Ely Equine Enterprises, LLC

07/08/2026

Mark your calendars!

Calling all horse owners, barn managers, 4-H'ers, or equine enthusiasts!

🐴🌱 PastureWise Equine🌱🐴

Are you looking to improve your horse’s health, pasture productivity, and grazing management practices? Join us PastureWise Equine, a hands-on educational program designed to help horse owners understand how soil, forage, and horse management work together to create healthier horses and more sustainable farms.

This year, we are bringing the program to three locations across Virginia:
1. Thursday, August 27 at Hoge Farm Stables - Blacksburg
2. Friday, September 18 at Oakdale Equestrian Center - Powhatan
3. Friday, October 30 at Rapidan Equine Sanctuary - Fredericksburg (please note the date change to the 30th!)

⏰ 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
💲 $20 per person (includes lunch)

Explore the connection between soil health, forage production, and grazing success through:

🌾 Plant Management: pasture evaluation and conservation practices you can implement on your own farm

🐎 Equine Management: Equine nutrition fundamentals, how to evaluate hay, metabolic health and body condition scoring

🌱 Soil Management: Soil health principles and management practices

📝 Registration is open! Visit https://tinyurl.com/PastureWise for more details!

📞 Questions? Contact Mackenzie Gunn at [email protected] or 804-561-2481.

This program is supported by a grant through Virginia Horse Industry Board - VHIB with support from the Virginia Forage and Grassland Council

Virginia Cooperative Extension is a partnership of Virginia Tech, Virginia State University, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and local governments, and is an equal opportunity employer. For the full non-discrimination statement, please visit ext.vt.edu/accessibility

If you are a person with a disability and desire any assistive devices, services or other accommodations to participate in this activity, please contact Mackenzie Gunn, Amelia Extension Office at 804-561-2481 during business hours of 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. to discuss accommodations 5 days prior to the event. *TDD number is (800) 828-1120.

Alt Text: Promotional flyer for the Virginia Cooperative Extension's PastureWise Equine program. The flyer features a maroon silhouette of a grazing horse over an outline of Virginia. Text reads: “Ready to deep dive into equine and pasture management? Join us at one of our THREE locations for PastureWise Equine!” Registration and more information available at tinyurl.com/PastureWise
The flyer includes logos for the Virginia Horse Industry Board, Virginia Cooperative Extension and the Virginia Forage and Grassland Council. The flyer is displayed over a background image of a green pasture with trees and blue sky.

04/02/2026

It's my best redheads birthday today! 💙 21 years young and still full of life!

PC: Alli Berry Photography

03/20/2026

Happy First Day of Spring! Also lovingly referred to as "mud season"... who needs the gym when you have a curry comb and a Momo!

03/01/2026

Motherhood might shape how it gets done but does not change the results.

Now is a good time to start thinking about spring deworming plans and f***l tests. Let me know how I can help you!

11/02/2025

Edited: Some lessons are best learned the hard way. What I thought would be an easy, quick tightening to stop a leak in this auto waterer quickly turned into a high pressure situation. Thankfully my right hand boy Momo was there as usual to inspect the damages and "help". Needless to say this lesson really soaked in 😆.

Tips to consider when installing waterers on your farm:
- know how they work before an emergency arises.
- always have a quick access shut off valve installed for easy maintenance and care.
- buy spare parts/repair kit to have on hand for when things inevitably go wrong

10/29/2025

Excited to share that the team here at Ely Equine Enterprises is expanding in January and our soon to be newest employee will be well dressed! ❤️

09/15/2025

I've been awfully quiet this summer but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy. Managing several research projects simultaneously, and some on the cusp of finishing up, mean lots of data to sort through. However, I'm excited that today I collected baseline forage data on the grazing track vs rotational grazing systems (a project near and dear to my heart). Bolt and Momo are also excited to be back on grass and as you can see are always helpful in monitoring my efforts. (They were really hoping I had a cookie for them... sorry boys!).

06/19/2025

I know I've been quiet this Spring but it's been an action packed few months of research and science! I wrapped up phase 1 of a bedding study (more details to follow), submitted a manuscript, and attended the 2025 joint NAEAA and ESS meetings in Fort Collins. One of the highlights from those meetings (aside from spending time with colleagues) was Katy taking 2nd place in the Undergraduate Poster Competition. She has worked so hard the last year and all of her efforts paid off. I'm grateful to have been a part of it and excited to see where her future takes her.

You can read her abstract published in this special issue of JEVS.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0737080625000942

04/22/2025

I love vendors that are horse people... they get other horse people and what we need/want in swag! The black tool is pretty cool for opening all of the bedding bags I'm using on my latest research project! The blade automatically retracts so that it is immediately safe to put in my pocket. The ear tag cutter (used as a baling twine cutter) has a magnet so that it doesn't get lost!

04/11/2025

I'll be speaking (and hosting) at the MARE Center next week on pasture management. Join us for a great day of education!