Blue Royal Ltd

06/04/2024

Region 9 Championship Show. Savanna Seeton wins Reserve Champion in Ranch Riding Open, Reserve Champion in Showmanship, and Top Five in Horsemanship. Riding Major Metallica V, this pair, along with owner Debbie York, continues to improve with each performance. Thank you to all the people in my life for making dreams come true.

03/18/2024

Experience the Thrill of Chisholm Stampede's Open Buckle Show Series 2024.

Major Metallica V, High Point Winner in Ranch Horse Adult, Ridden , and Owned by Deborah York.
Annie Mac V, High Point Winner in Western Pleasure Adult, Ridden by Loren Gottfried and Owned by Chris and Dana Gibson 
Legacy Luck Be Alady, Wins the Ranch Horse Riding Adult, with Owner Loren Gottfried
Major Metallica V , High Point Horse in Hunter Pleasure and Supreme Halter Horse, Shown by Savannah Seeton.
Very proud of all three of these ladies and these amazing horses. Hard work paying off.
Thank You!

02/26/2024

Girls.
They are so much more than lace and ribbons and stuffed animals. They are more than dresses and pink nail polish. They are more than dolls and sweet words and giggles.

They are old jeans and stained tank tops; wild hair and dirty fingernails. They are soft, but work hard. They snuggle their stuffed horses at night after riding their real one all day. They are funny and smelly and sassy.

Girls. Just because they can do everything a boy can do, doesn't mean they have to. And just because something is "a boy thing", doesn't mean they shouldn't learn it.

Girls. Teach them to take care of themselves, to care for others, and to believe they can do whatever they set their minds to. It may not be easy, but it is far more rewarding as they grow in to self- sufficient women who stand on their own two feet, instead of on the backs of those around them.

11/03/2023

I'll be in the barn.
When people have come to visit over the years
they commonly hear from me "I'll be in the barn."
When life gets hard I'll be in the barn.
When things are just right I'll be in the barn.
When the sun shines
The rain falls
Or snow covers the ground
I'll be in the barn.
If things seem to be falling apart or if I'm
celebrating the simple things, I'll be in the barn.
When I'm looking for answers or trying to clear my mind, I'll be in the barn.
When I'm looking for myself, I'll be in the barn.
If I'm working or trying to relax, I'll be in the barn.
Even when I'm not in the barn my mind drifts there, I find myself thinking about being in the barn...
It's where I keep my riches
All my wins and my failures
Every one of my hopes, dreams, hardships and
memories.
You can find them all in the barn, buried in the hay, hiding under a halter, spilling out of the feed bins,or glimmering with dust in the evening light.
I may be covered in dust, dirt, feed, hair, and hay, smell of sweat and manure, and sometimes there may be blood or tears but I'll be there. I'll be in the barn.
So if your wondering where to find me, I'll be in the barn. If I'm not there I promise I'm on my way.

Author Unknown

Photo by Jordan Blackstone

09/20/2023

Welcome to the lesson program.
Ms. Sadie 6 yr old, ball of fire.

08/29/2023

I don't have an amazing figure or a flat stomach. I'm not the most beautiful woman in the world, I'm me. I eat food. I have curves. I have more fat than I should. I have scars because I have a history. Some people love me, some like me, some might hate on me. I have done good. I have done bad. I go without make up and sometimes don't get my hair done. I'm random and silly. I don't pretend to be someone I'm not. I am who I am, you can love me or not. I won't change!! And if I love you, I do it with all my heart!! I make no apologies for the way I am. Ladies, I dare you to put this on your status and share a picture of yourself if you're proud of who you are...💚💚

07/21/2023

Youth/Mid Summer Nationals 2023. With Hard Work Comes Great Success! Savanna has proven that this year. Special Thank You to Vickie Swanson and Debbie York. Both have been in the Blue Royal Family for 30 yrs plus, the support and kindness
y’all having given over the years is priceless.
Thank you to Loren and Bob for holding down the fort at home.
We make our way back to Texas with 2 National Championships and
2Top Tens with just 2 horses.

07/19/2023

National Champion Ranch Rail Second Year in A Row! Awesome Ride Awesome kid.

07/18/2023

National Champion Ranch Horse Rail Open
Savanna Seeton riding Psydekick CB
So Proud !

Professional Horse Training Services Horseback Riding Lessons whether new to your horse journey or needing a change

07/17/2023

Savanna Seeton Top Ten in Half Arabian Ranch Riding. So proud of the her focus and the work she has put in with this gelding. The Only Jr. Horse in a class of 15. Great start to our show

07/16/2023

Great Opportunity to Own A Great Horse.

03/24/2023

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!

03/15/2023

Fun weekend in Fort Worth Showing some Ranch Horses.

03/08/2023

Here's a glimpse of a horse trainers life in reality:

We have a passion, usually starts almost at birth, we go after it.
We work for free to learn. Muck stalls, buck hay, build fence, drag arenas, wash horses, sweep floors and a thousand other tasks just in hopes of learning something about these amazing animals.
Endless and often thankless hours. To get lucky enough to get on some nasty suckers no one wants to ride. But you get on...maybe scared, maybe unsure, but you'd crawl in the middle of a red eyed lion just to prove to yourself that you can. You ride anything they run at you....
Then one day, usually years later, you strike out on your own. You become a trainer..But you still crawl on the bad ones and make the best you can of them. You still get je**ed around trying to lead a knothead to the barn, still get rope burns, get kicked and pawed and bit. Have runaways, broncs, flippers and ones that smash your legs into the fence. Often times risk your life...
Even easy day are abusive to your body. You are stiff and sore so often you don't even notice anymore. You ride, drive, learn, teach and soul search endless hours...
What little money you actually make you buy or replace gear, struggle to get a truck and trailer, find a place to train out of...yeah it's a real cakewalk.
Through endless hours of learning, failing, trying harder, wanting to quit, digging deeper, you learn to train well and maybe show well...
You start winning, winning starts to become habit...surely you have made it...nope.
You still ain't above mucking stalls or dragging the arena...you basically do what you did in the beginning..you just get paid a little more and have a different title...
After all of this, day and night, you still work crazy odd hours and hunger to get better.. working long after the help went home. Doing things they have no clue gets done. If we took a pencil to what we earned per hour we'd go hang ourselves...
Then...the clients. Some good, some bad, some amazing and some absolutely awful..
They go from singing your praises to saying what a poor job you did, how they expected so much more but fail to see what you had to go through the endless hours and frustration of set backs.
Then they decide to ride with another trainer down the road and suddenly they forget how overjoyed they were with all you had accomplished on their baby.

Remember why you started my friends...you started because of the love....hang in there, don't lose your passion, your heart and soul over people...keep doing it for the horse.

~copied from Cole Horses. Jamie Gray Cuomo

02/04/2023

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will, When the road you're trudging seems all uphill, When the funds are low and the debts are high, And you want to smile but you have to sigh, When care is pressing you down a bit - Rest if you must, but don't you quit.
Success is failure turned inside out - The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And when you never can tell how close you are, It may be near when it seems afar;
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit -
It's when things seem worst,
You must not quit.

- Edgar Guest 1921
Artist - Ann Hanson

12/30/2022

For my fellow barn owners/ trainers out there!

Lessons learned long and hard in the horse business as a professional..

1. It's easy to fall in love with your customers. They become a family who you spend a lot of time with. However, in the end they will do what's best for themselves. And, for you and them, those paths may not be the same. Prepare to get your heart broken. Keep business and personal relationships separate.

2. People will not always trust in your experience and will second guess you. They will think they know better because they read it in a book, or saw it online. Don't try to be all things to all people. Do what you are good at. Run your barn in a way that you can sleep at night knowing that you did right in your mind by them and their horses. The clients opinion of that may be different than your beliefs, but you have to live with choices that leave you at peace. That may mean confrontation, hard conversations and even asking people to move on for your own peace.

3. Horses are easy 99% of the time. It's the people who come with them that make things complicated.

4. Remember that horses need to be horses.

5. People will always judge you, and have opinions. The better you are, the more haters will have opinions.

6. Success isn't measured by ribbons and show placings. It's measured in happy animals and the quality of their lives.

7. There is always an exception or quirk that doesn't " follow the rules" in horse care. Do what works, not what the books say works.

8. When you get annoyed by seeing somebody's car pull in to the barn, it's time to let that person move on. Your barn should be a happy place. It literally only takes one bad sour apple to ruin the whole atmosphere and dynamic in a barn.

9. Let it go.... if someone moves on don't be upset by it. Ignore what they say. Don't take it personally. Every barn is not a good fit for every person.

10. This is a business. If a person or horse isn't working for you, or the compensation isn't offsetting your cost, it's time for them to go. The exception to this is your retired horses, see #11.

11. Horses only have so many jumps, so many runs, so many rides. Don’t waste your horses. Teach your students they aren’t machines. You owe it to your retired horses to have a safe, comfortable and dignified end. Your schoolies worked for you. When the time comes they can no longer do that, either give them a pleasant retirement, or put them in the ground where you know they are safe. Do not dump them at auctions or onto other people where you are not 100% sure that they will be cared for.

12. There is no shame in euthanasia for a horse owner. Always better a week too early then a second too late. Do not judge anyone for their reasons for doing this.

13. Most clients fall Into two categories. Those who are "high maintenance", open in their opinions and will confront situations head on. The second is the quiet type who will not say a word and will not openly talk with you about their expectations or issues. You have no idea they have a problem until it's too late. The people in between these two are the clients you want. They will be long term and make life easy.

14. Know your worth. KNOW YOUR WORTH. Your time and experience has a monetary value. Don't do things for free, even if you like the person. Every bit of time or effort you give to clients has value. So when you don't value your effort, neither will a client. They will come to expect "freebies", which always leads to resentment from someone.

15. Be honest. It's not always easy. But in this business it takes forever to build reputation and seconds to destroy it.

16. Remember horses are dangerous. Always use your best judgment and air on the side of caution when working with horses and students. Their lives and your own life can change in an instant.

17. Get paid up front. Keep good records. People don't go to the grocery store and ask for food they will pay for next week. Good business practices keep everyone honest and sets boundaries for clients.

18. Normalize passing on price increases. Service industries, especially ones like ours always "feel guilty " when raising prices. You are not there to subsidize someone else's horse habit. Prices have been going up on costs, so should your fees.

19. The buck stops with you. Your employees mistakes fall back to your responsibility. Always verify and check on important care aspects of daily activities.

20. Make time for family and rest. Too many of us get burnt out from the stress of expectations in this industry. In the end, boarders and students come and go. Your family is who you will have left.

Thanks for reading my thoughts. I hope it can help support some of you feeling burnt out, and maybe help some people who are starting out in their journey into this industry.

11/24/2022