Due February 5th at 11:59 PM. 🐴 📝
Your journal should be at least 250 words and include honest updates on your horse’s progress this month the wins, challenges, surprises, and anything you’re noticing or learning.
Please include:
conformation photos from all four sides
a 2–5 minute progress video
These journals help you track growth and reflect on your journey — the more honest you are, the more valuable they’ll be later on.
Your recap is due February 5th at 11:59 PM. 💵🐴
Make a simple bulleted list of everything you spent on your horse this month (feed, vet, farrier, supplies, boarding, etc.).When you’re done, add your total at the bottom.
This is to help you understand the real cost of horse ownership, keep it honest and simple.
January Financial Recap
Board- $150
Hay- &120
Dewormer- $20
Peppermint treats-$15
Due February 5th at 11:59 PM. 📸
Create a post on Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube and upload a screenshot in the comments.
Your post should either:
highlight your horse’s progress
share your Homes for Horses experience
or educate others about at-risk horses
Due February 5th at 11:59 PM
Topic for this month: Nutrition, Body Condition Score (BCS), & Topline Health 🐴🍽️
Proper nutrition plays a major role in a horse’s overall health, performance, and longevity. A horse can look overweight but still lack muscle, or appear thin while actually being under-fueled for the work they are doing. Two important tools horse owners use to evaluate whether a horse is being fed appropriately are Body Condition Score (BCS) and topline evaluation.
BCS is measured on a 1–9 scale, with 5 being ideal for most horses. Topline refers to the muscle development along the neck, withers, back, and hindquarters. Poor topline is often related to nutrition, protein quality, age, workload, or lack of correct conditioning.
Before you write, do a little research on horse nutrition related to BCS and topline, such as the topics listed below or find your own:
How to body condition score a horse
Body Condition Score (BCS) is a system used to measure how much fat a horse has on its body. It is scored on a scale from 1 to 9, where 1 is extremely thin and 9 is obese. A score of about 5 is considered ideal for most horses because it means they have enough fat for health but are not overweight. BCS is important because being too thin can lead to weakness and health problems, while being overweight can increase the risk of laminitis, metabolic issues, and joint stress.
Topline refers to the muscle along the horse’s neck, withers, back, and hindquarters. A horse can have a good BCS or fat but still have a poor topline if they don’t have enough muscle. Muscle development depends heavily on nutrition, especially protein and essential amino acids like lysine, threonine, and methionine, which are needed to build muscle tissue. Not all protein is the same protein quality matters because some feeds provide the right amino acids while others do not, so a horse can eat enough protein but still lack muscle.
Kai is a body score of about 5.5. Hes not at all fat but he’s definitely a well fed horse. He shares a pen with another horse and we have alfalfa out for them to graze on! I would definitely say when it gets warmer and he doesn’t need the extra fluff on his body I will go back to feeding twice a day!
This month has been crazy busy but also really rewarding in the moments of training with Evie. Once again, this month I've spent a lot of the time doing groundwork building lots of muscle, plus trying to really build her top line. She is making tremendous progress on her body weight and her top line is leveling out and she looks so good. Additionally, we've been working on lots of liberty training and there have definitely been some challenges to come with that. She has been coming along great with following me, staying by my side, stopping when I stop, and matching my speed. I have also tried to teach her a few new tricks this month like a piaffe. This trick is particularly challenging for her because she's not as sensitive to the dressage whip on her legs and we've been slowly progressing to get her to pick her feet up one by one when I touch her on the back of the legs. I really hope I will be able to teach her this trick and get her softened up and more responsive to my cues. Some other great things we've worked on this month is staying correct on the lunge line and respecting my personal space. Her habit on the lunch line was always wanting to collapse in and not keep a circle and really come in at me. I have found that using a lunge whip is tremendously helpful in helping her keep her distance and reminding her to stay round and paying attention. I also began teaching her how to walk over obstacles like poles and bridges. Poles were a very easy obstacle to conquer, but bridges stumped her at first. She was unsure on how to get on it in the beginning, but within just a few minutes she picked it up very quickly. Just recently, we practiced loading in the trailer and hauling to a friend's house where she got tons of exposure and got to really see all the sights while I was riding my other mare. I worked worked with her in a few obstacles and cones while we were there. But, of course, I've had a limit to what I've been able to do this month because I've been so busy. In the first week of January I had the county show and later on about a week or so later I competed in the FWSSR equine IQ test and then again in the same week.I competed in the FWSSR horse-judging competition. Furthermore, about a week after that, I had the privilege to go on vacation for a week. Sadly, that did take time out of our training month. In February, I am so excited to develop her skills and really hope to get some great tricks and training for the upcoming 4H State show.
PROGRESS VIDEO:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUZyX9PDhZu/?igsh=dzk4dnQ2eDUzYzZu