Equiliberta

23/06/2026

Time for a shower boys! Horses can stand for shower at liberty, even if they are a bit apprehensive about the water. Afrer the shower, boys had a good spray with citronella to repell all the blood sucking critters 🙈😆

18/06/2026

Carys does not know she's famous, she probably wouldn't care 😆 She's a special big lady. Carys was one of my hoof handling rehabs and I am forever grateful to her owner for the trust and support—you know it means a lot ❤️

Also a special Thank You to the Happy Trackin' Magazine for sharing my work 🙏

Today during our trim, I've decided to try something new. Carys never really held her legs for me. I always had to carry the weight of her leg. But I didn't have enough trust that she'd let me use the stand, because I was often clocked to release the leg according to her timer. Today was a bit different. I feel that the longer I trim Carys the stronger our relationship is. The longer she let's me trim.

I suspect that Carys never learnt to hold her foot for HCP. Or she was not given a chance to have her feet trimmed (on her terms 😁). So with heavy horses like this one is not an easy territory to navigate. You can't force your way through. No method is going to make up for lack of communication. And it is our continuous improvement on the level of communication that gets most credit. We are working on a shared understanding of who's got the timer (and the treats)... I believe that we've reached a point where trust is there, now we work on the timer.

Because I can hold the foot for long enough without a sn**ch now, I've taken a leap of faith to try and use the hoof stand for the leg support. It worked out perfectly. My back definitely felt the difference. My next goal post with Carys is to teach her to hold her own leg. Sometimes it takes as long as it takes, but any lasting solution takes time and patience ❤️

P.S. Carys featured with her lovely owner reading the Happy Trackin Magazine 💕

18/06/2026

Another pair of Flex Boots fitted, another comfy horse, and another happy rider 💗

I have six different fit kits: Flex Boots, Explora, Scoot Boots, Cavallo, Equine Fusion, and Evo Boots. I'll be expanding the range as time goes by.

Thank you The Hoof Boot Shop

09/06/2026

Should I let them in? They asked me to let them in 🙈😆 Am I a bad owner for wanting my horses to eat hay?

We did have some lovely growth in the middle, and no, I won't be cutting it into hay.

These meadows in places are full of rye, clover, barley and fescue species that, in my experience, can cause metabolic issues even in hay form. I try to avoid feeding standing hay too. It's not the same as in the semi-desert biome. Here it doesn't fully dry up and lose the fructans.

I've learnt over time to make sure I provide alternatives instead. I'm still working on my wish list. There are some herbal plants I'd love to introduce into their diet and observe how they impact their hooves and lower limbs.

Heavy horses are prone to CPL. In my experience and observations, grass plays a much bigger role than people realise. I watched their feathers clear from mite flare-ups on their own once we reduced grass intake to almost nothing. I also remember those flare-ups returning within three weeks of limited access to high-protein grass growing along the track edges.

What is also not often talked about is the swelling and skin folds that can accompany this. It took us around 12 months to resolve most of the swollen, folded skin.

Fresh grass has had a much more detrimental effect on my own horses than I ever expected. Running a track makes the work worthwhile when I know I'm reducing the things that worry me most, whether that's laminitis, CPL management, or other hoof-related issues.

04/06/2026

✨ Featured in Issue 10 ✨

Many of us currently own or have owned horses who dislike being trimmed. Whether it’s subtle or through explosive behaviour, the signs are often there but the reason as to why isn’t always obvious.

I had the immense pleasure of interviewing Edyta Jackson, an incredibly insightful and passionate horsewoman, owner of Equiliberta and Isnhcp instructor and practitioner.

Featured in Issue 10, Edyta tells us how and why she was prompted to learn more about hoof handling issues through ownership of her two shire boys. Fascinated and eager to get to the very bottom of the discomfort her horses were experiencing, Edyta began piecing together the bigger picture, puzzle piece by puzzle piece.

Now a professional hoof care practitioner specialising in hoof handling issues, Edyta shares the horsemanship secrets she’s learnt along the way. Be it trauma and abuse or repetitive micro-betrayals, Edyta explains what has and hasn’t worked for her along the way whilst sharing the inner, emotional work required of herself too, to truly listen and understand, expressing the importance of a relationship built on mutual trust and a thorough understanding of one another.

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For all your paddock paradise track system and natural horse care content, visit www.happytrackinmagazine.com

Issue 10 is out now!

04/06/2026

I’m very grateful to have been featured in the Happy Trackin' Magazine discussing my approach to hoof handling and hoof handling rehabilitation.

Over the years I realised that what I do isn’t really a method. It’s about following a set of principles. Like Trust, Respect, Patience, Authenticity, Integrity, Humility, and Assertiveness. These principles shape every interaction I have with horses and have gradually become the foundation of my work.

Hoof handling difficulties are rarely about feet. Often they reflect past experiences, communication issues, mental comfort, confidence, or simply a horse trying to be heard. My aim has never been to “get the trim done at all costs”, but to create conditions where the horse can feel safe enough to participate.

To me, communication begins much before the hoof stand is brought in. It begins with listening. Building clarity. Respecting boundaries while offering guidance. Allowing the horse to regain trust and discover that hoof care does not have to happen through force.

This approach has changed not only the way I work, but also the outcomes I see. I am very thankful to everyone who trusted me with their horses and to everyone who continues to explore a more humane, relationship-based approach to hoof care alongside me.

Thank you Maddie for the feature 💛

✨ Featured in Issue 10 ✨

Many of us currently own or have owned horses who dislike being trimmed. Whether it’s subtle or through explosive behaviour, the signs are often there but the reason as to why isn’t always obvious.

I had the immense pleasure of interviewing Edyta Jackson, an incredibly insightful and passionate horsewoman, owner of Equiliberta and Isnhcp instructor and practitioner.

Featured in Issue 10, Edyta tells us how and why she was prompted to learn more about hoof handling issues through ownership of her two shire boys. Fascinated and eager to get to the very bottom of the discomfort her horses were experiencing, Edyta began piecing together the bigger picture, puzzle piece by puzzle piece.

Now a professional hoof care practitioner specialising in hoof handling issues, Edyta shares the horsemanship secrets she’s learnt along the way. Be it trauma and abuse or repetitive micro-betrayals, Edyta explains what has and hasn’t worked for her along the way whilst sharing the inner, emotional work required of herself too, to truly listen and understand, expressing the importance of a relationship built on mutual trust and a thorough understanding of one another.

-

For all your paddock paradise track system and natural horse care content, visit www.happytrackinmagazine.com

Issue 10 is out now!

02/06/2026

Harvesting sticky w**d for autumn/winter. Did you know that it apparently helps with CPL?

What is CPL? Chronic Progressive Lymphedema is a chronic, progressive disorder of the lower limbs, seen especially in heavy breeds such as Shires, Clydesdales, Belgian Drafts, and other heavy feathered breeds of horses.

Typical signs of CPL include:
▪️ swelling around fetlocks and lower limbs
▪️ increasingly thick, “tree bark” skin
▪️ crusting/scabs hidden under feathers
▪️ discomfort during handling
▪️ skin folds and nodules
▪️ itching / stamping
▪️ recurrent Pastern Dermatitis-type lesions
▪️ progressive enlargement of legs

One thing worth mentioning because there is a lot of confusion online. Feather mites are often associated with CPL, but they don't cause it. They do however make the condition worse manifold. Irritation, inflammation and scratching lead to more tissue damage.

So is there a way out? I can only share what I have come to believe to be true through my horses. Consistently over the past 10 years I can say with confidence that the biggest trigger I see for CPL is ingestion of grass (namely life in traditional pasture). In 2023 my boys lived on almost no grass track that I have created and managed since 2019. That's when all the flare ups cleared on their own. The swelling on their legs just went away, skin folds decreased drastically, skin was soft and they had 95% scab free skin. Just me doing nothing else but replacing pasture with a diet lower in sugar. "Fructan free" diet 😆 We had to move that same summer, and horses ended up having limited access to grass that grew along the track edges. Within three weeks of them having a little bit of rye, and a little bit of clover I began noticing first mite flare ups pop up.

Fighting chronic conditions is always an uphill battle. So as I learnt and discovered over time my base knowledge got better and I knew where the real power was. It really was in creating environment akin to their adaptative environment, like the U.S. Great Basin. This is why I am such a big fan and suppprter of Paddock Paradise. I do try to help people create their own tracks, in fact I have some exciting projects I've been working on recently, but 🤫

Running a track requires a bit of dedication, especially at the beginning, but if you learn how to systemise all the work, how to set up your place, and what materials to use, it is a much better way of life for horses. In the long run, it is kinder to our wallets too. The cost associated with treatment of symptoms drops. Most importantly the risk of some of the most debilitating conditions can be managed, or even prevented.

CPL is not just some random condition. It is linked to diet, and it can be viewed through the lense of what we call Whole Horse Inflammatory Disease (WHID). It doesnt just affect heavy horses. All horses that suffer metabolic distress are at risk of developing visible discomfort or health issues that can be traced back to the toxicity associated with fructan rich diet.

I hope this was informative, now I'm back to work... The day is just not long enough to do all the jobs 😐 but I'm proud of our Marigold patch seeded by Charlotte 🙃 now I hope we get some more rain. We need more hay.

PS. Marigold too is recommended for CPL.

31/05/2026

Thought for the day: Emotion makes you a bad observer.

Women are 70% emotion, 30% thought in very plane terms. We process things very differently to men. In fact men would be on the opposite side of the spectrum. It's not bad or good. Being close to an emotion carries certain advantages, like intuition and insight. When were not well balanced emotionally and allow emotions reign, we destroy not only what is in our sight, but also our own life. It's not to say that only women carry the burden of emotion, men do too, it's just a part of a bigger conversation. Anyway. I know this is so off topic but I've heard this brilliant thought and I felt I had to share it. Have a blessed day

27/05/2026

Oh I love surprises 🫣 spider season is in full bloom. They're everywhere 😭
Mind me saying this, at least we don't have to deal with ticks.