HorseSpa Farm

In preparing to build HSF, we read everything we could find that addressed how to keep horses healthy and content. We learned that research indicates how important it is that horses be allowed to keep moving out-of-doors. With certain exceptions, there aren't any sound reasons to keep horses trapped in stalls, as long as they have adequate shelter that they can access freely. Therefore, we concluded that keeping a horse in a stall for prolonged periods was really for the convenience of people. In response we decided to build a boarding facility that seeks to keep horses healthy; that is, a spa for horses.

Most of our horses come to us from barns where they were stalled daily for up to 20 hours, some stalled for days without turnout whenever bad weather threatened! All have transitioned well to being turned out for prolonged periods. It is actually the horses' owners who struggle with the thought of their horse being exposed to the elements; their logic being if they are cold, their horse must be too!

A few horses come in only in during the hottest part of the day, or when it is sleeting. If your horse is currently fed in a stall, he may appear eager to get back to the barn. This behavior will likely change once he understands that he gets fed outside. If you reserve a stall you can decide, in collaboration with our staff, if and when it is best to bring your horse into a stall.

It is true that horses who have developed laminitis or founder (chronic laminitis) in the past should not be allowed to graze freely; therefore HSF would not be an appropriate setting. However, we carefully introduce our new horses to grass, depending on the type of facility they came from. In addition, all our horses' daily access to grass is controlled, depending on the time of year, temperature, recent rainfall, and time of day. Some of our horses require a grazing muzzle in the spring and fall, and a few need to be stalled daily during "grass time" in the spring and fall.

We feed all horses individually to ensure that they ingest any supplements provided by their owners. If a field-boarded horse needs twice daily medications or feeding, HSF offers a "2nd Meal/Medication" option. We also check our horses carefully at mealtime, and fly spray if the product is provided by the owner, as well as put on turn-out blankets, fly sheets, fly masks, and muzzles as directed by the owner.

After a new horse clears a week in the quarantine pasture, we introduce the new horse to the rest of the herd after all have been fed and are preoccupied with grazing or munching hay. Introductions handled like this are usually uneventful.

We separate mares from geldings, and stallions are not boarded at HSF. Herd size is typically 3-5 horses. All horses have plenty of room, access to a run-in and water, and enjoy hay and pasture. Horses are horses, however, and even in the best of situations get kicked and injured occasionally. That is the nature of herd dynamics.

We offer several options. We always keep a stall free for sick or injured horses. In addition, we keep a round pen, two paddocks, a double stall with paddock, a portable 36X36 square pen, and a 4-acre pasture available for new horse's quarantine and for resident horses that require temporary separation or confinement.

We work with our clients and modify grain intake dependent upon their horse's needs. We recommend grazing muzzles as needed. When grass isn't available, we increase the amount of hay first, and then grain, as needed.

Research shows that horses should receive most, if not all of their nutrition from quality forage, i.e. grass and hay. To that end, we maintain and monitor our pastures so that daily grazing is available year round. We feed our horses a high quality timothy/alfalfa hay twice a day.

Our deworming program is fecal egg-count driven; due to research concerns that there is a growing resistance to some deworming drugs. HSF requires that all horses be on the same program; that is fecal checks to determine whether a horse needs to be dewormed in the first place. In addition to a deworming agent given only to high shedders, a paste deworming twice a year is required to control tapeworms and bot flies.

Boarders are welcome to bring their own instructor or trainer. That person must have purchased liability insurance as an independent contractor, and must additionally endorse Wendy Parker AND HorseSpa Farm as "additional insured."

Yes. We created trails around the perimeter of our farm (158 acres), and are slowly working into our wooded area. We offer across-the-street access to Lone Star Lakes, a 4.5 mile equestrian trail along the lake, which HSF boarders help maintain.

Beginning every spring, and repeating every three weeks until fall, we reintroduce predator wasps; tiny, harmless (except to fly larvae) insects that greatly reduce the fly populations, and our clients routinely comment that we have minimal flies. Mosquitoes are rarely problematic. We do not use automatic mists in the barn due to our concern over the long term safety of inhaled chemicals to both horses and our staff. During the summer, all horses are fly-sprayed daily as requested by our clients, with the fly spray of their choice.

All boarding facilities charge for bedding. Most fold it into a fee to cover an average use; for that some clients are overcharged, and others undercharged. The great majority of our horses spend little or no time in their stalls, on average using 1-2 bags of bedding per month. Paying by the bag is fair and accurate.

We do not offer private turnout except in temporary, medically-related situations.

Depends upon how much they crib. Our experience is that horses who crib only occasionally do not cause a problem, and in fact may crib less since they are not confined to a stall. We will not board a hard-core cribber; i.e. one who is only controlled by a collar or who is totally uncontrollable.

No. However, we regularly host Parelli clinics and many of our clients are advocates of Parelli Natural Horsemanship.

All exterior fences are fixed-knot wire (graduated spacing) or flexible vinyl, attached to 6-inch diameter, 7-foot wood posts, installed in the past 3 years. We do not use high-tensile wire because of the injury potential, or wood fencing because of the breakage potential. We top most fences with an electric wire. Within the exterior fencing we use electric tape to subdivide our pastures into a sacrifice area and two grass pastures to allow for rotation. Pastures are double-fenced along the road.