Here at Fox Hall Stables we allow our horses to live as naturally as possible. Each of our stallions has his own band of mares (and babies in the spring and summer) with which he runs free. All of our stallions are kind and gentle and guard their bands faithfully. They are also excellent fathers, often seen "babysitting" or playing with the foals.

Our horses are only stabled to eat their grain twice a day or in extremely poor weather. Foaling mares are brought into the barn each evening and watched throughout the night as they near "their time". Mostly, they fool us! Over the years the mares have become very skilled at having their foals when we go into the house for coffee or to warm up.

Weanlings are "halter broke", taught to lead and taught to accept the ministrations of the farrier and veterinarian. As they are sold they are taught to load in the trailer without a fuss. For the yearlings we may add standing tied, spooking in place and we sometimes will get them used to the saddle. For the most part, we just let our young horses grow up.

When a horse turns 2 we evaluate each of them as individuals. We have found, over the years, that some horses are ready for training at 2 and some are not. Our personal preference is to wait until they are 2 ½ to "break them to saddle". If the horse is gaited, we don't work on his gait much until he is 3. Of course if he gaits spontaneously we certainly don't try to stop him. On the other hand, we will not push a young horse that is having trouble with his gait-which is usually due to a "growth spurt". We feel that young horses will grow up with better attitudes and give their owners many more years of pleasure if we don't ask them to do more than they are ready to do-physically and mentally.

Arthur Smith is the trainer at our farm. He uses humane training methods based on the psychology of the horse. No artificial training devices (built-up shoes, chains, bitting rigs, etc.) are EVER used. All of our horses are started in a full-cheek snaffle bit and we continue to use this bit after they are trained-even with the stallions. We occasionally use a short shank bit when showing.

As you can see, we love horses and hope you can visit us sometime. In the meantime, continue your "virtual tour". Thanks for your interest.

Fox Hall Stables
Route 1 Box 143
Irondale, MO 63648
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