About me
My name is Toma, it's a Lithuanian name and Lithuania is that tiny little country in eastern Europe and one of the Baltic states, I did mostly grow up in Germany though and that's the accent you can hear. I started riding in Germany at the age of 8 and only got my first horse Tui after I moved to Australia at 25 years old. My horse keeping and training these days is based on consciousness, kindness and communication. I try to give my horses as much choice as possible and our relationship is my highest priority.
I'm a mum of two girls, mum of 2 horses and 2 ponies, a dog named Hank and a wife to my very supportive husband.
I started this 'Track journey' with providing agistment on my Track system at home. Wanting to help horses live a happier healthier and more species appropriate life. It quickly became clear that without education, these systems weren’t fully understood or valued. The missing piece wasn’t the setup, it was the knowledge.
Education soon became my focus alongside agistment, but trying to do both proved unsustainable. My passion was clearly in teaching, so I made the decision to step away from agistment and dedicate my work to educating horse owners instead.
That shift opened the door to track consultations, workshops, talks, and my podcast, Track Talk, allowing me to help more horses by empowering the people who care for them.
Most recently, this journey has led me to working with children through my Horse Care School. Teaching the next generation to understand horses as living, feeling beings. Each step has unfolded naturally, guided by a simple goal: to help horses live happier, healthier lives through educating their humans and future humans.
My track journey so far
I first heard about the track system/Paddock paradise in 2017 at a hoof trimming clinic run by Wild about hooves. Mainly about how different surfaces have so many advantages for our horses’ hooves and because I’ve always had horses with ‘’ouchie feet’’, it was something that interested me immediately. Also, how quickly their feet are suffering with the influence of the sugars in our grasses and with what we feed them was eye opening for me. It just made so much sense straight away just from the hoof perspective (so far that was all the benefits I knew).
In 2019 We finally found a property where I could have my horses at home with me but it was only a bit less than 3 acres. Just enough space for my two horses in a traditional setting.
I fell pregnant but started on a simple perimeter track pretty much straight away and already had so much fun with it. I then took it down once I had my baby though, it felt too hard to handle at that stage of my life. Mainly because I didn’t have a ‘’good’’ set up and didn’t yet know what I’m doing with this new way of horse keeping.
In 2021 I’ve set the track back up and really dove into it, with some mistakes, big learning curves, lots of research and plenty of trial and error, I gained a deeper understanding of the track concept and fell in love with it more and more. Well, the horses and my land showed me how beneficial it is every day, so that kept me motivated. Thats when my friend mentioned above moved her horse here and the dream of offering agistment reignited.
Then out of nowhere in 2022 the amazing and unexpected possibility came up to buy some extra acres of our joining Neighbours and now this property, that was only just ok has become my dream property (still not huge, just under 8 acres), but I was able to set up a better track than I ever thought possible, with a very interactive forest part and a good size. PLUS, now I am actually able to offer agistment and this amazing way of live to more horses and their owners, who are just like I was in the past, wishing there was track agistment around. So grateful and feeling very blessed that this has ‘’happened’’ to me, or did I manifest it?