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| Horsekeeping: City Life vs Country Living for Horses |
From the rolling bluegrass pastures of Kentucky to the sun-drenched hills of Southern California, horses can thrive in rural farmlands and urban boarding barns alike with dedicated care. But location plays a key role in day-to-day management.
An Introduction to Horsekeeping
Caring for horses takes commitment no matter where you live. Horsekeeping involves regular feeding, grooming, exercise, health checks, and stall maintenance. But urban and rural settings pose different considerations.
In bustling cities, space constraints, weather risks, and limited grazing challenge horsekeepers. Quiet countrysides offer wide-open pastures but involve property upkeep and balancing school with chores.
To spotlight the contrasts, let’s visit Mia in Los Angeles and Lilli on a Kentucky farm. Their stories showcase how location impacts daily horsekeeping.
Horsekeeping in Los Angeles: Big City Care
Southern California cradles over 687,000 horses despite extreme urbanization. For 15-year-old Mia Folk, a dressage hopeful, finding good boarding was crucial.
Mia’s Journey to Competitive Riding
Mia started riding at age 8, dabbling in jumping and eventing before focusing on dressage. She owns three horses, including competition pony Alastor. In their first year together, Mia and Alastor qualified for the 2022 USEF Children’s Dressage National Championship.
Mia adopted her first pony, Havana, and competed her to First Level dressage before retiring her. Now Havana and Mia's 22-year-oldlesson horse Jasper teach beginners. Caring for three horses while training is no small feat!
![Mia with her dressage horse Alastor and two ponies, Havana and Jasper][]
Mia with her three horses - competition pony Alastor, retired lesson pony Havana, and retired school horse Jasper.
Finding the Right Los Angeles Boarding Facility
In Los Angeles’ hot climate and concrete jungle, finding roomy stalls with sunlight protection and grazing, especially near Mia’s home, proved difficult. She found an equestrian center with almost 200 stalls and grazing pastures.
Her horses live in 12′ x 24′ pipe stalls. Alastor’s fully covered stall shields his pink nose and blue eye from sun damage. Partially covered stalls house Havana and Jasper. Mia provides multiple hay feedings herself when she visits daily.
Big City Horsekeeping Routine
Mia commits serious time to horsekeeping. She goes to her barn daily, even on non-lesson days when her mom drives her after work. Her weekly schedule includes:
- 3 dressage lessons (Wednesday, Friday, Saturday)
- Assisting her trainer with horse chores
- Riding her horses for fun when not in lessons
- Handwalking and grazing horses for exercise
- Picking stalls, feeding, blanketing, grooming horses herself
- Attending competitions twice a month on average
Homeschooling gives Mia flexibility for her passion. She enjoys helping younger riders and has made friends through the show circuit for fun social bonding.
For Mia, Los Angeles surprisingly supports her horse habits. She takes full advantage of the equestrian center’s resources to keep her equine partners healthy.
Bluegrass Bliss: Horsekeeping in Kentucky
No state embodies horse prestige quite like Kentucky. Lilli Seto, an avid eventer, enjoys idyllic farm life housing two personal horses.
A Young Equestrian Realizes Her Kentucky Dream
Horses always featured in 11-year-old Lilli’s upbringing. She joined Pony Club at age 5 and has competed in eventing and western dressage on her American Quarter Horse mare Lucy and Welsh Pony Olaf. She even works cattle occasionally with Olaf.
Lilli boards at her grandparents’ Louisville farm, where her mom rode growing up. Now the horses live there full-time. The 6-acre property has a 3-stall barn and paddocks surrounding the house.![Lilli riding her Welsh Pony Olaf over a jump while eventing][]
Lilli enjoys eventing with her pony Olaf on her family’s Kentucky farm.
In addition to Lucy and Olaf, Lilli helps care for the farm’s retired horses and donkey. She assists with chicken duties as well. Talk about Pony Club preparing this equestrian for serious horsekeeping responsibilities early on!
Kentucky Horsekeeping on Picturesque Farmland
Caring for Lucy and Olaf on her family’s lush land has perks, mainly personalized management. Lilli partakes in nearly all hands-on work with her mom:
- Daily stall cleaning and paddock picking
- Preparing feed and supplements
- Ensuring clean, organized barn aisles
- Monitoring fences for broken boards
- Checking automatic water troughs
Lilli makes feeding her favorite chore, likening it to baking. She spaces hay piles far apart across the field so her horses get extra exercise. And she carefully regulates their bluegrass grazing, since Lucy and Olaf easily gain weight.
During school, Lilli helps with nightly horse tasks. She prioritizes barn work over extracurriculars to focus on riding. Her dedication lets her ride bareback down the road or trailer to lessons and shows.
Key Challenges: Rural vs Urban Horsekeeping
Both settings allow for happy horses but pose location-specific hurdles.
Urban Horsekeeping Challenges
City riders like Mia face these difficulties:
- Limited Land: Pasture and stall size is restricted, inhibiting movement
- Extreme Weather: Smog, heatwaves tax respiratory health
- Sun Overexposure:Pink skin cancers, eye issues from sunlight
- Social Isolation: Boarding barns separate horses from natural herds
Carefully selecting barns with ample room, grazing, and stall coverage helps mitigate problems. Monitoring for sunburn and providing companionship are essential too.
Rural Horsekeeping Challenges
Country horsekeepers like Lilli tackle other problems:
- Property Upkeep: Fixing broken fencing, maintaining outbuildings
- Health Hazards: Toxic plants, farm debris can cause issues if not removing promptly
- School/Barn Balance: Weekday time crunches make riding difficult
- Horse Transports: Trailering for offsite lessons and shows takes massive coordination
By upholding farm maintenance, assessing pasture safety frequently, scheduling wisely, and planning transportation, rural owners overcome difficulties.
Finding Balance Between City and Country Care
Urban and rural horsekeeping both necessitate trade-offs. As Mia and Lilli demonstrate through their dedication, proper care yields happy, healthy horses anywhere. They simply tailor daily management to the unique demands of their respective environments.
No perfect option exists. But with responsible horsekeeping, equestrian dreams thrive nationwide, whether in cities like Los Angeles or horse havens like Kentucky.