Fifteen years ago, a friend asked if I’d house- and horse-sit for her at her farm in the Cowichan Valley. The property featured open turnout, natural forage, and the companionship of other horses. I accepted, unsure how it would affect my mare, Diva—who had been struggling. But the results were immediate and profound. We never left. Years later, we still live in the Cowichan Valley, and Diva continues to thrive.

Rotational grazing can help you take better care of your pastures and provide more feed for your horses.

Win the Battle of the Burrs - Discovering your horse with a mane and tail full of burrs can be frustrating — but it’s more than a cosmetic concern. Burrs can cause real discomfort, inflame the skin, and even damage the hair roots. If your horse resists grooming, chances are those pesky burrs clusters are already causing pain by tightening up and pulling the hair every which way. Here’s how to handle the problem with care — and how to stop it from happening in the future.

There is a lot more to haymaking than “making hay while the sun shines,” though doing so is a necessary start. Sadly, each year horse barns and farmers’ storage barns burn down, and horses become sick from respiratory disease and colic, as well as myriad other diseases such as Pituitary Pars Intermedia Dysfunction (PPID or Cushings disease). Many of these situations are avoidable so here are, in my opinion, the seven deadly sins of horse hay-making, in no particular order.