Our Mission
At Newton Stud, our aim is to produce both mentally and physically sound horses, destined for a future in top sport. In order to achieve this, we keep all of our horses (but especially our babies), in a specific way, and there are three core criteria that we consider: socialisation, movement and nutrition.
- Socialisation -All of the horses that live with us are kept in herds. Horses by nature are herd animals take great comfort from being able to touch and interact with their peers. This is very important for their social development, and it is interesting to observe how the different age groups behave together. The older horses tend to form smaller cliques within the main herd and seem happier to spread out across their acreage. The younger horses, however, tend to stick much closer together and even where smaller friendship groups have developed, you never find them far from the main herd. This is quite an obvious demonstration of how much young horses in particular, depend on the companionship of others. |
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- Socialisation -All of the horses that live with us are kept in herds. Horses by nature are herd animals take great comfort from being able to touch and interact with their peers. This is very important for their social development, and it is interesting to observe how the different age groups behave together. The older horses tend to form smaller cliques within the main herd and seem happier to spread out across their acreage. The younger horses, however, tend to stick much closer together and even where smaller friendship groups have developed, you never find them far from the main herd. This is quite an obvious demonstration of how much young horses in particular, depend on the companionship of others. |
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- Movement -It is hugely important for all horses to have room to move, but it is of particular importance to young horses. Being able to move around freely on varying gradients of ground is extremely important to the physical development of our baby horses. It promotes correct joint, bone, cartilage, tendon, ligament and muscle development, and helps to prevent the onset of OCD. It is really a key component in producing physically sound horses! Even through the winter, the horses are kept in their herd groups in large, airy barns with access to all weather turnout. |
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- Movement -It is hugely important for all horses to have room to move, but it is of particular importance to young horses. Being able to move around freely on varying gradients of ground is extremely important to the physical development of our baby horses. It promotes correct joint, bone, cartilage, tendon, ligament and muscle development, and helps to prevent the onset of OCD. It is really a key component in producing physically sound horses! Even through the winter, the horses are kept in their herd groups in large, airy barns with access to all weather turnout. |
- Nutrition -Horses are grazing animals, designed to graze for around 16 hours per day. Through the summer months, all of the horses live out 24-hours per day, but through the winter, when they come into the barns, our method of feeding involves ad lib access to forage at all times. Mimicking the horse's natural lifestyle and supporting their physiological makeup. Our forage feed is also mixed with some concentrates, we have a wonderful machine that chops both the forage and concentrate feed together. The concentrates are trickle fed, rather than supplied all in one hit. This method of combining the two, allows us to feed each group of horses very individually. Our broodmares are fed a specific mixture to support their growing pregnancies, while our youngstock are fed to support correct, steady growth to help prevent the onset of OCD. It also helps to prevent any behavioural issues due to stress around feeding time, and prevents any fighting over buckets of feed. |
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- Nutrition -Horses are grazing animals, designed to graze for around 16 hours per day. Through the summer months, all of the horses live out 24-hours per day, but through the winter, when they come into the barns, our method of feeding involves ad lib access to forage at all times. Mimicking the horse's natural lifestyle and supporting their physiological makeup. Our forage feed is also mixed with some concentrates, we have a wonderful machine that chops both the forage and concentrate feed together. The concentrates are trickle fed, rather than supplied all in one hit. This method of combining the two, allows us to feed each group of horses very individually. Our broodmares are fed a specific mixture to support their growing pregnancies, while our youngstock are fed to support correct, steady growth to help prevent the onset of OCD. It also helps to prevent any behavioural issues due to stress around feeding time, and prevents any fighting over buckets of feed. |
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