Old Station Stables

24/01/2024

1% Better each day!

23/01/2024

BARREL RACING ETIQUETTE
1) Clean your stalls and use the appropriate dump area.
2) Roll the hose back up.
3) Use the wash rack.
4) Saddle your horse in the stall, so others can get up and down the barn alley,
5) Be polite and mindful of others, since we share the facilities.

www.betweenthereins.us

📸: Bee Silva Photography

17/01/2024

Yasss!

Goals…

01/01/2024

Another trip around the sun - 45 yrs later and he’s still the staple of the stable❤️

01/01/2024

30/12/2023

Hey horse girl… priorities have changed 💯

29/12/2023

🙌🏻 👏🏻 👇🏼

Common sense is an important skill to have in the horse world.

Think before you act.
Think before you speak.
If you don’t understand, ask.

There is a reason horse trainers do what we do and how we do it.

Trust us when we tell you not to do something, we learned the hard way and are trying to save you the train wreck experience.

www.betweenthereins.us

23/12/2023

My horse is 14.5hh.
🤣🤪🔫

20/12/2023

Yasss. Amen!! ⬇️

Let’s talk WHIPS.

95% of you… (including yours truly!) are/will be faster… if you hang your whip back up in your trailer.

It’s a distraction in most instances.

It takes focus away from your riding.

When you sit up to whip one, you are by default asking your horse to slow down.

Instead, focus on riding to your spots. Work with your horse and stay out of the way. Smooth is fast, and if you can ride to your best effort, I promise you will see a change on the clock.

15/12/2023

Our barn Christmas party is tomorrow
around 7 ish.

Some of the girls are doing secret Santa- I have a game for that for whoever wants to join. $10 limit.

Join us for some drinks, snacks and laughs.
if want to take something for munchies giver.
Can comment below if u wish.

24/11/2023

This 👇🏼

This 🙌🏼

19/11/2023

MBRA Awards night 🌟
Layla 3Dchamp
Laykin pony champ
Open pole res. Champ for me 😊

09/11/2023

If you bounce between or go to any other stable - please do not come to my mine.

08/11/2023

Yass.

At a recent private lesson I was asked - if I could give one piece of advice what would it be?
My answer is this, take the time to get your horses broke BEFORE you start them on the pattern. 98% of problems stem back from horses not having a proper foundation and handle.
If your horse can’t -
✅collect
✅roll back
✅Lope lead depart
✅Half pass
✅ two track
✅Stop
✅Back up
✅Have head/neck control
✅Shoulder control
✅Rib control
✅Hip control
They are not ready to be put on a pattern. Most outside horses I’ve rode come to me needing 60 days of fundamentals before I should be beginning their barrel training but for some reason the public thinks training them should be a timed event as well 🤷‍♀️
I get it, training costs money, good horses cost money. But you have far better odds of having success by getting these horses broke before they start their careers then not.
These are our dreams not theirs, so take the time it takes…a well broke horse never loses his value but a half broke blown up one will…

08/11/2023

❤️ amen.

Motivation Monday

- When my instructor repeats to me: ′′Straighten your shoulders and open your chest!” He’s not just teaching me how to stand up. He's teaching me that in life we should always walk straight and face problems head on.

- When my instructor asks me to lower my legs and keep them close to the horse, he teaches me that in life we do not allow distractions and that little is enough to deviate from his path.

- When my instructor tells me "Too much hand, don't hang on to the reins! "He teaches me to give and not to take, with the greatest respect of others.

- When he yells and repeats endlessly: "Look forward in the direction you want to go!” He teaches me the importance of setting goals and never losing sight of them to achieve them.

- When I ask to move up or do more and my instructor says I'm not ready, he teaches me that in life you must always respect your rhythm and never skip the steps.

- When I fall and get back up, I learn that there are always setbacks, times when we back up, but the important thing is to get up more determined than before.

- If I hold my breath during a ride and he jokingly tells me "breathe! You are purple!” I understand that you have to let your emotions flow in order to get rid of them.

- When at the end of the course I am happy with the work done and my instructor says to me′ ′Well done, thank your teacher′′ I know he is not referring to himself but to my horse.

- Now you, you who are watching a rider pass in the saddle, keep saying that riding is not a sport because it is the horse that does everything. I agree. Horse riding is not a sport. It is a life lesson.
Author Unknown

06/11/2023

Yesss!!

The obsession with a deep heel in flat work….

Have a look at the photo below. Would you squash my fingers when you ride? If the answer is yes, you have too much weight in your stirrups.

Next time you are in your saddle at halt, consciously push your weight into the stirrup and feel how your glutes and hamstrings contract, popping you up. You may have been doing this for so long it’s difficult at first to feel the contraction. Go back and forth between pushing down into the stirrup and just resting your foot. Really sense into what changes in your underneath when you push down into the stirrup.

Additionally, notice how this pushing into the stirrup jams up the joints of the ankle, knee and hip. All of which are required to stay soft and mobile if we are to sit the trot effectively. If too much weight in feet is not diagnosed by yourself or your coach you will bounce unnecessarily when using your stirrups. This is one of the primary reasons for no stirrup work and why you’ll feel like your sitting better and more connected without them.

I see many riders attempting to put their weight into the stirrup in hopes of following all gaits: rising and sitting trot and canter. It will only disconnect you from the saddle and your horses back. However, if we can learn to keep our ‘foot light’ in the stirrup we will have the same success with them as we do without. Not using your stirrups, sadly, will not help you learn to ride with them and ‘foot light’ is often the fix.

‘Heels down’ is something that is shouted by many coaches universally. Unfortunately, it results in many riders pushing their leg forward to appease the coach as often their hamstrings are tight and it’s the only way the heel will go down. Now the foot is jammed forward, removing the ability to follow the movement with a soft ankle and the body alignment of the ear, shoulder, hip, boney knobble of the ankle bone is lost. In this position, the rider is no longer responsible for their own body weight in any gait. The foot jammed forward and lack of proper alignment also makes the rider fall back into the saddle in rising trot with a thump because their feet are no longer under the hip.

Think of the ball of your foot across the pad of your stirrup iron and imagine you are about to dive backwards off of a diving board. It should feel springy and light. You are in a kneeling feeling and the energy comes from the hip socket, down the top of the thigh, out the kneecap and to the ground (not to your foot). Putting a sponge in each stirrup can also help you feel how the foot can stay light and spring-like through the joints of the ankle, knee and hips in sitting trot (and canter). If you don’t have some available, just imagining a sponge under the ball of your foot can have good effect.

If this is new to you, your new conundrum will be losing your stirrups until you can sense your way into feeling just the right amount of weight that will keep your stirrup but not squash my fingers! It is a conundrum worth working through, I assure you. Once this skill is solidified, you won’t panic if you lose a stirrup because you won’t be relying on your stirrups to stand in and balance.

***Thank you to Shannyn Clarke for being my photo model

22/10/2023

Last mbra go’round, pony champions!

10/09/2023

Pictou-North Colchester Exhibition did not disappoint!!
Brooke received reserve champion gymkhana and
I received champion sr gymkhana!!!
Beautiful buckle 😍 😊

03/09/2023

Champion and res-champion horse barrels/poles!

26/07/2023

👇🏼

17/07/2023

Awesome shots - photo creds to Kara!!

16/07/2023

OSS crew