Kaylie Eaves Horsemanship LLC

03/24/2025

✨Getting Better Each Week!✨
Thank you Camdon!

If you are looking for your next horse, Ophelia is amazing! Cowboy Perseverance Ranch

03/24/2025

One of the biggest hurdles of learning is expectation-

Expectation to show progress
Expectation to be validated
Expectation to do more
Expectation to move along father than we are ready for
Expectation to be working on something different

I think every human alive, if they’re honest, has grappled with these. Sometimes we hear what we need to work on and take offense, or feel ashamed, or go down the spiral of self deprecation. Sometimes we hear it as judgement or an insult, instead of simply a pathway forward- Sometimes our expectation leads us to lose the teaching moment, and can take us a while to sort through emotionally.

As a student myself, I’ve struggled with all of these. Sometimes I’ve wanted to show my teacher my best, and they take me back to the basics or have me clean up a training mess I made. Sometimes I’ve heard truths that I needed to hear but didn’t enjoy hearing. There have been times where I’ve had to sort through the emotional aftermath of a learning situation.

I’ve learned that being willing to give up expectation for any and all of these has set me free to learn well, and much faster. Learning to be open to the moment and the feedback without taking any of it personally has been the greatest gift I have given myself.

As a teacher, I recognize these moments when they come up with students. I’m going to have to address what’s not working to give you a pathway forward. I’m going to occasionally burst your bubble, and it may lead you to an uncomfortable mental place. I can say all these things as caring as possible, I can give them in compliment sandwich format, I can make sure you know it is not a judgement, only a place that needs some cleaning up.

I can support and guide you, but the emotional work, the work of learning not to take feedback personally, of taking ownership of your expectation, of keeping an open mind, of working on emotional control, is entirely in your own hands.

03/19/2025

✨Next Training Openings✨:
👉🏼 May 1st-June 1st
👉🏼 August 1st-November 1st

03/19/2025

This probably sounds obvious, but people forget -

Weather changes can make horses spicier. Don’t expect your horses to be calm as normal. You might need a much longer warmup, a change of routine (maybe warmup before grooming), a buddy for support, or some creative rearrangement of your schooling.

Don’t get stuck in a routine.

Think, observe, adjust. Make it easy for the horse to succeed.

Life gets lifey- we need to be reading the situation and adjusting all the time.

03/19/2025

Bittersweet!🥰👏

03/19/2025

“Sign right there and I’m all yours”, says Phoenix❤️

Carol Ourant Deann Marie Danielle Snell

03/19/2025

Tying safely or teaching the horse to pull?

A lot of people fear hard tying for good reasons in many ways : an unprepared or overfaced horse can be badly hurt in a tying incident.

If you scroll the internet for too long, you’ll believe tying is a cruel relic of an outdated world. But let’s get out of emptional manipulation and back to reality: horses need to be hauled to vets and you might not have a stall to put them in. In fires and hurricanes and other disasters, you’ll often find horses tied to porches and boats and all kinds of odd things.

Tying is handy. Helpful. And essential.

So if you’re afraid of your horse getting hurt by tying, your best bet is to educate them to tie well.

One of the biggest mistakes many well meaning people make is to loosely tie, or tie to slip or blocker ties. As the horse moves, the line lengthens - this kind of defeats the purpose of tying for one, but it also teaches them to pull the line to get where they want to go. So imagine what will happen when or if they are hard tied and this slipping line doesn’t slip? This is when horses get hurt.

Beyond pulling back, there is a risk to stepping over or on the line, people getting wound up in it and more. And as it goes to our riding, do we really want to teach the horse to pull with their neck to get slack?

This doesn’t mean we confine them or restrain them or hold them - it means we educate them, which requires nuance, it requires vigilance, it requires a sharp eye to detail.

It’s much easier to just say black and white nonsense like tying is bad, than to actually learn to use feel to educate.

Pictured is a young stallion who knows how to tie well. His line is just placed here, not tied - but he is as good as tied, because he never learned to pull the lead and wander around. His feet are where the line is - which is what it requires to tie safely.

03/18/2025

I don’t know whose sunglasses these were in my saddlebag but thank you!😂

03/17/2025

I ran a lesson program years ago, and got really burned out. My horses did too.

I did a lot of things wrong and I am trying to learn from those now -

A big part of what went wrong was not controlling the general attitude people took to riding and horses. The horses became a vehicle for people, or a tool, and as tools are used, they become used up. As horses respond to the poor feel they are offered, students describe these objections as the horses personality - “hes so stubborn, so ornery!” And so on - and this is how the cycle of poor feel, over aiding, and handling horses like a rock deepens, and continues.

Of course there will always be some “taking from” a horse we all do when learning how to post, how to steer, or how to manage problem solving issues. Mistakes will be made, horses will be bumped, thumped or accidentally pulled.

But the attitude makes up for a lot I believe. If the school insists on the general spirit being not just riding but riding even the school horse with feel, Handling the gentle horse with respect and tact, assuming nothing about their tolerance and being fair and smooth in our handling, that goes a very very long way.

Horsemanship is the art of managing the horse: from haltering to picking hooves to feeding to good riding - not just to get those tasks done, but to get them done in a way that can make a horse feel safe, feel good, feel honored. And even if an amateur makes mistakes here, the intention matters.

Slow down, pay attention, do all things with care and respect. Acknowledge your mistakes but don’t beat yourself up about them. Acknowledge when you get something right, you’ve made a horse feel better, move better, live better. That’s something to be proud of, and take back into the world away from the school.

That’s what riding schools should be teaching - and I believe if we could manage that, if we could insist on that, school horses and instructors both would last a lot longer.

Pictured is Tressa Boulden from Traditions Farm Classical Dressage explaining how to guide the horse with the whole body

03/15/2025

✨Mocha and Drifa are back!✨

03/15/2025

Be sure to come checkout The Horseman’s Mission this year!😍

03/15/2025

✨Two Equines arrive to KEH today!✨
Both have been in training before, can you guess who they are?😉
(One is white🤪)

03/14/2025

✨What a beautiful day teaching lessons and training horses!✨

03/14/2025

👇👏👇👏

𝗕𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 ‘𝗛𝗲 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗕𝗲 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗲’ 𝗜𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗘𝗻𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵

The first summer I took in client horses, I had a 2-year-old stud c**t in for training—one his owners hoped would be their next stud prospect.

Within the first week of his arrival, we got a fair bit of rain. The round pen I was using at the time (before I had my nice Great Oak Equine round pen set up in its permanent spot) was a little slick when things got wet. And I wasn’t about to have this young, athletic c**t slip and hurt himself.

So, I let the owners know that we’d pick back up in a few days once things dried up a bit.

𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗲?

"𝗢𝗵, 𝘄𝗲’𝘃𝗲 𝗱𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗲𝗻𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗵𝗶𝗺—𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗴𝗼 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗮𝘀𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝗼𝗻!"

Ahh… 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗿’𝘀 𝗳𝗮𝘃𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲. 🤦🏽‍♀️

✅ "The groundwork’s been done. You just have to get on."
✅ "He’s been saddled in the pen & led around. He should be fine."

Well, if you say so, he must be good to go… 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁?
..𝗔𝗯𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝗻𝗼𝘁.

Could I have done it? 𝗪𝗲𝗹𝗹, 𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲. You can do just about anything once. 😉

Could it have gone smoothly? 𝗠𝗮𝘆𝗯𝗲. And trust me—for both of our sakes... 𝗵𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗳𝘂𝗹𝗹𝘆! But the odds probably wouldn't have been in our favor.

Was I going to take that gamble? Not a chance.

𝗕𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗹𝗲𝗴 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗮 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗴 𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘀𝗲 𝗜 𝗯𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝗸𝗻𝗲𝘄, 𝗶𝗻 𝗮𝗻 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗻 𝗽𝗮𝘀𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲, 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗱𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗿 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻?

That’s not training. 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗵𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝘀𝘁.

And 𝗜 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗴𝗮𝗺𝗯𝗹𝗲 when it comes to these 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗴 𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘀𝗲𝘀’ 𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗲𝘀.

Are there people out there who can get that done in that situation? 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗯𝗲𝘁. And I tip my hat to them.

But that’s not me.
𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗺𝘆 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗺.

At 𝗟𝗡𝗛, every horse goes through 𝗺𝘆 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗺 for a reason. 𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗲𝘅𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝗮 𝗽𝘂𝗿𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗲.

✔️ 𝗜 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺.
✔️ 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗺𝗲.
✔️ 𝗪𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗲 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗲.

Because when it comes to starting young horses, 𝗹𝘂𝗰𝗸 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗻𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗯𝗲 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻.

𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂’𝗿𝗲 𝗵𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘁’𝗹𝗹 𝗴𝗼 𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗹, 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗮𝗯𝗹𝘆 𝗱𝗶𝗱𝗻’𝘁 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗲𝗻𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵.

03/14/2025

Ignore my post from this morning, this boy is SOLD!❤️ Excited to announce Phoenix found his new home and he gets to stay in my barn!😍 congratulations Carol Ourant!🎉

03/14/2025

I cannot express enough how much I have loved working with Phoenix! This sweet boy deserves the world❤️ he tries hard, he’s chill, those cute little ears are almost always forward, and he’s so personable! Not scared of much (only a park bench that doesn’t move got to him yesterday 😂). If you are interested in giving this little man a new home send a message!