Fine Print Farms

Having a good dental professional for your horse is very important!

Horses are born with about 3-4 inches of tooth root to last them their lifetime. Around age 25, depending on dental care throughout the horses life, the teeth will begin to expire. This is why it is critical to be conservative when making adjustments in the mouth. Over floating can result in premature expiring of teeth.

If you think you understand something, you probably haven’t been in it long enough. If you’re feeling pretty good about your ability, you might not have enough guidance from someone masterful.

Learning kind of goes that way- you come in after years or even a lifetime of experience thinking you know. Then you find a teacher, if you’re lucky, who shows you all that you don’t know.

Many plummet into despair here, but hang on. You’ll feel good again, and bad again. After a while you’ll learn to just get comfortable and accept those twists and turns as normal.

If you’re feeling pretty comfortable, or even cocky, hang on - life can humble you. But if you’re feeling uncomfortable, hang on too - you’ll come up, and then back down, and back up. And if you’re dedicated to learning more than looking or feeling good, you’ll be alright.

Photo credit to Kaylie Eaves

Doesn’t get any better ❤️

People love to get easy answers. I’m guilty of wanting them too. It would be so nice sometimes to believe I didn’t have to improve my riding, to improve my feel, to improve my mental awareness and emotional control. Sometimes it’s really tempting to displace the blame - the horse is not responding because of their own deficiency - which is always a possibility of course - but when you witness a masterful hand work the same horse as you, and see it transform immediately into something more balanced, more beautiful, more calm- then you know where your work truly lies.

Everyone wants a teacher to really deliver - but this comes with accepting uncomfortable truths. And to really receive the gifts of this kind of teacher, you have to stop looking for easy outs. Stop looking for cheaper, quicker, nicer, easier. Stop looking for protection emotionally from your skill deficiencies - it’s not an insult to hear you have them , it’s a gift from someone who wants your success. Reprogram your thinking to realize this is not an attack on you but the source of your elevation.

Of course the horse needs training, exposure, and skills. Sometimes the horse’s deficiencies are why they can’t respond correctly.

But unless you work on yourself religiously - your balance, your timing, your mindset, your awareness - how are you going to sort out the difference between you blocking them and the horse not having the skills?

Easy answers are nice to hear. But there are some universal truths- and in texts dating back to Xenophon, we know that the rider is the key to unlocking a horses brilliance, or blocking it. And we know that, throughout time, no shortcut has ever worked or taken hold - we know that there is no escaping self development for the true horseman.

Fall laminitis refers to cases of laminitis or founder that occur in the autumnal months. Although laminitis can happen in any season, anecdotally there seems to be an uptick in the number of cases in the fall.

Why could this be?

• As the days get shorter and colder, grasses have been shown to respond to this stress with higher sugar concentrations. Diets with higher simple sugar concentrations may increase the risk of laminitis.

• Decreases in exercise may cause increases in body condition. Fat or obese horses are at risk of developing laminitis.

• Horses naturally have increased levels of certain hormones in the fall. If you have a horse with PPID (previously referred to as equine Cushing’s), the increase in their cortisol levels could put them at risk for laminitis.

If you have questions concerning fall laminitis or are concerned that your horse may be at an increased risk, contact your equine veterinarian so that they can properly evaluate your horse's unique situation.

Thank you to the Horse Owner Education Committee for providing this information.

MYTH: Coastal Bermuda Hay Causes Colic.

FACT: Bermudagrass hay that has been harvested correctly is a perfectly safe forage for horses. Bermuda hay should be harvested every 21 days during peak growing season to ensure the grass has not become too mature. The more mature the grass is, the higher the NDF content will be in the hay. NDF (neutral detergent fiber) is a measure of indigestible fiber. Correlations have been made between high NDF content in hay and increased chance of impaction colic due to the hay being less digestible. Bottom line, it is not the type of hay, but rather the time of harvest that should be used to evaluate the quality and safety of feeding bermuda hay.

Especially during cold water, the risk of impaction colic due to reduced water consumption/dehydration and indigestible forage increases greatly. You can test your forage for digestibility at Equi-analytical.com and add an additional 1-2tbs of table salt or electrolytes daily to help encourage water consumption.

Focus -

Many of us are happy to complain about our horse’s lack of focus. We want the horses full attention, but we often really have no idea just how scattered our own attention is!

We notice AFTER the horse does the wrong thing, but fail to have a clear picture in our minds of what we even wanted in the first place. Many riders chase down every little thing the horse does that we don’t like, but haven’t developed the personal discipline to know what we want and ride that in our bodies.

I often compare guiding the horse to singing next to someone who is off key. You have to essentially stick your fingers in your ears sometimes and sing the song as you know it goes, instead of following every mistake the off key singer does. We follow the off key singer’s tune into its highs and lows, and then try to pull the singer back to a tune we’ve gotten too far away from to recover - but the reality is, the horse can never know the tune if we can’t sing it ourselves.

Many of us getting lessons are unknowingly hooked on a steady diet of distractions - a stirrup problem, another horse too close, too hot, too cold, need a break, my horse is too close to the gate, and so on - and so progress , or even lining out a solid beginning is difficult or impossible because we cannot focus on the task or what we want for the duration of a session.

It’s pretty amazing to experience the distractions melt away, and the problems melt away, when we really focus on the ride - the horse no longer pulls to the gate, looks for his friends, veers in the corners and so on, because we are mentally present, and physically clear. Suddenly every little thing is no longer a problem because we are truly guiding.

It’s an incredible feeling to be in the “zone” with a horse and find them more than happy to be there with us.

So focus is truly a human issue, and rarely a horse’s. Horses like to be guided with peaceful clarity - but we have few experiences in our lives developing that, and so guiding with peaceful clarity is a weak muscle -

Just like any muscle, it becomes strengthened through repetition.

Set up your tack, clothes and environment, and then focus on the work.

Photo by Jade Premont

I hear this phrase ALL the time and every time I do my heart breaks for the horse in question.

It is a very big misconception in the industry that pain can be ruled out in the horse.

What leads to this statement can also vary drastically from person to person.

The horse might have had a quick muscle palpation, they might have just been scoped for ulcers, or they might have had a very extensive (and expensive!) veterinary work up over days or months.

Regardless, you cannot rule out pain. You might not be able to find a source, but you cannot rule out pain.

Ask any human who has not received an immediate diagnosis for their pain or not been listened to regarding their own health concerns.

Pain does not have a blood test or a specific color or feel.

Pain can be obvious, it can be concealed, it can be complex, it can be poorly understood.

There are certain things, like gastric ulcers, that can be definitively ruled in or out as a SOURCE of pain with a gastroscopy.

But it is the horse’s behavior that says whether pain is or isn’t present. And unfortunately, very often pain in the horse is not a simple thing to diagnose and cure.

When a trainer, owner, rider, or vet says “we have ruled out pain” it is often an invitation to train the horse with harsher methods to overcome performance or behavioral problems.

If the horse refuses to do something, doesn’t cooperate, struggles with tasks, has a change in behavior, or exhibits behaviors that have been scientifically studied to indicate pain in the horse (such as the equine discomfort ethogram and ridden horse pain ethogram)….ALWAYS keep in mind that just because it can’t be located, DOES NOT mean a horse is not in pain.

There are several basic principles that you can follow in structuring the training of your horse in each ride, as well as longterm, through the years. Training should always revolve around refining the basics, such as improving the horse’s body awareness, coordination, balance, straightness, suppleness, permeability, the quality of the gaits, and eventually impulsion and collection.

Dressage movements are on the one hand gymnastic tools that help the rider to improve these basics, and on the other hand they allow the rider to gauge to what extent the horse has mastered these basics, where there is need for improvement, where there may be holes in the training, and deficits in the horse’s body awareness or understanding.

PPID originates from loss of dopaminergic neurons in the hypothalamus. Some functions of the hypothalamus are also affected and cause the increased thirst/urination, altered shedding and poor temperature control. In winter, horses may show abnormal sweating or unusual sensitivity to cold. Watch your horse carefully and clip or blanket as needed.

Most behaviors don’t come “out of the blue,” whether good or bad behaviors. Every behavior involves factors like environment, handling, diet, lifestyle, preparation and observation, management, and more.

For every good behavior, there are lots of factors carefully taken into account to set up the horse for success.

For every “bad” behavior, there are many factors missed.

It takes willingness on a person’s part to learn to observe expression and learn to set up situations for success. Every day I watch horses get scolded, smacked or punished in some way for a behavior that was entirely preventable- a person missed the horses’ expression, failed to set the horse up for success or support in any way, and then scolded after it was all said and done.

It’s easy to say a horse needs to work on their behavior.

It’s much harder to say, “what did I miss? Why did he do that? What can I do to set it up so he doesn’t need to again?”

UPDATE: EMAIL CHANGE AND PHONE NUMBER ADDED. Have been being told the emails are bouncing back. If you haven’t heard from me please email or text. Thank you!

HORSE CAMP 2024

Beginner- Intermediate
Ages 5-13

July 8-12
July 22-26
August 5-9

$600/ for full 5 day week

To sign up please email:
[email protected]

Or text :
(210)727-7752

Beginner camps are a great place for beginners to start their horse journey safely and correctly!!!

In addition to daily riding the campers will learn:
* Safe practices around horses
*Being aware of emotions and being present around their horse
* Safely haltering and leading
* Learning different slip knot techniques
* Correctly saddling and bridling
* Grooming techniques
* Learning the correct names for the parts of a horse
* How to recognize health problems in horses
* Basic horse first aid
* Basic equine nutrition
* Correct names for colors and breeds
* Learning parts of the saddle and bridle
* Equine professional demonstrations
* How to properly take care of your tack
* Bathing and washing manes and tails
* And much more!!

All students are required to wear jeans and closed toed shoes. Once you have paid deposit I will email you a liability release that will need to be brought with students first day of camp. Pack a sack lunch and plenty of water!

HORSE CAMP 2024

Beginner- Intermediate
Ages 5-13

July 8-12
July 22-26
August 5-9

$600/ for full 5 day week

To sign up please email:
[email protected]

Or text :
(210)727-7752

Beginner camps are a great place for beginners to start their horse journey safely and correctly!!!

In addition to daily riding the campers will learn:
* Safe practices around horses
*Being aware of emotions and being present around their horse
* Safely haltering and leading
* Learning different slip knot techniques
* Correctly saddling and bridling
* Grooming techniques
* Learning the correct names for the parts of a horse
* How to recognize health problems in horses
* Basic horse first aid
* Basic equine nutrition
* Correct names for colors and breeds
* Learning parts of the saddle and bridle
* Equine professional demonstrations
* How to properly take care of your tack
* Bathing and washing manes and tails
* And much more!!

All students are required to wear jeans and closed toed shoes. Once you have paid deposit I will email you a liability release that will need to be brought with students first day of camp. Pack a sack lunch and plenty of water!

We feed and carry excel products at our barn and everyone looks and feels fantastic!

HAVE A 5PM SLOT OPEN FOR A LESSON TOMORROW. PRIVATE OR GROUP.

This might be fine up north, but San Antonio isn't able to deal with this.

Beautiful evening after a gorgeous day at Fine Print Farms!

Have you signed up for English or Western Riding lessons?