Bessy Bell Stables

During the week we had the equine dentist out to see the horses. 🦷🐴

Did you know :

🐴 Horses teeth grow continuously throughout their lives.
🐴 Some horses need dental checks every 6 months, while others only need them yearly depending on their individual teeth.
🐴 Sharp edges and hooks can develop, causing discomfort when eating or carrying a bit.
🐴 Regular dental care helps prevent issues such as quidding, weight loss and discomfort.
🐴 Some owners choose to use Domosedan Gel (a vet-prescribed oral sedative) to help keep their horse calm and relaxed, making dental treatment a safer and more comfortable experience for everyone.

🐴 A Friendly Reminder for Everyone Using Our Rural Roads ☀️

With the lovely weather, it’s fantastic to see so many people out enjoying our beautiful countryside, including horse riders making the most of our country roads 💕

If you meet a horse and rider, here are a few friendly reminders to help keep everyone safe.

Whether you’re driving, cycling, running or out for a walk, please keep these simple tips in mind:

🚗 If you’re driving:
• Pass horses wide and slow.
• Please don’t sound your horn.
• Leave plenty of space between your vehicle and the horse.
• Be patient if you need to wait until it is safe to pass.

Remember, horses are flight animals and can spook very easily. Even the calmest, best-trained horse can react unexpectedly to something that frightens it, putting the horse, rider and other road users at risk.

🚶🚴 If you’re walking, running or cycling:
• Make sure the horse and rider can see you before passing.
• If you’re approaching from behind, a simple, friendly “hello” lets the rider know you’re there and helps avoid startling the horse.
• Try to stay in clear view of both the horse and rider, as suddenly appearing from behind hedges, gateways or bushes can easily spook a horse.
• Please avoid shouting, waving your arms or making sudden movements around horses.

Let’s all do our part to keep our roads safe for everyone this summer.

Stay safe, enjoy the sunshine, and make the most of our beautiful countryside! ☀️🐴💕

🌼 Ragwort: A Pretty Plant with a Dangerous Secret 🌼

At this time of year, ragwort is in full bloom – but while its bright yellow flowers may look harmless, it poses a serious risk to horses.

⚠️ Ragwort contains toxins that cause irreversible liver damage. The danger is that horses often avoid fresh ragwort in the field, but once it’s dried in hay or mixed into forage, it loses its bitter taste and is much more likely to be eaten.

Signs of poisoning can include:�🐴 Weight loss�🐴 Depression or lethargy�🐴 Poor performance�🐴 Photosensitivity�🐴 Neurological signs such as aimless wandering or head pressing
Unfortunately, by the time symptoms appear, significant liver damage has often already occurred.

✅ Regularly check and remove ragwort from paddocks before it seeds.
�✅ Wear gloves when handling the plant, as it can be harmful to people too.�✅ Dispose of pulled plants safely and never leave them where horses can access them.
�✅ Inspect hay and forage for contamination.

Prevention is always better than cure. A few minutes spent checking your fields could save your horse’s life.

May bank holiday as an equestrian:

It is technically spring.

The calendar says spring.

The blossom says spring.

Your horse says, “Excellent, I shall now finish shedding enough hair to stuff a mattress and sweat all over"

But the weather has decided it is July in Spain and everyone on the yard is dressed for three different climates at once.

You arrive in a hoodie because it was chilly at 7am.

By 7:17am you are sweating like you’ve been dragged through a cross-country course backwards.

By 9am your hair is stuck to your face, your sports bra has become a medieval torture device, and you are trying to decide whether hosing yourself down would be inappropriate or standing thigh deep in the water trough.......

The horses, meanwhile, are either:

🐴 standing in the shade looking betrayed by the suns rays
🐴 rolling in the dust until they look abandoned and dishevelled
🐴 refusing to drink the clean water you lovingly provided
🐴 drinking from the one bucket that contains hay, flies, and some bird s**t.
🐴 losing winter coat in great clumps like a haunted teddy bear
🐴 pretending they have never seen a fly mask before

You had plans.

You thought, “Lovely bank holiday. I’ll have a nice ride" - no no no its like Satan's A- Hole out there!!!!!!!!

Instead, you spend three hours:

☀️ checking water
☀️ applying fly spray to an animal determined to not have it applies.
☀️ removing hair from places hair should not be because ..... sweat.
☀️ debating whether it is too hot to ride
☀️ deciding it is too hot to ride
☀️ feeling guilty for not riding ( always a firm fave )
☀️ remembering you ride for fun and not as part of some medieval loyalty oath
☀️ eating a 12 ice lollies in the tack room like they're going to hydrate you......

Then someone says, “Lovely weather, isn’t it?”

And you nod politely, while wearing boots, leggings, a vest top, hay in your bra, and the facial expression of a woman who has just carried 80 litres of water across a field because “they looked a bit thirsty.”

Spring bank holiday with horses.

Beautiful.

Peaceful.

Character-building.

Slightly crispy. 😂🐴☀️

🐴☀️

🙌

One thing I genuinely love about the horse world…
is when people choose community over competition. 🤍🐴

Because there’s room for all of us.

Room for the nervous rider doing their first test.
Room for the person aiming for the tickets
Room for the happy hacker.
Room for the ones rebuilding confidence after a fall.
Room for the riders just trying to survive winter and afford sacred hay 🤣

The best yards, teams and friendships aren’t built on jealousy.
They’re built on:
✨ “you did amazing today”
✨ “need a hand?”
✨ “I’ve got a spare”
✨ cheering for someone else like it happened to you

Horse people know life can be hard enough already.

So be the person who claps when others shine.
The person who fixes crowns, straightens number bibs, lends gloves, holds horses and hypes people up at the gate. 🫶

Because supportive people create safe spaces… and safe spaces change people.