Macfarm Agistment

Macfarm Agistment Boutique horse agistment property set on 28 acres of prime grazing land. We pride ourselves on personal care and quality service for your horse.

We are a purpose built equestrian facility set on 28 acres of prime grazing land, located next to Waterford Equestrian & Pony Club. Riding and caring for horses for over 30 years and a veterinary nurse in a specialist centre for the last 20 years.

24hour supervision, we live on the property

Facilities include,

*ELD 20 x 60 arena
*Round Yard
*Stable block with tack room & feed shed
*Post with El

ectrobraid fencing
*Large Individual paddocks with lots of grass
*Paddock rotation & Irrigation
*All paddocks have shelters & self watering
troughs
*Wash bay with Hot & Cold water and lighting

Full Care $150 per week (owner supplies feed & hay)

Rehab care in stable from $350 per week depending on requirements, bandage changes, medicating eyes, wounds. (owner supplies, medication, bandaging material, feed & hay)
Twice daily stable cleaning (shavings included)
Twice daily walking, depending on injury
Qualified veterinary nurse
Limited spaces available
Enquiries & viewing welcomed

Horses must be Hendra vaccinated

13/03/2026

Arena is closed, lots of rain yesterday šŸŒ§

05/03/2026

For humans, looking for meaning behind actions comes very naturally. It suits our species, as learning to read social cues and behaviour aids suits our mental and physical well-being.

But is this trait beneficial when working with horses?

Horses are not humans and there is no evidence for suggesting that some may be ā€˜stupidā€™ or hold ulterior motives.

What we do know is that some things (like food, comfort, socialisation or tactile rewards) motivate horses in different ways and in different contexts and further, that there is considerable variation between horses and their motivational tendencies and preferences.

Whilst it is tempting to describe problem behaviour in horses in terms of mental states, it is also misleading and inaccurate.

If you want to efficiently analyse behaviour, you should begin with only what you can directly observe.

Andrew McLean - Modern Horse Training: Equitation Science Principles & Practice, Volume 2. This book is available for purchase on our website!

05/03/2026

Because of the great complexity of living systems, drilling down to the truth of anything is never easy and the scientific method is among the best we have to date.

However, in saying that one should not reject out of hand, with limited information, the wisdom of experience.

Well before statistical methods were used, vast experience in trial and error yielded myriad positive results in medicine that are still valid today.

While the scientific method gives us ā€˜first principlesā€™, it is important to always remain open to alternative views so long as they can be scrutinised as thoroughly as possible.

A long lifetime of working with horses each and every day should never be dismissed out of hand for the short-lived simplicity of a single non-replicated experiment.

An experienced scientist should be very considered in the way they assess experiential ā€˜wisdomā€™.

Frequently, such wisdom will be demonstrated to be more than likely true.

Andrew McLean - Modern Horse Training: Equitation Science Principles & Practice, Volume 1.

13/02/2026

The arena is closed šŸŒ§

16/11/2025

Horses differ in their sensitivity, as well as their motivation.

This means that when you use any pressure, youā€™ll need to identify each and every horseā€™s innate or acquired sensitivity.

If the pressure used is consistently below a motivating level the horse may habituate and require more pressure in the future, inducing negative affect.

Conversely, using pressures that exceed the motivating level is also a recipe for poor welfare.

Good horsemanship has always been about tuning in to the precise motivating level of pressure for each individual. An experienced horse person can often determine a horseā€™s sensitivity simply through touch and grooming.

Andrew McLean - Modern Horse Training: Equitation Science Principles & Practice, Volume 2

šŸ“– Available for purchase on our website!

05/11/2025

What is Social Licence to Operate and why is it at risk?

Lately, Iā€™ve seen the phrase Social Licence to Operate popping up more and more, and honestly, itā€™s something we really need to talk about.

It sounds formal, but itā€™s actually something very human: public trust.

A Social Licence to Operate means that society gives its approval for an activity to continue, not through laws or paperwork, but through belief that it aligns with their values.

In welfare science, itā€™s basically how the public decides whether an industry still deserves its place. That acceptance only lasts as long as people believe those animals are treated ethically, fairly, and with genuine care.

For horses, that licence allows us to keep involving them in sport, training, and leisure. But that trust is fragile, and right now, itā€™s at risk.

Public concern isnā€™t misplaced, itā€™s justified.

They see:

ā€¢ Horses confined to stalls, unable to move or socialise.

ā€¢ Tight nosebands, spurs, and whips used for ā€œcontrol.ā€

ā€¢ Young horses pushed into training before their bodies are ready.

ā€¢ Photos and videos of tension, fear, and pain shared as ā€œnormal.ā€

ā€¢ Injuries, breakdowns, and deaths in competition,
often with little accountability.

Images of horses finishing races with blood on their mouths are exactly why the public is questioning us.

These arenā€™t isolated cases. Theyā€™re patterns, and the public is right to question them.

To be honest, I donā€™t think we deserve a social licence in our current state. Weā€™ve normalised too many practices that put performance, convenience, or appearance ahead of welfare.

So when people ask if I care about ā€œlosing the sport,ā€ my answer is this:

I care about the horses, not about protecting systems that continue to fail them.

If losing parts of the industry is what it takes to rebuild something ethical, compassionate, and transparent, that isnā€™t a loss. Thatā€™s progress.

Because if we canā€™t put welfare at the center, whatā€™s the point?

If the horse world canā€™t exist without compromising welfare, then maybe it shouldnā€™t survive as it is.

If the price of keeping our social licence is the horseā€™s wellbeing, then we donā€™t deserve it.

02/11/2025

Arena is open šŸŽ‰

01/11/2025

Due to all the rain last night, the arena is closed. šŸ˜ž

29/10/2025

Arena is closed, had nearly 100mm of rain.

27/10/2025

ā€œMy mantra throughout the years has been: if you have trained a bird to sit on your arm, you must let go of its wings. If it flies away, it is not trained to do that, it is held. Holding is not training. Training horses is exactly the same. When your horse is truly trained, you can place both reins forward for two strides and the horse will not accelerate or change his head or neck outline.ā€ā€‹ - Andrew McLean on self carriage.

This is an excerpt from Modern Horse Training: Equitation Science Principles & Practice, Volume 2 - available for purchase in time for Xmas at our webshop. https://esi-education.com/product/modern-horse-training-equitation-science-principles-practice-volume-2/

24/10/2025

šŸ’”A systematic review and meta-analysis by the Universities of Bologna and Turin delivers fresh insights into how horses and ponies allocate their time each day and what this means for their welfare and management.

By integrating data from fourteen different studies between 1979 and 2020, and analysing the time budgets of 364 horses under wild, natural-living, and stabled conditions, the research team set out to understand the influence of management, social settings, diet, age, and s*x on core behavioursā€”feeding, resting, standing, and moving.

They found that free-ranging horses spent significantly more time feeding (about 56% of the day) than stabled horses (38%), and that horses kept in groups or grazing also dedicated more time to eating than those fed hay indoors or kept alone.

Female horses and ponies were observed to feed and rest for longer periods than males or larger horses.

In contrast, horses in confined or isolated settings stood still much more and moved less, patterns that in the wild would be unusual and may signal compromised welfare.

The study confirms that management systems allowing horses to exhibit natural foraging, social bonding, and voluntary movement are strongly linked to better welfare outcomes.

Based on these findings, the authors advocate for husbandry that replicates natural conditions as closely as possible such as providing constant access to roughage, group turnout, space for exercise, and varied environments for physical and behavioural health.

The review also highlights the importance of detailed monitoring and encourages further research using emerging technologies to support ethical and sustainable equine care.

šŸ“– Time-activity budget in horses and ponies: A systematic review and meta-analysis on feeding dynamics and management implications,
Journal of Equine Veterinary Science, M. Lamanna, G. Buonaiuto, R. Colleluori, F. Raspa, E. Valle, D. Cavallini.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jevs.2025.105684.

17/10/2025

šŸ¦„ Want a happier horse? Research shows playtime makes a difference!

A new study by Jodi Anne Howard and Neville Pillay from the University of the Witwatersrand examined whether play behaviour could help horses cope with acute stress and improve their decision making abilities.

The research involved horses managed under two very different systems: intensively managed riding-school horses and pasture kept horses.

Each horse was exposed to a short but intense noise stressor, then given the opportunity to interact with a large ball (object play), and was subsequently tested in a decision-making maze to see how well they could choose a food reward.

The findings showed that exposure to stress increased negative emotional behaviours and made decision making less accurate, particularly in intensively managed horses.

However, after just a brief period of object play, horses showed more positive emotional states and their ability to make correct decisions improved dramatically compared to both their baseline performance and the stress-only condition.

Notably, while both management style and s*x influenced some behavioural responses, play consistently returned horsesā€™ behaviour and emotional state closer to normal.

The study concluded that allowing horses regular access to playful enrichment activities can help mitigate the effects of acute stress, especially in environments prone to sudden noise or restriction, such as riding schools.

These results prove that incorporating play and cognitive enrichment into your horses management is a simple, practical strategy for supporting better welfare and resilience.

šŸ“– Hold your horses: The effect of play behaviour in horses (Equus caballus) under imposed stress. Jodi Anne Howard & Neville Pillay.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168159125002503

Address

Natalie Road
Buccan, QLD
4207

Opening Hours

Monday 7am - 8pm
Tuesday 7am - 8pm
Wednesday 7am - 8pm
Thursday 7am - 8pm
Friday 7am - 8pm
Saturday 7am - 8pm

Telephone

+61407525527

Website

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