Basis Equine

08/08/2024

30/06/2024

It’s a special feeling. To swing a saddle up on a horse, knowing exactly where every nail and screw is. To sit down on seat shaped perfectly to my seat bones. To ride in something so thoughtfully designed, and intended to last even beyond my lifetime.
At the beginning of June, I ventured over to Twisp to be Trent Peterson’s first saddle student. 10 days, one on one and side by side, building a saddle. A complete first for me. It was both an honor and a pleasure. I walked away with so much knowledge and the desire to learn even more, as well and the nicest saddle I’ve ever owned. Something that I’m incredibly proud of. Thank you Trent.
Some photos by Trent and Allie Lynn Yocum

23/03/2024

I was having a tangentially related conversation just the other day. When a horse is fearful, and a human retreats to “give them space” we are often just allowing them to continue existing is the high stress fearful state. It’s our jobs as their people to help them find a calm and confident state to release and relax in. If you have a “traumatized” horse then you have to put in the work to help them through that. And it is rarely ever easy work.

21/02/2024

Zaatar is making sure I feel all the birthday love today with lots of kisses from him!
And an obligatory throwback pic dug up by my wonderful father. Ransom, my mums ever patient thoroughbred, and a very very small me.

25/01/2024

18/01/2024

Snow day!
After several days of below freezing temps, we got some surprise snow. The boys are enjoying frolicking in it and I am enjoying the cozy warm inside as much as possible. Should be melted and back into the 40s in a few days and we can get back to work.
Picture taken by my wonderful Mum, who is doing most of the care right now (Thank you!!!) as this is the view out her living room window 😍

26/12/2023

Zaatar!! No longer 1801.
December 12th. 73 days since arrival. Z is such a wary and reactive horse that doing this safely was a long process. While this tag removal feels like a huge rewarding step, the feel of his exquisitely soft fur is a whole other reward in itself.
Next goal, removing the dreads from his long and matted mane. We will see if they can be groomed out or if I will have to cut them out.

09/11/2023

Updates from Sassafras. Friends with bugs, unimpressed with my selfie skills, and happy to have the mats out of his mane.
This little guy is making very steady progress. Wearing a halter regularly, leading well, and slowly coming around to the idea of grooming.

07/10/2023

Sassafras! No longer just a number.
This little guy is going to be every bit of a fun, feisty, and bold pony! I think the BLM may have been a bit generous when putting his height down as 14.2 though.
It’s been almost a week since they unloaded here, in the dark, on Saturday morning.
Video of some good moments during this first week coming soon.

30/09/2023

These boys loaded up at 10am today! Or, yesterday actually, I’m writing this post after midnight with just three hours left of driving to the ferry! It’s been a long haul and it’s not done yet.
I could not ask for a better driver, supporter, and in this case videographer, than my wonderful partner Justin.

28/09/2023

Antheia.
The mustang that started it all for me.
A scrappy, mousy, little thing that my mom brought home (somewhat on accident) as a halter broke yearling. I got to start her as a three year old, and she continued to be my partner for 8 years!
While I had been riding my whole life, she was the first one I had to actually put the work into. And I learned so much.
She is still absolutely thriving, and I love to watch her both learn the finer details of dressage and tote everyone from kids to the elderly around.
She is worth her weight in gold and I hope to find more like her. And then use all that she, and the subsequent horses have taught me, to do better for the ones who follow them.

22/09/2023

Getting very excited for this handsome guy! The BLM lists him as 4 years old and 14.2 hands tall. Fingers crossed that in less than two weeks, he and the dark one will be in our trailer coming home.

17/09/2023

Fireball enjoying blackberry picking with me at the start of our ride last week!

09/09/2023

The best thing you can do for your horse is give them the education to thrive in our world.

Make sure your horses load, stand for the carrier, can be caught, etc. quirks shouldn’t be accepted. If you truly care for your horses make them GREAT horses for whoever they can end up with in the future and not a horse that gets passed from home to home because you never cared to educate them.

06/09/2023

# 1801 and # 1688. Or as they are currently known, "the dark one" and "the buckskin."
If you saw my previous post about going to look at this batch of geldings, then you may recognize that beautiful dark head as the one who was right in the middle staring at the camera. They have some healing to do post gelding so it will be a couple of weeks before they are ready for travel and I can bring them home.

31/08/2023

On Tuesday, I spent the day with binoculars pressed to my face staring through the dust, trying to read numbers on neck tags. Wading through a sea of yearlings and two year olds with so much growing left to do. Looking for something a little bigger, a little more mature. Looking for two that would want to come home with me.
More pictures to come, as I sort through the 800 or so that were taken.

29/08/2023

Moonshine using her brain and not just her feet! Learning to think through pressure instead of panicking.

Any horse that I work with long enough will learn to lead by a leg. Any leg. I think it is an important skill for a variety of reasons. In Moonshine’s case, she reacts very negatively to her hind legs being handled. We do not know her history but she presents with a lot of fear and a strong kicking response. This method puts me out of harms way and in a spot to watch her very closely as she learns to accept and give to pressure in a calm manner.

It’s taken us many hours to get to this point where I can run my hands down her legs and have a rope anywhere near them. And it will be a handful more before I can in good conscience call a farrier to get underneath her.

Moonshine’s person Julie Marie Duke

11/08/2023

Some interesting history!

Horses awaiting shipment at a Cavalry Remount station in California.
An estimated 1 million captured and "broken" mustangs went to Europe and Africa during the later years of the Nineteenth Century and first half of the 20th Century, to fight various causes - usually European, occasionally American. None returned. "Many of the wild horse herds originated as the result of large numbers of horses being imported into Northwest Nevada for the purpose of starting herds of high quality stock.
One of the earliest horse operations in northwest Nevada was in the Smoke Creek Desert. 500 Spanish-Barb horses were purchased for 50 cents a head in San Diego, trailed north to the Smoke Creek Desert and released in the early 1860s.
Ranchers and settlers also turned draft and saddle horses loose on the open range to pasture, gathering them as the need arose. Other horses escaped, were abandoned or were set loose when hard times made feed unaffordable. These horses commonly became referred to as wild horses or mustangs. Once the wild herds were established, it was common practice for ranchers to release high-grade stock to improve the quality of the herds." (from "MUSTANG COUNTRY)
Although there are no longer any wild herds of Mustangs in California West of the Sierras, there once were huge herds throughout the Central Valley and coastal ranges. Nearly every community today has a "Wild Horse Valley" or "Wild Horse Lane" - testimony to the presence of wild horses at some time back in history. From http://www.mustangs4us.com/history_4-20thCentury.htm

10/08/2023

The website is up! Many thanks to Annie Ryan for the wonderful photos.
Check it out and give this page a follow here, on Facebook, or over on Instagram. You’ll get to see me post my own projects and updates as well as many more beautiful photos.

https://www.basisequine.com