Rehabilitation Track System

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Here at A Nicker For Hope, we believe that stall life isn’t the way nature intended a horses life to be. We believe horses should be in constant motion, living enriched, thriving lives.

A Nicker For Hope has adopted the practices of Jamie Jackson and his book “Paddock Paradise”. He teaches the lessons from the wild on how to be a natural horse. Jamie travelled among wild horses for nearly 4 years studying their “way” of living. He studied how they moved and travelled across the wild land and then adopted their way to create a healthy, sound, and happier domesticated horse. The track system was born. I highly recommend every horse enthusiast to read this book!

A “Track System” is creating a second fence line inside the existing perimeter fence to create a “track". It means removing all grass, and creating different stations for the horses. 

Jamie’s Track System provides an environment to keep the horses constantly moving. The benefits of this system have been proven to help prevent and even reverse laminitis/founder. It is perfect for the horse that is sensitive to weight gain, Cushing’s, arthritis, and other common diseases. Since the horse is constantly moving, they are never stationery for too long because they are excited to move onto the next activity and station. Constant movement is the key benefit. 

Jamies track system also creates natural feeding patterns for the horses digestive system and creates a safe diet in a controllable feeding environment. Instead of rich grass, the horses are fed hay with a low sugars and low starch content, so the risk of laminitis is virtually eliminated. 

The track system has fun and exciting activities along the way for the horses to experience, creating curiosity and continuous movement which makes for a happy horse. It also acts as a “perpetual warm-up session”, as Jamie calls it, so horses are ready to go for rigorous equestrian duties with no additional warm up needed. 

The main reasons we follow the practices of Jamie Jackson and his Paddock Paradise track system are: 

1. Encourages and stimulates constant movement
2. Enables herd behaviour, as opposed to life in isolation 
3. Protects horses from dangerous founder-prone pastures
4. Discourages vices and unwanted behaviour 
5. Provides an interesting, stimulating, and enriched life
6. Minimizes lameness, strengthen hooves, and muscles

A Nicker For Hope’s Track System consists of the following “stations” that a horse has access to 24/7: 

Hay Stations - Throughout the paddock we have multiple feeding stations with hay nets that are off the ground. The importance of the hay nets are simple; it eliminates urine and fece contamination, virtually eliminates hay waste, provides a natural feeding position, and the hay nets create plucking and tugging behaviour. This prevents the horses from gorging themselves and simulates natural grazing behaviour.  

Water Station - Clean water is a necessity and must be available to the horses 24/7. We place the water station away from any feeding stations, so the horses are forced to move. We even create a “watering hole” in the summer months for the horses to bathe and splash in, which is also a form of natural behaviour. It is also important for the hooves to get moisture to prevent splitting and cracking. However, you need to create the proper balance; enough water to provide essential moisture to the hooves, but not too much water as it can create a variety of debilitating hoof problems. 

Salt Licks - We place the salt licks on the ground broken up, even buried slightly. This stimulates the horses to paw at them, which again, is a natural behaviour. This is great for their hooves and the horses will even chew on them which is great for their teeth and naturally floats them. 

Textured/Varied Terrain - Any kind of textured or varied terrain creates strong hooves, strong muscles and also helps with natural hoof trimming. We have everything from dirt, gravel, sand (not near feeding stations), little hills, big hills, rougher bumpy areas, logs to walk over, etc. 

Dirt/Mud/Sand Bath - This encourages rolling which is important. This also helps protect and keep their coats healthy.

Camping Stations - These are larger areas for resting and sleeping where movement comes to a halt. We have multiple camping station, some in the trees with shade and some stations in the wide open. We make sure these areas are large enough to fit all the horses.

Enrichment Stations - It is important to provide horses with activities that keep them busy and happy. These can include anything from; hanging toys, hiding treats in between/on/in objects, hanging herbs, scratching posts, season appropriate stations, etc.

Last, but certainly not least, we have:

Manure Bin OUTSIDE of the track - Manure removal is done twice a day by hand. Once in the morning and once in the evening. This not only keeps the paddock looking neat and tidy, but is ESSENTIAL in preventing dangerous internal parasites in the horses. We have a special spot at the rescue that we call “The Shitty Area” (fitting, yes I know!). This is where we have a manure bin where we dump all the manure from the track as to not cause any fly or worm problems.

Recommend reading: 

“Paddock Paradise - A Guide to Natural Horse Boarding” by Jamie Jackson

“Horse Track Systems - A How To Guide to a Healthier Horse in Body and Mind” by Amy Dell