West Ridge Ranch

🌧️ Breeding Season Watch: Wet Weather Ahead 🌧️

With a significant amount of moisture forecasted across much of the region over the next 5–7 days, mare owners may notice some unusual reproductive activity.

Rapid weather changes and prolonged moisture can sometimes influence mares' cycling patterns, resulting in:
• Cycles that speed up or slow down unexpectedly
• Ovulation occurring on smaller-than-normal follicles
Or generally speaking.. just a weird n' wonky cycle.

If you're actively breeding this coming week, keep a close eye on your mares and stay in communication with your veterinarian or reproductive specialist. A mare that looked predictable a few days ago may have different plans during a major weather shift.

Stay vigilant, monitor closely, and don't be surprised if your mares decide to keep things interesting. 🐴

In the beginning, we all start riding because we love horses. It’s simple. Pure. No agenda.

But over time, as our skills develop and our balance improves, goals start to form. We start to dream bigger - Olympics, the NFR, winning at the top levels. But we start where everyone has to start: the building blocks. Local shows, jackpots, small wins, small losses.

And then reality shows up. We don’t win. Or we don’t place. Or we don’t progress as fast as we thought we would. And the barnyard gets loud in ways nobody warns you about... whispers, comparisons, opinions you didn’t ask for but somehow still carry home with you.

Slowly, without even noticing it, we start to lose grip on why we started riding in the first place. I know I did.

For a very long time, I rode for all the wrong reasons. Not because I didn’t love it - I did.... But underneath that, it became about proving something.

Proving I could beat the doubt.
Proving I could do it better.
Proving people wrong who probably weren’t even thinking about me anymore.

Every milestone started to feel like a checkpoint in a conversation I was having with other people in my head, and the strange part is, I was still enjoying the ride. I was still showing up, still learning, still improving. But it wasn’t for the pure and simple love anymore.

It was for validation.
For acceptance.
For being seen a certain way.

And I didn’t notice how heavy that became until I stepped back for a while. Life led me down a path where I took a break from riding, despite still being involved with horses. The final straw for me was when a little girl was mean to my daughter on a playground following a leadline class. There had to be more to this lifestyle than barnyard bullies and lofty goals that always feel just out of reach.

That moment catapulted me down a path that I never saw coming.

Horses have a way of reflecting that back at you if you’re willing to see it. They don’t care about timelines, opinions, or proving points. They respond to what’s actually happening in front of them, not the story you’re carrying in your head.

That was the shift for me.

I didn’t want to be good at horses for other people anymore, and I didn't want to model that behavior for my daughter. I wanted to come back to it for the right reasons... For the quiet satisfaction and the small wins that don’t need an audience.

It turns out, it’s a much better place to be.

Let’s talk broodmares and something that gets overlooked way too often: their feet.

The routine hoof care on required for a pregnant mare is no different than your high-end performance horse. It’s structural support for a changing, increasing load over a long period of time.

By late gestation, a mare is carrying a significant amount of additional weight. On average, a foal at term weighs 90–120 lbs, but when you factor in placenta, fluids, and uterine tissues, the total added internal weight can reach 120–150+ lbs. That weight is carried continuously, 24/7, on the same four feet she started the season with... and it doesn’t just sit there evenly. As pregnancy progresses, the mare’s center of gravity shifts forward and downward, increasing strain through the front limbs, shoulders, and hooves. That means any imbalance in the foot; long toe, underrun heel, uneven medial-lateral balance, gets magnified under load. This is where regular trimming and maintenance matter.

A broodmare that is allowed to go long between trims isn’t just “a bit overdue”, she is actively compensating for imbalance while carrying extra weight. That compensation shows up as strain through joints, altered movement patterns, and increased risk of soreness or soundness issues.

It doesn’t stop at comfort. Poor hoof balance in late gestation can contribute to:

- Increased stress on tendons and ligaments
- Altered weight distribution through joints
- Reduced traction and stability, especially on soft or uneven ground
- Higher risk of post-foaling soreness when workload changes abruptly

Good broodmare management means treating hoof care as a scheduled priority, not a reactive task. Most mares benefit from consistent trims every 4–8 weeks, depending on growth rate, terrain, and individual foot quality.

It’s also worth noting: hormonal changes in pregnancy can subtly affect hoof quality and growth patterns, which means “she’s always been fine like this” doesn’t always hold true late-term. Additionally, those who increase mineral during pregnancy can see increased hoof growth.