Rancho del Comienzo

11/20/2024

Using the counter shoulder-in to help teach a young horse (and her rider) the feeling of a true shoulder-in!

10/28/2024

Another clinic with Cecily Perkins in the books! This weekend’s focus was, as always, how the building blocks basically come together to make a successful ride. We also focused on flat work for strengthening a horse’s top line, and improving his suppleness and “ability to sit”. It was, as always, a weekend of learning and challenges in all the right ways. A huge thank you to Cecily for sharing her expertise and passion, and a huge thank you to all of the participants for making it possible!

10/17/2024

Last weekend we had another successful working equitation show at Fox Valley Saddle Association! Highlights include
• Enzo and Jamie making easy work of gates, even on the super windy 🌪️ second day.
• Guapo showing off some airs above ground 🩰 in the warmup ring
🥉🥈 Jamie and Enzo came home with 3rd place overall in their division on day 1, and Reserve Champ on day 2!
🥈Taylor and Guapo came home with Reserve champ in their division both days!

Thank you to FVSA and all the working equitation peeps for another enjoyable, welcoming, and fun show!

10/15/2024

10/06/2024

Autumn adventures 🍃We love long walks through the trees and creeks, building muscles and keeping the horses’ minds fresh and engaged! 🍂It was Brio’s first off-property excursion, and he was totally unfazed.

10/04/2024

💛Mustang Update💛
🎶Frankie is getting more comfortable with us each day, letting us approach and start to rub her all over. Next steps include grooming and haltering!
🌎Atlas is also gaining confidence with people, approaching us at feeding time, and allowing some rubs on both shoulders!

09/29/2024

We’re growing, therefore we are hiring! 💫
* Please share with anyone you know who might be a good fit! *

Looking for a part-time (~20hrs/week) Farm Hand at Rancho del Comienzo in Sheridan, IL. We are a private training facility, focused on young horses in a variety of disciplines.
Looking for someone to work 1-2 week mornings (Fridays and a day of your choice), and Saturdays. Feeding, watering, mucking (drylots, horses live outside 24/7), general horse care and maintenance, and assisting with grooming, tacking etc.
Looking for someone who enjoys working outside, is self-sufficient, and reliable. Must have a valid drivers license. Prior horse experience is much preferred. Please contact Taylor Randall Schwebke with qualifications and availability if interested!

09/12/2024

Owners can be incredibly intuitive.

Don’t get me wrong, educating ourselves about biomechanics, and stress signals, and all the other minutia, is great, but often, it’s just putting a name to or validating what we already know to be true.

In this case, a new horse being perfectly broke and obedient, but the owner just feeling like something was ‘off,’ not quite right.

Look at that triangle eye!

This is a very worried, skeptical, insecure horse, and she was really good at hiding it, but the owner was subconsciously picking up on tension around the eye, tension around the nose, blink rate, breathing rate, muscular tension, etc.

And the advice of, “Just go ride,” or “More wet saddle blankets,” didn’t feel right.

I love it when owners trust their gut and listen to the horse.

We don’t want a horse to be insecure because they’re afraid they’re going to get the answer wrong.

We want them to be cocky, that they know exactly what the answer is.

That’s empowering.

Taking a simple task like upward and downward walk transitions on the lunge, with the fence supporting, done very slowly and mindfully, repeated until the horse starts to be able to read you, can be incredibly transformative.

That was a huge relief to this horse, that she could take her time to think about what the human was asking before answering, and that she could trust herself to read the human, and trust the human to be consistent and predictable, and that even an escalation for clarity was never going to be scary.

Sometimes horses don’t need you to take the pressure off, they need you to put the pressure on, so that they finally know how to navigate it, and breathe a sigh of relief, literally.

Then just spending time ‘being with,’ while the humans discuss things, that’s huge.

Being able to process without being interacted with, been able to step out of training mode, some horses have never experienced that.

This mare had some huge releases the owner has never seen before… successive yawns, sneezes, inner eyelid blinks, and some spontaneous stretches, where she even got a huge neck pop.

It was really neat to see her do her own ‘bodywork.’

So the next time you feel something is off, but you can’t quite put your finger on it, trust your gut.

No one knows your horse better than you do.

09/11/2024

Some low-quality screen grabs of some high-quality young horses…I feel so lucky to have such wonderful horses (and people) come through here. Not only do these horses have great minds and built-to-last conformations, but they are set up for success by their owners instilling good ground manners and the right attitudes - which makes my job so enjoyable!

These are just a few of the recent trainees we’ve had the pleasure of working with lately!

09/06/2024

Happy horses on a late summer day… Feeling a touch like fall 🍃🍂🌾

Thank you Mom for the mowing today to help us keep these green pastures healthy!

09/02/2024

It’s a sign of happy, healthy, good brained horses, to come back after time off and everyone is perfectly behaved and feeling great! From 3yos with only a few rides on them, all the way up 💫
Good training starts with good management - happy horses make us happy!

09/02/2024

We had a fun excursion to WEC Ohio this weekend!

💚Impy and Maisie, though they are inexperienced, were calm, cool and professional all weekend, showing off their great brains. Both took on everything that was asked of them - indoors, outdoors, jumper jumps, hunter fences…what a great experience!

💙Whitney with Loki and Jacquie with Heimdall and Dobby, laid down some beautiful rounds in the jumper and the hunter rings, and even brought home some ribbons!

Thank you Jacquie and Whitney for asking me along, and for making showing and coaching such an enjoyable experience! I’m also grateful to Cindy and Laura for being the best horse show support crew! 💙💚

And a big thank you to World Equestrian Center for hosting such a friendly and well-run show - we’ll be back!

08/26/2024

So proud of these gals! Jackie and Shooter and Jamie and Enzo took on their first mini event, and it was a huge success! It was awesome to see their hard work and progressive training really pay off. Enzo came out more confident than ever, and really stepped up to all the questions asked. Jackie and Shooter tackled all the phases with relaxation and bravery. And we got to take home some nice ribbons!


Thank you to the Fox Valley Saddle Association for hosting such an awesome, affordable, and enjoyable event!

08/18/2024

🦊🐴First fox hunt in the books for Clay and May and Elaina and April!

We are very grateful to Mill Creek Hunt Club for organizing such a wonderful weekend of learning the history and how-to’s of fox hunting - thank you for allowing us to join you!