Endeavor Farm

01/11/2025

Just a bit of snow is enough to inspire the boys into full play mode! What fun they are having!

01/11/2025

“Everyone in this industry needs to know they can text 2USEF to report. It is an anonymous report.”

I’m ashamed to say I didn’t know this.

I have personally witnessed, and have heard first hand accounts of abuse…not training seeking an outcome, not correction, but abuse and have not reported it. Much of this has been the actions of “well known” trainers, in a variety of disciplines.

I have personally made incorrect choices in the past. And I resolve to do better, be better and to remember that if I do not speak out, if I do not “ name names” then I am complicit in the abuse continuing.

The horses need us to report every single instance of abuse. They depend on us and we are the only ones who can advocate for them. Don’t be silent.

We all think we know what is going on in the industry we love, but after serving as the chair of the U.S. Hunter Jumper Association Horse Welfare Commission for the past year, now I do know, and I can’t un-ring that bell. I was sickened, as anyone would be, to hear of some of the atrocities commit...

01/05/2025

12/15/2024

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays! We have GIFTS for you! Please PM me if you need/want any of the following items!

Shipping boots! I have 4-5 pairs!
Oversized dressage bridles…schooling quality
Hunter bridles average horse size…schooling quality
Leadropes
Several size 78 sheets. Will trade for 80’s medium turnout
Huge size 87 turnout blanket
Soaking boots, great for abscesses.
First aid supplies, especially gauze pads!
Leg wraps with bandages 2
Curb reins, black dressage
Kimberwick bits!!!
Paddock boots…size 7-7.5
Koenig Tall dressage boots…size 7.5
Protective leg boots, SMB’s and others
Pony size bell boots
Hay bags
And some other stuff I’m pretty sure that is lurking around here!

🎄♥️🤶

11/30/2024

I’ve been recommending this book ever since my son Cody Maltais shared it with me. It is a superb explanation of how we learn techniques and learn to use them in our performance. Highly recommended!

“When through painstaking refinement of a small movement I had the improved feeling, I could translate it onto other parts of the form, and suddenly everything would start flowing at a higher level. The key was to recognize that the principles making one simple technique tick were the same fundamentals that fueled the whole expansive system of Tai Chi Chuan.”
-The Art of Learning, Josh Waitzkin

If you want to be a great rider, not just a passenger that pushes buttons, you must work on refining the most basic aids and the smallest requests. That is when you and the horse become one in harmonious flow.

*The Art of Learning is a fantastic read. It’s a wonderful exploration into how Josh became a 21 National Championship title holder and 7 World Championship title holder in both chess and Tai Chi Chuan.

11/25/2024

Whip skills. Know how…

11/23/2024

SOLD to the most wonderful home and person!!!

The BEST-EST PONY

Are you looking for a beautiful, well educated pony with the sweetest disposition? A pony that is lovely with children but plenty talented for an ambitious adult? Do you need ability AND versatility to compete in dressage, the hunter ring and eventing? Would you like to trail ride, ride bitless, or play with obstacle courses? And would you like AMAZING bloodlines just in case you want a BEST-EST foal someday?
Then you need ”LIL”!

- [ ] 14.2 h, 11 years, sound, healthy, easy!
- [ ] NO maintenance, low miles, NEVER mare-ish
- [ ] Gorgeous big soft dark eyes in a grey velvet package
- [ ] Registered Half Welsh (other half WB) and approved RPSI, with proven bloodlines and many champion siblings
Riding/Training
- [ ] Turns heads everywhere she goes! Beautiful with the “WOW” factor
- [ ] Smooth gaits, very adjustable, uncomplicated and tolerant
- [ ] Schooled thru 2nd level Dressage, jumps courses and XC of 2’6” with PLENTY of scope for more
- [ ] Trail rides, field rides, kid rides, granny rides
- [ ] Eligible green for everything
Character
- [ ] ZERO bad habits
- [ ] Clip her ears, sure. Loads willingly and hauls perfectly, yup. Takes bit when you hold bridle in front of her, of course. Stands perfectly still despite ten dogs running around, oh yes, every day.
- [ ] Loves everyone, calls to you from the paddock. It’s adorable.
- [ ] Easy turnout with others. Neat in stall. Enjoys grooming, baths, massages, chiro, farrier, and even vet visits.
LIL is THAT pony. Lowish fives for her to become your dream pony. Holiday delivery, yes, with ribbon and bows. In Oxford, NC. For more info: 919-880-7295

11/13/2024

Blanketing? So many folks ask us what we believe and practice regarding blanketing our horses that we thought we’d post a quick summary:

First off, we live in north central NC. NOT MONTANA. So the first thing we believe is that horses don’t NEED blankets. (Oddly, it seems like the colder the climate the fewer folks believe in blanketing.) Are there exceptions, always…

IF you are determined to blanket, let’s talk about why. Is your horse’s hair coat unable to keep him warm due to condition, body clipping or some other reason? Is your horse underweight and you need to conserve calories or are you trying to protect your horse from weather extremes? And here’s a big one: Is your horse stalled or kept in a place where free movement is limited?

If your horse is clipped, underweight or stalled, YOU have undermined your horse’s ability to stay warm. Body warmth is preserved by the horse’s natural hair coat, is created by burning calories, and is supplemented by movement that keeps the body working and warm. A clipped horse with limited forage that is kept in a stall WILL get cold quickly.

With all that said, here’s another huge concern: It’s easy to remember to put the blanket ON when temps are dropping, but will you/someone be monitoring and reacting when temperatures come back up? If you aren’t able to get the blanket OFF as the day warms, your horse would prefer you leave it off. Many more horses are much more uncomfortable due to being too warm in blankets left on than are ever cold due to the lack of them.

Okay, so you’re going to blanket, you are doing so for the right reasons and you promise that the blanket will come off as the day warms. We only use waterproof turnout type sheets and blankets. And they have to fit! I used to buy my blankets a bit big for my horses until a friend pointed out that when they are overly long and hang down beyond the tail, the create more pull on the chest. Hmmmm…good point! We don’t use leg straps and instead use tail straps, but prefer the plastic covered bungee type. Why? Because urine and f***l matter slide right off. We closely watch our horse’s shoulders and withers for any rubs, and add shoulder guards or get a different fit of blanket as needed. A poor fitting blanket is far worse than no blanket at all.

We try to stick to a temperature based plan for blanketing: < 40 degrees = sheets, < 30 degrees = medium weight blanket, < 20 degrees = heavy weight blanket. However, we will adjust for wet and windchill, in stall or in paddock, and for sunlight which warms a horse up quickly. And we take them off at these same temperatures or even sooner if the day is warming up.

If we body clip a horse, we adjust our temperature plan up ten degrees. So sheets go on at 50. And remember, there’s a big difference between a freshly clipped horse and one with 8 weeks of hair regrowth. A freshly clipped horse is naked!

If our horses’ blankets get wet, they come off to dry. We keep extra blankets on hand for these times, as well as wool coolers to wick moisture from wet hair coats. We always check between the blanket and horse to be sure any blanket’s waterproofing is still working. If not, it’s time for a new blanket.

So these are our guidelines, and I’m sure I’ve forgotten some things! We always love feedback and to hear your ideas too!

11/11/2024

This past Saturday, we said our last goodbye to Roscoe. Roscoe was, from the moment we met him at the shelter, our “SCRUFFY” dog. We were never sure of what mix of breeds Roscoe was; with his messy gray hair coat and big attitude, it was his intrepid character that defined him best.

By the time Roscoe passed, he was diabetic, blind in both eyes, partially deaf, had two tumors of notable size and had survived two serious dog fight injuries, one of which that severed his jugular vein. He was gifted with “many lives” or so it seemed, as he survived many events and conditions that would have killed a lesser dog. He was a scrappy and tenacious dog, unfazed by life’s blunt traumas many of which came at his own initiation. He kept on living fully until his body shut down, quickly and completely.

The day we adopted Roscoe, he saw our other dogs and began running around the farm like a dog possessed. We really thought something was wrong with him, his level of ecstasy was unbelievable. He was the most jubilant happy puppy we ever had come to the farm. As Roscoe matured, so did his cheeky attitude and bravado and it was not unusual to see him initiate a squabble with another dog. He paid for his excess chutzpah dearly at times, but I don’t remember it affecting his long term demeanor. Roscoe simply didn’t have any desire to walk the path of least resistance.

He was, in his own way, extremely lovable. He would seek you out for a pat and a belly rub, and loved to be brushed. When happy and excited, he would strut around like a Westminster show dog, flipping his front legs out ahead of him like a prized show pet. And other than bouts of grumpiness, he was “just happy to be here” never minding the season or weather that came. He loved us all, despite our failing to measure up to his incredible sturdiness.

Roscoe was a VERY verbal dog (to a fault - with many responses of “ROSCOE…SHUT UP!!!) and loved to announce morning, dinner, goings and comings, clear moonlight nights, and any chance of a walkabout. A favorite activity was actively fanning the flames of chaos of our other ten dogs at any time with his relentless high pitched barking. Throughout his life, but especially in old age, Roscoe took serious offense at personal space infractions…yet he would endlessly lie in the middle of the floor directly in the path of travel, or up against a door that needed to be opened and closed. He flatly refused to change his ways, or to consider any other spot that would be more restful. Nope, and if you or another dog required him to move, there was hell to pay. The barking was angry and snarling. He was incensed.

In addition to barking, Roscoe loved nothing more than riding shotgun in the truck on John’s trips off the farm. This was his true joy, his happy place. Over time, we were convinced that Roscoe knew instantly when John’s plans would include a trip to get supplies, and he would lie in wait. As soon as John started the truck, Roscoe would leap into action and make a straight line to the passenger door. With a bit of help, he would climb up into the passenger seat and install himself there with his head on the console, in a state of bliss. The problem arose when the trip was over and one needed to get Roscoe OUT of the truck. The growling, snapping and anger that resulted from trying to lift him out was intense. Thus, most trips with Roscoe ended with the truck doors being left wide open, and with him deciding himself when truck time was over.

I hope somewhere, sometime in your life that you get to know a Roscoe. It will do you good to see that individual who refuses to go with the flow, who happily will get into a tiff for its own sake, and who bears up not only well, but better under criticism. I hope you smile at the bravado, look for the scars of a few battles, and hear spoken the heart of a fully lived life. For us, we will miss you Roscoe, and look forward to our next truck ride together.

11/06/2024

The goodness continues…

On their way to winning medals, Lisa Wilcox and Relevant working with Ernst Hoyos:
“I just want him to drop the neck and relax and work over his back before I get into the half passes. Instead of coming up and getting short in the half passes, I want him down and into the hand and over the back.” Read more:
https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/2021/03/training-the-half-pass-for-a-weg-medal/

11/03/2024

If you missed this in 2002, read it now. Look at the horses, look at the riders. Drool…

Lisa Wilcox working with Ernst Hoyos, he tells us:
“Riders don’t realise that they are asking two opposite things. I also have a nice contact in the forward, but the pressure I make, I have also got to let out again. This is the ever-changing task of maintaining the energy – it goes back and forth over the back, this is the bridge, and the energy is going from the hind end and the hocks over the back through the neck and into the mouth, and then back again. You are just maintaining the energy. If you brace with dead hands, then the energy flows out the back.”
https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/2024/11/working-with-lisa-wilcox-and-ernst-hoyos-part-two/

10/31/2024

Good morning Endeavor. ❤️

10/29/2024

10/27/2024

We are looking for a mature QH gelding, easy going with good basic western training. Fantastic home with very light riding/some trail riding. Super retirement home for the right horse.

10/26/2024

Back to front.

Contact – share some views on what we are aiming for:
“The rider should not try to put the load on the hindquarters primarily with his hands. Through forward driving aids, he must cause the hind legs to step more underneath the weight and take on the load themselves… The elevation of the forehand then comes automatically, the more the hindquarters are lowered and bent.” Pic is Reiner Klimke and Ahlerich
Gustav Steinbrecht, The Gymnasium of the Horse

10/22/2024

It’s not about us. It’s about clarity for the horse.

THE ROLE OF EMOTIONAL DISCOMFORT IN TRAINING

I will make an assertion that might surprise or upset a few people. That is, horses do not need to bond with people. As long as a horse’s basic needs of food, water, and companionship are met, they couldn’t give a farthing if they never saw a human in their entire life.

But people are different. Most people want to bond with their horse. They get upset if they feel their horse doesn’t want to be with them. To fulfill this need people repeat the mistake over and over again of avoiding doing enough to help a horse change its thought because they don’t want to upset their horse or induce anxiety in the horse. They don’t want to do anything they think might cause their horse not to like them. But this is making horse training more about people's concerns than the horses. It is both an ignorant and selfish approach to training.

Some people who read my essays about training principles and watch my videos come away with the mistaken view that my training and my clinics are all rainbows and cuddles. But I am not that sort of trainer. I am the sort of trainer who will do as little as I can to get a change of thought, but as much as necessary too. That means that sometimes I am applying so little pressure that people can’t see what I am doing and other times it means the pressure gets to earthquake proportions, with most of the time it is somewhere in between. I try very hard not to apply more pressure than necessary to change a horse’s thoughts and provide them with clarity. To do more than that verges on punishment. But to apply less pressure than necessary to change a horse’s thoughts and provide clarity verges on emotional abuse.

In the past, a small number of people have expressed confusion and even concern about how much pressure I applied to some horses. They felt what they saw me doing was inconsistent with the ideas I espoused in my essays. So I want to say a few things about this.

Firstly, as I have written in my book, The Essence Of Good Horsemanship there is no such thing as kind or gentle training. All training requires a certain threshold level of anxiety in a horse to stop one behaviour and replace it with another. This is equally true for training that applies the principles of negative reinforcement (R-) and positive reinforcement (R+) The amount of anxiety required to make a horse think what it is doing is no longer a good idea is the same for every horse. However, the amount of pressure a human has to apply to reach that threshold level of anxiety can vary hugely. So just because one horse will change its thought with a wiggle of a finger and another horse will require a whirlwind of energy from a swinging rope, does not mean one method was more aggressive or violent than the other from a horse’s point of view. They both added the same amount of worry in the respective horses to create a change of thought.

Secondly, when it comes to horses the end mostly does justify the means. By that I mean, if a horse finishes a session in a better emotional place and with a clearer understanding of its role than it had in the beginning, then it is hard to judge what happened as inappropriate or wrong. Remember this is about how the horse feels, not how the human feels. If I can get a good change in a short time by using a strong feel or achieve the same result over a much longer time using much less pressure, I get it done sooner rather than later. I don’t feel it is fair to leave a horse feeling crappy any longer than necessary just because I don’t like using more pressure. I’m not saying it is wrong to do less and take longer if that is where your skill level is, but I am not letting my horse flounder any longer than I have to simply because I want to avoid being firmer and clearer.

The reason most people come to a clinic is because the things they have been doing with their horse are not getting the results they have been seeking. An owner puts trouble in their horse and leaves it there until it becomes habitual, then gets upset if a trainer has to apply more pressure than they would like to get the horse to think of changing their idea and behaviour. They look at the trainers as being cruel and aggressive but don’t see fault in themselves for creating the situation in the first place and leaving their horses troubled for days, weeks, and years.

Horses don’t care about how much pressure we use provided there is clarity and quieter/calmer emotions at the end. Horses don’t care how they got there, just that they feel better because of it. So a horse does not carry the worry that pressure might induce any longer than it takes for the change of thought to come through. Once the change of thought occurs the emotions are quelled and clarity is obtained. A horse does not fixate on the applied pressure any longer than that – whether it is barely perceptible or highly charged. The amount of pressure required to get a change is not what is important to a horse. The pressure only becomes a problem if we don’t use it with enough clarity to change a thought or if we use more than necessary to change a thought. You only have to watch horses interacting in the paddock to realize that it is not pressure that matters, but the clarity at the end.

It is very human to want to make sure our horses are calm and relaxed all the time. We want them to like us, so we don’t want to be the source of their trouble. I applaud this notion and try hard to work in that way. However, I don’t believe we do our horses any favours by allowing our desire to be their friend and not upset them with their need for clarity and confidence in following our idea. It never is and never should be about us.

Photo: I was in Germany earlier in the year, I worked with Simone Carlson. She using pressure with feel to help this horse overcome its fear of crossing a tarpaulin.

10/21/2024

This beautiful mare is for sale!