From a young age, I knew that I would live a life with horses in it. While I didn’t come from a horsey family, or know anyone who had a horse, I was always certain that horses were part of who I would grow to be. We did not live in an area where horses lived, but I jumped at every opportunity to attend horse camps or meet a horse. I had the books, the Breyer horses, played horse-themed games and drew horses on every scrap of paper. Later I was able to take some riding lessons, and eventually had the chance to ride and care for horses when their owner didn’t have the time. Somehow I managed to manifest the most perfect first horse that could have existed for myself, taking on full responsibility for his life at only 14 years old. Tucker has been in my care for 19 years now. Not only does my life have horses in it, but that first horse became the center of my whole world.
Tucker was a constant in my life through high school, college, and the wild era known as our 20’s. He met every guy I dated, listened to me explaining all my poor decisions, and moved with me to new places with minimal complaints. He’s been a reason to skip class, looked after me when in tears, carried me on insane adventures, and provided a reason to laugh with joy when I felt like my whole world was filling with darkness. I have never known a time as an adult where I wasn’t responsible for his life, though the weight of responsibility fluctuated as my own life unfolded. For over a decade, we both moved around a lot. Fortunately, it wasn’t too long before Tucker was joined by his adopted little brother Trubee. Having two horses was never part of my plan, but Trubee had a different plan! We officially adopted Trubee in my final quarter of college, after knowing him the previous three years. Moving around with two horses was actually easier than with one, because I never had to worry about either of their mental or emotional wellbeing so long as they were together.
With both horses, I moved around within the same town a few times before moving several hours away. Then we moved back to my hometown area, traveled quite a bit for a year up & down California, then we moved back to our college town. We only moved twice more before ending up at our current home, where we all live together. My life changed dramatically throughout the years, and my horses had to change their lives with me. While I always prioritized their health and happiness, my dedication to my horses obviously varied over those younger years. So when @laurakleinsmith on IG asked me the following questions, I knew I had to answer in full:
“One thing I feel strongly about is being prepared to care for a horse for their entire life. What do you do when your own life circumstances change? Moving to new places? Different jobs/time freedom? That sort of thing.”
To begin, I don’t think we can ever truly be prepared to care for a horse for their entire life. Life is far too unpredictable to make such a promise. What we can promise is to always do our best, and to make decisions for our animals that put their overall quality of life first. Perhaps it is an unpopular opinion, but I believe it is okay if we go through time periods where our horses, or other animals, are not in fact living the best life that we know they deserve. I believe it is better to keep an animal, so long as they are receiving their most basic needs for survival, even when times get hard. Your dedication to improving your situation will eventually bring you out of the hard times, and your animals will be better off in the long run to be with someone who cares deeply for their wellbeing. Far too many animals end up in terrible conditions because someone gave them up when life got hard.
Of course there are situations where giving up an animal is the only good option, and I’m not saying anyone should keep an animal if they cannot feed the animal or themselves. But there were long time periods where my horses were out in a pasture and I barely did anything beyond basic care. Were they their happiest selves? No, definitely not, but they had all their basic needs met and were checked on regularly. We got through those times, and now they live the most luxurious horse lives I could have imagined for them. Could things still be improved? Absolutely! I still strive to provide more & better things for them. But life is never about having it all right out the gate (not for most of us, at least). Owning horses is a journey, just like anything else in life. We learn, improve, and do better. My instructor from when I learned to ride once said the wisest thing I think ever said about horse ownership. It went something like: no one can afford horses, you simply get the horse and figure it out anyway. And there is a certain grit to horse people. You have to want to make it work, and you can never give up on that dream. The horse’s life cannot be paused, and that is something you have to adapt to when you take on the responsibility of any animal.
Changing Life Circumstances + Moving
It is hard to quickly sum up 15 years of boarding experience. When I met Tucker, he lived in a truly amazing pasture that I had no idea wasn’t the norm. I basically grew up on the ranch where he arrived around 3 years old, so we kind of both grew up there together. The horses were all fed the same, and their food was not something I had to concern myself with; he was always beautifully filled out, maybe a little on the chunky side! He had a small herd of close friends, and a greater friend circle with the rest of the horses on the property. I lived 45 minutes away, so I only got to visit him once a week during the school year. That was until I got my drivers license, and then I would sometimes get to visit him on Thursdays when I had half days at school. We worked summer camps with kids, went on trail rides off the property, rode in the large lovely arenas, and enjoyed a mostly empty ranch that was just past its busy boarding season of life. This was our entire experience throughout high school.
Early Years
When I first left for college, my parents thought it would be best if I experienced freshman year without my horse. That was obviously a mistake, as I went home at least once a month to spend the weekend with my horse. I didn’t make any lasting friendships outside of my roommates, and overall didn’t have the best time. So for my second year, I went all-in and brought him with me for the first quarter to attend a riding class as part of earning my Equine Science minor. It was wonderful having him within walking distance of my room, and we had a lot of fun. This meant that I jumped straight into suddenly making care decisions for my horse that had lived in a big group pasture with plenty of food and was known as being on the fatter side. Never before had I needed to think about anything beyond getting his feet trimmed on time. He lost SO much weight going from that to being stalled and ridden 5 days a week. I didn’t know what a “hard keeper” was or what he was supposed to be fed, and the facility was not generous in the amount of hay they fed. I was literally in school to earn an Animal Science degree, and I was actively learning about how to keep my own horse alive simultaneously.
That first year, we returned home together for every long break. I started to understand the significance of the relationships he had with his herd from home, and the benefits of pasture. But honestly, they weren’t teaching any of that in school and I was jealous of the people who could afford the fancy stalls once we moved off campus to a regular boarding barn. I realized that Tucker had a tendency to bond closely with his neighboring horses, and experienced serious separation anxiety from those friends. Fortunately, my college budget kept Tucker mostly in group pastures so at least there was that! And that’s how he became besties with Trubee. When we moved to our next barn, Trubee moved with us and they’ve never been separated since.
Post-College
Once I finished with college, my horses had moved 3 times in 4 years. The job I got ended up being very close to where they lived at that time, which meant I had a great routine of visiting them before work most days. Eventually my horse time dwindled, and I really didn’t do much with them for some time. I remember wondering if I would ever want to ride or do our trick/play routines regularly again. It was the beginning of what I now look back as a somewhat dark time period in my life, the start of a path I would share with a boy who I should have separated from much earlier than I did. Within a few years we made a huge move several hours north, and had access to the most incredible trail riding. This was a crazy move, to a totally different type of living arrangement. They had separate stalls with paddocks, and were turned out in a larger space together every other day. While they handled it pretty well overall, I again was hit with a huge shift in the nutritional needs of my horses, particularly Tucker. He lost a ton of weight, and I really didn’t understand what the problem was. Now I know it was a combination of stress, a huge workload, and low calorie hay with little help from more processed forages like pellets or cubes. I quickly solved that issue and both horses left that home in the best shape of their lives.
Mid-Late Twenties
The next year we were in our hometown area, and they had a large paddock together where I learned about using hay nets to provide 24/7 forage. They made this move so gracefully, me having finally figured out how to feed them properly and having more space for just the two of them to share. We hardly did anything while we lived here, but we did take many trips together to different friends homes several hours away. I had a taste of living on the same property as them during those trips, and while I loved that aspect I couldn’t truly appreciate this time period due to the personal issues in my life at the time. Still, my horses moved with me as I moved about trying to figure out my life. In fact, during this entire decade post-college, I also had two large-ish dogs and two cats traveling with me as well. So yes, my life could be falling apart and you’d still catch me loading up my truck and trailer with all 6 animals.
Then it was 2020, and I had just moved back to where we all attended college, to the same facility where Trubee had convinced Tucker to be his best friend, when life obviously changed for us all. For me, this actually meant time for me to reconnect with my horses and finally start down a new path that would lead me away from the toxic path I had been trapped on for years. By the end of the year, my horses moved locations yet again, only to move again a few months later. First, they were on a massive pasture with other horses, and while it was awesome for some reasons it also was majorly lacking in others. I wasn’t quite off that toxic path, either. So the next move was the right move, even though it meant my horses lived a bit farther from me it was completely worth it for the facilities they had and the people we were with. Finally, they lived at that last location for about a year and half before we moved up to our current home in the summer of 2022.
How I Handled Moving with Horses
The actual logistics of moving horses varies depending on the distance and what the new place includes. Often, we’d move across town which I could easily do in stages. I would usually move the horses and their supplements/extra feed at the same time, and then depending on what else is going on in my life move the rest of our stuff separately. I have always had a truck and trailer of my own, which definitely makes moving a lot simpler! When moving towns, I would have to plan more strategically to load all our stuff in the truck ahead of time so we could move in one trip. I would usually try to bring a bale of hay if the facility allowed so they could transition to new hay, but within town this was not usually necessary as most of the hay was likely sourced from the same places. The boys did not have sensitive stomachs either, so we never struggled with this aspect! The hardest part of moving would be if we were moving to a group pasture setting, as it was always a simple ‘turn them out and hope for the best’ situation. Most of the time it turned out fine, there was only one time where I actually had to request a pasture change because they were being kept from all the food and water by the other horses. Usually they were the bullies, so we had to deal with that too!
Struggles with New Barns
My least favorite part of boarding and moving barns was always figuring out the social situation with the other humans, and what the rules were about what was okay and not okay to do with the horses. I liked to turn my boys out in an arena together for example, because they would use that as their play time and have a lot of fun. But that isn’t always acceptable! And because Tucker and Trubee are so closely bonded, it takes several months in a new location before they are comfortable separating. I generally tried to keep them together by bringing them both out and leaving them tied close to the arena if I was riding the other, or have the other loose in the arena with us if that was allowed. Trubee spent a lot of time being ponied off Tucker, too! Especially on trail rides so I could bring both.
Looking back, it is wild to me how little control and information I had about what the horses were eating at any given place. These days it is one of the main things I think about when I consider my horse’s care, but that has only been a focus since around 2018. Once I started wanting to provide 24/7 hay for my horses in boarding situations, things definitely got more complicated. Since they were usually in group pastures, I had to get everyone on board with the idea. I wasn’t always successful, and instead would visit my horses multiple times a day to make sure they had snacks between meal times. Private paddocks were where I started experimenting with different slow feeders and types of hay, which ended up being the best scenario for them!
Time Limitations + Benefits of Boarding
Over the years, there were lots of time periods where I could only visit my horses 2-3 times a week. Growing up, I only saw Tucker once or twice a week if I was lucky. The only reason this was possible for me without my horses suffering was because my horses lived in group pastures, with enough space to move and usually with grazing as well. There were always people around who would contact me if they saw something odd with either of them. While not ideal, and definitely not a lifestyle I want to return to, my horses did just fine and there’s nothing wrong with this scenario! My relationship with them did not suffer, and even when they lived in dirt lots I was still able to keep them stocked with 24/7 grass hay too. I believe that our horses understand that life happens in seasons and phases, and as long as they have their basic needs met they won’t suffer long-term from a bit of affection-neglect. Both my horses are hugely demanding for my time, so I say this while knowing what it is like to have horses that truly do want to do things with me!
Boarding horses can be a huge blessing when life gets difficult or busy. When my horses were living in places I trusted, I felt comfortable taking trips and leaving them for extended time periods. I took many 7-10 day trips, and even travelled Europe for a full month. I almost always had a half leaser to help pay Trubee’s bills, and that was a very helpful extra set of eyes to depend on too. If I got sick, I would take a few days to rest. Between the facility, friends, and leasers I generally always felt confident that my horses were looked after well enough.
Today, with the horses at our home, I can’t imagine leaving for more than a day or maybe two. I know I would need to pay someone to actually stay at our home, and ideally who also works from home so can be on site most of the time to check on them periodically. My horses have a much more elaborate routine now, because I’m here and I have fine-tuned everything in collaboration with them. I love every moment of it, but the guilt of leaving them with anything less than what they’re now accustomed to can ruin my time away. Because we’re not at a busy boarding facility, there is also a far less likely chance that a neighbor might catch anything off with my horses and be able to call me if they see something. I have cameras, but they don’t cover their entire pasture. So while the benefits outweigh any cons for me personally, this is something I think people need to strongly consider when it comes to keeping horses at home.
We can never truly prepare for everything, especially when it comes to horses. While horses are delicate in many ways, they are truly resilient and adaptable as well!
