Felger Stables

Felger Stables Felger Stables is a small equine facility about 20 minutes south of Fort Wayne, Indiana. We offer boarding, leasing and lessons.

He’s back and he brought a friend to check out the feeding situation! Lol… silly boys!
06/22/2022

He’s back and he brought a friend to check out the feeding situation! Lol… silly boys!

So it begins! New arena under way! So exciting!!!
06/21/2022

So it begins! New arena under way! So exciting!!!

When you are getting grain ready for evening feeding and you feel like you are being watched…. Glad the door was shut or...
06/13/2022

When you are getting grain ready for evening feeding and you feel like you are being watched…. Glad the door was shut or he would have raided the peppermint bin!

All the pretty horses!
06/07/2022

All the pretty horses!

06/05/2022

*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? I usually send pics of the bits we use on each horse, sometimes even the saddle even the pad. If you saddle the horse up and it bucks or it fights the bit, check your tack. Does your new horse need a semi or full QH tree? Specific type of saddle pad? Is it used to a snaffle or bit? If you throw one of my horses in a double twisted wire snaffle (of which I don’t even own) and a chain headsetter (which I don’t own either), God Bless you, you could have the ride of your life, I have no control what reaction the horse will have. I just sent a training horse home the other day that needs to be ridden in one of those old fluffy, cotton padded cinches, she is sensitive at her nerve line along her girth and ribs to any others and will get sore. I have $150 cinches here, top of the line, but she rides best in an ugly old $10 padded one. Go figure.

My notes: My horses are fed 3x a day, daily turnout and riding….I spend hours and hours with each horse, I tie them for hours, we groom them, ride them, I know them inside and out. Set your horse and yourself up for success, be patient. I’ll always help, call me, video what they are doing, text me your concerns, I’ll do anything I can to give you my ideas and support. But come back to the source and if it’s not me, reach out to whomever you bought or had your horse trained by first, give them the opportunity to help you before getting frustrated or discouraged or seek Facebook input.

My dream is that your horse is an upgrade for you and me, that your horse exceeds any expectation I ever had, that you have more success, joy and fun with it, than I ever dreamed possible. I want you to be more successful than me, with your horse. That is my goal.

Upgrade your horse, send me your win pics, sell them for a profit, enjoy your through the ears views on them, love them, because a piece of my heart goes with every horse that leaves here.

Sincerely, Jen Bulger
Rocky Mountain Performance Horses
Loveland, Colorado
303-257-0460

Horses don’t care about the glitz and glamor. They only care if you love them and if they have plenty to eat!
05/15/2022

Horses don’t care about the glitz and glamor. They only care if you love them and if they have plenty to eat!

Definitely ❤️

Felger Stables does All American Quarter Horse Congress 2021!So much fun, so many laughs, and allllllll the shopping!! C...
10/26/2021

Felger Stables does All American Quarter Horse Congress 2021!

So much fun, so many laughs, and allllllll the shopping!! Can't wait to go back!

10/26/2021
There are so many!
12/22/2020

There are so many!

It was a beautiful day to be with this crew at the barn!!
05/30/2020

It was a beautiful day to be with this crew at the barn!!

Birthday parties are always so much fun!
05/26/2020

Birthday parties are always so much fun!

Tucker got a good shedding session... sad thing, you can’t even tell. He is the furriest horse on the planet! Thanks for...
03/22/2020

Tucker got a good shedding session... sad thing, you can’t even tell. He is the furriest horse on the planet! Thanks for letting us use your shedding tool Maddie!

03/04/2020
02/07/2020

Our auction is tomorrow. Please share and bring a friend. Can’t wait to see everyone.

Tebow says, “Don’t forget about the New Years Party!”
01/01/2020

Tebow says, “Don’t forget about the New Years Party!”

12/09/2019

Faith wants to say Mare-y Christmas to all and to all a mare stare!!!

Heaven gained a glitter angel pony today. Rest In Peace Mandy Pony! You were the perfect pony for this little girl. Than...
11/20/2019

Heaven gained a glitter angel pony today. Rest In Peace Mandy Pony! You were the perfect pony for this little girl. Thank you for loving her so well. Can’t thank you enough for all you taught her, how kind you were to all of my kiddos, and how well you loved all of us. You left a trail of glitter on your way to heaven!

Some Saturday pics around the barn!
10/19/2019

Some Saturday pics around the barn!

So funny!
09/14/2019

So funny!

I was at the university a few days ago working on a draft horse who came out of sedation just long enough to kick me through a stall door. So, I’m taking today off to both feel sorry for myself and to draft out my experiences as a moving target.

Horse Kicks 101

Even when you work on very well trained and gentle horses, getting kicked is somewhat of an occupational hazard as a farrier. Sometimes it’s out of fear or pain, sometimes it’s by mistake, and on occasion even good horses have bad days. Whatever the reason, the resulting world of hurt for us comparatively soft and squishy monkeys is the same. However, just how badly one is injured can depend a lot on the conviction and breed of the offending (or offended) critter.

The breed voted most likely to knock you across the aisle way in high school would be the American thoroughbred. Like most things in Europe, the European thoroughbreds seem to have a more level head about them. Much like myself, the American TB (especially the on-track race horse) is a rather high strung critter whose environment has made them prone to both panicked flight and personal injury. When they kick it’s powerful, wildly unpredictable, but accurate, and always followed by the snapping of the cross ties as they gallop to perceived safety screaming “I’m a racehorse! I am a racehorse!” as they disappear down the driveway.

Next on the list of crazies is the Arabian horse, especially the Egyptians. It’s my theory that their small dished heads compress their brains, making them prone to hallucinations. The larger the dish, the more likely they are to mistake a blowing leaf for a horse-eating dragon. When they kick it’s completely unpredictable, light, but deadly fast. The Arab will also gallop to safety, but that’s likely 50 or more miles away. Also, one should be aware that when the leaf monster presents itself the Arabian has the ability to to teleport its way to safety.

The American Quarter Horse is the labrador of the equine industry. They are cool tempered and unexcitable. Snakes, rogue cows, or even that mounted migrant worker commonly known as a cowboy shooting off their backs rarely gets them to raise more than an eyebrow. If you do managed to get kicked by one of these guys you (or someone they felt very strongly about) likely deserved it. Unlike Arabs or thoroughbreds, when they kick something they meant to do it. While they might not be as fast as their caffeinated cousins their blows come down with the accuracy and might of Thor’s hammer. They always accompany their mighty blows with a inquisitive yet judgmental expression to suggest “did you learn something today?”

Draft horses are best described as gentle giants. They are kind, forgiving and dumb as a box of rocks. If you are unlucky enough to be walloped by one of these tanks it’s likely because they forgot you were there. What the draft horse lacks in conviction they make up for in brute force. Accuracy and speed doesn’t really matter that much when dropping nuclear warheads.

Ponies… I am convinced the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse will be charging in on the burning fury of pony hooves. It really doesn’t matter what you did or didn’t do, ponies will kick simply because they can. They are a weapon of equal opportunity. What they lack in brute force they make up for in quantity. So much quantity…

Donkeys/mules are not horses, and they will be sure to remind you of that fact should you forget. They are even tempered, but unforgiving. It doesn’t take a very big donkey to carry a grudge. When they feel you are deserving of capital punishment they have no qualms about dishing out. They are the ninja snipers of the equine world. One shot, one kill is the donkey’s motto. If one of Hell’s own minions fires a shot at you and misses it was only a warning. When they strike their hooves rip the very fabric of time and space to arrive faster than the speed of light.

(Please understand that not every Arabian is crazy and not every draft horse is dumb. These are lighthearted stereotypes that come from my personal observations and experiences gathered over my 12 years standing behind the anvil. I know they will not be true of every horse. )

Carry on.

They spelled “minutes” wrong.
06/28/2019

They spelled “minutes” wrong.

Birthday Party success!!
05/19/2019

Birthday Party success!!

Some of the best times in the barn are just pony time with a new friend! Pretty sure Pony took a nap while they were cha...
05/16/2019

Some of the best times in the barn are just pony time with a new friend! Pretty sure Pony took a nap while they were chattering!

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4222 N 175E
Ossian, IN
46777

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