Hey There
Welcome to my blog! Through these posts I hope to help horses by educating their humans, to bring new perspectives to the table regarding training and interacting with our equine companions, and to share the goings-ons around the Clark Funny Farm.
To stall or not to stall?
Why quality turnout time is integral for overall horse health
1/15/26
Hot take. I know. And yet every day I have to ask... should it be? Why exactly is pushing for horses to have as much turnout as possible so divisive? My closest friends and I agree on so much, yet this is often a topic where we diverge. Maybe you can relate to this phenomenon, maybe you have wondered these questions yourself, or perhaps it's never crossed your mind to even question a horse's lifestyle. I hope to break down the answers to these conundrums based on what we know as scientific fact of the horse, what we know regarding equine welfare, and of a few of my own anecdotes thrown in.
Anyone who knows me knows that Mister Detail and my previous, precious, irreplaceable mare Dorothy were housed overnight, year round, in meticulously maintained stalls. Dorothy had no reason for stalling other than being spoiled: getting alfalfa mix flakes at night and a concentrate meal in her stall. A comfy cozy place to lay down and truly relax. Detail's stalling started out this way but morphed into helping the elderly man maintain his weight especially over winters. As Detail aged and became a "real horse" (aka he quit coming to the gate every evening to be let into his stall), I was forced to expand my narrow-minded view on stalling. I had thought stalling was absolutely necessary for your most special horses, especially a show horse. While exposing our equine friends to stalling is helpful in preparing them for a multi-day show setting (where they will be required to stay in a stall for the duration of the show/event), Detail opened my eyes to the fact that, actually, as much pasture turnout as possible is not only ideal but also integral to overall horse health - mentally, emotionally, and physically.
Research has shown that plenty of turnout on various terrain is important for bone development and joint health in all horses, but especially young ones. Movement encourages joints and bones to develop exactly as they should, and an hour or two of human-directed work is simply put, no replacement for a horse's natural movement. Stall horses have been found to have lower bone density than horses who are allowed 24/7 turnout during their growth years. Additionally, turnout allows a growing horse to develop their own sense of balance as they navigate their fields, which arena work cannot replicate. Arenas are flat, the footing is typically carefully selected and maintained. The horse needs to balance - sure - but allowing a horse to grow and learn to balance on imperfect surfaces is that much more beneficial physically for joint, bone, and soft tissue development/health. Lastly, turnout reduces the risk of developmental joint disorders which can lead to degenerative joint disorders long term. (All of this information can be found cited at the link below.)
The mental and emotional benefits of turn out are perhaps more obvious, and still worth mentioning. First and foremost, vices. Vices are "bad" habits that a horse picks up. Vices are often repetitive behaviors that offer the horse some sort of positive outcome regardless of whether that outcome is positive or negative for the human/horse relationship. Some vices are avoidant (for example, you may know a horse who has perfected turning and bolting away from you) and some vices offer an endorphin release (like cribbing). Vices are coping strategies that are maladaptive, but serve as "protection" for the horse in the horse's point of view. Now that we have some context for why a horse might have develop a vice, how is it related to a discussion on turn out? Well, horse's have physical health and mental/emotional health just like we humans do. We have our medical doctors for our physical health and horses have veterinarians. The mental healthcare is harder to access for humans, and often even more difficult to access for our equines. A lot of traditional education on horses completely discounts mental health and simply reacts once a horse starts showing signs, rather than proactively preventing the development of these vices. A common cause of vice development is providing too little turnout/mental stimulation! Horses that crib likely started the habit whilst stalled for hours a day, sometimes only leaving their stall to be ridden. Cribbing releases happy chemicals into the horse's brain and is literally a coping mechanism for unbearable boredom and sometimes even mental illness. A simple prevention for cribbing development is turn out: pasture/paddock-living automatically offers enrichment simply by the changing scenery, access to sunshine and that good vitamin D, as well as free-choice access to food (which we will touch on this in the next section!). Instead of offering horses ample movement and choice in their daily lives, we will slap a cribbing collar on them. A band aid which completely ignores the larger question of equine welfare.
Free choice access to forage and water are so incredibly important for horse health. I could write a novel on equine nutrition thanks to an amazing professor who focused her master's and doctoral research on the subject. I'll keep this as brief as possible.
Digestive tract: Horses' digestive systems rely on a constant inflow of "stuff" to maintain peristaltic contractions. Stuff meaning food, water, primarily forage-based foods (grass/pasture, or hay). Without peristaltic contractions, the horse's digestive tract ceases to function. For this reason, free choice forage is integral in preventing the dreaded colic, ulcers, and digestive upset problems.
The Stalling Problem: It is extremely difficult - not impossible - but extremely difficult to provide free choice hay while in a stall. Horses eat A LOT (1.5%-3% of their body weight on average), and it is costly to ensure you are providing a horse with the minimum amount of hay to survive (1% of their body weight), let alone free choice to ensure their digestive system is flowing correctly. Thus, many barns who primarily stall their horses provide 2-3 hay meals per day. The horse may receive the minimum amount of hay required to survive... but this type of feed schedule actively inhibits a horse's ability to stay healthy. Not only is the horse bored from not having anything to munch on (grazing is busy work!), but the horse begins to experience discomfort due to their systems having an influx of "stuff" then long breaks between meals.
I'm not saying don't ever stall your horse. I'm just asking that we as a horse community do so mindfully. When we know better, we do better. Let's do better by our equids now that we know better and have resources to tell us exactly how we can enhance the lives of the horses in our care. Sound good? Great. See you at the barn! where we'll be forced to walk the 20 acre hay field to catch your lesson horse - HA!
Parents: Your Kids are Doing Just Fine.
(No seriously, they're great)
1/3/26
Let's talk horse lessons for Littles. You've asked prices, location, lesson structure, and decided to sign your kiddo up knowing that there are 30 min and 60 min options. You don't want your child to feel like their time is too short... and technically the 60 min option is more economical per half-hour... so you decide to bite the bullet and schedule an hour session. Now you wait (perhaps excitedly, perhaps anxiously, or perhaps a little bit of both!) for that special day! I'd like to guide you through my thought-process regarding Littles and their lessons.
Price per lesson
Horses are a luxury item. They are no longer used to plow our fields or for transportation (well, sometimes they are along HW 34...) and have somehow wormed their way into this weird "no man's land" between companion animals and livestock. They don't fit either definition well, and neither group wants to call them completely their own since, technically, there ARE sects of people who still utilize horses as tools. Then again... many also wonder whether they truly deserve to be labeled livestock in modern agriculture. Opinions on this range across the board from "horses should be classified with cats and dogs and treated as such" to "modern ag was built on the backs of horses and the equine industry still adds to the US & world economies of course they should be characterized as livestock. Thus qualifying them for various ag grants, loans, and tax benefits." My own opinion on this is ever-evolving. The more I learn and the more equine research is funded, my opinions change. Regardless, horses cost a pretty penny to maintain, to keep, to house, to feed. All of this is factored into lesson price, which we are here to talk about anyway - so I digress!
When I schedule a littles lesson I ALWAYS schedule an hour out of my own schedule, especially for the first lesson. Preschool-ish agers sometimes are enthralled for 60 minutes and leave wanting more, some days they are mentally/physically exhausted, hungry, just not feeling it. And so we get 20 minutes in and they are finished. What happens in these times when a child hasn't completed a full thirty minutes?
I try my darndest to keep them engaged for 10 more minutes - even if that means we look at the cats, or maybe we pet the baby horse, or maybe we go feed treats to another herd. If there is one thing the child is willing to do, then I try to make that take up the last ten minutes to complete at least a half hour lesson. However, sometimes kids are just done after 20 minutes. In that case, I do still charge the 30 min lesson fee simply because I respect my time, but I also respect yours! If we schedule a 60 min lesson and your child is only able to do 20-30 min, then we will call it a 30 min lesson and move on with our days. If your child reaches the 40ish min mark, then we call that a full lesson and I ask for the full lesson price. We can go with the flow of your child, follow their lead some, and price the lesson accordingly. (Seriously - I do this A LOT.)
Lesson Structure
This is another piece that can feel foggy to parents, particularly when they are relatively new to my program and don't know me, my mom, or the other characters at the Clark Funny Farm. (My mom taught at EU for years and now works for the AEA, my stepdad still teaches at EU, and my husband drives a school bus part time so if you're from Afton you probably know at least one of us.)
On the other hand, say we are brand new people to you: you've been informed of the general blueprint for lesson structure, but then the day of you may be watching thinking "what on earth is happening here." Let's dissect those happenings.
My first and foremost priority with every rider is to keep them SAFE, then to make them comfortable. With younger children, the relationship is the basis of their trust. The first session can look slow, it can look chaotic, it can look like your child "getting away with stuff," but don't fret, dear parent! Your child is just fine! For real, they're doing GREAT! The more we get to know each other, the more they learn where the boundaries are and what the purpose of their lessons are, we will relax into a routine.
Every lesson routine with every rider is slightly different. Lessons for young children are no different. Sometimes we take 5 min breaks to pet kitties, sometimes we agree to walk the entire farm and look at and pet every single horse on property, sometimes we are interested in moseying down the driveway on our lesson horse. Whatever the case, whatever makes your child "tick," that's my job to figure out. It's my job to ensure they feel safe, supported, and seen. So don't worry if the two of us appear scattered and untethered to a linear schedule, and please don't worry if your child seems interested in everything except the horse. Horses are big! It's totally normal! When I say I come with a general outline for a lesson but it's open to flexibility, I mean I am SUUUUUUUPER flexible. If a child has a lesson where they just aren't into it, it's more important for our horsey success to honor that (all the while I'll do my best to meet that 30 min mark). If we honor where the child is at rather than pushing, prodding, or pressuring them to continue when they say they are finished, they will come to the next lesson feeling seen and heard, empowered and refreshed, and significantly more comfortable expressing themselves. At the end of the day, expressing themselves and feeling confident are two huge pros to horse-children interactions. Talk to any horse person - their horse is their therapist and best friend and teacher. This is what I want to foster for your child in a safe, controlled, welcoming, and inclusive environment.
So to finish off, dear parent, worry not when your child inevitably has an off day. My own preschool-ager likes to ride. And by ride what she really means is, have mom and dad get her horse, get her horse ready, then she sits up there like the queen she is to be led around for two laps. Then she's done! Some days she doesn't even make it ten minutes! And that's very age appropriate. My first grader is significantly more committed to enjoying his horse and learning how to communicate with/read his horse. This is due in part to his age and in part due to having that innately inside him. He and his horse are best friends on a soul level, whereas my youngest likes the act of and aesthetics of riding. Neither of these ways of being is better than the other. Both of these belong in the barn, we have room for all types in the barn, and coming-as-you-are is always welcome, appreciated, and respected. Whatever your child does or does not do, they're just fine! No seriously - they're doing GREAT.
Y'all ever been trained by a mule?
12/28/25
This fall my very first mule ever - well, besides the mules that my elderly retired show gelding Mister Detail would spook at during the height of his show career, without fail, every time we were in proximity to one - crossed my path and came to the farm to join the "training horse herd." Except this description isn't even accurate... because he's not a horse! He's a mule! Hold up... What is a mule?! Perhaps we should define the word "mule" first. A mule is the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse. Mules have an uneven number of chromosomes due to the horse/donkey combo. Horses have 64 chromosomes and donkeys have 62. Thus, the poor mule ended up with an odd 63 chromosomes and as a result, is sterile. They are unable to reproduce mule-to-mule, and so a horse and a donkey are required to make each and every mule that exists. Kind of cool, right? So many things about mules are cool, but here are my favorites:
1. Their temperament is slightly different from horses. It's more like a donkey -- mules prioritize their safety above all else. If a mule feels unsafe, it will NOT do what you are asking come hell or high water. The mule must trust you in order to do what you ask, and earning that trust is done by being a THOUGHTFUL, MINDFUL, and REASONABLE handler. If you ask a mule to do things they deem unsafe, your mule will know and remember that, and you will have to spend time mending bridges and repairing the relationship before they will trust you to try new things (and sometimes even things they already know how to do!). Trust is extremely important to a mule because somehow this sterile creature has an innate will to survive.
2. The ears. This one is pretty obvious right? Oh the ears! Mules have super long ears thanks to their donkey parent. Not only are the ears extremely aesthetically pleasing, but they are fascinating satellites that indicate exactly what a mule is focused on and where his attention is, how he is feeling, what he thinks of your training idea/maneuver, etc. It's a snapshot into what is going on inside the mule's head, and being able to have these obvious banners of "Hello! Human! Remember ME and MY THOUGHTS in your training process!" is priceless. Of course horses have these exact snapshots as well, but the large size of mule ears make them all the harder to overlook. Ears tend to be sensitive on all equids, right? Well for the mule it's almost like their sensitivity is on steroids. I believe this goes back to their survival instincts, and since their ears are important for listening, communication, perceiving the world around them, they are extremely touch sensitive and thus the mule doesn't particularly care for them to be messed with. I had no idea until Festus coming into my life that mules actually have different bridles with snaps so that you do not have to fold the ears forward to get a headstall on.
3. Training HAS to go at the mule's pace. A mule will not be bullied, strong-armed, or otherwise tricked into completing a maneuver for you. This has been a refreshing change for me as I tend to train with a "horse-first" mindset (side note: a great pod to check out regarding horse-first training is Emotional Horsemanship by Australian horse trainer Lachie Phillips). I tended toward the horse-first mindset of working with horses prior to even learning there was a name for it or that it was an idea that other trainers have been using for decades. A mule requires a mule-first mindset. For sure! Festus has helped me learn to simply take things as they are in the moment. I can come in with a blueprint of how I would like a training session to look, and Festus the mule comes in to remind me that flexibility must be part of his training process. When he is done, he is done. When he says enough is enough, it's enough. If I plan for a skill to take approximately ten minutes, sometimes it takes twenty. And that's just the way it is, it's the way it has to be. Not because mules are naughty, they're not stubborn, they simply need to know every step of the way that they are safe, and they absolutely NEED time to process. Here's a real time example:
Saddling is new to Festus. He is here to be started under saddle. Getting used to the saddle pad is a skill that generally, in my experience with my training system -- I'm just talking personal experiences here, takes about ten minutes for 2-3 days for a horse to accept. For Festus, it took a solid week of working with the pad, in increasing increments of time, for him to fully accept the pad. At first, just looking at it, touching it (very helpfully his owner had already taught him "touch" with his nose so that helped us out here!), and having it hung on the fence while we worked was enough for him. I'm talking 3-5 minutes of actually interacting with the saddle pad. In order for him to fully settle, I would have to remove the pad from the workspace completely so he felt safe and secure focusing on other skills he'd already grasped. Festus taking to the saddle pad looked different from what I had expected, on a different schedule than I expected, and yet... here's the kicker... he's GOT IT. Very little review has been required for him to "desensitize" to the pad since the completion of that week where he was actively learning and processing. Now that he's learned it, he's got it for life. Again, super cool, right?!
This first mule of "mine" (entrusted to my care, to my training program, and at the Clark Funny Farm in general) has been quite the ride. He's been a joy, a reminder to remain present, and grounded, and mindful. All things that we can use in our everyday lives. I'll leave it here with a quick story for today:
When I first learned I'd be getting a mule in for training, I reached out to my horsey people to see who had mule connections. Thank goodness these connections got me in touch with exactly the right people!
When someone was explaining the horse vs. mule mentality, they gave
me this little quip to chew on:
"A horse will accept you as a boss, but a mule will want to see your
resume."
Oof - if this hasn't rung true countless times! 60 days are finished with
good old Festus and we are working on completing 60 more. He has
certainly taught me what training, communication, and mulemanship is
all about. Thanks Fest!Couldn't ask for a better trainer!
