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About Us
PB Paddock Paradise Livery officially opened in January 2018, after many years of providing care and rehabilitation to horses or ponies who struggled with Laminitis and EMS like our beloved Dubri. Since then, it has become our mission to normalise species appropriate living and horse-centric care.
We are a family-run livery based on the Staffordshire, Shropshire border and are home to rehabbing, retired or ridden horses of all shapes, sizes and backgrounds. PB is currently operating over two different sites within close proximity that we refer to as 'the woodland yard' and 'the rehab & retirement yard'.
Our Work
Specialising in the care and rehabilitation of Laminitis and EMS, our goal is to encourage a horse centric approach to their management and help spread awareness, in turn helping owners to recognise the early warning signs of common yet often fatal conditions.
Through our social media platforms, written work, courses and clinics, we share as information on the dangers of providing unsuitable environments for our horses and the toll that it takes on their mind, body and hooves.
We additionally have extensive experience rehabilitating or providing care to horses with a wide variety of conditions or issues, including soft tissue injuries, anxiety, stress or boredom related behaviours, grass affected symptoms, hoof pathologies, obesity, SI issues and much more. We have a team of hand-picked professionals to aid in complex cases or those who need additional support during their stay.
Project Woodland Yard
PB Paddock Paradise Livery originally opened in early 2018, after several years of unofficially helping horses rehabilitate. What once began as a yard for retired horses to enjoy their golden years and sick horses to heal, soon led us to Project Woodland Yard.
Having identified a disconnect between paddock paradise track systems and horses still in ridden work, we were keen to provide a way for them to live more naturally, preventing the onsite of many conditions we see in our retired horses, whilst their owners could still enjoy them.
In late 2022, we took on an abandoned ex dairy farm in hopes of making it into a yard suitable for ridden horses. Project Woodland Yard has since seen some huge transformations, with plenty of potential left to unravel.
Dubri's Legacy
Dubri was our beloved family pony and a rescue we welcomed from the World Horse Welfare nearly 20 years ago. When Dubri first joined the family, we kept our horses on a very traditional set up on a old farm turned livery yard. There were stables for each horse to use at night or in bad weather, and of course rich, lush paddocks to turn our horses onto during the day. Next door, only an electric fence strand away, was the pasture that the farmer turned his cows onto during certain times of the year.
Dubri having been a neglected pony, was left to her own devices and had suffered from Laminitis and EMS before she came into our care. Not having the knowledge we have now, once rescued we kept little Dubs on a small paddock, ripe with overstressed grass. Additionally, Dubri was somewhat of an escape artist, and many a time found her way into the dreaded, neighbouring cow pasture.
Problems started to arise and the vet soon became a regular attendee at our livery yard. With a clear diagnosis of Laminitis, we followed said vets advice to the best of our abilities. Dubri then spent 5 months on box rest with restricted soaked hay, bute, no hard feed and shoes.
Looking back, we now know what we were actually doing. We restricted her movement and socialisation with other members of her species, we restricted her food despite horses needing constant access to forage, we further compromised her hoofs and took away its natural ability to function and then we waited for a miracle to happen.
When said miracle never happened, just like many owners of laminitic ponies, we found ourselves asking what the right thing to do was and if Dubri really had any sort of future, free of pain or isolation. It wasn't until we took to doing our own research that we found a barefoot trimmer attending Your Horse who had success in treating Laminitic cases. Off to Your Horse we went, unsure of what to expect but desperately hoping we would find the answers to Dubri's ongoing issues. After spending most of the day talking to said HCP, we went back home with a completely new outlook on keeping horses and with a long list of things we needed to change.
The following days were spent putting up a tiny track in her small paddock and turning her out for the first time in 5 months. Angela, the HCP, had arranged to visit the following week to remove Dubri's shoes. Our barefoot journey then began because we had nothing left to lose and we desperately wanted to give Dubri a future she could thrive in. Fast forward 15+ years later, we now try our very best to help owner's struggling with Laminitic ponies before they too find themselves with nothing left to lose.
After several yard moves, we found ourselves on the 18 acres of land we have now built PB Livery on and it's safe to say we haven't looked back since. Dubri lived to the age of 27 among her herd of 5 on her non-grass Paddock Paradise track system, with access to adlib meadow hay and the sweetest of friends - barefoot, sound and pain free.
We will forever be grateful to Dubri for the knowledge, love and laughter she has given us. She will continue to live through the work we do, helping horses just like her.
Dubri Firkin, the bestest of friends: 1996 - 2023
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