On top of the grass pastures, those Kentucky farms are still also feeding free choice hay plus grain 2x per day.
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Yes they are, and no one is throwing hay over a fence.
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My friend who rad a KY TB farm not only fed hay and supplements in the run-in sheds, he tied the mamas and worked with the babies on getting their hooves picked, tying, and leading while they were in there. He also groomed everyone. Donât think thatâs happening here.
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We visited Denali stud last year and what a stunning farm with happy, healthy mares and foals.
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Oh, I know! My response sounds cattier than I intended. Apologies. My point was more that the TB farms do that well and for a good reason. Warmblood breeders donât do it because it doesnât fit the model for how foals are generally raised and sold. The KS model is a weird mashup of the worst parts of both, or, somethingâŠ
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Yes, Iâve been there. Beautiful place.
Itâs always worth visiting the different farms if you have time when youâre in Kentucky. There are so many really impressive operations.
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No trouble. 
and quite horrifying as anyone experienced in foaling, wouldnt take on the risk and amount of time and effort required for that amount.
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Not for $250 a month.
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I have to apologize. Ive been all over this blog answering things on FB and messenger. Its been an onslaught and threats for legal actiont. The Chacco Blue filly is looking amazing. Ill post a pic from today. I do need to address another issue though. She was part feral. She knows nothing. In my opinion if you pay 30K in-utero you would expect the basics to be taught - at least the basics. She is a very sweet filly but knows absolutely nothing. I think the owner got lucky with her. She is a nice addition to her program direction. But this was not where a horse passed of should have been. This is lazy.
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It shouldnât take 2 fullgrown man to lift and put a foal in a trailer. Or maybe thats just me.
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Why she paid 30k is beyond me, but we all make our choices.
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Kate is a good sales person.
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Photos speak for themselves
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And I can tell you that it costs more than $250 a month per head
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I suspect Kate has a habit of signing up for bare bones super basic board and then letting the scope creep until the BO is expected to also be training/handling/feeding/working the hay business logistics/foaling and they either wonât or canât keep doing it all for a rate thatâs basically just renting a pasture. I could totally see it being âoh Iâll send them out to foalâ but then whoops this mare is about to go and no room, can you help this once? And then another, and you look up and youâre running a full service mare and foal operation for 250/month/head
I know the OK people where the horses all looked like absolute dogshit and some of them died said in their defense that they never even agreed to take on that many and didnât have space but they got dropped off anyways, she didnât provide enough feed, and they ran out of money to keep paying to feed these horses they didnât agree to house out of their own pockets and she wouldnât make alternate arrangements. I donât think thereâs any excuse to have them look that way, and the OK people are culpable for not calling animal control and pulling the fire alarm and instead letting the poor horses starve, but I suspect thatâs the repeat pattern of behavior that leads to all these conflicts.
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I feel like if you pulled this kind of stunt at a competent barn, theyâd either stop you before you ever got started, and theyâd have liens and AC involved pretty fast. But if you go out seeking the less competent low end places, the places that might be cutting a few corners already, you are not going to be such a big walking red flag to them because you are the same kind of people essentially. They are less likely to evict you or call AC, more likely to let things stagger along until there is a welfare problem.
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