Care and Food for Our Big Horse Farm Family
- pqfbulgaria
- 24 hours ago
- 3 min read
To reach our organization’s goals, to have our beneficiaries experience free running happy horses, a lot of care and maintenance is being done every day.
We need support to be able to continue caring for the horses that provide therapy, were therapy horses once, or will be in the future. That is why this campaign is vital for our organization.
At the farm we look after our horses in a way that is close to their natural environment. However, they are still domestic horses. To offer them enough space the land at our farm is rented from different people and the local municipality. It requires upkeeping and proper fencing. To ensure security of the horses in addition to the on-sight team there is an alarm system and 3 guard dogs at the farm. The dogs need to be well-fed, regularly checked by the vet that is deworming and vaccinating them.
Pastures are great for the horses but not throughout the entire year. With the end of the juicy summer grass horses need extra hay. We are able to buy bales of hay from local producers but the prices are still getting higher. Our horses need to eat about 15 kilograms or 25 pounds hay per day. For 7 horses that is 105 kilograms or 175 pounds per day! Our farm has a small creek that offers the horses fresh water at all times. Unfortunately, due to extreme heat in the past years in the summer time the creek dries. We still need to ensure horses have enough clean water as one horse drinks 25 to 55 liters (5 to 15 gallons) per day. That is a lot of buckets of water!
Some of our best therapy horses are now advanced in age. For that reason, in addition to the hay they need special food. We try to balance between budget food and good quality. This year we chose the cheaper option of a seeds mix and pellets of alfalfa. For now, it seems to work well for maintaining horses’ proper weight. The horses grow winter coats that keep them warm even when there is snow and low temperatures. Older or injured horses that struggle during the colder weather are provided with blankets that help them keep warm.
Horses look strong but they are fragile. We have had cases of colic, problems with digestion, injuries of legs, bruises, open wounds, and many more. Very often the vet needs to care for the horses or we give them the necessary medications made especially for horses. For example, one of our baby horses injured her eye very badly. Thanks to the vet care and the medications we gave her every day for more than 2 months she can now see and grow up to be another therapy horse. To increase horses’ life span the vet has their teeth done every year or every 6 months for elderly horses.
Our horses do not wear horse shoes but still need their hooves trimmed regularly. Svetoslav, one of our team members has learned the basics and does it to the best of his abilities, saving our organization big expenses.
Our team works hard every day and night to look after the horses. We do that voluntarily because we believe in the cause of the organization. However, the expenses for pastures, food, vet care, horse blankets and other accessories, security and guard dogs is increasing.