Sky High Horsemanship LLC

01/07/2025

Sky High Horsemanship LLC will not be offering any services in Michigan for the next two months starting 1/10/25. While Annike continues her education in Texas for an internship, with Max Morin Performance Horses. Stay tuned for the adventures in Texas!

11/11/2024

Happy Veterans Day!🇺🇸

“This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave.”‒ Elmer Davis

11/03/2024

10/31/2024

Just an ole cowboy and his horse…. Happy Halloween!🎃

10/15/2024

The cutest pink ladies 🩷

10/13/2024

It was a beautiful day for a trail ride, at Fred Russ Forest!

10/02/2024

09/27/2024

This is very important, especially in the horse world. If you as a rider fake perfection, you will not learn and same goes for your horse! Make mistakes and learn from them, let your horse make mistakes, so they can learn from them!

09/25/2024

Check out Sky High Horsemanship’s video.

08/30/2024

Here’s a little update on Flynn, he’s coming along very nicely!

08/30/2024

Late post, but they all had a great fair week!
Now back to the barn, to practice for next year!

08/12/2024

Today was a great start to fair week!
Jayden and Coco placed fourth in halter, David and Turtle got an A award, David and Xena placed third and Lilly placed second with Beauty and qualified for championships! Tomorrow is showmanship and I can’t wait to see how they do!

08/11/2024

Smokey Joe, just arrived for training!❤️
We will be focusing on ground work and building his confidence.

08/03/2024

Dear horse industry,

there is a lot we can be learning from Simone Biles.

As most of the world knows, at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Simone Biles decided to pull herself from the competition and received backlash of all sorts from all kinds of kinds for being a "quitter," "letting her country down," and so much hate from people who really didn't give a rats a** about women's gymnastics before she stepped down.

Simone Biles has come back 4 years later and has absolutely dominated. Simone (and her team) secured an Olympic gold medal this week in Paris, France.

What can we as equestrians learn from a small woman who flips in the air with such tremendous power?

1. Put yourself first

Simone pulled herself from competition because of a condition called "the twisties" which causes a gymnast to lose track of where they are in the air while performing maneuvers. It was a huge safety risk to compete with this. She had to prioritize her health before any other goals for herself or her team.

As horsemen, we need to acknowledge when we are not at our best and know when to step away from the barn, the ride, or even a competition.

2. People talk

Simone is one of the most decorated gymnasts of all time. She has a laundry list of world championships, skills named after her, national titles, and now two Olympic all-around titles.

You can be the kindest, most talented, most beautiful, most helpful individual and you will still have folks talking about all of your shortcomings. People will create reasons to not like you, and as an athlete you need to acknowledge that and not dwell on it.

There are so many strangers on the internet that will spit on Simone's name at any given opportunity and their only achievements in life are an average office job and professional couch jockeying.

The horse community is known for this kind of behavior and it can wear a person down fast.

3. Perfect hair doesn't equal a perfect score

So many trainers/coaches/parents get so wrapped up in having the perfect hair/bun/shirt etc. Simone had several flyaways while competing this week and still came out with stellar scores. The judges are not judging your hairstyle folks, just make sure it's not in the way of your back number and we really will not be looking twice.

4. Slowing down doesn't mean quitting

I am certain there was a lot of work put in to get Simone past "the twisties" and back to performing her stunning skills. When I have a horse struggling with a maneuver we go back to the basics to fix the issue before we ask the horse to perform at their full potential again.

This can be frustrating when your trainer tells you "I had to back off of your horse some" or "Hey, we're going to work on boring beginner exercise #3 today." All of this is part of the process and it doesn't mean you or your horse will be stuck their forever. Set backs are a normal part of an athlete's journey.

5. Build others up

Simone has encouraged many women gymnasts such as Jordan Chiles who competed alongside her at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Jordan was invited by Simone to join her at her gym.

The equine industry is terrible about putting others down and being downright rude. Every single youth, amateur, and trainer is human. No one knows everything, everyone can teach you something.

The more we collectively work to create a community of competition AND encouragement, the better the horse industry will be for everyone.

08/01/2024

This is Xena, a sweet little mare that I have been training for the last 30 days for one of my lesson students. Fortunately she will be a future breakout, but I will definitely be missing her until then. During this video she is cued to go from walk to jog, when I hum she slows down to a walk and I click for her to jog.

07/27/2024

Make time. Ride the horse.

05/30/2024

Cherry update!🍒

Cherry has had a little over 60 days of training, and she is coming together very nicely. I can’t wait to see what the future holds for this little mare!

04/03/2024

Cherry update! 🍒

Yesterday I used a snub horse to help prepare Cherry for her first ride. This allows me to safely get her comfortable with me moving around above her.