Sintaluta Stables

06/26/2025

Viggo Mortensen once said:
“Someone once asked me what horses taught me most. I said—everything I needed to unlearn.
They don’t care who you are, or what you’ve done. They respond to how present you are in that exact moment.
Over time, I realized that if I approached people the way I approach a nervous horse—with patience, with honesty, and without ego—life became a lot quieter, a lot clearer.
You don’t control a horse. You earn its trust.
And maybe that’s the lesson for everything.

06/03/2025

My 3k horses stand in with my 40k horses.

I’ve had a five hundred dollar horse earn me 100k.

I’ve watched a 35k horse become a five hundred dollar horse with 1 X-ray.

I owned a mare who earned 107k , who I bought for 700.

Horses don’t know what you paid , they don’t know what they’ve won.
But they know how you treat them.

There’s not a single horse on our place that’s treated any differently then the others. You can’t put a price tag on a soul.

Today as I walked my pastures. I pet the noses of winners who’s owners failed them. I pet the noses of horses who could have been winners had they been given the chance.

Today I kissed the noses of baby’s who one day can become winners, if their owners bring them to their full potential.

Horses know no dollar value.
They do know if you love and believe in them.
Feed them & they shall feed you.

~RePost

05/21/2025

05/06/2025

Marked safe from AI stealing my job

05/03/2025

Summer horse show season is just around the corner and we can’t wait!

04/24/2025

“I’ll ride tomorrow”
Tomorrow
Tomorrow
There’s no more tomorrows
No more rides
No more cantering down your favourite track. No more listening to his hooves as you trot down the road. No more Sunday afternoon walks. No more “us” time.
Never say you’ll ride tomorrow, because you never know how many tomorrows you have left. You’ll never know when will be the last time you land a perfect round, or that perfect square halt.
You’ll never know when the last time will be when you amble down those beautiful paths in the summer sun. You’ll never know when will be the last time you reach for the saddle.

So ride. Ride like every time is the last time. Like ever canter, trot, walk, jump and halt is your last. Come home smiling from ear to ear, even if the ride didn’t go as planned.
Give him a pat, a treat, a hug, a kiss. Tell him that he was amazing and you love him. Because even when it doesn’t go right, it may be the last time you get to dream of your goals on his back.

What I’d give to be able to ace a jump course, a perfect halt, to canter down our track, to hear his hooves beat against the road. To reach for his saddle.

So ride it like you stole it. Because each time, you’re stealing back a tomorrow.

04/06/2025

Can’t wait for this foal to make it’s appearance this spring!

Light My Fire needs no introduction. He is an impressive stallion with an even more impressive resume. Jumper ring, hunter ring or hunter derby this boy does it all in fantastic style and in between his busy schedule he has produced some outstanding offspring who share his remarkable talents and good looks. Link to one of his Royal rounds here: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1A21hZbgCz/?mibextid=wwXIfr

The dam, My Caissa, is by Checkmate out of an Oxford performance mare. My Caissa had one show season where she won championships in the hunters and jumpers. In 2024 she produced a lovely c**t by Jethro Tull and after weaning her 2025 foal she will go back to sport with her new junior rider.

This 2025 foal is available in utero and price includes board until weaning.

03/23/2025

Pat vs Scratch

I had always been a "patter". I always thought of it as a way to communicate to my horse my affection and gratitude until I got Bettye. My big grey mare HATES pats, they scare her, she reacts like she is being punished for something and can't figure out what she did wrong. It's taken a long time to break the habit but I have learned that a scratch on the withers is much more appreciated by all our horses so it was no surprise when I came upon this study by Emily Hancock, Sarah Redgate and Carol Hall of Nottingham Trent University.

A small team of scientists from the University of Nottingham Trent set out to investigate the different effects of patting and scratching horses while riding or handling them.

In the first part of the study, 16 Grand Prix dressage riders at the London 2012 Olympic Games were analyzed. The aim was to find out how and when riders pat their horses, and to monitor the horses' subsequent reactions. Fifteen riders patted their horses, and twelve of them remained patting for an average of 1 minute. A significant percentage of the horses responded to the patting. The most common response was to speed up their pace or to trot. Such a response could indicate that the patting was unpleasant for the horse. It could also be a reaction to losing contact and dropping the reins.

The second part of the study involved a group of five well-behaved riding ponies and five relatively calm horses. All ten horses were patted and scratched four times for 30 seconds. The responses to the patting and scratching were significantly different. The patting caused the horses to withdraw from the touch, the whites of the eyes to be visible, and the breathing to be rapid. The response to the scratching seemed to be much more effective as a form of praise, with the horses most often lowering their heads, moving their upper lips, and exhibiting similar responses associated with the horse relaxing.

Previous research has shown that scratching the withers reduces a horse's heart rate and can therefore be a useful calming aid in stressful situations.