Celtic Cross Horse Specialists

12/09/2022

Welcome home Celtic cross Like combs, and Celtic cross Dakota moon rise.
Our next project horses.

12/02/2022

This handsome boy found his forever home .
Thank you Kendall and family.
He will bring you and your family much joy.

11/19/2022

Celtic Cross Beau.

10/14/2022

Can you see your reflection in your horses eye ?

10/14/2022

To say this was a hard one is and under statement.
Today it was the very last ride for Blaze.
He has been an amazing rescue.
He came to us as a walking skeleton covered with something that resembled hair.
A few months later was on the mend .
He gained trust with us and knew he would never miss another meal.
He has had the best 4 years and healed his soul.
However healing his soul was just not enough to heal all the abuse he had suffered before coming to us.
So we hav made the decision that is best for him .we will be releasing him from his pain .
He will once again get to run in green pastures free from the pain.
So if you know Blaze and his amazing story feel free
To come say God speed .
He will be crossing the rainbow bridge in 2 weeks.

(P.S.)
I may have had a ton of dust in my eyes taking these pictures today.

10/03/2022

Huge shout out to Kaylee for working with our Celtic Cross Horses yesterday!! It was an amazing day and we can't thank you enough! We look forward to working with you! Thank you so much!

09/21/2022

09/05/2022

True !

07/14/2022

Solo

06/30/2022

Are you looking for a little more help with your horse give us a call. Are you wanting to get back in the saddle again and need a refresher give us a call. You have a little one that would like to start riding give us a call. Do you have general questions on horse care or what's the best direction to go with your horse give us a call. We're willing to come to you or have you come to us. When we say we're horse specialist that's what we mean we can help you find that special bond with your horse to make the horse and yourself feel more at ease and be able to have a healthy loving relationship for the rest of you and your horses life together. We specialize in English and Western beginner all the way through. Also specialize in weight building gaining weight and rescue horses. So feel free to contact us with any questions that you may have. We look forward to hearing from you have a blessed day

06/30/2022

He is gonna be a big guy

06/29/2022

It was bath day today.
Beau all cleaned up.

06/25/2022

Maverick would like for you to welcome his new "little" brother
Solo.
He will be 1 the 4th of july

06/25/2022

Welcome home whiskey tango foxtrot.

06/11/2022

Saw this and it's so fitting. Sometimes it's not a dishonest seller but a miscommunication with horse and new owner.

*public notice!!!! Your horse is not a car*

My very long Owner suggestion of the day:

Read it, yes I know it's wordy, but this is probably one of the most honest suggestion filled posts I've ever made: If you've sent a horse to any trainer, not just me or bought a horse from me or from anyone else, READ THIS:

You picked up your horse, you are back home……now what:

So if you’ve ever bought a new or new to you car or truck, I’d bet money that for the first few days, you spent time pushing buttons and turning k***s, trying to figure out what they do? You tried to turn on the flashers but instead turned on the defogger, you wanted the seat heater on, but instead turned on the radio……So you sat there and kept hitting buttons and turning k***s until you figured out what turned on what, and which switch went to what…..still maybe slightly frustrating at times (when you t**h is freezing and you can’t find the seat heater) but it’s a car, you can sit there as long as you need in park, hitting buttons. And if you get really flustered, you even have the luxury of looking things up in the owners manual! Pretty nifty, huh?

Note to the masses, your horse is NOT a CAR!

Read that again!

Shocking I know… your horse has buttons and “k***s” too, doesn’t matter if it’s a show horse or trail horse, ranch horse or reining horse, previous riders and trainers and owners before you have already “installed” buttons on that horse, buttons you have no way of knowing, buttons that maybe have been installed but not used in years. Your horse does NOT come with an owners manual, therefore you must be patient and inquisitive.

I’m going to touch on a few things I see owners getting frustrated with. I send all my horses home with one to two typed pages of what I refer to as “exit” notes, it lists everything from the horses current feed, stabling type, daily schedule, tack used, training drills, my opinion on it’s strengths and weakness, etc. I list everything I can, do I miss things, yep, I am 100% sure I do, but to my knowledge, I am one of the few that atleast tries to set people up with an outline to success, with multiple pages of typed notes. I try....

NO HORSE is perfect and every horse reacts to each rider and handler different.

Just because I can ride it bridleless and get 20 foot slide stops or flying changes and shoulder ins, doesn’t mean that from day one you’ll be able to do the same thing.

Maybe it comes running when I call its’ name across my pasture, but you have to corner it to halter it in a stall and it acts nervous. Maybe you you use an aluminum mounting block and I don’t. Maybe you cinch at the tie rail and I don’t, maybe you sponge bathe their heads and I hose them. Every horse responds, respects and trusts, each handler and rider different.

I can’t transfer the respect and trust the horse has with me, to you. And you can’t transfer it from yourself to me either. You must earn that horses trust and respect. Some horses warm up to people immediately others take, days or weeks or months. I can’t control that. And it has nothing yo do with if you raised it, bought it, started it or not. Horses transfer trust and respect individually.

$1000 a month of training by me, doesn’t equal $1000 a month in lessons for you. And a $50,000 horse that’s a world champion, doesn’t mean it’s going to be a guaranteed world champion with every rider either, not even myself. Be kind and patient, reward the try. Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Rider style: we all ride different. Some riders naturally hold their legs off horses, some grip with their knees, some are tense in their seat, unknowingly driving a horse forward, some are soft handed, some hard. Some riders drive horses energy levels up naturally, some have a more calming tendency (my son). Doesn’t make one style right or wrong BUT it does mean that different riders with the same experience can get completely different rides from the exact same horse, without even knowing it. Same can be said for body position, a 120lb rider might have a different ride on a lanky unbalanced c**t then a 220lb rider. I can tell you that at 5’6 tall compared to my son being 6’2, his leg pressure placement is 100% different then mine. Doesn’t mean they shouldn’t respond but the first time his heels wrap under them he might get much more go, then my squeeze along their rib cage. Horses can feel a fly on them, certainly they notice those things! Give them time to adjust.

Remember 1% improvement a day = 100% improvement in 100 days! Pretty amazing when you think about it.

Feed: One of the biggest influences on your new horse, what’s it been eating and what are you feeding it now? How often and how much? Hay, grain or both. We feed hay up to 3 times a day, grain/pellets fed as a 4th feeding along with turnout on grass pasture. I believe that by feeding roughage 3x a day, my horses are less anxious, more content and happy to work. You can pull any horse I have out from it’s feed and go ride off and it won’t be worried that they missed lunch. So if you take a horse home from here be sure to ask what and how often it’s being fed. If you take a horse on alfalfa hay 3x a day, and go to grass hay once a day, you are likely to have a horse that now has food anxiety, leading to ulcers, aggression and stress.

Stabling Conditions: What kind of pen and stabling is your new horse used to? Box stall? Run? 50 acre pasture? How often is it used to getting out? Taking a horse that’s used to free exercising on 15 acres all day and putting it in a box stall, is setting yourself up for a horse with an abundance of excess energy. Ours get out daily, not only ridden or worked daily but turned out daily as well, allowed to roll, allowed to graze on the pasture, I want them to be a horse. If you get a horse from me, chances are that horse hasn’t sat in a stall more then 24 hours if that, without getting out, since it hit my property. I don’t believe in it, and I believe horses need time to be, well horses, in addition to being trained. So if you take a horse home from my facility and put it in a box stall 5 days a week and plan on only riding it on the weekend, well, Godspeed, lol. It can be done, but I’d highly suggest a lot of round pen work or turnout before you climb on it.

You are now asking the horse to perform at it’s best, in a completely new environment. You want your horse focused when you get on it, you want to relax and enjoy the ride, you can’t do that if you suddenly take a horse that’s ridden and turned out daily and lock it in a 12 x 24 pen for 5 days and expect the same result. You’ll have a horse that’s jumping out of it’s skin. Can the horse adjust to that type of stable situation, probably, but it’s not going to be overnight, and honestly some horses just are not good locked in a stall 5 days a week with no exercise. Your horse is leaving 6000 feet elevation, hay 3x a day, daily riding and turnout, chances are your situation is not the same as mine, it could even be better, but either way it’s different, keep that in mind. Example, it’s been noted that 88% of people when vacationing, do not sleep well the first few nights at a hotel….why? Because it’s a new environment, your senses are heightened and there are new sounds, smells and energy. Your horse is no different, give them the benefit of the doubt, allow time for the horse to adjust.

Environment: if you’ve been to my ranch, it’s quiet. Like deathly quiet. I don’t allow dogs, I don’t board horses, I don’t give public lessons, 80% of my clients are out of state. Crickets….we desensitize the crap out of our horses! But other then a high volume of shippers, brand inspectors, hay trucks, etc, no one’s here. It’s a low energy, low drama, non reactive facility. The most unlike any boarding facility, even private, you’ll find. Going from here to a boarding facility is a huge change for my horses. Give them atleast a week to settle in. I know you want to play Hi Ho Silver and I respect that, but set you and your horse up for success. Grab your horse in hand and go for a walk, introduce it to the new sights, sounds and smells in at its new facility at all hours of the day (watch for scary ground shadows too). Even if you’ve only been gone a few months, something has bound to have been moved, a jump standard, tractor drag, maybe snakes are out, new indoor arena reflection, etc.
Slower is faster!

Ground Manners and Training: This is where I wish I could magically transfer my senses and experiences with your new horse to you. Sadly the amount of respect and trust I have with your new horse, is never going to be the same as you do. BUT you could have even more!!!!! I hope you get more from your new horse, then myself or my staff ever did. But often times that comes at a price, that comes with you spending time on ground work establishing you are the leader, and you should be respected and that the horse can trust you at all times. That’s nothing but time, patience and consistency.

Spend time establishing your new horses ground manners, if you got it from me, it came with a list of them….confirm it stands tied quiet at your new facility, do you have control of it at liberty in the round pen, if you say whoa and step back does it stop? Will it move away from your hand or respect your body language and yield it’s hind quarters? If it won’t on the ground, DO NOT get on it. If you don’t have control of its feet and whoa on the ground, you are not going to have it under saddle. Does it ground tie for you like it did here? Soft in side reins like you saw in my photos? Stand tied patiently at your location? Can you send it over obstacles? If not, do not get on! Set yourself up for success not failure, take an extra week getting to know your “new” horse. This is your partner!

Tack: It sounds simple, but does everything fit?

Author Unknown but too good to not share.

05/26/2022

Today marks 3 long years of hard work, patience, love and discipline doing what we love to do here at Celtic Cross Horse Specialists! Our big red Copenhagen (Now Tank) has found his forever home living the best life with his new mom Paula on the east coast of Florida. It was a heart felt, joyful moment. He will forever remain our first rehab and now on to a bigger brighter future!
Tank today is your best day!

04/21/2022

Saturday is for the boys, Thursday is for the horses!!! Celtic Cross Colbalt Blew getting some running today!

04/21/2022

Copenhagen
For Sale.

04/21/2022

Work out day

04/21/2022

Celtic Cross Echo getting some work done in the round pen! Thursday horse day!

04/03/2022

"Maintenance and when maintenance isn't enough"

Most of us don't like to do maintenance (unless you are one of those types - lol), and yet our vehicles require alignments, oil changes, new tires, alternators...but the time comes where even good maintenance will not keep them going.

The older our house gets the more things need worked on. The stove needs a new element, the wash machine motor went out, the seals around the windows are dry rotted...

Ignore the maintenance on your pasture fence long enough and just see what happens.

Maintenance is a part of life.

Some people choose to deal with it by trading in their old car for new, some people keep fixing things until that car absolutely won't run any more. Some ignore every warning bell and just keep chugging with parts dragging down the road at 25 mph. . . And a car that could have lasted a long time, fails.

Just like everything else, horses need maintenance.

And the older they get, the more they will need. Just like us. There will come a point beyond when the horse needs only regular farrier work, a yearly teeth float and vaccines, enough basic food, shelter and water.

Many horse owners cheerfully do the upgraded maintenance for their good pal. Some trade it in on a new model. Some ignore the warning signs and the horse deteriorates little by little until it is quite pitiful.

And then there are those who "love it to death". They have tried all reasonable (and unreasonable) measures, had all the testing done by the vet and given things a decent time to turn around, but the horse still struggles to look great.

Or even to look something semi close to great.

There are the people out there that love them so much that they just keep justifying why that horse who is not okay at all is fine.

Euthanasia is not a word they will even contemplate because they love them too much to let them go. But this is not selfless love.

Nor is this fair.

Their very skin sliding across their bones hurts at this point. I remember a grandfather saying this as he wasted away. . . and with a horse, adding the weight of a blanket just contributes to that.

Their organs usually are failing, and sometimes typical testing doesn't show it, especially the heart. They cannot huddle in front of the fireplace or crank the heater up to 92. They aren't handed long term pain medicine.

Folks, if you have done all the things for your horse that Anyone knows to do, yet it is a skinny and dull coated, old horse. . .
Please, please love it enough to let it go.

Love it enough to not let yourself be the cause of suffering for emotion. That isn't being a friend to the horse or caretaker.

And if you are going to take on horse ownership, then please be willing and able to do the maintenance as the years slip by. It's the fair thing to do for something you choose to take on that has feelings.

This is the sad and tough reality of animal ownership. They just don't live as long as we do.

03/30/2022

Celtic Cross would like to introduce our newest addition Celtic Cross Beau!! Black and white paint!! With his new buddy Celtic Cross Colbalt Blew!

Welcome home Beau!!!

03/30/2022

Welcome home
Celtic Cross Beau

02/05/2022

02/05/2022

Echo

01/24/2022

Copenhagen

01/24/2022

Copenhagen

01/09/2022

Some of the down back boy's