Future Performance Horses

06/22/2024

Irony: the big baby wears the small saddle, while the small baby wears the big saddle, lol! Z and Murphy rocking their grown kid clothes! 🥰

06/19/2024

While I’m updating his mom, I’ll catch y’all up, too! Meet Murphy! The cutest “little” Irish cob ever, who is here to be started under saddle, so he can go on to become a fox hunter this Fall! 😍

06/19/2024

🤩🦄🥰

06/18/2024

Yet another derby horses in the making! 😉 Good girl, Mia!!! And I think that exclamation is spelled “GooGobADeecius.” 🤣

06/18/2024

I saw this hedge row up close and personal IRL, when we walked the International Derby course in KY, and immediately said we need a wall! Then, I watched it break a bunch of very finished horses’ brains the following week during the Hunter Grand Prix, and meant we were going to get a wall! After pricing a gazillion options, to include children’s jumbo-sized building blocks (the real thing from Dalman is $4500, in case you were wondering), I settled onnnn… pallets and some bright green Chaff Haye wrapper. 🤣 Eowyn, sweet, smart, trusting babe that she beeeee, loped right over first try, never doubting my sanity or redneck engineering for a single second. I don’t know how it could be possible to adore or appreciate her more, but I’m sure she’ll find a way to show me tomorrow. 🥰

06/15/2024

The sneakiest of peeks at the THOUSANDS of pictures and videos we took while having the most fun, productive, and successful week ever showing at Split Rock’s CSI2* in Lexington. One of our favorite trips year after year!!! Muchhhhhh more media of our memories and remarkable moments to be shared, but I still have to unpack my trailer, so that (eventually) comes first - after we get back from another show tomorrow, lol! 😅❤️

06/13/2024

They’re offering Leadline 🥰

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/a1XU1YynpX1Yop2M/?mibextid=WC7FNe

🐴Summer Jumper Night #2 is right around the corner!!! Come join us Tuesday, June 18th to earn your points!!
***Leadline class will be offered as class 6 for the remaining 2 jumper nights!

✅Remember, get your entries in before Monday, June 17th at noon for your facility fee to be waived!!

05/22/2024

Speaking of PRETTY rounds… I just realized, in typical fashion, I never posted about our last show! Brownland was fantastic! I’ll upload more about everyone tonight, but super quick before my next lesson… for some redemption from yesterday… here is Eowyn’s first ever 3’3” course. Thank God this baby is unfazed by sloppy tracks - between how well she did in TN and at GA in the pouring rain, I’m starting to think she may actually be partial to the mud. 😅

05/22/2024

C**a Fuego has a ❤️ heartbeat ❤️ and has also evolved into a little croissant Fuego. 🥐😂 I’m not biased AT ALL, but I am pretty much, definitely, positively sure he is the most perfect pony puff pastry ever! 🥰 Slow mo video posted in the comments!

05/22/2024

You know who doesn’t get nearly enough credit for their bravery… the ammys that hang out with their pros! 😎 We trainers regularly ride around unfazed on babies and baddies, who are usually both working hard on getting their bodies and brains to communicate, with absolutely no regard for the mental heath of our poor videographers, who have to watch us continually cheat death and then canter away to take their turn, feigning confidence, while pretending they definitely didn’t just witness our attempted murder for the 815114th time. 🫣 Eowyn is currently struggling to put together correct use of herself and her approaches to fences. We eventually got there beautifully, but we definitely had some bloopers along the way. 😅 Baby pony clicking her heels together high above our heads like a deranged Dorthy is what prompted Lauren to pick up the camera, so we don’t have that stellar feat of athleticism on film, but she caught a couple other dandies for y’all to enjoy! 😆 Remember, the gorgeous rounds you watch in the ring at shows are a result of ALL this ugly work we get out of the way at home in between venues - there is no avoiding the sweat equity - embrace it and pat your pony for trying! 🥰🦄

05/08/2024

Y’all!!! Eowyn is going to be an auntieeeee!!! 🦄 Annie checked in foal this morning at 16 days!

Unquantifiable amounts of genuinely sincere, HUGE, heartfelt thanks to everyone who prayed over her pregnancy; please keep it up because y’all are obviously key to this process!!!

Equally clutch was Carol at Superior Equine Sires; she is beyond delightful to work with and handled our pricy imported frozen straws with the utmost care - they arrived overnight… from Washington… through a thunderstorm in Tennessee… without incident… anyone who knows anything about shipping luck in the breeding game is well aware of what a miracle that right there is alone!

Heather and Dr. DeLisle also did an exceptional job managing her cycle and timing her AI perfectly! I have always used Tennessee Equine Hospital in Thompson’s Station for major medical incidents in the past, and now I would recommend them in a heartbeat for repro work, as well!

Speaking of heartbeats - hopefully Dr. Lee will give me that magical wink again at 30 days, so I can announce a positive 💗 update then, with video of our perfect little C**afuego! 🙏 I told him I’m roping Sydney into helping me fetal s*x it after that (TBD @ 60-80 days or so)! 😜

P.S. This is a neat website, if you want to follow along with his progress. Annie ovulated and was bred around 1 pm on 4/22/24.

https://www.equineguelph.ca/pregnancywheel/

05/04/2024

In honor of Derby Day - X - the ACTUAL bestest big red Thoroughbred ever! 🤩🥰🦄 Hanging out and posing pretty with Melissa after rocking their Hunter course this morning at Brownland!!! 🥳

04/26/2024

It ended up being one of thooooose days on the favorite. I'm sure sometimes she is thinking, “I sure wish my human would get it together up there.” 😅 A less than ideal ride on this mare will still always be the very best way to have a bad day at the office. ❤️🦄 On a SUPER high note - TWO people I care about most greatly said riding was FUN this afternoon!!! HUUUUUUUUGE win as a trainer - bigger 🥳 than any ribbon. 🤗

04/25/2024

I don’t have someone available to video every ride, so I looooooove the times they happen to be here to catch a clip worthy of the horse’s highlight reel. Lauren’s reaction to this surprise post will tell you everything you need to know about the dramatic improvements on display! 🥰🦄

04/22/2024

Rather than “long walks on the beach,” I love long walks to the big arena, and God painted an exceptionally pretty picture across His canvas today to share with us along the way. 🥰

Sheba was a good girl for hours, helping bring in errant horses and then working with Dagan, Mia, and Anna - even letting the latter borrow her hackamore, after a literal misstep led to a snapped rein. I fashioned the baby a headstall out of a longe line and we rode on, just as nicely as she was before saving her fellow mare from the wardrobe malfunction.

Both of Sheba’s leads and her canter transitions are coming along nicely, she’s confidently navigating elevated poles (I would say crossrails, but, at the moment, our specialty is nonchalantly knocking at least one side down with every pass, lol), and she has learned to maintain a consistent, slow jog for however long as I ask.

Such a fun, willing, and rideable little lady! 🦄

04/21/2024

Éowynnie playing over some XC questions yesterday during the Jim clinic at Copper Top’s Party. 🥰

04/19/2024

🥰🏇🥰

04/17/2024

Breeding is not my favorite… It’s a TON of logistics, paperwork, and prayers. Best case scenario, you’re still very much simply gambling - going “all in” on the worst odds imaginable.

BUT, when it FINALLY, even if only ONCE out of ten tedious times, works out as hoped (Éowyn), you will inevitably forget all the heartache, headache, and hassle, and you will eventually find yourself, yet again, up at obscene hours of the night with your insanity illuminated by blue light, compulsively comparing stallions, weeding through the most elite champions on the planet, trying to expertly pick the perfect match to completely complement your mare, downplaying the reality that genetics are still a total crap shoot.

All that being said, it takes A LOT to get me excited about banking anything on a legitimate miracle. HOWEVER, the thought of an Annie and Chacoon Blue baby, has me back to hanging on the edge of my seat, dreaming about the future (that hopefully includes fantastically fierce fences taken much faster than my current delightful diva’s lovely, leisurely lope). And, at least for now, while I’m still on the safer side of financial disaster’s precipice that is the landslide of breeding expenses and potential losses, it is a fun feeling. So you know this 17 hh gray Oldenburg MUST be nice. 😍

Frozen straws ordered and fingers crossed. 🦄

https://youtu.be/YPT8hOxiLZc?si=wvQYvxWGtfjKS8I9

https://youtu.be/cr0OhPf3ZaA?si=DTRXjn56zFhhkUIF

04/12/2024

Sweet Sheba update Week 2! Technically, this is her third week, but she had last week off to marinate on all the things she learned her first week, since we were out of state showing in Ohio. The down time paid dividends - she is progressing exceptionally well AND runs right up to her pasture gate to greet me every day, excited to get rocking and rolling! She is now riding in Western tack and has been hitting the trails, working gates, trotting around, steering rather well for a green bean in a loping hack, ground tying better, and resting patiently wherever I park her while under saddle! Loving this little lady more and more each day; she has the maturity, work ethic, rideability, intelligence, and trainability we should be celebrating in prospects! There are a couple video clips of Tina’s terrific baybay in the comments! 🥰🦄

04/12/2024

Seeeeeeee, THIS is why we embrace every insane situation that presents itself for future preparation around here - to not only survive but thrive in ALL the potential situations. 😂 I love that she never once thought about holding up for them to catch the horse. 🤣

82.8K likes, 907 comments. Check out loeskivits28’s video.

04/11/2024

Southern snow! When she went to trying to catch the “snowflakes” from the broodmare blizzard on her tongue. 😂

04/10/2024

Dan and Laura are putting together whole courses now! 🤩 Love that this moose is willing to gamely take any and all of the formidable fences for me, but then, just as willingly, turns right around to teach lessons, like being a lovely unicorn is his actual day job! 🦄 I would say he is one in a million, but I actually own two! He is following in X’s footsteps for sure. ❤️

04/10/2024

Preemptive show prep is officially underway for Saturday! Hailee got her teeth, shots, and coggins updated with her favorite vet, and then she came home to a cute clip clean up! Hannah and Darna did an exceptional job finding a handsome little horse under all the yak hair! 😂🥰 Quest Plus was probably not quite the treat she was expecting in return, but she was even a unicorn taking it! 🦄 This mare is a really, really, REALLY good one.

04/09/2024

Nothing deters these dedicated dudes from their lessons! 🥰🤠

04/08/2024

Mia’s first TikTok! 😁 Lauren’s fancy baby mare made so much progress today! 🥰 I love nothing more than bringing along the 💚green💚 to good as 💛gold💛! Rubber bit, no noseband. 😉

Check out FPHorses’s video.

04/07/2024

For everyone asking if the insanely affordable, $20k fire-sale-priced, 4’ hunter prospect has changes… yes, he actually does. BUT, if I put one more workout on this darn horse, I swear I’m doubling that number or… better yet… I’ll just keep him, again, lol, and finally show him myself. 😝😂🦄

Although I haven’t schooled Dan’s changes since last year, in just one session we tuned up ALL his lead work, and did so casually loping over 3’-3’9” fences. This video shows him landing his leads (intentionally and naturally), changing from left to right and right to left, AND holding a counter canter through a hard bending line for the derbies and eq. The editing app and I can’t come to terms with frame size, so it is what it is at this point. 🤪

04/07/2024

Professional photos will be posted soon(ish - they have a two week turnaround time 😭), but here’s blurry iPhone screenshot sneak peeks of baby pony schooling her first fences with legit fill and then doing her inaugural Hunter courses. 3’ at WEC indoors: ✅ Couldn’t have been more pleased. 🥰 More pictures of everyone and a rundown of ribbons won to come!!!

03/31/2024

There is nothing like loading up all the kiddos (both two footed and four) and spending the day rail-side at a local show in phenomenal weather! I love the close knit community that saddle clubs foster, and it is so much fun to see everyone genuinely enjoying each other’s company!

I can’t say thank you enough times to ALL the volunteers, who go to great lengths to provide us with these opportunities! I hope you know what an important role you serve in helping build the foundations of so many horses and riders, some of whom may very well go on to be future greats in our industry, and fostering pride in those that want to enjoy their amazing animals close to home!

Parents, thank you for investing in your children’s passion and setting such exceptional examples through your dedication to preparedness by attending this “scout show” - it is of the utmost importance in cultivating confidence and success! I also just legitimately love hanging out with y’all and cherish these moments you let me share in with them, as much as I do my own experiences as a youth at similar shows! 🥰

Looking forward to April 13th!!! 🦄

03/30/2024

Who’s WEC ready? These two!!! 🤩