Pine Hill is owned and managed by Nadia and Charles Dean who, along with their two kids, Ben and Elena, and helpful dogs Koko and Sam, have lived there since September 2016. Nadia and Charles are developing and improving the property using a range of approaches, principally barefoot horse management, regrarian land management, and Equicentral property design.
Nadia is the horsey person of the family and has ridden since the age of seven. Growing up in Tasmania, Nadia was a mad pony clubber and enjoyed eventing and mounted games until she moved away to university and a job in Sydney where she had an eight-year break from horses. Upon landing a job in Canberra, however, Nadia quickly realised she could get a horse again and she promptly bought a 4 year old Irish Sport Horse x Warmblood, Assegai.
Assegai (left) taught Nadia a great deal and was the first horse she took barefoot. A friend, a competitive endurance rider, suggested Nadia look into barefoot hoof care and, after doing some research, Nadia became convinced that this was the optimal horse management approach. An intense period of learning and trial and error followed, but Assegai never looked back and the two of them evented successfully barefoot until Assegai’s sale in 2013.
Nadia has since transitioned three horses of her own from shoes to barefoot. Using a combination of careful diet, a lot of exercise and regular trimming, she has had great success keeping her horses sound and able to travel at speed across rough terrain. Every horse has taught Nadia something about the barefoot approach and she has endeavoured to gain as much knowledge as possible in order to manage her horses well.
Nadia is not a professional barefoot trimmer, and has no designs to be one. She works with qualified trimmers in the area and has done the Basic trimming workshop with Andrew and Nicki Bowe. Nadia trims her own horses but leaves the advanced stuff to the experts! That being said, Nadia has developed a broad knowledge of barefoot horse management and the entire property has been established to support this methodology of equine care.
This is Nadia on her wonderful Irish Sport Horse mare, Belstone Animosity, completing their first EvA105 at Berrima Horse Trials in 2016. Annie was probably the only barefoot horse in her class that day!
Pine Hill is the result of that experience, knowledge and desire to manage horses in a way that will maximise their working life, minimise injuries and promote sustainable land management along the way. Nadia and Charles are constantly looking for new ways to develop Pine Hill, learn more about good horse and property management, and hopefully share what they have learned along the way.
And now Pine Hill has moved into Australian Stock Horses, the ‘breed for every need’. Pipersrun Captain Thunderbolt (Jack) is the stud’s foundation sire and the first crop of youngsters are starting to go out into the world. Nadia always wanted to be a jillaroo growing up but just never quite managed it. Now she is learning about campdrafting and has developed a keen enjoyment of Working Equitation, a sport practically made with the Australian Stock Horse in mind.
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Keep working ,terrific job!
What a lovely place. But I only have one question. How are you going through this lockdown. Do you still provide your services? I own a horse farm in Texas and it really hard for me cause customers are worried to come to my farm and buyers don’t want to buy horses without seeing them in real life.
Howdy! Yes lockdown has been a bit challenging but we have not had any cases of COVID19 anywhere near us so clients have still been confident to come and see our stallion and drop off and pick up mares. We sold our young stock through an auction this year so we didn’t need to host potential buyers. We just make sure we take a lot of pictures and post on our Facebook page as much as our website. We’re lucky to still be able to get out to the odd training day and now the shows have started up again so we can get out to compete and show off our horses. Best of luck – it looks like it’s getting better out your way.