Hoofbeats Stable

04/12/2026

It’s Sparrow’s turn for some spoiling! We got a long grooming session followed by a very short “lunge.”

Wobblers is progressive, but Sparrow has seemed to improve since moving here. She was showing noticeable neurological signs even in the field before she came.

Now, she navigates perfectly. Even trotting and cantering around over logs and around trees. Sometimes it’s tempting to check how much better she really is. She has a brilliant mind who learns things instantly, and such a fun personality. Wouldn’t it be nice if she could be ridden again?

Our short walk/trot lunge session confirmed that she is not actually better neurologically, she’s just figured out how to navigate on her own around obstacles very well. That’s ok, as long as she gets around the world happily, with -all good days- she’s welcome to always be in it.

However, we might try long lining soon. Circles and hills are out, but straight line adventures might still be in the cards. She’s all heart, it’s obvious how much she misses showing off with work, and structure is good for us all.

04/03/2026

I’m a day late in posting them, but here we have the newest draft horse and mini in the program!

😁🥳

Happy April! (April Fools! That’s just AppleJack and Mochi with silly forced perspective!)

03/31/2026

KnightShade enjoys his long line sessions around the farm at least weekly! He’s the absolute center of attention and has learned to handle all the fields making a mad dash to see him and following him from their fencelines and still keeps his cool 😎 🫏 🐴

We’ve been working on standing quietly at the halt. He is all business at the walk and trot but has a hard time with patience. Patience is hard for a 5 yr old mini mule!

He’s getting the hang of it though!

03/20/2026

Her body might not be able to handle work anymore, but her brain doesn’t want to be retired! Sparrow gets little jobs here and there to keep her happy. Today she acted as a saddle rack in the sunshine for some tack cleaning! 

Sparrow was happy as a clam with all the attention. 🐴 ☀️

03/17/2026

KnightShade gets everyone playing! Here he is with Mochi having a play date :)

03/04/2026

It’s Astoria’s birthday today! She was born on March 4th 1999 at 9:30 pm. Here is a pic of her on her first morning, March 5th.

Also, a pic of her today at 27 yrs old enjoying a huge mess of alfalfa cubes and “the good stuff.” She makes a mess first then cleans it all up. 🙂

And also, I think it’s time to give AppleJack a real birthday. His intake day was very stressful so we dont need to celebrate his rescue day, and the first Dentist who took a quick look at his front teeth thought he looked to be around 12.

Later, when his teeth were thoroughly done, it was found that he was “at least late 20s”… and that was nine years ago now! 

In the past 2 yrs he’s shown more signs of being very, very old so with the information at hand we will give him today as his 37th birthday.

Here is one of my favorite pics of me on him, since we don’t post face pics of students. I was getting him ready to be a children’s trail mount and we had so much fun we kept on going.

AJ is too blind these days to hit the trails but he is still the best beginner pony in all the land.

Recent pic of him in his wondrous teddy bear winter coat.

03/01/2026

Spring cleaning has begun! Tack is getting wiped down and horses and ponies are getting their winter woolies scrubbed loose!

Hooray for sunshine and warmer temps.!

02/25/2026

Interesting!

Why do horse whinnies sound so surprisingly high-pitched for such a large animal?

A 500-kilogram horse, by all biological expectations, should produce deep, low-frequency calls. Yet whinnies feature two simultaneous tones at once - one low and one strikingly high, a phenomenon known as biphonation. The origin of the high-pitched component had never been explained before.

Through a series of complementary experiments, a team of researchers set out to demonstrate that the high-pitched tone is not produced by the vibration of vocal tissue at all.

Instead, it is generated by an aerodynamic whistle, essentially the same physical principle behind a human lip whistle, occurring inside the horse's larynx.

The low tone, by contrast, is produced in the conventional mammalian way, through the vibration of the vocal folds.

The clearest evidence came from experiments using helium gas. Because helium affects the pitch of whistles but not tissue-based vibrations, the researchers could use it to tell the two mechanisms apart.

When helium was introduced, the high-pitched tone shifted upward exactly as whistle physics predicts, while the low tone stayed constant.

Supporting this, horses with a nerve condition that partially paralysed their vocal folds lost the low tone in their whinnies but retained the high one entirely.

The study is the first to experimentally confirm that a large mammal produces a laryngeal whistle, and the first to show any species combining a whistle and vocal fold vibration simultaneously.

Beyond its scientific novelty, the finding suggests that the dual-tone structure of horse whinnies may serve a sophisticated communicative purpose, allowing horses to convey different types of information, such as body size and emotional state, on two independent acoustic channels at once.

Full study: Lefèvre, R. A., Barluet de Beauchesne, L., Sabarros, F., Briefer Freymond, S., Ramseyer, A., Keller, M., Reby, D., Fitch, W. T., & Briefer, É. F. (2026). The high fundamental frequency in horse whinnies is generated by an aerodynamic whistle.

02/14/2026

Happy Valentines Day from the HoofBeats horses, ponies and mule!

Here are some of the love connections between HB equine. All of our animals have besties and loves with other horses on their farms, but here are some between just the HoofBeats horses.

AppleJack and Inky: when Inky was being bullied in her former field, she was tried in the pony pen with AppleJack, while KnightShade moved into Inky’s old field. Applejack couldn’t believe his good fortune and fell madly in love with his giant lady friend. His eyes might be blind, but they were heart shaped whenever he looked at her!

Astoria, High Q (rip) and Ankara: I had always hoped to have the baby of Astoria and/or Q one day. When that wasn’t possible, rescued orphan baby Ankara became their adopted foal to raise. These ladies, already deeply bonded themselves, were like two giddy grandmas who stepped right into the role, teaching her horse wisdom during the day and snuggling her at night.

KnightShade and AppleJack: these two have lived together since the Shade and his mother Rarity moved to the farm. Historically AJ had not been able to live with foals as he would aggressively chase them. Rarity was tough as nails and immediately put AppleJack in his place when they were introduced. She made it crystal clear that AJ was to never hurt KnightShade and even after she was adopted, AppleJack has taken that to heart. He ponies Shade on trail rides, and is a companion to him in the field. They’ve developed their own tiny bond.

Mochi and KnightShade: while AppleJack is in his stall eating his chopped hay and soft feeds, KnightShade would otherwise be alone. Instead he gets playdates with other HB horses as well as another mule who lives on the farm. Mochi and Shade have become great friends, playing zoomies in the field, snacking on hay and dozing in the sun together!

Ankara and Sonnet: these two were an unlikely pair, a quiet low key youngster just nearing adulthood and a high strung mare, but they balance one another out beautifully. They lived together coincidentally at the farm and became such fast friends that Sonnet was chosen as Ankara’s companion in the grassy private field at the satellite farm, perfect to let Ankara finish growing up. They don’t mind working separately but love to be together in the field playing young mare games or chowing down on the good grass. ❤️

11/18/2025

Thank you a thousand times to a most wonderful supporter who donated a custom fit harness to KnightShade, who has thoroughly worn out his beginner harness which never did fit right anyway!

This one fit him perfectly, and he was thrilled to go around the farm on more driving adventures, which we haven’t been able to do in a few weeks since his last harness gave up the ghost.

We’ve also got a better bit which he is quite pleased with. Looking forward to more cart work again soon!

11/15/2025

KnightShade has been carrying some extra pounds recently that he really needs to drop! So along with his weekly cart training sessions, practicing for in hand and halter shows and lessons with the working students, he’s also getting some trail hiking in! 

Shade enjoys doing just about everything, but he’s got to do it with that special mule flair! When hiking he prefers to lead himself! 😁

11/13/2025

Dentals done for the three sanctuary unicorns!

Any equine who spends any time in the lesson program has a forever retirement home here, enjoying the quiet cool woods and meadows at the West Virginia sanctuary space, with a live in caretaker! 😁

Just because they’re not bringing in funds anymore doesn’t mean they don’t cost them though. Feel like donating? We love our WV vet Dog & Pony Show Equine Vet! And of course Damascus Equine’s Dr Lewis and Wagner Equine’s Dr Wagner for our MD horses and ponies too!

Astoria the Unicorn is on a shortened aged horse dental program of every 3-6 months. And now, I’m off to get more chopped hay for her and AppleJack.