Footing

You might be asking, "what kind of footing is best where I'll be working my horse." Well, a few years ago I probably would have said that level footing that doesn't have a lot of holes is the best. That way you don't twist an ankle and your horse has the ability to run and play in the round pen without having to worry about sliding. Well, I am amending that comment.

As you may know, SS Ranch 77 recently moved to Idaho where we definitely have winter weather, so we did some research on the footing we should have for our horses. I saw a video once, by one of our favorite trainers, Jonathan Fields and he was lunging his horse up and down a hill. He says that gives them experience with uneven footing, giving them more experience will make them safer to ride in more situations and who doesn't want to ride their horse anywhere that suits their fancy that day.

Our research said that adding sand to the footing in a round pen will help the water to drain away and leave the sand which can be dragged to stay more even and then much drier than if you just have the mud left over after a recent rain or snow. Well, we don't have a lot of extra money right now, so we put the round pens in place, but haven't tilled the ground at all. Well, the horses don't seem to mind. They kick around and enjoy their time in the round pen, the humans just have to keep their knees bent so we don't twist an ankle. See the horses are used to keeping their balance and they have 3 other feet at any given time that they can "fall back on" to get balanced again. The uneven ground in the round pens is made by the grass that grows in tufts, but that is quickly being flattened by the hooves. 

We are going to do some grading and adjusting to the ground in the round pens, but the horses don't seem to mind at all running around as they are now.

We do have a small sand arena, we call it the barnyard, that has good deep sand footing. The sand drains the rain/snow away and it's a good place to ride even in the weather we get here in the winter. We're excited to continue to make developments to our property that gets it more "perfect" for our horses.