Paradox Farm Sporthorses, LLC.

02/23/2025

Join us for the Area IV Annual meeting on Sunday, February 23 at 7PM Central.

The zoom link is ➡️ https://us04web.zoom.us/j/72793448441?pwd=v1K1yPKbMP5Y716fCegZJPXPabgeHG.1

If the meeting ID is needed, it is: 727 9344 8441

The passcode to enter is: 123456

02/14/2025

Happy Valentine’s Day 💌💕 Don’t forget to give your horse some extra love today… 🥰

(And don’t forget to treat yo’self too, because JJ’s photos are only $5 for TODAYYYY only.)



📸: JJ

01/15/2025

01/03/2025

Flashback Friday to warmer days 💙

While the 2024 season consisted of a lot of traveling and curve balls when it came to animal health, we are hopeful to continue the positive momentum into the new year with more fun things on the horizon.

Thank you to all of the patrons, professionals, and sponsors that helped make 2024 one for the books.

Here’s to an even better 2025! 🫶🏼🥳

Mission Valley Pony Club
Devoucoux
ECOGOLD - Equestrian Textile Engineering
Tara Myers Coldwell Banker Distinctive Properties
Friend’s Tack Room
Maggie Stonecipher - The KC Property Shop at KW Partners
Jack's Favorites
Skipperdoodlefritz Photography

Clinic Pics:
https://drive.google.com/drive/mobile/folders/1Iz0cudxc0V5VyV4k5aVYzHD9hhsVn860

12/09/2024

Do you love horses, learning about horses, and hanging around horse-crazy friends?? Then Mission Valley Pony Club might be just the club for you.

Pony Club was founded on a curriculum that teaches riding skills and the care of horses through mounted and unmounted lessons. Through Pony Club, members have fun with horses and make lifelong friends while they develop skills, habits, and values that extend well beyond the barn and last a lifetime.

Despite the name “pony club,” you do not need to ride a pony to join. Pony Club membership is open to all ages and experience levels—whether you are a parent looking for an equine program that teaches the basics for a horse-crazy child, an adult looking to fulfill a childhood dream of learning to ride, or an equine professional wishing to expand your knowledge and continue your equine education. There is truly something for everyone! In addition, horses, ponies, and mounts of all sizes, breeds, and types are welcome in Pony Club activities.

Members of Pony Club typically continue to be lifelong ambassadors of the Equestrian sport, whether they go on to be Veterinarians, 5* Olympians, Horse Trainers, or enter the professional world as attorneys, doctors and engineers. Pony Club teaches so many life long lessons of hard work, problem solving skills, long days, winning and losing with grace, effective planning, organization, cleanliness, and how they are important in every day life both in, and out, of the saddle.

Between now and 12/31, 2025 Participating Memberships are discounted from $195 to $145… as a participating member of pony club, members gain an impressive depth of knowledge in equine behavior, training, health and fitness, nutrition, veterinary care, and the correct use of equipment via pony club sponsored educational activities. Members receive access to private clinics with equine professionals (vets, farriers, trainers, grooms, etc.) as well as pony club rallies, where members are given the opportunity to test all they’ve learned in friendly competition against other clubs and regions. Strong business skills are built through stable management, which includes budgeting, recordkeeping, and interacting with professionals in the equine industry.

If you’re interested in finding out more about Pony Club and MVPC, you can find information at paradoxfarmks.com/about-us/mvpc/

If you’re interested in joining MVPC, go to missionvalley.ponyclub.org or contact me directly and I’ll help you sign up!

12/05/2024

Grab those calendars and put our 2025 dates in ink!!

11/30/2024

Christmas shopping this weekend and don’t know what to buy the horse lover in your life?? Give them the gift of further education! We are offering gift certificates for services available at Paradox Farm. Just message me to pre-purchase your services (lessons, schoolings, etc.), and I will email the certificate directly to you to print off! I am also happy to print & laminate them for pick up as well. :)

11/28/2024

“Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude.”

It’s safe to say I feel very grateful for this year — not only because of the personal achievements accomplished by myself & all my people, but because I have all of these amazing people surrounding me in the first place. Accomplishing goals means nothing if you don’t have anyone to chase or share them with.

So thank you to everyone that made 2024 one of the best years yet. Let’s bring on 2025!

11/20/2024

Success is not final; failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts.”

11/11/2024

Groom appreciation post 🫶🏼💙
Jordan Callender we are forever lucky to have you apart of this team. Your love for this sport and our boys does not go unnoticed - you deserve the world!

📸: Jj Sillman

11/10/2024

To develop the horse symmetrically in body and limbs you can use gymnastic exercises.

*** CORNERSTONES ***

The core of the gymnastic exercises consists of the circle, shoulder-in and haunches-in. All the other exercises are derived from these cornerstones.

🐴 The circle is used to develop the Lateral bending of the body and spine, the Forward down tendency of the head and neck and the Stepping under the center of mass of the inside hind leg (LFS).

🐴 Once the inside hind leg can step under, this hind leg can also start to take weight. To do so we use the shoulder-in and counter-shoulder-in. These exercises are designed to school the hind leg in function of the inside hind leg. As a result of taking the weight, the horse will bend the inside hind leg more and free the outside shoulder.

🐴 Once the horse can bend the hind leg as an inside hind leg, we can also start to school the hind leg as an outside hind leg. To do so we use first the haunches-in (travers) and later on the renvers. In the renvers the horse can lean less against the wall/fence with his shoulder, so it's a bit more difficult than the travers, but as a result he really supports himself with his hind legs.

*** ALL EXERCISES ARE RELATED ***

All exercises relate to one another and differ slightly:

🐎 The only difference between shoulder-in and counter-shoulder in is the position of the fence/wall. The same applies to the haunches-in (travers) and the renvers, also there the only difference is the position of the wall.

🐎 The difference between shoulder-in and renvers is the bending in the spine, which is the opposite. In these exercises the same hind leg has the opposite function ('inside' in shoulder-in, 'outside' in renvers). The same applies to counter shoulder-in and the haunches in.

🐎 The half pass is 'just' a haunches-in over the diagonal, and the pirouette is 'just' a haunches-in on a small circle. Both half-pass and pirouette require support of both the inside as the outside hind leg. Therefore in both exercises the shoulders must lead to be able to keep the center of mass in front of the direction of the hind legs, only then both hind legs can support the weight. So both the half pass and pirouette also relate to the shoulder-in.

*** NUMBER OF TRACKS AND DEGREE OF BENDING ***

Now all exercises can be done on 3 or 4 tracks, or 2,5 tracks or 3,75 or 3,99 ;) and your horse can have more or less bend in his spine. Now there is no 'perfect' number and the exact degree doesn't matter. What matters in ST is that you choose the number of tracks and degree of bending where your horse can support his body and center of mass best with both hind legs. And that depends on the conformation of your horse: if he has a long back or a shorter one, if he has long legs, or shorter ones, if he has a long neck or a short one. So choose the degree of bending and number of tracks where your horse can move in optimal balance and with most quality.

*** HOW TO DEVELOP THESE EXERCISES? ***

First start the circle, then after a few training sessions add the shoulder-in, and the moment the the horse can do this exercise for 66,6% of quality, add the haunches-in. From there you can start practising the variations.

**** HOW TO DEVELOP THE HORSE EQUALLY? ***

To develop a horse equally in body and limbs all exercises need to be done to the right and to the left (or as they say in English: on the right rein and on the left rein).

When doing these exercises there will always be an 'easy' side and a difficult side. To develop the horse equally, do the 'difficult' side a bit more often and it's also an idea to start with the 'difficult' side and to end with the 'difficult side'.

The moment the horse starts to feel more equal, switch to train the exercises 50-50.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Click here for more information:

Circle:
www.straightnesstraining.com/straightness-training-exercises/circle

Shoulder-in:
www.straightnesstraining.com/straightness-training-exercises/shoulder-in

Haunches-in:
www.straightnesstraining.com/straightness-training-exercises/haunches-in

Renvers:
www.straightnesstraining.com/straightness-training-exercises/renvers

Half pass:
www.straightnesstraining.com/straightness-training-exercises/half-pass

Pirouette:
www.straightnesstraining.com/straightness-training-exercises/pirouette

Lateral movements:
www.straightnesstraining.com/straightness-training-exercises/lateral-movements

Ladder of exercises:
www.straightnesstraining.com/straightness-training-exercises/a-logical-system-of-ever-increasing-exercises

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

10/22/2024

Finally back to the land of the living after a jam packed weekend of fun at Windermere Run Horse Trials and Area IV Champs! I say it a lot, but I truly believe the company in which you keep plays such a massive role in your overall perspective on life. There really is nothing better than spending my weekends surrounded by such hard working, caring, encouraging, and fun people. My cheeks and my abs hurt from laughing so much, the weather was PHENOMENAL, and once again John & Nick Staples, Ashlynn Riley, and the whole Windermere Run crew knocked it out of the park for another successful show. 🥳

Ginger Stiver’s Hennessy Venom “Vinny” had a “dust the cobwebs off” weekend in the Prelim Championships. Results wise it wasn’t what I expected after the hard stuff he’s conquered this season, but that’s the sport! The hard work we’ve been putting in the dressage has been paying off and he feels better than ever in that phase (thank youuu Cassie for taking Vinny for 5 days of boot camp.🙏🏼) His cross country run was his most smooth run yet, barring one bobble where we left long up the up-bank out of water and opted to circle for the table two strides later. While Vinny feels fit stamina wise, he missed a couple weeks of weight lifting and it showed, pulling a few very uncharacteristic rails in stadium. It genuinely just felt like he was tired which is fair considering how busy I’ve been lately.

I also had the pleasure of taking my best boy Hugo Boss “Huey” out this weekend, for his first Beginner Novice since 2014…. A whopping 10 years ago. 😳 I just wanted to support the entries but also wanted to see if Huey still had fun doing this sport, and figured he deserved an easy run to sky rocket his confidence. It really was like putting on my favorite pair of jeans, and he dragged me around the dressage, XC and SJ in a somewhat feral state to finish on his dressage score for 3rd out of 19.

Jennifer Zielinski and her rockstar mustang, Hugo, win the weekend in my eyes after her last outting a month ago. After getting eliminated in show jumping, she was worried that her boy was getting too old for the job. So we put together a game plan building confidence up to Windermere— where she absolutely smoked the XC double clear, carrying that same boldness over to show jumping, finishing the weekend in 8th place in the open novice! It made me happy to see Hugo finish FRESH and with clear gusto for his job, ready to attack the next one. 💪🏼

Nicole Jackson had her first taste of eventing this weekend, coming home from college to pilot her own “Fireball” (coincidentally, also a mustang!) around the starter. Nicole has been jumping for a couple years, but this was her first time doing XC and Fireball can sometimes be a dirty stopper. But despite her nerves, she kept a cool head to jump around clear! She unfortunately learned how important it is to keep your shoulders tall in show jumping, but considering where these two started and the fact that she even put herself out there to try is a success in my book. And I saw the look on her face as she crossed the XC finish, so I think it’s safe to say eventing has her hooked. 😏

Eventing is HARD. To master three completely different phases in one weekend is HARD. Life, for that matter, is HARD. So I’m proud of my riders for pushing through the hard. I see these ladies working behind the scenes. Jennifer is an adult amateur or travels for work, Nicole is an amateur in her senior year of college during the thick of midterms — to do all that AND ride horses takes a lot of HARD work. I have so much respect for these women who still find the time to fuel their passions despite their very busy lives, and I’m always grateful to help guide them along their riding journey. 💙🙏🏼

And lastly, but most certainly not least, I owe a massive THANK YOU shouted from the roof tops to the one and only Jordan Callender, for truly being the best barn manager/head groom in the world. She flew in from Virginia on Friday morning and booked it to Longview to get the boys braided for me while I walked courses. When I got to the farm every morning the horses were already loaded. She basically keeps me and the boys alive on any given weekend and she always knows exactly what to say to make me feel better, or brainstorms with me on the next plan of attack. I wholeheartedly mean it when I say I could not survive shows (or life in general) without her. 🫶🏼🥹

I can’t believe the 2024 season is winding down. We have one more party down south in Texas and then it’s time to look ahead to 2025. 🥰🥳💙

10/16/2024

10/14/2024

We LOVE Octobers spent at Longview Horse Park. 🫶🏼

This past weekend was a marathon of double duty, with a Kansas Hunter Jumper Associations - KHJA show happening alongside a Mission Valley Pony Club open XC schooling. Thanks to proper planning & efficient teamwork, we managed to get everything accomplished without a hitch! ❤️

On Saturday, Sam Parcell contested his second show with Danger Zone “Archer”— this time in an electric outdoor environment. Despite the hotter horse he had under him, Sam rode with the poise of a much more experienced rider. He walked away with a couple more ribbons to add to his growing collection and more valuable experience under his belt! Also, check out Archer’s braids — not too shabby for Sam’s first attempt!🤩
After Sam showed, I hopped on Hennessy Venom “Vinny” for a quick romp around the XC. It was his first time out on a course since AEC’s and it’s safe to say he was very happy to be out galloping around again. He fills fit and ready for area champs next week! Thank you Cassie for your always appreciated ground guidance!
After schooling Vinny, Archer got to go back out for round two and took Harper Snyder around her second lead line class. She definitely understood the name of the game this year and was much more happy to participate! We might just make her a horse girl after all. 😝
Lastly, I finished out the hot and long day with a xc school on Jennifer Campion Zielinski’s Hugo and he was a super star! Despite the 90° heat, he was very happy to drag me around the novice XC and feels ready to drag Jennifer around Windermere next week! 💪🏼💪🏼

Sunday started off with an early morning XC school on Hugo Boss “Huey”, followed by taking Cassie & Tyrel Stile’s Bayou for a confidence booster XC school. Then I joined in with Cassie’s Starter/BN group aboard Nicole Jackson’s Fireball, where he was on fire — schooling the whole starter with ease. He feels more than ready for Nicole and his eventing debut next week! After a busy morning schooling, Ginger Stiver and I ran the XC gates the rest of the day. After a long day, we topped the weekend off with a few 3’ jumper rounds on Jennifer Zielinski’s Hugo. He was all business against the big warmbloods and brought home two 3rds and a 2nd!

I could not be any prouder of all the wonderful horses and riders I get the pleasure of working with. It was a wonderful weekend and I’m already looking forward to the next!! 🥰🥳