Heaven Sent Farm, LLC

06/05/2026

I could really do without all these buttercups 😅

This year is showing we are due for a bit of pasture maintenance in the next year, as the buttercups are back for really the first time in 4 years.

They tend to grow mostly in areas with little grass, like the fence lines and walking paths the horses have made, as well as areas with high mowing activity.

As you can see luckily our actual fields are still full of safe and healthy grazing grass, only now it comes with a golden border 😆

It's been nice to be buttercup free, looks like I'll be doing extra w**d management planning this summer!

Remember that fresh buttercups are a toxic plant to horses, including GI upset when digested, wasting in long term consumption, and even skin irritation from prolonged contact.
Buttercups sun dried are non-toxic although they are NOT considered an edible plant for horses.

06/04/2026

To be clear, I think ALL potential welfare concerns should be investigated.

BUT I find it fascinating how quickly hypothetical welfare concerns are raised when discussing bitless or bridleless equipment.

Every piece of equipment SHOULD be scrutinized.

Every tool should be questioned.

Every potential welfare implication deserves investigation.

But that SAME level of scrutiny should apply consistently.

Because what I often see is people who are raising concerns about what bitless or bridleless equipment MIGHT do while remaining strangely quiet about welfare concerns that have ALREADY been documented in the literature surrounding traditional equipment.

Hypothetical concerns are important.

Documented concerns matter just as much, if not more.

If we are truly approaching these conversations from a “welfare perspective”, our willingness to question should not depend on whether a piece of equipment is familiar, traditional, or widely accepted.

Welfare discussions become far more meaningful when we apply the same standards to everything.

Not just the things that challenge our assumptions.

And there is absolutely a double standard happening right now in this conversation.

And when HYPOTHETICAL concerns generate more discussion than documented ones, I think it is fair to ask whether welfare is actually driving this conversation at all..

06/02/2026

Are your good intentions of wanting to keep your student safe...unintentionally hurting your lesson horse?

Over-tightening the girth or cinch might feel like the safer choice, but it can lead to nerve damage, bad behaviors, restricted breathing, and even collapse. As instructors, our goal is tack that’s appropriately secure...not excessively tight “just in case.”

BOTH overly loose and overly tight girths and cinches have risks...but we often don't talk about the risks of overtightening.

Appropriate tightness keeps students safe and horses comfortable. Over AND under tightening is risky...not safe.

Strive for correct tightness, not overcorrection at either end of the spectrum of girth and cinch tightness.

05/31/2026

05/31/2026

05/30/2026

A much needed discussion about burnout in the horse world.

I started training professionally in 2017.

For the first several years that I was offering public services, I was riding upwards of 20 horses a day.

Generally speaking, half of those would be racehorses and then the other half would be clients at my regular Barn.

Throughout this time, I sustained multiple injuries that I then had to ride through in order to continue to be able to make a living.

I galloped racehorses with a broken hand.

I rode after too short of a break following a concussion.

I sustained a serious fall and injured my back and only took a couple of days off, out of complete necessity because I was so sore that I could not ride.

I was often applauded for my work ethic and how much I was riding.

I took pride in my ability to ride horses through all sorts of behaviors, no matter how dangerous.

I maintained the perspective that if I wanted to “make it” I simply had to work harder.

Now, after a couple years of slowing down, I am still paying for the damage that I did to my mind and body burning myself out and the way that I did.

I am still trying to heal from long-term damage that was sustained due to chasing a dream.

My story is not unique. It also isn’t specific to only people who are training and riding horses.

We see similar stories of people who are working in barns as well.

The workload and what people are expected to sustain over a long periods of time often isn’t conducive to physical and mental health.

People are often encouraged to work through injuries, or, out of necessity, because if they do not work, they do not continue to make any sort of income.

This workaholic type culture that is so prevalent in our industry, ends up robbing people of their love for horses.

Even people who don’t burn out and take a break.

You see the impacts of burnout in how they treat the horses.

Lack of patience.

Easily frustrated.

Demanding.

Punitive.

Viewing horse behaviour through the lens of horses “intentionally” misbehaving.

Far too many people end up having their love for horses robbed or altered because of how unforgiving this industry can be.

For a decent portion of my professional career, I found myself in situations where I had to choose between doing things that felt morally wrong to me and getting paid.

This is the honest reality of so many professional trainers.

And while I have chosen to change how I go about my practice in order to maintain my ethics, this is easier said than done.

When you run the risk of no longer being able to pay your rent if you don’t do what your client is asking you to do, things get a lot more complicated.

I say this for the purpose of opening a discussion that revolves around ethics for both horses and humans.

I truly believe that the vast majority of people in this industries, choose to get into it professionally out of the love that they have for horses.

But, along the way, that love often gets skewed because of the demands associated with “making it” in the industry.

Oftentimes, what is most profitable is not aligned with what is most ethical.

And so, people find themselves in a cognitive dissonance.

When you need to continue generating an income and don’t want to come to terms with what you were actually doing to maintain it, it is easy to go into denial.

I think that is why we often see such a visceral response from so much of the industry when ethics are questioned.

I think one of the biggest ethical dilemmas that our industry faces is the amount of pressure that all sorts of professionals are under to maintain expectations of people within the competitive industry in specific.

This doesn’t just apply to trainers.

It is something that is applicable to saddle fitters, vets, bodyworkers and more.

When there is such a priority on riding and continuing to chase competition goals, any perspective that puts doing so in jeopardy can be dismissed.

So, a lot of belief systems are centred around maintaining the capacity for people to ride horses.

Whether it is in the best interest of the horses or not.

And, so, we see horses pushed into training programs that they are not ready for a physically or mentally.

We see horses with atrophied top lines being fitted for saddles by saddle fitters despite the fact that a horse in that condition should not be getting sat on in the first place.

We see Horse is getting injected with corticosteroids to mass the unsoundness that comes with tired and damaged joints from the workloads that they have been under.

We see horses who are physically damaged and incredibly sore being put through programs that serve the purpose of masking the pain as much as possible so that people can continue riding.

This is the reality of the industry, whether most professionals will admit it or not.

These ethical dilemmas exist constantly.

And there is so much pressure to maintain certain belief systems in order to remain palatable to the popular opinion in the Horse industry.

This is largely why I have taken such a massive step back from taking regular clients.

Because, repeatedly, I felt like I was being put between a rock and a hard place.

Where I had to choose between pleasing the client and maintaining access to them and speaking out for the horse.

So, overall, it was in my best interest to develop revenue streams that made me less reliant on the income generated from clients.

Otherwise, I was perpetually in a precarious position that tied my income to the decisions that other people want to make with their horses.

So many professionals in our industry become profoundly burnt out because of the ethical and physical demands.

Not to mention all of the emphasis on pushing through struggle, pulling up your boot straps and not complaining.

All of that comes at a cost, even if you don’t see it right away.

05/28/2026

05/27/2026

I’m so excited to officially announce that Stable Minds is now offering equine massage services 🎉
As equestrians, we know how deeply connected horses and riders are! They pick up on stress, tension, and emotions just as much as we respond to theirs. Supporting your horse’s wellness is an important part of supporting the partnership as a whole.
If you’re interested in booking a session for your horse, reach out today!
🌻🌻🌻

05/27/2026

I would like to address one of my most asked questions about the farm, including a comment that has popped up on recent farm photos:

"Why is your grass so tall? Isn't it time to mow?" 🚜 🌾

The answer is sometimes yes, sometimes no!

When I first moved on to the farm the fields were nothing but buttercups and other w**ds, along with spearmint and sparse patches of grass. I spent a long calendar year (and $$$) overhauling the fields, then resting & rotating them to be grazeable. We do still have some shorter areas, but the goal has been filling out the fields with healthy grazing plants rather than w**ds.

The fact is that many farms have overpopulated and overgrazed fields. This is not a slight to those farms, rather a comparison to show why it may seem odd to see my long grass.
Now I leave many of my fields longer than most, but I still keep fields with horses a proper grazing height while letting resting spaces grow more wild. With the standard ideal grazing height being 8-10 inches, already we are looking at longer grass than many farms regularly have available.

On top of that, our horse numbers are low for our acreage, meaning we can do more rotational grazing. During the times the fields are resting I let them grow above 10 inches and cut them as needed to keep the grass healthy.

These practices have limited w**d growth, created lusher grass, and allow for what is know as "standing hay" (or long grass left to partially dry out as its growing from the ground rather than being cut & baled, to act as a longer term forage source past the growing season). Because of these practices we have had full grazing available through January every winter for 4 years, only needed to fully supplement with hay for 2-3 months out of the year max.

Another question is ticks & bugs:
As far as ticks are concerned, we keep the edges of the fields especially near wooded areas cut short, and use high quality fly & tick repellents on the horses during the summer. Bugs are part of living outside after all, so we do our best to avoid them but they are unavoidable 🤷🏻‍♀️
Our horses are regularly tested for lyme, and tested for other tick illnesses as necessary. We check for ticks regularly, and I have not personally found a larger number of ticks with longer grass than when living/boarding on shorter pasture. Staying vigilant is key for any animals living outdoors that may be exposed to ticks.

As for w**ds, we do still have them of course but they are vastly reduced compared to the edible grazing. Most notably the buttercups creep in where the grass has been kept short much of the year vs. being nonexistent in our longer fields - healthy grass doesn't leave much room for w**ds to grow.

One more benefit is longer grass is often safer grass when it comes to sugars vs fiber content. That doesn't mean it's suitable for every horse, but it certainly does help many horses. As for horses who are unable to live on grass year round, we have 2 small track systems to limit grazing for those horses as needed.

Ultimately longer grass works for us on our farm! Our horses are safe, happy and healthy with our grass management, and grazing management officials have been impressed with our fields.

If you have any questions about our farm or our grazing practices, feel free to reach out! 🌾🌱