Southerly Wind Stables

07/10/2025

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The Cost of Entry

The cost of entry into becoming a good horseman, is discomfort.

Learning is not supposed to feel easy. When someone is teaching you, especially in horsemanship, it’s going to challenge you. You’ll feel awkward. Unsure. Maybe even frustrated. That’s part of the process.

Because horse training isn’t something you can memorize or “figure out” through words alone. You can’t study enough in a book to master technique.
It takes feel, and feel can only be developed through time, mistakes, and experience.

Every great hand you admire once sat right where you are: fumbling through timing, missing moments, questioning themselves. But they kept showing up. They stayed open. They let the horse and the work shape them. And most of us are still reaching, still pressing to learn more, do better, and putting ourselves in the awkward learning stage.

If you want to be a good horseman, you have to be willing to pay the price, and that price is being uncomfortable learning but still showing up anyways.

06/10/2025

Near Gear! Love it! 🫶🏼✅🐴

06/10/2025

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27/09/2025

What a week at the 💕🐴 Tough Enough To Wear Pink Horse Show

We packed up the whole crew—two toddlers, two farm dogs, my husband, and two horses—for a busy but fun few days!

✨ Perfect Pete (our green 2-year-old) technically missed his class (long story… let’s just say the entry booth wasn’t quite where my husband thought it was 😂). But he rode around like a seasoned show horse, soaking everything in with the help of his big brother and mentor, Grover.

✨ Grover / G-Money / Shark made us so proud—earning Top Tens (8th) and a Reserve Champion in his very first Senior HUS class, with some large classes up to 36 contenders! Not bad for his first time back in the ring since last Congress. There’s nothing like floating into the pen with this fancy boy our home grown/trained boy.

Huge thank you to the show staff and committee for putting on such a great show. We had a wonderful time and can’t wait for the next one! 💗 Jamie Crofoot Stable Livin’

04/09/2025

✅yup

While the Short Stirrup division is a beloved tradition, it is driving up the costs associated with all ponies. What’s supposed to act as a gateway and foundation to horse shows for young equestrians has done the opposite. A Short Stirrup pony that costs less than a division Pony Hunter is going extinct. And so many potential equine candidates for the Short Stirrup are jobless. Why?

Because judges expect kids in an entry-level class to do lead changes.

Short Stirrup riders lack knowledge and experience to ask for and execute proper lead changes — that is literally one of the reasons they are in short stirrup. They both don’t know how to land the leads and also they don’t have the mechanical skills to ask a pony for a lead change properly. So when they are judged on the requirement of a lead change, the answer is simple to many trainers: their ponies have to have an automatic one.

But there are only so many full-package packers, and the Children’s Pony and division Pony Hunters are hungry for them too. Exceptionally made ponies can often increase in value the smaller they are. Producing a quality small pony (standing at 12.2 hands – about 4 feet – or less) requires a small person to do the training. And tiny professionals or well-educated teens willing to pony jockey for the years it takes to truly make them up for children are even rarer than the ponies themselves. It’s a supply and demand issue — everyone wants ponies that check every box, so they’re expensive.

Reading a recent ISO ad posted on Facebook:

“I need a small/medium learn to canter and jump pony. Don’t mind ancient. Would love something that knows its job. Auto change is ideal. This is for a tiny tiny kid to do X-rails – 2ft on.”

Only a handful of ponies fit that description, and yet, there’s a multitude of ponies who, aside from an automatic lead change, offer everything you could want in a Short Stirrup mount. There is little market for such a thing. They are reduced to little value. So many lesson horses – who are rarely automatic but have the most to teach – could be the best (and most affordable) Short Stirrup partners, but requiring a lead change disqualifies them.

Outside of pure aesthetics, there is no merit in having lead changes in the Short Stirrup. It’s not beneficial to the rider, who should learn to land from the jump and sit up, balance, collect, and recognize they’re on the wrong lead so they can transition to a balanced trot before picking up the correct lead again, demonstrating a planned and organized simple change. If their pony does the change automatically while they sit still and hang on and learn nothing from it, they lose an understanding of good basics and how to ride every inch of the ring. The ponies that take a ridiculous amount of labor to produce also do not need a kid giving them confusing or incorrect signals for a lead change and untraining them because they don’t know any better.

🔗 Continue reading Marley Lin-Gonzalez's article at https://www.theplaidhorse.com/2024/09/04/short-stirrup-shouldnt-require-lead-changes/
📸 © Heather N. Photography

01/09/2025

What a weekend! Huge thank-you to Chagrin Valley Farms and OPHA for hosting the Chagrin Valley Farms OPHA Triple Point USEF “B” Show — such a well-run, welcoming event.

Lilly and Lilly (“The Bee’s Knees”) had an incredible weekend — Champion in their division and successfully completed an 18” course as they prepare to move up. I couldn’t be prouder of this pair. The progress they’re making proves all the hard work at home is paying off in the show ring.

Dia and “I Am Your Man” (Romeo) also shined with tons of momentum and consistent placings. A major highlight — they completed their first full course over 18” fences, and this is only their fourth show ever! This young, green horse keeps improving every trip off the farm, and their future is looking very bright.

So proud of both of these teams — the dedication, the patience, and the results speak for themselves.

25/08/2025

We have lots of shirt styles and fun colors as well! 💋

25/08/2025

PM me or text me! 💋

22/08/2025

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❤️ Little girls and horses…
It’s never just a childhood phase.
It’s the start of a foundation for life.

Horses don’t just teach riding.
They teach patience when nothing clicks.
Responsibility when stalls must be cleaned before play.
Grit when a stubborn pony refuses to cooperate.

They show that trust isn’t given...it’s earned.
Through consistency.
Through respect.
Through time.

Every little girl who swings a leg over a horse learns:
Falling doesn’t mean failing.
It means getting up, dusting off, and trying again.

Discipline isn’t punishment...it’s commitment.
Kindness isn’t weakness...it’s strength.
Confidence isn’t being loud....it’s showing up, even when you’re scared.

Horses shape little girls into women who don’t quit when life gets hard.
Women who know sweat and sacrifice come before reward.
Women who carry themselves with grace,
but aren’t afraid to dig in and fight when it matters.

It’s the 6 a.m. feedings.
The cold winter rides.
The tears after tough lessons,
and the laughter after small victories.

It’s brushing a horse in the quiet of the barn,
realizing responsibility never takes a day off.

So yes…
little girls may grow out of braids and pony bows.
But they never outgrow the lessons their horses taught them.

And maybe that’s the greatest gift of all.
❤️ Michelle Knutson | Born In The Barn