Heather Smith Thomas

Drainage problems are the reason horse farms get mud in paddocks or fields.

Horses that have to stand in excessive moisture or mud can face increase health problems.

You can reduce the "bog effect" if you take time to notice where water runs and settles after a rain, and plan your landscaping strategy accordingly.

There are ways to diminish mud in high-traffic areas on your horse property.

Before you decide to reseed a pasture, assess its present condition and what plants are there.

Nylon, biothane and fleece horse tack all needs to be cleaned regularly, and here are tips to do it quickly and easily.

Don't you just love going into a tack shop and smelling that wonderful new leather smell? All that clean and healthy leather that just gleams is a fabulous sight. Then you walk into your tack room at the barn and notice the dust, dirt, grime, mildew and sometimes even disrepair.

Golf carts are versatile conveyances and are used on many horse farms for all kinds of things, including exercising horses.

Rotating either sheep or goats through your horse pastures enables you to target some of the weedy species that horses won’t graze.

A farm or boarding facility with multiple horses always needs a good herd health plan. This involves more than just vaccinations and deworming.

Hay isn't the same from day-to-day, field-to-field or harvest-to-harvest. Since pasture and hay are the forage foundations of your horse's diet, you need to know what nutritional values are in them.

For the sake of your horses, tack and feed, make rodents unwelcome in your barn.

Keeping fences in good repair not only extends their life but also reduces risk of injury if horses have close encounters with their boundaries.

Gates can become a heavy burden to open and close if they sag and drag, no longer swinging freely. Gate posts should be sturdy and set deep in the ground, preferably with a good brace in addition to the gate post.

Confused about what blankets are best? There are pros and cons to every type.

Tack cleaning may not be fun, but it is essential to keeping your equipment safe and durable. Here are some tips.

The way we feed and manage our horses can make a difference in how we manage their dental needs. Regular dental care is an important component in the overall health care of our horses.

While all horse owners deal with day-to-day, simple lameness problems, when you get into the next level of problems, we all can use some advice. In this article we'll discuss management of navicular disease, laminitis and arthritis.

Keeping unwanted critters out of your barn can be difficult, but not impossible.

New materials make fencing options more durable and safer than ever before.

In part two of our series on fly control, we tackle the pros and cons of parasites and feed-through methods for ridding your barn of flies.

Fly season is upon us, so here are a few tips to get ahead of these pesky critters. This is the first of a two-part series on fly control—stay tuned for feed-through solutions on May 21.

The forage you feed can change from season to season, which is why it’s important to understand these changes and supplement accordingly.