Stable News: With rain of some kind falling almost every day the last few months, making hay has been nearly impossible here in New England. Due to the fact that hay yields are lower than normal we highly recommend getting as much of your annual hay as you can now. There will likely be no local hay left come early/mid winter and then we will be relying solely on hay shipped from Canada or NY state direct to our local feed stores. There is a great resource on Facebook for Maine residents called Maine Hay Connection. This private Facebook group offers a platform for folks looking for hay and selling hay and is a great place to start. Also, be sure to store whatever hay you do have in a dry location, well off the ground, and protected from direct sunlight. The humid, rainy weather has led to good hay developing mold as well. We will all be keeping our fingers crossed for some drier days ahead, good luck feeding those ponies!
Training Tip of the Week: Training begins the moment we approach our horse in the field, paddock, or stall. One of the early areas that we really like to focus on, is haltering the horse. We teach each of our horses to lower their head and place their noses into the halter. Sometimes just getting a horse to accept our hands and the halter near their head is a challenge all its own. It is a completely normal part of the survival instinct for a horse to be protective and defensive of its head, so teaching the horse to lower it and allow us to put the halter on is a true sign of trust between horse and handler.
Rescue Horse Spotlight: Dandy is a 15 year old Dutch Harness Mare that is with us for training from Gerda’s Equine Rescue. Little is known about her background, but upon arrival to Gerda’s, Dandy was very underweight and fearful of humans. As we get to know her, we can see incredible potential and a willingness to seek out understanding and find softness during her training sessions. We are very excited to see what Dandy’s future holds!
