MH Equine

11/01/2024

Mark your calendar for our 3rd annual 💥SUNDAY FUNDAY💥 barrel and pole series!

➡️ABRA membership/permit required
➡️We will do a pre draw post (to gather name & numbers only) the draw will not be done prior to Sunday. Entries will be taken at jackpot- will close by 1️⃣2️⃣:4️⃣5️⃣.
➡️Barrels will be up in the AM but will be taken down by 12:30 or if it gets to crowded.
➡️Exhibitions are $5 each if you are entered in the jackpot otherwise they are $30.
➡️You must decide prior to jackpot start if you are buying into the series. Only those paid in receive points otherwise they fall to the next person.
➡️No minimum jackpots required
➡️Points will be awarded in each D however year end prizes will be given based on an overall highpoint.
➡️Let's spice things up with 🌶🌶 D prizes 🌶🌶 to the open and youth (barrels only) at each of the jackpots.

💥💥We would like to thank our past sponsors for their generous contributions
Breezy Hill Equine - Ryan & Carla Pocock
Dark Horse Designs
BXB Farms - Slade & Kami Bowers
1st Impressions - Charlene Rask
Bert Duncan Trailers Vermilion AB - Justin and Melissa Guenthner
K And K Poultry - Karl & Kelsey Trach-Jory
St. Paul Municipal Seed Cleaning Association Ltd.
River Ranch St. Paul, Ab - Adam & Crystal Charbonneau
Hush Botanix - Jennifer Soltys
Double L Equine Services - Lexis Labant
Mary and Colin Balan
Sure Shot Wireline Inc.
As well as a few anonymous sponsors.

➡️We welcome any new and returning sponsors again this year. If you would like to promote your own products please reach out and we will get you the best kind of advertising that suits your brand!!

We hope everyone can make it out to enjoy this great facility and this amazing series!

10/28/2024

10/18/2024

University of Minnesota extension always has the best infographics!

There is obviously a lot of variability between horses, but this is a really good baseline to start from, and can help plan for purchase quantity and budget.

09/26/2024

It is truly unfortunate that we live in a society that thrives on bringing people down. As a person in the Equine industry, I see so much bullying and belittling of people coming up in the industry.

We are all people of the Equine nation, a place where in the beginning we all started because we love horses. Why can't we stay that way?

Why can't we all understand that every single one of us have had bad days, have had moments where maybe we weren't the best horse person because we lacked the understanding or even still held onto some of the older views of horsemanship?

None of us should be throwing stones when, at one point, we all lived in glass houses!

Instead of tearing people down, we should strive for collaboration, strive to find the best possible options we can, be better for our horses, whether in riding, training, farrier, or bodywork?

I will not stand for the bullying, I know that every one of us can bring something to the table.

Let's all be better, do better, & reminder kindness, understanding & compassion are free ❤️

09/20/2024

Are you looking for a farrier? Give Victoria a call.

09/02/2024

What an incredible summer of lesson programming.

Thank you to all students and clients for filling our available classes and keeping us busier than we ever imagined. Thank you to the friends and clients that let me lease/borrow horses for the summer to be able to accommodate more riders. And thank you to the horses that cooperated, didn't complain, and made dreams and goals attainable for many. The weather was great, and we had a summer of fun.

We offered private lessons, semi private lessons, and some special group programming for July and August. We plan to offer similar options next summer as well.

Horse 101 ran Thursday & Saturday
Beginner riding class getting the 101 and basics on being around horses and on riding.

Trail Tribe ran Tuesdays, Fridays, & Sunday
Opportunity for more intermediate + students that have ridden with us previously to haul locally and go trail riding. We hauled and rode at Moose, Muriel, and Chicken Lake.

Versatility ran Wednesday
Begginner/Intermediate class for students that wanted a little of everything. We did drills, trail rode, did groundwork, rode ba****ck. One of my favourite classes to just do anything horsey

To wrap up summer I was invited to teach at 4H camp in Veg for a great group of kids part of a great program.

🐴🌼🐴☀️

08/27/2024

Things your riding instructor wants you to know:
1. This sport is hard. You don't get to bypass the hard…..every good rider has gone through it. You make progress, then you don't, and then you make progress again. Your riding instructor can coach you through it, but they cannot make it easy.

2. You're going to ride horses you don't want to ride. If you're teachable, you will learn from every horse you ride. Each horse in the barn can teach you if you let them. IF YOU LET THEM. Which leads me to…

3. You MUST be teachable to succeed in this sport. You must be teachable to succeed at anything, but that is another conversation. Being teachable often means going back to basics time and time and time again. If you find basics boring, then your not looking at them as an opportunity to learn. Which brings me to…..

4. This sport is a COMMITMENT. Read that, then read it again. Every sport is a commitment, but in this sport your teammate weighs 1200 lbs and speaks a different language. Good riders don't get good by riding every once in awhile….they improve because they make riding a priority and give themsevles opportunity to practice.

5. EVERY RIDE IS AN OPPORTUNITY. Even the walk ones. Even the hard ones. Every. Single. Ride. Remember when you just wished someone would lead you around on a horse? Find the happiness in just being able to RIDE. If you make every ride about what your AREN'T doing, you take the fun out of the experience for yourself, your horse, and your instructor. Just enjoy the process. Which brings me to...

6. Riding should be fun. It is work. and work isn't always fun.....but if you (or your rider) are consistently choosing other activities or find yourself not looking forward to lessons, it's time to take a break. The horses already know you don't want to be here, and you set yourself up for failure if you are already dreading the lesson before you get here.

7. You'll learn more about horses from the ground than you ever will while riding. That's why ground lessons are important, too. If you're skipping ground lessons (or the part of your lesson that takes place on the ground), you're missing out on the most important parts of the lesson. You spend far more time on the ground with horses than you do in the saddle.

8. Ask questions and communicate. If you're wondering why your coach is having you ride a particular horse or do an exercise, ask them. Then listen to their answer and refer to #3 above.

9. We are human beings. We make decisions (some of them life and death ones) every day. We balance learning for students with workloads for horses and carry the bulk of this business on our shoulders. A little courtesy goes a long way.

Of all the sports your child will try through their school years, riding is one of 3 that they may continue regularly as adults (golf and skiing are the others). People who coach riding spend the better part of their free time and much of their disposable income trying to improve their own riding and caring for the horses who help teach your child. They love this sport and teaching others…..but they all have their limits. Not all good riders are good coaches, but all good coaches will tell you that the process to get good is not an easy one.

*thank you to whoever wrote this! Not my words, but certainly a shared sentiment!

08/18/2024

Just keep showing up and working on your goals.

08/18/2024

A small stab in the heart is what you feel when you put up the day's riding list and you see riders sinking heavily in their shoulders when reading which horse they are assigned for the lesson. A small stab in the heart for that horse that for an hour will carry around a rider who has already decided that he does not like his horse. A small stab in the heart for the horse that did not choose the rider himself but still does his best, lesson after lesson.

Riding is a privilege and something you have chosen to do. If you chose to ride at a riding school, your instructor assumes that you actually want to learn how to ride. The instructor's highest wish is that you get good at it.

Often there is a plan and a thought as to why you are assigned to that exact horse. Before you mount up next time, ask yourself "what can this horse teach me today?" All horses have something to give, a feeling or a new tool in the box.

The art is actually in being able to get a lazy horse to move forward, to get an uncertain horse to gain confidence, a naughty horse to focus or a tense horse to be released. It takes work. If you think a horse is boring, it's more likely that you don't ride the horse as well as you think! It's not easy to be confronted with your own shortcomings, but it is in that very situation that you get the chance to truly grow as a rider.

The excuse that "it's not my kind of horse" is actually a really bad excuse. A good rider can ride any kind of horse. A good rider has trained many hours on different types of horses to become a good rider. A good rider can find and manage the gold nuggets in every horse.

If we absolutely want to ride, it is our duty to strive to do it as best as possible, even if it's only for fun. We owe it to every horse that carries us upon it's back.

Copied and shared with love for all of our horses, ponies and riders 🐎❤🐎

08/12/2024

What constitutes a circle? It’s probably the most mis understood, over done and poorly executed exercise in the mainstream horse world

A poorly done circle is a wet noodle flopping around, a disconnected body with a nose pointed onto a figure, while the hind legs flail around and the rib cage collapses.
A poorly done circle is a plywood board that someone is attempting to pound softness into, by pulling pieces and parts around

A well done circle is a masterpiece, a thing of beauty
A well connected body, straight on a curve

But the horse has to know how to turn with the shoulders, and to keep the hind legs behind them
A horse has to learn how to keep their neck center
A horse has to know how to expand the rib cage to the outside
A horse has to know how to stretch the outside of the body

That’s no small feat, and it’s quite the athletic endeavor, not to be taken lightly, and nothing to flop around on mindlessly

A circle deserves our respect, awareness, and time put in to develop it well

08/06/2024

Riding schools for children -

I used to teach children riding lessons a lot. It was really fun and rewarding to instill in young people care and respect for the horse, and good riding skills. I found chikdren far more receptive and empathetic than many adults, because they hadn’t been taught to ignore horses expressions to get something done.

The pressure from parents to accelerate the kids skills to more fun stuff, or to prevent the child’s boredom, was a steady presence in teaching- along with maintaining the school horses soundness and mental well-being from being ridden by beginners. Keeping lessons good for both horse and rider was a job of creativity and constant adjustment. I believe it can be done, but the culture at large doesn’t typically make it profitable, as many parents struggle to want to pay for lessons on sound husbandry and good riding basics. The kids want to canter, by God!

I have some firm beliefs about good riding stables, and I realize the expense and strain and adjustment is an ever pressing reality, I stand by these beliefs:

-children should learn good riding fundamentals first, and not progress to trotting, cantering, jumping until they have a good understanding of a balanced seat and can demonstrate it

-children should learn care of and respect for the horse comes before their entertainment. Grooming, tacking, warming up and cooling down, quitting an activity or adjusting if the horse is stressed, learning groundwork, etc, should be a non negotiable

-children should learn to feel a balanced horse to the extent possible. A beginner horse should not simply be a lame horse that tolerates them, but one to teach th em how to ride- children should not be set up for a future of kicking and pulling to get a horse to do something, but learn to feel how to direct a horse with their body, and to feel movement that is balanced, setting them up for a lifetime of being able to balance future horses.

- children should learn to read accurately equine expression and well-being. Children should not be taught to describe horses as lazy, stubborn, etc- these are taught by adults and children learn to adapt these views. The adults are responsible for setting the culture and views of horses and their handling.

Many riders struggle with normalizing tight, crooked, and unhappy horses because this is what they learn to ride on. The instructor is responsible for setting the culture of what their program entails, and I believe this means setting firm boundaries on what the purchasing client can expect, instead of catering to unreasonable demands to keep business. That is a whole can of worms in itself, but one worth opening.

08/05/2024

You need breaks.
I need breaks.
Your horse needs breaks.
My horse needs breaks.

You don’t need to save breaks for when you are in a bad place.
I’ve ridden my stallion about 4 times in four months.
Ya know why? I have a new boyfriend and I love spending time with him and his family and friends. I’ve been going to concerts and floating on creeks and doing non horse things and it’s been fun. I’ve been cleaning up my property and making improvements I never thought I could do. I’ve learned how to repoint rock work and run equipment with precision.

You don’t have to wait until you “get the twisties”.
And by the way, a break doesn’t have to be a full stop. I’m sure Simone Biles didn’t completely quit all gymnastics- but she quit competing and returned to simple stuff, and probably did a little crosstraining, and she talked about getting into therapy.

What does “the twisties” look like for equestrians’s?? Utter frustration.
Oftentimes it turns into trying to get things with our hands that we used to be able to accomplish really well with our seat. We try too hard to get the things right now, and end up starting a fight.

Just like amateur occasional gymnasts probably have no idea what the twisties are, if you’ve never once had a client pressuring you to accomplish something with a horse or student, please don’t come at me with moral superiority- how you would never ever ever pick a fight with a horse.

That video of Charlotte Dujardin chasing the horse with a lunge whip….. that reminds me of a case of the yips, coupled with extreme frustration, and the fact that we don’t talk about bad days in the equestrian world. Simone Biles knew she was going to hurt her self. If she continued yet that was exactly what people pressured her to do. They called her weak for pulling out of five different finals. They didn’t care if her safety was Jeopardy.

Yet equestrians can’t admit when they are in a bad place mentally and maybe are a threat to the Horse they are working with. Charlotte had absolutely no timing or tact in that video. It was like all the skill set that she built had completely vanished.  But you wanna know what’s even harder than withdrawing from big competitions?? Telling a teenager that you are not feeling it today and canceling the lesson that this girl probably signed up for a month in advance and hauled miles to get to. Or withdrawing from a competition when clients paid for you and their horse to compete, and spent thousands to get there. I can understand why she kept going when she absolutely should have taken the day off.

I’ve seen it happen so many times - trainers, whose income depends on selling horses and can’t pay board or by feed unless they get a horse sold this month. (terrible business model by the way.) I’ve seen burnt out barn owners that take out frustration on a Horse. I recognize that I am only a few degrees away from being Andy kocher ( who was banned from competition for using shock spurs). Him and I grew up around a lot of the same people so I recognize the pressure that he was under because he got known for being really good at riding stoppers. 

Again- I’m NOT condoning any abusive behavior. But we do need to understand where it comes from to stop it. There is a reason this industry can be so ugly. The pressure at the upper levels is immense, and a lot of sketchy practices are normalized. When you dance with the Devil, you don’t change the devil- the Devil changes you.

Go on some trail rides. Try a different discipline. Take a break. Play with riding in a halter or neck rope. Work on your own fitness. Study sports psychology.

Do these things before you find yourself heading to a dark place. And if you find yourself in a bad spot anyways, do the full stop!!! Turn your horses out and take a break. You’ll be back. And you’ll be better.

07/31/2024

07/27/2024

Make time. Ride the horse.

07/13/2024

“If that’s the posture that’s the healthiest for the horse, then why don’t they move that way on their own???”
“Well, Susan, why isn’t your posture perfect?”

Horses have bad posture, just like humans have a bad posture. Twisting your ankle when you’re 12 can cause an imbalance that creates arthritis when you’re 50.  Likewise, a minor imbalance in your lower body can cause massive back pain.
Unless you had a major catastrophe, most chronic musculoskeletal pain isn’t directly because of a one off injury…. It’s more often because of a mild imbalance. People think they are going to injure themselves doing some type of extreme manual labor, but often it’s just general poor posture that ends up, causing us the most pain. (Obviously there are plenty of exceptions and many of those are obvious- like a car accident or a bad fall, or some extreme repetitive movement jobs) 

Anyways, horses are even much more likely to be injured because of general poor posture then because of an “accident”. While accidents can and do happen, general dysfunction happens a heck of a lot more often. we owe it to our horses to understand equine biomechanics, and to learn the skills it takes to help our partners improve their posture.

[Sidenote – a friend and I are both convinced that horses with backs that don’t swing properly causes navicular. We’ve both seen many horses that learn to lift their thoracic sling and loosen up through their back that become asymptomatic after years of chronic navicular pain.]


06/28/2024

06/27/2023

Making A Deposit

By: John Tilley

I recently listened to a pastor and motivational speaker talk about the idea of making an emotional deposit to others. The idea is to randomly say something kind or make a kind gesture such as opening a door for someone, even though you don’t know them or in lots of cases, you do know them. When you fill others emotional and spiritual banks with good and kindness you will have it withdrawn and given back to you sometime when you may need it.

I spent a little time thinking about how much this applies to our horses. How many times do we make a deposit into our horses emotional, physical or spiritual account. Do we deposit or just withdraw until the bank is empty and the horse has nothing left to offer us? There’s lots of ways to make a deposit and do some good and kindness for your horse without it having to be a big deal. For instance, you could walk out into the pasture and just spend a little time rubbing on that horse - scratching where the flies are biting and maybe get a few mosquitoes off him. You could lower his head or work his tail when he’s tight. You could spend a little time just rubbing him in the trailer while he learns to relax in there. You could take your time cinching him and pull it in stages to make him more comfortable. All these little deposits of kindness and trust will be stored and sitting in that bank. Some day you may need to load him up fast and unload him and cinch him up fast. Maybe the time you took to deposit confidence towards the trailer and the cinch will need to be withdrawn and it will be there.

There have been times in my life where I have ran my horses emotional, physical and spiritual accounts very close to the red. It’s an uneasy feeling for the horse and it’s an uneasy feeling for the rider. When the bank is empty in a tight spot and there is no confidence, trust, or stamina left to withdraw - we can find ourselves in trouble. Take time to make deposits throughout the day. Step off, loosen that saddle and give the back some air. Let him catch his wind. You never know when you may need to make a withdrawal, be sure the account isn’t empty.

05/09/2023

Emmy - 2 YO QH filly just wrapping up a month in our young horse handling program. Very agile and feely. Needs a little more maturity time as well before she's ready for some real riding. She's passed kindergarten and ready to head home to grow some more.