What are the opening hours?

Monday 7am - 9pm Tuesday 7am - 9pm Wednesday 7am - 9pm Thursday 7am - 9pm Friday 7am - 9pm Saturday 8am - 2pm Sunday 8am - 4pm

Misty Brae Farm, LLC and Pony Club Riding Center, 40295 New Road, Aldie, VA (2023)

09/19/2022

🤠🐴

09/19/2022

Horse therapy ❤️

09/19/2022

How to Successfully Ride "Inside Leg to Outside Rein"

https://dressagetoday.com/theory/how-to-successfully-ride-inside-leg-to-outside-rein-/?fbclid=IwAR2Z1TVyM3zuPe-AJb07HoJOHGgcCLw-vR_fMXKLtgDkxfiFJQXdWf8uRlo

Fran Kehr answers this reader question, explaining this combination of aids and what it achieves when performed correctly.

08/23/2022

08/04/2022

Abby and Rudy USPC Championship East

MBFPCRC D2 member Abby D. riding Agripin Rudy representing the Virginia Region Jr. Modified team at USPC Championships East.

08/04/2022

Megan and Fish USPC Championship East

MBFPCRC C1 member, Megan D. riding Captivate on the Virginia Region Senior Team at USPC Championships East at Tryon International Equestrian Center.

08/04/2022

Congratulations to our members that competed in the USPC Championships East!

06/22/2022

Boots and bandages - are we harming our horses as we try to protect them?

Bandaging and booting our horses is becoming more and more popular, especially with the popularity of matchy matchy sets. But are we doing more harm than good? Most people will have come across the articles in magazines and comments from vets saying they are, and yet still they become more and more popular. Why is that? Why do riders still cover their horses in thick fleece bandages or fluffy boots despite the dangers? Tradition I suppose. Wanting to fit in. Or just habit, some will feel like they haven’t finished tacking up if they haven’t put the boots on.

I know this isn’t about dentistry (for which I apologise) but I am a vet first and foremost, and as a dressage rider I am asked why I don’t use bandages all the time. I’ve written about this several times now and no one pays attention, so rather than stating facts and quoting research, I’d like to take you through my journey of discovery, please bear with me. Facts and papers are at the end.

Rewind 12 years and I was in my final year at vet school. Prior to and during vet school I had a horse and we did dressage. I had planned to ODE but this horse pulled every tendon and ligament known to vet kind. He spent more time out of work than in. Each time I would up my game with the latest boots/bandages on the market. From fluffy boots to wraps to sports fetlock boots, fleece bandages to gamgee and cotton to the half fleece/half elastic bandages. I learnt new techniques for better support, figure of 8 bandaging to cradle the fetlock etc etc. I’d been there and done it. My collection was extensive.

Right at the end of vet school I had my rotations. I chose Equine lameness as one of my options. During in this I very vividly remember a wet lab with Dr Renate Weller where she had a skinned horses leg (showing all of the tendons and ligaments) in a machine that mimicked the pressures a horse applies to their limbs. She took us through walk, trot, canter and gallop, loading this leg so we could see the inside workings of the horses leg without the skin. It was fascinating I can tell you, and I very clearly remember thinking about my horse and wondering how on earth we are suppose to support this limb when it undergoes these incredible forces! Half a ton of animal pushing down a tiny spindle of a leg held by tendons barely thicker than my thumb. Craziness!

Fast forward just a few short months and I was a fully qualified vet in the big wide world. I attended my first BEVA Congress and during the break I wandered around the stalls looking at the latest inventions and technologies companies bring to these gatherings. Here I came across a company with the Equestride Boot which caught my eye. Now if you haven’t seen this boot, it’s wonderful and I’ve since used it a few times in rehabbing very severe tendon and ligament injuries with great success. The boot is a carbon fibre boot that stops the fetlock dropping, which stops the tendons and ligaments being fully loaded while they heal. This boot is super strong. You couldn’t ride a horse in it as it is limiting the range of motion so much, but they can move about easily enough at the lower settings to rehab etc. The guy on the stand (I’m afraid I can’t remember his name) showed me their research and in the straight talking Irish way explained the stupidity of expecting a thin piece of material to support a horse. And of course it can’t! Literally no bandage or boot (short of this very expensive carbon fibre rehab boot) is capable of reducing the amount the fetlock drops. Thinking back to Dr Weller’s demonstration, I could very clearly see how ridiculous I had been to ever believe a scrap of material could do anything to reduce or support that pressure.

But the boots/bandages don’t actually cause any harm do they? Surely it’s ok to use them on the off chance they might help and if we look good in the meantime, great! Well, not long after this, research started appearing that got me very worried about my bandage collection. Heat. Anyone that uses bandages and boots will not be surprised to see sweat marks under their bandages/boots after they’ve been removed. They trap a lot of heat. The horses body and legs generate a lot of heat when working. The tendons/ligaments in the leg, along with an increased blood flow generate ALOT of heat. Fleece bandages/boots in particular, hold this heat in the horses leg. Very few boots and virtually no bandages (especially if you use a pad under) allow the legs to breath adequately. This heat is easily enough to kill tendon/ligament cells. Each tendon/ligament is made of thousands and thousands of cells all lined up end on end and side by side in long thin spindles. They stretch and return to their original shape and size like an elastic band, absorbing and redistributing the pressures applied from further up the leg and from the ground impact below. All of these cells must work together as one to do this effectively.

Just a little side step here to explain how tendons/ligaments heal. A tendon/ligament cell can not be replaced like for like. They always heal with scar tissue. This is why reinjury is so much more likely if a tendon/ligament is blown. The fibrous scar tissue doesn’t stretch, it isn’t capable of stretching or absorbing the impact of a horses movement. It will always be a weak spot. In a full blown sprain/strain the whole (or most) of the tendon has been damaged. But this heat injury might just kill a few cells at a time. Those few cells are replaced by fibrous scar tissue, then next time a few more etc etc. Like a rubber band degrading over time the tendon/ligament loses its elasticity and eventually goes snap. Then you’ve fully blown a tendon/ligament. The injury didn’t start to happen at that moment, but that was the final straw. The damage adds up over time, each time thermal necrosis (vet word for cell death) occurs.

So if using boots/bandages can not offer any sort of support, and using them generates heat that slowly damages the tendons/ligaments until they give way. Why use them? Protection. This is the only reason to use boots. To stop the horse brushing, injuring themselves catching a pole or over cross country. But for goodness sake make sure your boots are breathable! If the horse is sweaty under the boot but not above or below, the boot is not breathable enough. And don’t use fleece bandages just because you like the colour. These fleece bandages are the worst at holding heat in the leg, way above the threshold for thermal necrosis to the cells of the tendons and ligaments. If your horse doesn’t need protection, don’t use boots. I haven’t for the last 12 years and *touch wood* I haven’t had a single tendon/ligament injury in any of my horses. I will never go back to boots or especially bandages now. I don’t use them for schooling, lunging, jumping, travelling, turnout, stable, in fact I don’t use them at all. Ever. But I don’t hunt or XC.

I hope you have found my story useful and can make informed decisions on boots and bandaging going forward.

For more information on the Equestride boot and their research into support offered by boots and bandages, visit http://www.equestride.com/ and https://www.equinetendon.com/services/equestride/

The horses leg under the compression machine at the Irish Equine rehabilitation and fitness centre https://fb.watch/cmVMt6-iOJ/ (I highly recommend you watch this incredible video. It clearly shows the amount of force the leg goes through and demonstrates the real purpose of boots)

Other relevant papers-
https://equimanagement.com/.amp/articles/horse-skin-temperature-under-boots-after-exercise
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/8f15/0ea480edca142260d01f419f80d2e7e7fb29.pdf
http://www.asbweb.org/conferences/1990s/1998/59/index.html

Edit 1 - I am getting asked about stable wraps very frequently. This post is about riding, the tendons and blood flow create heat which is trapped by bandages/boots during exercise. This doesn’t occur in the stable stood still. If the horse has a strain/sprain resulting in inflammation, then there is an increase in blood flow and there is heat being created. In this situation you should not be bandaging. But if it’s cold and an old horse needs stable wraps to keep the joints warm and improve sluggish blood flow (filled legs) you can use the heat trapping to your advantage. But you need to be careful in summer.

Edit 2 - the other thing I’m being asked about is compression. Compression DOES NOT control inflammation. The inflammation still occurs, but the swelling can not escape the bandages and the increase in internal pressure reduces blood flow, causing ischemic damage. Like laminitis within the hoof. The hoof capsule prevents swelling so the inflammation expands inwards and cuts off the blood supply. This is why laminitis is so painful and difficult to treat. Compression is only useful in the case of leaky vessels, for example reduced blood pressure, reduced movement so the blood isn’t being pumped backup the legs, or osmotic imbalances eg low protein with diarrhoea. In these situations, compression of the legs can encourage blood to return to the vessels and continue circulating.

06/22/2022

Boots and bandages - are we harming our horses as we try to protect them?

Bandaging and booting our horses is becoming more and more popular, especially with the popularity of matchy matchy sets. But are we doing more harm than good? Most people will have come across the articles in magazines and comments from vets saying they are, and yet still they become more and more popular. Why is that? Why do riders still cover their horses in thick fleece bandages or fluffy boots despite the dangers? Tradition I suppose. Wanting to fit in. Or just habit, some will feel like they haven’t finished tacking up if they haven’t put the boots on.

I know this isn’t about dentistry (for which I apologise) but I am a vet first and foremost, and as a dressage rider I am asked why I don’t use bandages all the time. I’ve written about this several times now and no one pays attention, so rather than stating facts and quoting research, I’d like to take you through my journey of discovery, please bear with me. Facts and papers are at the end.

Rewind 12 years and I was in my final year at vet school. Prior to and during vet school I had a horse and we did dressage. I had planned to ODE but this horse pulled every tendon and ligament known to vet kind. He spent more time out of work than in. Each time I would up my game with the latest boots/bandages on the market. From fluffy boots to wraps to sports fetlock boots, fleece bandages to gamgee and cotton to the half fleece/half elastic bandages. I learnt new techniques for better support, figure of 8 bandaging to cradle the fetlock etc etc. I’d been there and done it. My collection was extensive.

Right at the end of vet school I had my rotations. I chose Equine lameness as one of my options. During in this I very vividly remember a wet lab with Dr Renate Weller where she had a skinned horses leg (showing all of the tendons and ligaments) in a machine that mimicked the pressures a horse applies to their limbs. She took us through walk, trot, canter and gallop, loading this leg so we could see the inside workings of the horses leg without the skin. It was fascinating I can tell you, and I very clearly remember thinking about my horse and wondering how on earth we are suppose to support this limb when it undergoes these incredible forces! Half a ton of animal pushing down a tiny spindle of a leg held by tendons barely thicker than my thumb. Craziness!

Fast forward just a few short months and I was a fully qualified vet in the big wide world. I attended my first BEVA Congress and during the break I wandered around the stalls looking at the latest inventions and technologies companies bring to these gatherings. Here I came across a company with the Equestride Boot which caught my eye. Now if you haven’t seen this boot, it’s wonderful and I’ve since used it a few times in rehabbing very severe tendon and ligament injuries with great success. The boot is a carbon fibre boot that stops the fetlock dropping, which stops the tendons and ligaments being fully loaded while they heal. This boot is super strong. You couldn’t ride a horse in it as it is limiting the range of motion so much, but they can move about easily enough at the lower settings to rehab etc. The guy on the stand (I’m afraid I can’t remember his name) showed me their research and in the straight talking Irish way explained the stupidity of expecting a thin piece of material to support a horse. And of course it can’t! Literally no bandage or boot (short of this very expensive carbon fibre rehab boot) is capable of reducing the amount the fetlock drops. Thinking back to Dr Weller’s demonstration, I could very clearly see how ridiculous I had been to ever believe a scrap of material could do anything to reduce or support that pressure.

But the boots/bandages don’t actually cause any harm do they? Surely it’s ok to use them on the off chance they might help and if we look good in the meantime, great! Well, not long after this, research started appearing that got me very worried about my bandage collection. Heat. Anyone that uses bandages and boots will not be surprised to see sweat marks under their bandages/boots after they’ve been removed. They trap a lot of heat. The horses body and legs generate a lot of heat when working. The tendons/ligaments in the leg, along with an increased blood flow generate ALOT of heat. Fleece bandages/boots in particular, hold this heat in the horses leg. Very few boots and virtually no bandages (especially if you use a pad under) allow the legs to breath adequately. This heat is easily enough to kill tendon/ligament cells. Each tendon/ligament is made of thousands and thousands of cells all lined up end on end and side by side in long thin spindles. They stretch and return to their original shape and size like an elastic band, absorbing and redistributing the pressures applied from further up the leg and from the ground impact below. All of these cells must work together as one to do this effectively.

Just a little side step here to explain how tendons/ligaments heal. A tendon/ligament cell can not be replaced like for like. They always heal with scar tissue. This is why reinjury is so much more likely if a tendon/ligament is blown. The fibrous scar tissue doesn’t stretch, it isn’t capable of stretching or absorbing the impact of a horses movement. It will always be a weak spot. In a full blown sprain/strain the whole (or most) of the tendon has been damaged. But this heat injury might just kill a few cells at a time. Those few cells are replaced by fibrous scar tissue, then next time a few more etc etc. Like a rubber band degrading over time the tendon/ligament loses its elasticity and eventually goes snap. Then you’ve fully blown a tendon/ligament. The injury didn’t start to happen at that moment, but that was the final straw. The damage adds up over time, each time thermal necrosis (vet word for cell death) occurs.

So if using boots/bandages can not offer any sort of support, and using them generates heat that slowly damages the tendons/ligaments until they give way. Why use them? Protection. This is the only reason to use boots. To stop the horse brushing, injuring themselves catching a pole or over cross country. But for goodness sake make sure your boots are breathable! If the horse is sweaty under the boot but not above or below, the boot is not breathable enough. And don’t use fleece bandages just because you like the colour. These fleece bandages are the worst at holding heat in the leg, way above the threshold for thermal necrosis to the cells of the tendons and ligaments. If your horse doesn’t need protection, don’t use boots. I haven’t for the last 12 years and *touch wood* I haven’t had a single tendon/ligament injury in any of my horses. I will never go back to boots or especially bandages now. I don’t use them for schooling, lunging, jumping, travelling, turnout, stable, in fact I don’t use them at all. Ever. But I don’t hunt or XC.

I hope you have found my story useful and can make informed decisions on boots and bandaging going forward.

For more information on the Equestride boot and their research into support offered by boots and bandages, visit http://www.equestride.com/ and https://www.equinetendon.com/services/equestride/

The horses leg under the compression machine at the Irish Equine rehabilitation and fitness centre https://fb.watch/cmVMt6-iOJ/ (I highly recommend you watch this incredible video. It clearly shows the amount of force the leg goes through and demonstrates the real purpose of boots)

Other relevant papers-
https://equimanagement.com/.amp/articles/horse-skin-temperature-under-boots-after-exercise
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/8f15/0ea480edca142260d01f419f80d2e7e7fb29.pdf
http://www.asbweb.org/conferences/1990s/1998/59/index.html

Edit 1 - I am getting asked about stable wraps very frequently. This post is about riding, the tendons and blood flow create heat which is trapped by bandages/boots during exercise. This doesn’t occur in the stable stood still. If the horse has a strain/sprain resulting in inflammation, then there is an increase in blood flow and there is heat being created. In this situation you should not be bandaging. But if it’s cold and an old horse needs stable wraps to keep the joints warm and improve sluggish blood flow (filled legs) you can use the heat trapping to your advantage. But you need to be careful in summer.

Edit 2 - the other thing I’m being asked about is compression. Compression DOES NOT control inflammation. The inflammation still occurs, but the swelling can not escape the bandages and the increase in internal pressure reduces blood flow, causing ischemic damage. Like laminitis within the hoof. The hoof capsule prevents swelling so the inflammation expands inwards and cuts off the blood supply. This is why laminitis is so painful and difficult to treat. Compression is only useful in the case of leaky vessels, for example reduced blood pressure, reduced movement so the blood isn’t being pumped backup the legs, or osmotic imbalances eg low protein with diarrhoea. In these situations, compression of the legs can encourage blood to return to the vessels and continue circulating.

06/22/2022

Photos from Tamarack Hill Farm's post

06/21/2022

Large numbers of horses will die if we do not change the way we worm - Horse & Hound

LARGE numbers of horses will die owing to our inability to control their parasites if we do not change our worming practices. This was the warning given at a webinar on anthelmintic or wormer resistance, hosted by the Mare and Foal Sanctuary and presented by equine internal medicine specialist David...

05/28/2022

The Riderless Horse: one of the oldest and most moving military traditions in a full honor funeral is the riderless, caparisoned horse. The horse is led behind the caisson wearing an empty saddle with the rider’s boots reversed in the stirrups, indicating the warrior will never ride again.

Let’s all join in this Memorial Day weekend to remember the heroes we have lost and the families they leave behind.

Thanks to the 3d U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard) for this portrait of the Riderless Horse. Photo by Shelli Breidenbach Photography.

05/28/2022

Driving Force - Season 1 - Charlotte Dujardin CBE | FULL EPISODE

Episode 6 with Charlotte Dujardin explores unexpected success, pushing the boundaries and how keeping her eyes on the prize has led her to success in the big...

05/14/2022

Photos from Murden-Wade Farriery's post

05/03/2022

Congratulations to MBFPC grad Ashley Kapinos!!
Best turned out at the Kentucky Land Rover 3 day.
How all those perfect HM scores in pony club finally pay off.
Ashley Kapinos

04/25/2022

Something to think about next time theure "being naughty on purpose"...

04/23/2022

Thomas Ritter: "Who Are We to Judge?"

04/01/2022

🤔

03/28/2022

Mobile uploads

THE proper way a horse collects and 'gets on the bit'.
No contraption, bit, or gimmick can teach this. It's about proper biomechanics and teaching the horse to balance themselves.

03/20/2022

Photos from Hannan-Moody Team, Century 21 Redwood's post

03/09/2022

Brilliant Women in U.S. Horse Racing History

Throughout horse racing history, women have been instrumental in contributing to the progression and advancement of the sport. Although horse racing remains a largely male-dominated world, women continue to break down barriers as jockeys, trainers, owners, breeders, and farm managers. This Internati...

03/05/2022

What Ever Happened to "Serviceably" Sound? - David Ramey, DVM

When I first got out of veterinary school and started looking at horses prior to purchase (usually referred to as a “vet check” or a prepurchase exam), the horses usually fit into one of three categories. The first category was the horse with no problems noted at the time of the exam. That decis...

02/09/2022

Timeline photos

Do you really understand how big your horse's lungs are? This picture is a horse's lungs fully inflated...amazing when you think they are enclosed in a horse's body! Did you know a horse takes in 2x 5-Gallon buckets of air ever second? Think of how much that really is. So, do the best you can to help your horse breathe!

01/28/2022

LETS TALK ABOUT ULCERS AND ALFALFA!!!!

Thought this was neat and worth sharing🤔

Alfalfa and horses with ulcers
Research from Texas A&M University shows that feeding alfalfa to horses with the potential to be high performers either prevents or is therapeutic in treating stomach ulcers.

Something in alfalfa hay tends to buffer acid production, said Dr. Pete Gibbs, Extension horse specialist. Feeding grain, confinement, exercise and overall environmental stress factors are thought to cause ulcers, he said. Studies have shown that horses will heal if provided less acidic diets.

In the research, 24 quarter horses from 12-16 months old were separated into two treatment groups. One group was fed Bermuda grass hay and the other fed alfalfa hay to meet the daily roughage needs. The yearlings received forced exercise during the study. The horses were examined internally with an endoscope at the beginning and end of two 28-day trials.

It's commonly thought that horses turned out on pastures are better off than those that are confined. However, if grass hay is the only hay they are fed, horses can still get gastric ulcers, he said.

In this study, ulcer scores increased when alfalfa was removed from the horses diets, and they were turned out on pasture. Under the ulcer-scoring system, 0 signified no ulcers, with severity increasing to level 4.

Further work is needed to look at horses with varying degrees of ulceration to better determine the full extent to which alfalfa or alfalfa-based products might help from a feeding management standpoint.

Based on what we know right now, for horses that are kept in confinement, eating feed and getting forced exercise, it makes sense to consider some alfalfa as part of their diet, he said.

Until further research is done, he recommends, horses weighing between 1,000-1,300 pounds should be fed about 1 pound of alfalfa after a grain meal.

Follow this link: http://agnews.tamu.edu/showstory.php?id=224

01/28/2022

If it ain’t your day, it ain’t your day. I have rides where I get on and it’s just not working. Maybe my horse is tired, or in a mood; maybe I’m tired, or in a mood. But it’s not a failure to live to fight another day. Go for a hack. Get in a good grooming session. Do some groundwork. Very rarely is there something in training that has to be accomplished Today; come at it anew with a fresh mind Tomorrow.

01/27/2022

5 Tips For A Better Fitting Bra

We’ve all heard the instructions: Sit back, stay up, lift your chest. We all know following those commands improves our balance, improves how our horses work underneath us, and helps us stay on should things go awry. That said, many of us are ridi...

01/18/2022

Riding a Horse with a Big Jump

Maintain your balance while flying through the stratosphere!

01/17/2022

Timeline photos

To create throughness with correct bend when your horse is crooked...

Imagine your crooked horse as a kinked hose. You need to straighten him to get the kinks out and get the water (his energy) flowing. Then you can bend him correctly.—Annie Morris

Illustration by Sandy Rabinowitz

01/05/2022

Horse With Attitude

01/04/2022

Answer time!
What’s wrong with this rider and how would you fix it….
This is just a sketch, so obviously my intent is a factor here.
Some mentioned uneven stirrups- great point! But when people ride with uneven stirrups it’s USUALLY because they keep losing one, it FEELS long, so they shorten it. (DON’T DO THAT!!)

This rider‘s right hip is higher than the left hip. This causes the right leg to scrunch up. This is SO COMMON!!!
And I know, I know, rider is technically in the middle of the saddle, however, The best way to correct this problem is to scooch over to the right, high centering the left seat bone in the middle of the saddle, and then dropping the right seat bone down into the hole. When I tell people to do this, they initially feel like they are falling off to the right. Sorry, but get over it. Lol and if you were doing this on your own, just know that I usually tell students six or seven times to, “do it more,… exaggerate more, even more,… yup, further to the right, keep going,…” but when you are used to riding with one hip higher than the other one, it takes a lot to undo that muscle memory!!! The goal is not to get your seat bones even during this ride. The goal is to fix your body so that you have complete mastery over your seat bones, and that requires some serious exaggeration.

It’s just like when we supple really green horses by bending, and leg yielding, and counter bending, and bending some more. By the time those horses are approaching second level we are then working on straightness. But you can’t have true straightness until you have suppleness. It is the same for the Rider.

Once I get writers to really actually put the left seat bone in the middle of the saddle and drop the right seat bone down into the hole this position creates, suddenly they feel strong in the right leg, their right heel finally drops down, they can finally bend the horse to the right, and they can, usually for the first time in their lives, actually leg yield a horse successfully to the left.

We do all of this over positioning while traveling to the right. When going to the left, often their default position is just fine. But some riders need to scooch over to the left while going left, just not as dramatically (assuming the problem is their right seat bone is chronically high like in the sketch)

Dressage is not the art of sitting perfectly straight on a perfectly straight horse- it’s sitting however you need to in order to train the horse’s body, and your own! EVENTUALLY things get pretty even, but when we just try to get even, we typically skip the supple part. We skip the awareness part. We skip the part where we are actually effective!!!

And if your right stirrup feels long, for Pete’s sake, don’t just shorten it. That will just compound your crookedness.

A truly great way to double check this on your own is to drop the outside stirrup and post with only the inside one. The rider in the sketch would find this easy to the left and very difficult to the right.