Redtail Farm

08/20/2024

A super short clip of Governor’s first time being haltered like a big boy.

Thank you to Brent Graef Horsemanship for the invaluable halter starting class a year ago. I’m excited already for the next one!

What I learned and got to experience there helped me set up this c**t for success. Sure, there’s plenty to improve on (for me), but isn’t there always! What was so nice is that it was a non-event and the c**t was calm and relaxed and he stayed right with me in a mentally and physically soft way.

06/10/2024

Governor, by BSF Golden Snitch - Connemara Stallion is the sweetest c**t and so incredibly peopley (that’s a word now, by the way). I had my whole upper body weight on him and he couldn’t have cared less.

05/17/2024

Featuring Governor and Bandera, the youngest and oldest equines on the place, respectively. With appearances by Betty, Gypsy, and Theo.

04/24/2024

Governor is so curious and interested in everything, especially his kids. BSF Golden Snitch - Connemara Stallion

04/21/2024

Betty’s c**t has a barn name. Apparently the unofficial tradition here is that we let our girls name the baby horses. This guy’s name is Governor (after the c**t in the Spirit series). We’ll register him as half Connemara and the plan is to call him RTF He’s A Whiskey Snitch (but I’ll have to study the Connemara naming rules). BSF Golden Snitch - Connemara Stallion Nicolette M. Merle-Smith

04/16/2024

Betty had a perfect chestnut c**t by BSF Golden Snitch - Connemara Stallion early this morning. He’s already so curious and friendly!

04/15/2024

01/16/2024

Cold windy days make for fresh, happy horses

12/27/2023

Shez Sippin Whiskey (aka Betty) and her 2022 filly, A Rugged Romance (aka Gypsy).

Gypsy is by My Rugged Destiny (Skylar) and Betty is currently in foal with a 2024 baby by BSF Golden Snitch - Connemara Stallion.

11/28/2023

This past October I got to attend a weanling halter starting class put on by Brent Graef Horsemanship. It was 6 days of full immersion.

Six of us were there and on the first day, Brent chose the baby we’d get for the duration of the class. It was funny because the second I saw the little chestnut filly with a blaze, I knew she’d be mine. I guess Brent thought so too. I ended up getting to help start a second baby and I was so honored to be given the privilege of working with two babies.

We learned a lot of technical, important information both aimed at imparting correct knowledge, as well as ensuring the babies had the best start possible.

Some of these technicalities were things like how to properly carry, hold, and then present a halter to an unhandled weanling horse. How exactly to do first touches; how to stand, breathe, leave (or fade out).

The technical pieces of operating around horses are certainly necessary, and often even invaluable for safety. But if that’s all we focused on then we’d be at risk of missing the biggest piece.

Brent didn’t use this word (or if he did, I must have missed it 🤦‍♀️), but I think it’s the spirituality of our work with horses and really all our interactions in life that will determine an outcome.

Most people out there can learn linear steps and rules and we’ve all had moments of extremely black and white thinking. But that becomes robotic and there’s no room for the spiritual or the present.

Brent, I saw quickly, exists and teaches in the here and now. He flows with the horses and his students, creating an atmosphere of calm and safety and compassion. Good teachers have this ability.

I think there’s a lot more to my thought here that I’ll leave you on, but I can’t get the right words formed yet.

So here’s a short version. They are few, making them truly rare, those who live what they teach, teach what they live, and are willing to go as deep as needed to access something. That’s real spirituality to me.

11/26/2023

Amy Skinner, you nailed this one perfectly. Thank you! This is stuff I’ve been thinking about a lot over the years.

“You can’t be one person in the house, and another person in the barn”

“I just believe you treat people the way you like to be treated”

“My philosophy is simple: treat others with respect and kindness and good things come back to you.”

Good phrases, with heavy meaning - and yet, stripped of any validity when uttered as a trope, a get out of jail free card, by some of the most abusive people I’ve ever met.

Folks who would “rip a horses tooth out” if they didn’t soften to the bit
Folks who would lope a horse mindlessly for ten minutes in the hot sun to teach them a lesson
Folks who abuse their students, who threaten and shout and scream at those they consider subordinates

What do these words mean, if we can’t uphold them when we’re stressed or tired ? When life gets bumpy and those around you take to cowering for fear of what comes next?

I’ve been into this for long enough now to see some of the most well respected folks treat others dismally. They have the costume; the catch phrases, and quite often can keep it together in public for just long enough.

They’re not wrong - you can’t be one way with others and another witb horses. You show who you really are in times of heat, and stress, and trouble.

And I can say with confidence, after being privy to enough talking heads behind the scenes - if they’re abusive to students, it will not stop there. It bleeds into everything.

The most beautiful people I know don’t make a full time campaign of making themselves look good - they just are good, and it shows in others around them.

What’s the point of writing this? Because I believe that when people learn self confidence and trust, they stop allowing themselves to be abused by the right words and the wrong actions. And I believe when people learn to truly take notice, to become aware, they stop giving their power away to others who would seek to harm them for their own gain -

A teacher should be building up a student and a horses confidence - independence, self awareness. Not creating reliance and shame.

Just saying the right catch phrases isn’t enough. Name dropping the greats isn’t enough. If the teacher can’t apply the concepts to themselves and others, what good is it at all?

10/07/2023

Some days aren’t action packed, but regardless, there always something going on and something to do. The girls have added yet another horse to their personal herd.

10/06/2023

Apparently it was black horse day

10/05/2023

WHAT IS CORRECT CONTACT?

I just completed a clinic in Ohio, USA and the subject of contact came up during a session with a lady. I am re-posting an essay I wrote a few years ago on the subject of the right amount of contact because it is a topic that is much discussed and little understood in my opinion. I hope it is helpful if you have not thought about it before or a good reminder if you have encountered these ideas before.
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The question of what is contact gets argued on dressage forums all over the world. Amateur and professionals have different opinions. Even many of the gurus of dressage can’t agree. With that in mind, there is no chance that what I am going to say is going to sit well with everybody.

I think in order to understand what contact is you have to understand what is its purpose. Why do we want to have contact? If you can understand the purpose of it, you will be able to know when you have it or not by how your horse responds. If you have correct contact you will get the result you want (or close to it). So here is my take on what is the point of contact in training and riding.

Contact is a line of communication between the rider/handler and the horse. You can have contact in the saddle and on the ground. You can have contact through your seat, your legs, your hands, your voice, your whip, etc. All these open a line of communication whereby you can convey your intent to a horse. Contact is nothing more than communicating with a horse.

The appropriate contact is never constant. It is always changing. It needs to change because the availability of a horse’s mind to listen to the contact is always changing due to his changing focus. The contact a rider might need to convey a meaning to a horse may have to change in a moment-to-moment fashion in order for the horse to get the message. The amount of feel you might need to apply to the reins or seat will change many times during a ride. It’s no different to be a teacher in a classroom. Sometimes the teacher can speak softly if the students are listening and other times they will have to shout in order to be heard.

Now that we know what is the purpose of contact, we can then define it. When riders and coaches talk about contact they are almost always referring to the feel on the reins. So for the purposes of this discussion, I will confine my thoughts to how a rider might use the reins to achieve contact.

I want you to look at the photos below and think about what they all have in common. It might surprise you if I tell you that they all have the same contact! This is why.

“Contact is the minimum amount of feel on the reins required to evoke a change in a horse’s thought.”

I refer here to contact as being correct contact and by change I mean a change in a horse’s thought (which is the only change worth having).

So if you look at the pictures again you’ll see each rider is using different rein pressure, yet each has the similar contact because that’s how much rein pressure is required to get a change in each horse’s thought. So they all have the same contact because they all have the minimum amount of feel on the reins to achieve a change in their horses.

In the world of dressage horses are taught to “seek” the contact. In other words, they are trained to push into the reins. In some horses, it is a simple holding of the bit at the end of the outstretched rein. In other horses, it is a bearing down onto the bit – a leaning into the reins. It will differ a little from trainer to trainer. But what dressage people almost universally criticize is to ride a horse on a rein with slack in it. It is widely considered to be incorrect because they think that slack in the rein means no contact and no control.

But let’s again look at the purpose of contact. It is a means of communicating a rider’s intent to a horse and the correct contact is the MINIMUM amount of rein pressure needed to evoke a change in a horse. So if riding a horse with a rein that is not taut can achieve both these criteria, then the rider must be using the correct contact. In fact, I would argue that to ride such a horse with more rein pressure than that is incorrect contact.

The purpose of riding – any sort of riding – is to achieve as close to unity with a horse as possible. To me, this means that the means of communication we use to talk to our horse should be quieter as we approach that unity. The more advanced a horse becomes the more subtle our aids and the less pressure we need to transmit our intent. It would seem that the ultimate goal of every rider would be to have a horse that can be directed by the smallest change and the least amount of pressure. It just seems logical therefore that a horse that can be ridden correctly with slack in the reins is more advanced than a horse that requires anything more than that in order to be correct.

But I want to emphasize the importance of being ridden CORRECTLY. Correctness is key here. I would not want to sacrifice the correctness just so I can say my horse does canter pirouette on a loose rein if it is a poor canter pirouette. If taking a stronger feel on the reins would help my horse find a better quality canter pirouette, then I would. There is nothing to be gained by letting a horse flounder in mediocrity so you can ride on a loose rein. This is one reason why I don’t like most of the liberty riding that I see. Most horses ridden at liberty perform very poorly and correctness is forgotten just for the sake of showing that the horse can be ridden without a bridle. To me, that has no merit. And I say the same thing about contact. There is no merit in riding a horse with hardly any rein pressure if he needs more rein pressure in order to help him be correct.

Contact is not one thing. Contact is the minimum amount of rein pressure a rider needs to evoke a change in a horse. On some horses that might be 10kg and on others it might be the weight of a carbon atom. Both are correct for those horses. But to ride a horse with a stronger feel on the reins than is needed is an incorrect use of contact. Likewise, too little feel on the reins to help a horse change his thought is also the incorrect use of contact.

I think to argue that a horse that can be ridden correctly with slack in the reins is either evading the bit or falling behind the bit is to forget the purpose of contact. I believe once you appreciate what is contact and why it is needed, that idea seems backward and counter to what our ultimate goal should be in riding. I believe it comes from a reading of the books and not a reading of the horse.

Photo: Different horses at different levels of education and with different rein pressure, but all exhibiting the correct amount of contact.

10/04/2023

I always swear to post more and I do really well for about a week. And then I go right back to my old (and preferred) ways of social media radio silence. Old habits die hard, I suppose.

The last month has been a whirlwind of haying, both cutting and baling our own, as well as getting loads of hay brought in. Winter is coming.

The horses amazingly haven’t been neglected during all this and everyone is making some pretty decent progress.

My personal horses are doing well, and so are my students’ horses, so it’s always a nice feeling seeing them make visible changes and improvements.

09/09/2023

Presenting our two head trainers. You can be certain your horse will become familiar with all manner of screeches, shrieks, bikes, general ground work, and a specialized “lunging” program designed with each horse’s individual needs in mind.

08/13/2023

When someone asks what I did that day or week or month, I usually look at them blankly and realize I have no idea what I’ve done. I’ll make some vaguely cynical sounding quip about running a horse farm and irrigating and keeping kids and dogs and cats alive. But the details tend to slip my mind.

But we’re always doing something. Some of the stuff is tedious or mundane or exhausting. And some is far more exciting and out of the ordinary. All of it’s necessary though.

I realize taking pictures is a great way to remember. Because like I said in a previous post, it’s so easy to get lost in the “must-do’s” and to forget how beautiful and rewarding farm life can be.

07/15/2023

Violet went on her first ride up top with Maxine, Luna, and Lilly. The horse pastures got some desperately needed mowing/weed control. And Hanna figured out how much fun irrigation is. Not pictured is Hanna’s first ride in the pasture.

06/28/2023

However big or small your horse property, it shouldn’t limit your creativity when it comes to riding options. Our place is 25 acres, though the horses are on only about 3.

Being an eventer at heart, I get pretty bored staying in the arena, and I know the horses enjoy getting out.

I’m not advocating for riding through uncut hay fields every day. However, we keep a mowed path up the field, and yesterday I checked the whole field out from on a pony instead of on foot.

The way we set up our pasture fencing also allows for a 20’ wide track around the entire horse area, as well as being able to use the two wide berms that cut through the middle of the property.

It’s really easy for me to get caught up in the daily farm chores and horse care and irrigation and general maintenance. All of those “have to’s” can make riding inspiration sometimes hard to find, so having all of these options on our property allows for conditioning for the horses, as well as a mental reprieve from potentially repetitious arena work. Not to mention a reprieve for the humans! The girls are also loving riding and it’s so fun to see them gaining confidence and body control/awareneness.

06/22/2023

Things are looking beautiful out here

06/08/2023

Some more views from around the farm.

06/08/2023

The upper hay field is looking the best we’ve seen it since moving here. Can’t wait to see how many bales we get off it!

But we’re still getting some of the most beautiful hay ever from Star View Farms LLC (hit them up if you need gorgeous hay!!).

It always pays off to hoard (I mean stockpile, yes that’s the more acceptable term 🤣🤣) hay. Especially when you’ve got a barn full of horses and the weather and rainfall are so unpredictable.

05/28/2023

My Rugged Destiny (Skylar) produces amazing babies!

Gypsy aka “A Rugged Romance” is a yearling AQHA filly by Skylar (My Rugged Destiny) and out of Betty (Shez Sippin Whiskey)

05/22/2023

We’re starting a very unique breeding program. Everyone talks about wanting to buy the perfect unicorn, so we figured we’d breed them 🤣🤣

05/14/2023

A Rugged Romance aka “Gypsy” - yearling AQHA filly

By My Rugged Destiny (Skylar) and out of Shez Sippin Whiskey

05/08/2023

Miss Millie headed off to learn how to be a cow pony. I’ll miss this filly a lot but I couldn’t ask for better people to have one of my horses.

Millie aka Doubleshot of Chrome by A DoubleShot Of Jack out of Benz Radical Romance

04/05/2023

No horse farm is complete without an unnecessary amount of dogs. Here’s to all of our farm dogs, listed in order of seniority, all of highly questionable ranching abilities and even more questionable work ethics.

04/03/2023

Mighty Albatross aka Alby
Welsh Appendix cross

This pony is so fancy! Ignore the fact that he’s semi spooking at a stack of shavings bags 😂

03/28/2023

Hay Chix free up feeders are literally a lifesaver!

Not only have they cut down massively on hay waste, but they keep Bugs happy and entertained while he’s on stall rest recovering from keratoma surgery.

03/26/2023

This mare’s natural way of going and her neck are definitely drool-worthy!