Ridequine Ranch

08/29/2024

When the 2 yr olds are this good minded they start filling lesson horse shoes.

How has no one bought this filly yet is beyond me!
Not that I’m disappointed keeping her around.

08/23/2024

With the closing of summer we will be kicking off our fall/winter/spring riding season.
I’m also getting my next set of training client in so that means my projects MUST go!! Any reasonable offers considered.
These wonderful minded young horses have an amazing start to get them in any all around disapline your looking for.

MAKE ME AN OFFER!!

Rue price drop 6k

https://youtu.be/8XMLh_KrO-A?feature=shared

Billy price drop 20k

https://youtu.be/8lCNz9wap_A?feature=shared

Toby price drop 5K

https://youtu.be/49Ad8IKgnDg?feature=shared

Lanie, price drop, 6k

https://youtu.be/iawU251uwLM?feature=shared

08/20/2024

Darla, by Justa Roan Cat
This is not a horse I thought I would be posting but number have to go down to make room for training horses.
Cutting/cow horse deluxe.
As sweet and soft as pie, but pull up a chair and watch the show when she wants to perform. This girl will squat and sit on a dime.
And with a colour like that, she is sure to get you noticed. I have never seen a roan sparkle in the sunlight like her.
Great feet, correct straight legs and lots of bone and body.
Up to date on vaccinations, deworming and farrier.
Stalls, lives in pasture, ties, clips, baths, ponies. Not herd bound at all!

This will be a hard one to see go.

08/20/2024

Lanie,
2022 AQHA mare
Slow slow legs and she just floats.
All around prospect that’s going to do the English and western.

https://youtu.be/iawU251uwLM?feature=shared

08/20/2024

We have some very nice prospects for sale.
Rue, 2022 AqHA mare
Ranch riding deluxe!!!
She will be one to watch for, the cutest personality.

https://youtu.be/8XMLh_KrO-A?feature=shared

08/17/2024

How’s that for footwork?!👏👏👏👏who needs mirrors when you have a freshly dragged arena.

07/19/2024

2 yr old APHA starting to get an education. First time with a tail and first time being lunged in a bridle. I have 3 rides on this cool kid.
Anyone looking for their future Hunter, Toby just might be your guy.

Will be advertised at the end of the month if not sold by then.
Please inquire by text to Kim at 306-536-9638

07/06/2024

Had to bring some good company and a taste tester to check the hay crops this afternoon.

07/02/2024

Nothing makes my heart happier than matching great horses up with appropriate homes! Having repeat customers looking for more horses because they obviously like what they got.

This is Bonny, living her best life out in BC.

07/02/2024

Not an easy decision, but this is the kind of horse that will change someone’s life. And it kills me to see him sitting in my pasture without a person. And this boy deserves to be the horse that makes someone’s dreams come true. I simply just don’t have time 😞

For your consideration.
4 yr old APHA gelding,
Located in pilot butte, Sask
All info in pictures and attached video.

Asking 🖐️figures starting with a ✌️.
Price in photos

https://youtu.be/8lCNz9wap_A?feature=shared

07/01/2024

Happy Canada Day!
Anyone that rides at this barn knows I talk a lot about self carriage. And with this weekends obstacle challenge going on at the barn I decided to test our skills and find some holes. No better way to see how much you rely on your reins that to remove them. The growth and trust you build when you take down your walls is just one more life lesson these incredible creatures teach us. ❤️❤️❤️Billy❤️❤️❤️

06/28/2024

Right here peeps! This right here is why I do soooo much ground work with my babies. Not cause I’m scared to get on them cause of what might happen to me, but more of what will happen to them.
Postural positioning and training.
My babies start learning this the second I get my hands on them.

06/24/2024

Our version of Sunday meal prep.
Emma’s favourite job! And most of it actually goes in the containers these days, progress.👏

06/13/2024

We could not be more thankful to all of our incredible barn members for all their help with the spring clean out! Nothing like a squeaky clean barn to start the summer.
Thank you all from the bottom of our hearts 🥰

06/10/2024

Another show in the books for us. Thank you MQHQ for putting on another great show. I just love getting to show in the Brandon facility. Water sliding and horses under the same roof! Emma went into her first Quarter horse show and got a first place and a pail of treat(her favourite part). We got to watch my niece show her new horse and they are going to be a force!!
A huge thank you goes out to her amazing big cousin Ivy for letting us borrow her rock star of a horse that looked after her every step of the way, and to show Emma how much fun showing can be.
I’ve gotten use to my lesson kids stealing my horses but looks like I’m going to have to get use to Emma starting to steal them too.
And we picked up a new horse for the most deserving young lady. What a nice boy, welcome to the barn fam Snoopy!

05/20/2024

Such a fun weekend. We got some of the young horses off the property to SQHA show in Moose Jaw. They both did so great! Phoebe had a lot of firsts, pulled straight from being a pasture puff all winter to having to learn a few things.
And Billy went from jumping all winter to brushing up some of the skills and fineness required to show at a breed show. This weekend was just a dry run to see what we need to work on and we definitely have some homework, but I’m looking forward to the challenge.

We also got to show up and support some of our barn crew that was showing at the western dressage show and they did so great.

Thanks Jetta for coming along to help out with Emma and the horses.
Looking forward to the next show already,

05/14/2024

Is it actually their personality, or is it adaptation or stress behavior?

I watch the behavior of horses in boarding barns and yards and wherever horses are kept with interest. What fascinates me is how behavior changes radically with the manner in which they’re kept.

Large fields of turned out horses often have a peaceful feel to them, with horses grazing or browsing, dozing or grooming.

Horses kept in smaller pens often have more aggressive, competitive behaviors, especially if hay is fed at “meals,” instead of being available all day. These environments often carry the feel of a prison yard- lots of aggressive gesturing, fights breaking out, some horses bully others needlessly and without cause.

Once we get into single kept horses or stalled horses, horses kept alone or spending a lot of time in small spaces confined, we can often see more neurosis develop- horses that bite or make aggressive gestures at anyone walking by, stall walking, cribbing, kicking, etc.

I often get a run down on a horse’s behavior, placement in the herd hierarchy, eating habits, vices etc, when getting a new horse into my training program. I get information about their personality, what they like and don’t like, and while I take note of it, I take it with a large grain of salt.

Quite often, the horse behaves entirely different in a different environment- grumpy or pushy horses become calm and peaceful, horses that are stressed and don’t eat well graze all day, groom friends, and doze.

It isn’t magic - it’s simply setting up the environment for the mental and physical needs of the horse first, human convenience second. Horses need space to move, functional herds (this is not the same as just number of horses- they need horses who know how to read and respond appropriately to other horses expression), forage available steadily, and an environment where being a horse is the top priority. The training helps; but environment plays 50% of it.

05/10/2024

With show season fast approaching and our first entries booked, I thought we best get to trailer training all the young kids.
It was a day of trailering and tie training.

05/09/2024

This was just the read I needed!
I talk about this and teach this
!!!!!!!Listen to your horse!!!!!!!
but yesterday I did NOT do this and that’s why one of my training sessions did not go as I had planned.
I had a c**t come into training, and yesterday was day 2 of ground training and I thought I would just bring him into the arena while I taught another riding lesson, just to get him use to the space. Because my focus was not on receiving feedback from him, and just on giving instructions, I missed the signs that I needed to connect to him because I was focused on my other student.

Today will be all about him.
Accountability to the horses and always trying to do better, so we can be better each day.

Is your horsemanship a conversation?

Yesterday, on my flight home from teaching in the UK, I sat next to a man who made me think about what it means to have a conversation.
The flight was packed and boarding procedure had been somewhat chaotic, even with gate personnel shouting at passengers. After we had settled down in our seats, with me having a middle seat, the man sitting next to me on the aisle and I started talking.
I quickly learned that he was an American doctor living in California, where he had a general practice. We first talked a bit about politics, which is not a topic I’m very keen on, but because I had nothing else to do, and I always enjoy getting to know other people, I went along with it.
After a couple of minutes, he steered the conversation towards religion, which is a topic I’m even more reserved about because just as with politics, or maybe even more so, I find that many people can be quite dogmatic about religious views, and especially about really excepting religious views of other people.
I am born and raised in Germany, where we don’t really talk a lot about religion, and it is seen as somewhat of a private matter. Which is why I found it a bit intrusive when he directly asked me if I am religious, and if I believed in God. I tried to steer the conversation in a different direction as gracefully as I could, but he didn’t get the hint and started to talk about the Bible.
Now please don’t get me wrong, I’m really happy when someone is enthusiastic about a certain topic because I can also talk about horses the whole day long. However, he became really quite intense and did not take any of my subtle hints that this was not really a topic I’m very much interested in, or know much about. On the contrary, this seemed to raise more determination from his side. He went into this lengthy monologue without even leaving one little space or gap for me to inject a question or a remark. Other passengers started to turn around and look at him to see who was talking so loudly. At some point I interrupted him and told him as politely as I could that I very much appreciated that he found something of value in his life but that this is not really a topic I would like to talk about.
Rather than changing the topic, he got even more agitated, bringing forth even more arguments. The young woman next to me threw me a glance and raised her eyebrows as if to say, boy, I’m really happy I don’t have your seat.
I tried other ways to change the subject or make him stop talking to me. I inquired if he had children or how he likes living in California. I even pretended to fall asleep, but to no avail. At some point I got up and pretended to have to go to the toilet, stalling a little bit in the galley, not wanting to return to my seat. I made a plan to sit down at my place very quickly and to put on my headphones and just watch something on my iPad so I could get out of the conversation, but as soon as I reappeared in his field of vision, he started talking again.
I have done quite a bit of flying, but this was one of the longest and most unpleasant flights in my life. I was so glad when the plane landed, and people scrambled to get up and get their luggage (he was still talking to me) and then I could finally excuse myself. I exited the plane as fast as I could, making my way to passport control. He tried to catch up with me twice saying how much he enjoyed our conversation. I was so glad when I was alone in the taxi. I had to think about how much his idea of a conversation and mine differed. And of course it made me think about horse training.
A conversation is an exchange of thoughts, ideas, or information between two or more individuals through spoken or written communication.
I see a lot of horsemanship that is not a conversation, but rather a lengthy monologue by the human. How often does it happen that we talk with horses about a subject but they’re not very much interested?
I thought about how horses might feel then, just like I felt tired and drained after talking to that man on the plane. Probably uncomfortable, pressured, overwhelmed.
Do we actually realize when our horses do not want to participate in our conversation? Do we take their hints to change the subject? Do we wait for an answer or are we just interested in hearing ourselves talk? Does it matter at all to us what they think about it or do we just try to convince them?
Just like I was keen to get out of the plane, maybe they would try to get out of the riding arena? And just like I would not like to enter a plane together with that man ever again, would they be reluctant to enter the riding arena again?
I also didn’t take up any of the information that was presented to me, because I just really wanted to be somewhere else. In the end, I just wet blank and stared at the seat in front of me.
The thing is, he didn’t use physical violence and he didn’t insult me. He seemed like an intelligent man. He just had this incredible need to express himself and through that caused me to first try to avoid, then escape, then shut down. And I just wondered about if that’s how horses feel sometimes with us, and our fast way to express ourselves, our fast thoughts and many ideas.
Back home, I enjoyed a very quiet evening with my dog. This experience has reinforced my thoughts on how much and in what manner we present things to the horse, and I promised myself to listen even more, so that my horses and I could really have a conversation.

05/06/2024

Let horses be horses.

They like to get muddy and roll in the dirt.

They like to run around and play with their friends, sometimes resulting in the occasional scratch or abrasion.

They value socialization with other horses far beyond what any human can provide them, whether we want to admit to that or not.

They are well equipped to live outside and wired to cover a lot of ground each day. They get bored being cooped up without enrichment for most of their lives.

They don’t care about aesthetics like people do. They don’t care if they have a fuzzy winter coat or if they aren’t sparkling clean year round.

They don’t care if they’re not wearing a name brand saddle pad with matching brushing boots.

They don’t care how much money you spend on specialized supplements for them if they’re still going without near constant access to forage even with all of that added nutrition.

They don’t care if they have their own personal masseuse if it means they’re deprived of social interaction and space to move.

They care about having their most basic needs met.

It really doesn’t matter how many fancy and expensive add ons you offer to your horse if at their core they’re missing their basic needs.

It doesn’t matter how much money is spent on them if that money isn’t contributing to fulfilment of their basic needs.

Friends.

Freedom.

Forage. (And water, of course)

It is really that simple.

Provide these 3 crucial needs, then add on whatever else your heart desires, but let’s quit pretending care is sufficient when it doesn’t cover these basics, just because there’s a substantial amount of money put into it.

If money guaranteed basic met needs of horses, there wouldn’t be so many high value horses living lives where they’re utterly deprived of core needs.

Let your horse be a horse.

Horses are outdoor herd animals.

No matter how much our industry tries to convince you of otherwise, they absolutely suffer when kept in isolation, small and unenriching spaces and without constant access to forage.

They aren’t dolls for us to dress up and do with as we please.

They’re living beings with species specific needs that it is our duty to meet if we choose to get one.

LET 👏 HORSES 👏 BE 👏 HORSES 👏

“The 3Fs” (Friends, Freedom, Forage) concept originally coined by Canadian Equine Behaviourist Lauren Fraser https://www.equinebehaviorist.ca

05/05/2024

Do calming supplements work?
This is usually the kind of thing that gets me in trouble with tack and feed stores. It's not my intention to knock anyone. I am just offering an opinion that is constantly asked of me.
For two decades most of my work has been with anxious horses. Even when the initial behavior doesn't seem to be anxiety, it is usually rooted in anxiety. If it's not physical pain it is either anxiety or an inappropriate learned behavior.
For a larger part of those two decades, my approach was considered "fringe". The conventional equine industry would roll eyes if things like empathy or animal behavior was mentioned. This is getting better, but it is still prevalent.
It makes sense. People would far rather buy something to "fix the problem animal", than change the way they do things. That's hard work.
People will drop lessons, skimp on training, but invest a small fortune in medieval gadgets to bend their horse to their will.
Supplements are a far lesser evil than the torture devices, but they still come before actual training and empathy.
The reality is I have spent the greater portion of my career as the last resort, after people have tried everything else. This means working with anxious horses that supplements haven't helped.
There are a few different ways calming supplements work.
The most effective calming supplements are products that address imbalance. Magnesium deficiency, for example, will cause a horse to be anxious. You can't fix this through behavior modification techniques , or self regulation on it's own. You can certainly help balance a horse so it's not as noticeable, but a mineral imbalance does need to be addressed. Adding magnesium supplements to horse without a magnesium imbalance, however, won't make them calmer. At best it does nothing, at worst it can lead to other imbalances.
The other "supplements" are some form of sedation. These only have a short term effect. ANY chemical sedation will have the body build a resistance to it's effects. Yes, those herbal natural products are also CHEMICALS. The only thing that's chemical free is dark matter, and scientists aren't even sure about that yet.
This means that you can sedate a horse out of anxiety for a while but as their resistance grows you need to increase dosage for it to continue working .
These products have a purpose. When you have skipped training and you HAVE to help your horse through an emergency situation, if you haven't used the sedative approach and made your horse resistant, these supplements will be helpful.
Some people ask where the mare products fit in here.
Mares that show extreme discomfort when in season, or erratic seasons where they seem to be in constant state of PMS, usually have a veterinary issue, and some of the products for mares DO in fact help them deal with actual pain and discomfort. I do recommend a veterinary check on their reproductive system though. Some of these conditions can actually be resolved without too much fuss, if we look a little beyond the "bitchy mare" myth.
The reality is we don't focus enough on considering horses natural behavior, or their minimum physiological needs.
Training methods have long been focused on making a prey animal do something that scares them, without properly preparing them for it.
Our management practices create settings that horses do not do well under.
There is no better supplement than meeting a horses species appropriate needs.
When it comes to training and riding, an understanding of what motivates defensive behavior goes a long way to identifying what is causing anxiety.
Yes, some horses are naturally more anxious than others, but all can become more self-regulated with an empathetic and holistic approach to their care and training.
The truth is this approach is more effective than supplements will be long term.
Anxiety is more often than not the result of either the way they are trained, or the way they are kept.
Sometimes it can be a nutritional lack, and sometimes it can be a symptom of pain, but there is always a reason behind it, deeper than the horse "just being crazy".

05/01/2024

!!!!CAMPS!!!!! CAMPS!!!!!CAMPS!!!!
We have our traditions riding camps dates set for this summer

Novice 1 & 2 camp
July 8-10
5:30pm-8:30pm
$$425.00

Novice 2. & intermediate
July 22-25
5:30pm-8:30pm
$625.00

Above prices include the use of a Ridequine horse and tack.
Discounts for riders that have their own horse.
Please book online at

Ridequine is a horse boarding and training facility, as well as a dog and cat kennel, located 20 minutes northeast of Regina, Sask, near Pilot Butte. Our facilities accommodate all equine needs, including training, lessons, boarding your working or retir

05/01/2024

!!!!!!!!CAMPS!!!CAMPS!!!!!CAMPS!!!!!!!!!!
Attention parents! Are you looking for a camp for that kid that loves the outdoors, animals and farm activities. Well coming July 22-25 Ridequine Ranch is holding a Barn Brats camp. This is a camp for ages 5-10. It is an experience to explore the daily life of a kid on the farm!!
Camp will run 8:00-3:00.
Things the kids can expect to be doing in the camp is
Learning the daily life and chores on a ranch to look after all of the horses, dogs and cats. There will be raft building and see if it floats, kits building and seeing if it flys. Picnics, swamp exploring, grooming, and feeding the horses, pony rides, crafts, scavenger hunts, and all things in the day to day ranch life.

Cost is $350.00 for the week and all you need is weather appropriate clothing, sunscreen, bug spray and a bagged lunch.
Please visit the website to sign up. Spots are limited and registration is open now!
Www.ridequinesask.com

04/28/2024

Spring is a lovely reminder of how beautiful change can be, and a time to celebrate new beginnings and endless possibilities.

Take this as your sign to join us Sunday, July 14th at Ridequine Ranch in Pilot Butte for Thrive and Feel Alive. A unique Women's Wellness Event designed to plant a seed to allow yourself to grow the life you have been dreaming.

Horses are the most genuine teachers allowing opportunities for self-discovery, self-improvement and self-acceptance. Joining this one day event with other amazing women in partnership with horses will help you to discover skills that can empower you to lead your most authentic life.

In this ground based experience you do not need to have any horse experience or you could be a seasoned horse women.

This day is for ALL women.

When was the last time you put yourself on your to do list and dedicated quality time to your health and wellness?

Now is the time and this is the event you want to be at! This day is open to 12 women, and by registering before May 30th you will receive a special discount making your investment $225 instead of the regular price of $275.

Registration closes June 30th so send us a message to receive your Retreat Package and Registration Form today. Spaces will fill up fast!

We look forward to spending a day commitment to health, wellness and horses! 🐎

04/26/2024