Merry Hill Farm

18/09/2025

I think I found Teddy's scratch spot 😆

25/08/2025

In case I haven't said it today: Dolly + Elliott are my favorite couple ❤️

10/08/2025

🩶🩶🩶

What a privilege it is…

…to watch the first few white hairs appear around a horse’s eyes, the face you’ve known for years. Maybe since they were a gangly youngster, or perhaps only in more recent seasons. Either way, you’ve become their constant.

One day, as you run your hand up along their face and brush aside their forelock, you notice something different. A few grey hairs, soft yet stubborn, threaded through the colour you’ve always known. Just a smattering, almost as if they were dabbed on with a brush when your back was turned.
And they stop you in your tracks.
Because there it is.

The first, quiet whisper of time.

There’s a particular kind of privilege in caring for an older horse. Not just the honour of fulfilling their everyday needs. But the deeper, quieter privilege… being the one who will walk beside them as they soften with age. The one whose hands they will come to rely on completely. The one who will know them for the rest of their life.

They won’t be passed along. They won’t be asked to start over with someone new. They’ll only ever know your care, your routine, your way of doing things. Until the day they take their last breath. That’s something profound.

Not everyone gets to be the person who holds space for a horse’s entire arc. You see the wonder of youth, the steadiness of middle age, and the gentleness that so often comes with time. Not everyone chooses it. Not everyone can. But for those of us who do…

…what a privilege it is.

To know them, not just when they were strong and sound and “useful,” but when they slow down and ask for a little more patience. A little more help. A little more softness. To be their person, not just for the ride, but also for the parts of the journey where you walk side by side, even for the times you carry the most weight for them instead.

Because even as their bodies change, their hearts don’t. The bond grows stronger and deeper and even more familiar.

What a privilege it is.

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©️Lauren Johnson Graveney Equine: Horse Track System - dedicated to Jasper who has graced us with the first few grey hairs this year. With us forever 💚

06/08/2025

Dentist Day! Elliott sleeping it off 😴

Also did Andy (pictured), Dolly, and Teddy.

Speaking of Andy-- we have a diagnosis of Cushings which caused his weight loss. He's now on daily Prascend so I'm hoping he'll regain weight by winter 🤞

P.S. if you'd like to chip in for today's work + Andy's ongoing care, $5 makes a difference! Link below to donate ⬇️

25/07/2025

De-worming day means everyone gets lots of extra special treats after they take their dose-- fresh watermelon, zucchini and strawberries (plus apple sauce for Floyd since he can't have solids) ☺️

17/07/2025

Bodywork Day for Teddy & Dolly ✨️

I absolutely love the Masterson Method and I learn so much from the practitioners!

I wish we could afford to do it for everybody, but right now I focus on these two babes since they have the most discomfort from their chronic conditions (arthritis for Dolly, DSLD for Teddy).

But just having Melissa around is good for the whole herd - everyone hangs near the barn while she's here. They all benefit from her calming presence and the oxytocin from the horses being worked on ✨️

10/07/2025

This is a must-read if you take care of not just horses, but any animal, because the day will come when you need to make hard decisions for them 💗

As part of our work in Bluebonnet, both our Fostering Coordinator and I end up counseling a lot of people about euthanasia decisions for their horses. It is a hard decision to make, and so many people struggle with it. I want you to know that there’s no shame if you:
• Euthanize your horse because you cannot keep spending mostly on costly treatment.
• Euthanize your horse because the cost of initial treatment, for example colic surgery, is beyond your means.
• Schedule your horse’s euthanasia around your vet’s availability. For example, I scheduled my personal horse, who had several health problems, to be euthanized before my vet left on a trip. I did not want her to crash while my vet was gone and leave me scrambling to get her help.
• Decide to euthanize an older horse or horse with health challenges rather than move them.
• Euthanize two horses at once because one horse needed euthanasia and the other horse would be lost without him/her.
• Euthanize a horse because of dangerous behavioral problems that you cannot reasonably fix.

There will always be people willing to question or second-guess your decision to euthanize your horse – we face it here a lot. “Why didn’t you try this?” or “XYZ treatment worked for me.” Or (my favorite): “Just take out a loan to get that colic surgery.”

Euthanasia decisions are personal. They’re ones you make with input from your vet, although we’re happy to help counselor when people ask for our help – ultimately the vet will have to sign off on your decision, though, so after talking to us we recommend you discuss with your vet.

If your horse is very old, ill, injured, lame, or has dangerous behavioral problems, it is better to discuss euthanasia with your vet rather than ask someone, including a rescue, to take them. People will lie to you that they’re willing to take on your horse with those problems only to turn around and dump them at auctions (it happens too often). Rescues are full and often struggle to handle the neglect cases who need them.

Putting your old, ill, injured, lame, or dangerous horse down at home, where they’re comfortable, in surroundings that are familiar, with the people who love them nearby is hard, but it is true compassion and love for your horse. It is so much more stressful for your horse to travel someplace new, have to learn new routines, have to integrate into a new herd, and get used to new people, only to soon after be euthanized (or worse).

Euthanasia decisions are kind.

Euthanasia decisions are compassionate.

Euthanasia decisions come from a place of love.

05/07/2025

Beautiful misty morning 🩶

01/07/2025

Good vibes for Andy, please 🙏

He started dropping weight in May. Consulted with our vet and we did all the usual things for safe weight gain (extra mashes, camelina oil, rice bran oil, senior weight accelerator, etc) and nothing helped him regain. Keep in mind he's also on pasture 24/7 and has access to hay (so does Teddy, since they're both harder keepers)

His f***l came back super healthy and his blood panel is also clean as a whistle. While I'm glad nothing concerning showed up it means we still don't have answers 😕

Vet came back out today to take a sample that he'll send to Cornell for a metabolic panel. Hoping a) we get a definitive answer to what's going on and b) it's something we can treat and get him back on track ASAP

Shout out to Teddy, Andy's bff and emotional support partner for vet visits 👯‍♂️

28/06/2025

I've been toying with the idea of this program for months and finally decided to just put it out there and see what happens 🤞

The beta launch of our Horses for All workshop will be on Saturday, September 6th...Facebook event page coming soon so it'll be easier to share :)

Until then there are details on the website:

https://www.merryhillfarm.org/programs

25/06/2025

...just out here reminding myself that if we still lived in Texas, we'd be dealing with heat like this for MONTHS 🫠

The horses aren't enjoying the heat wave but we're getting through it one hose-down at a time 🫶