole herd is usually in the same area of the farm, acting like one herd. We have a few weanlings and young horses as well who have integrated into the big herd very well. And yes, my show horses also live in this herd:-)

At some point alll our horses are educated to accept being in a stall but unless one requires medical attention, our horses are not stalled. The time I would otherwise spend on cleaning stalls, I spend with the horses instead. I get to hang out with the herd during undemanding time or I pull them out for a session.

Are there some bite marks and kick marks occasionally? Yes. For this reason I typically pull my show horses out of the big herd couple months prior to a big perfomance and they stay in a large paddock.

In the drone footage Sedrick Hicks captured the feeding time. I have tubs on the ground spaced 20 feet apart and I drive the golf cart on the inside of my arena, pouring soaked alfalfa mix with sunflower seeds in each tub through the arena fence. We have several extra tubs set up in case some horses do get pushed away then they can rotate to another tub. All the horses in the big herd are currently grain free. They have free choice access to bermuda round bales (and will have grass in the summer time), salt and minerals as well.

Drone Footage Video Credit: PS 91 Digital Arts 

Music Credit:

Titanium by The Piano Guys

Into the Wild by Connell Cruise

Rhythm Inside by Calum Scott.