Eventing Naturally

07/28/2024

Milou is a fabulous 3yo!Her personality and attitude is stellar and she will make the perfect partner for any discipline!

07/22/2023

Eventing Naturally has 2 spots available for summer training! Youngsters needing a foundation, going horses needing further training, made horses needing conditioning/tweaking or any horse needing problem solving - come on over! We get up at the crack of dawn or when the sun goes down to beat the heat! If temperatures are too hot for you or you are too busy with your job, we can help!

Horses get fed T & A, high fat pellets and soaked beet pulp and alfafa. We specialize in natural horsemanship for a great connection and can improve skills in dressage, jumping, cross country, trail riding or any negative attitudes or problems (trailer loading, catching etc). Message here for more information! Have your horse ready for the fall :)

03/18/2023

Awesome galloping today with Lee and Babe and Rhapsody! Lee's stirrup broke mid-run but she rigged it right back on! Lee is visiting from Croatia and is a super horsewoman!

02/27/2023

Working student program in full force! Karen, Emma and Lee (from Croatia!) practicing groundwork with Sheldon, Rhapsody and Casanova.

11/01/2022

11/01/2022

Do Short Cuts Work?

Draw reins are used to counteract the startle response by forcing the horse into the opposite shape. The horse, being a fight or flight creature responds either by pushing against the pull of the draw reins, developing the wrong muscles or by escaping behind the bit by overbending.

By using draw reins you are in fact teaching the horse to evade. Ironically, by forcing the horse into a "desirable" outline you are creating even more problems for yourself.

Look at any symptomatic approach for example taking a sleeping tablet for insomnia. Does it cure insomnia - does it remove the source of anxiety? These approaches may cover up the symptoms but they do not get to the route of the problem.

Draw reins, far from being aids to training are restrictive and potentially harmful instruments that create pain and tension. They may cause or exacerbate a variety of undesirable conditions, ranging from headaches to breathing difficulties and lameness.

The pull of the draw reins cause excessive flexion to the vertebrae of the poll and upper neck. The resulting pressure on the brain could worsen any existing weakness of the spine. It causes tightening of the lower ribs and tension in the back muscles and the disturbance of the nerve supply to the front legs could easily cause lameness of the front limbs.

The most saddening and disappointing effects of such gadgets including tight side reins, is that they make it more difficult for the horses' back to raise into flexion, so the hind legs struggle to step under. And what effect does this have on the horse's spirit and well-being?

By trapping horses in at the front, you distort the way they use their quarters. If a horse cannot work freely, his engine is choked up, his timing out, he is literally "backfiring".

De La Gueriniere said: "Suppleness and lack of constraint are the prerequisites for voluntarily offered obedience, not for agonised subjection of the horse being ridden."

Extract from Riding Success without Stress p38, 39
Joni Bentley

10/18/2022

We are taking applications for a working student! This position will focus on Natural Horsemanship & Eventing, although the NH skills you will learn and use will benefit ANY and EVERY horse! For the rider already going or competing you can learn to be softer and lighter, solve any problem and build a super relationship with your horse. For the rider already in NH, you will be able to politely push you and your horse to higher goals whether it be to compete or to work up through the levels of NH.

Please inquire for details and references if needed. This is not a paid position. We have had students come from all over the world to study with us and embark on a unique life changing journey!
Aiken, SC
[email protected]

07/15/2022

She is three months already! Einaudi :)

05/19/2022

Sweet baby Einaudi with her tiny shoe to help straighten her leg a bit more 💕

05/13/2022

"Last year, a two-year-old c**t finished dead last in his first race. Disappointed, his owners placed him in a “claiming” race where anyone could take the ownership for a fee. An older man purchased the c**t after missing the chance to claim another horse he wanted. He said it was his last attempt to find some success in the racing industry.

The c**t won by 17 lengths, and his new owner was encouraged. But, in the races that followed, he finished third twice, fourth once, and fifth once. His owner, however, still believed in him.

2022 was the c**t's only chance to race in major thoroughbred races, which are limited to three-year-olds. The day before the Kentucky Derby, the field of horses was already full, but then, at the last moment, a famous trainer scratched (withdrew) his horse. The c**t took that place in a field of twenty horses, just 30 seconds before the entry deadline. Suddenly, he was in the game. He had a chance.

All the metrics and predictors were against him. Neither his owner, his trainer, nor his jockey had ever been associated with any horse in the Kentucky Derby. His jockey had never even won a major event. They were decidedly outsiders and newbies in an extremely elite arena. On the morning of the race, his odds of winning were set at 80 to 1, the second longest odds in Derby history.

Halfway around the track, the c**t was 16 horses back from the lead. He couldn’t even be seen in the field of view of the drone camera flying above the race. He was a nobody, a throw-away, an inconsequential participant.

But then, he made his move.

He began working his way through the crowded pack, finding a few narrow, fleeting opportunities to improve his position. As they headed toward the finish line, he had miraculously moved up to fifth, then fourth, but still, no one had noticed him. Everyone’s attention was firmly focused on the battle between the two famous front-runners.

Only seconds before the finish, he suddenly, almost magically passed the two front-runners. The announcer struggled to identify him and say his name in time. He said, almost in a single breath, “Rich Strike is coming up on the inside ... Oh my goodness! The longest shot has won the Kentucky Derby!”

Where there is life, there is hope.
Anything is possible.
Don’t let anyone count you out.
Persistence and determination beat the odds."

H/T Cyd Cowgill

***************************************

Y’all wanna teach your kids a life lesson in 2 minutes? Show them the replay to the Kentucky Derby Race.

1. Not the best starting position
2. Not the biggest or best horse
3. Only made it into the race on account of another horse having to scratch
4. $30,000 horse against multi million dollar horses

It ain’t always about having the best of everything or being the biggest and favored. It’s about the size of heart and dedication to win and excel in everything you do!

Well done Rich Strike

05/12/2022

This post is 4 years old, but I’m posting it again because the subject came up in a recent discussion.
___________________________

I read somewhere that if a horse bucks when it is saddled for the first time it’s due to poor preparation. This got me thinking.

As a kid, I was lucky because I was very active and pretty good at most sports I tried. I have always had above average hand-eye coordination. I was quick on my feet and had really good reflexes. I was good a soccer player, runner, body surfer, and rider and I could box a bit. But I had a friend whose parents had emigrated from Iran when the Shah came to power. Bobby’s dad had a dream that Bobby would one day play soccer for Australia. If hopes had the power to make things come true Bobby would have captained Australia at the World Cup – and won! But Bobby was tragically uncoordinated. When he threw a ball it was anyone’s guess which direction it might go – even sometimes behind him. Bobby could do a lot of things really well, but he was never born to play soccer at an elite level. Bobby’s father was heartbroken.

I lost contact with Bobby after high school, but I sometimes think of him. I was thinking of him a few days ago when I wrote the post about horses that buck when they are saddle virgins. Thinking about Bobby has me asking the question, are all things meant to be possible?

If we accept that every living thing has limitations, then it is not hard to accept that Bobby would never play professional soccer or that I will never discover the mathematical solution to the unifying theory, or that my horse will never score 10s in a dressage test. No matter what our dreams maybe not everything is possible. Contentment is only thinkable when we keep our ambitions or dreams within our limitations.

Now I come to the question that I’ve been pondering for a very long time.

Is every horse meant to be a riding horse (or carriage horse or companion horse of any kind)?

We train and ride horses because historically they presented a very useful form of transport and work vehicle and war machine. Civilization owes a huge debt to the horse. But this was only possible because of their trainability. We chose horses over almost every other species because they had the most appropriate features of any. But does that mean that every horse fits into that mold?

I come across videos, articles, books, and blogs that preach over and over that how a horse responds to training is the human’s total responsibility. I very much agree with this notion. I think our own limitations as trainers projects onto the horses and the outcome is all on us. So given that we all have significant limitations in our understanding of horses and our ability to communicate with them on their level, are there some horses we are never meant to ride?

In the course of the thousands of horses I have crossed paths with in my life I have certainly come across horses that were more difficult than others to work with. Among those I can recall, two horses (bred from the same sire) that I did start, but which I felt should never have been under saddle. They were both unpredictable and went through a few years of hell being passed from trainer to trainer looking for a solution. Eventually, the owner gave up and had them euthanized. With all the soul-searching that I did, the only explanation I concluded was that the horses were never meant to be riding horses. I can never be sure, but it seems to be the closest fit to explain their response to human interaction.

I realize it goes against the grain a little to think not every horse is destined to be a suitable riding mount. It seems unfathomable to think that a horse is not rideable. We grow up believing that surely if a horse had the correct handling they would all make good riding horses. But when you consider how foreign it is to the nature of a horse to do the things we want to do with them and the practices we use to house, tame, and educate them, it does not seem so far-fetched to me that there are some horses that are not born with the “right stuff” to fit into the mould we insist they do. The idea of trying to fit a square peg into a round hole comes to mind.

Photo: Not every horse is meant to be a riding horse. Some are meant to be beach bums.

04/27/2022

Einaudi Eventing day two! 2.5 weeks old 💕

04/26/2022

Einaudi - 2.5wks old! The making of an Eventer 💕 Tape on leg to help strengthen and straighten!

04/12/2022

Tremolo and Einaudi

04/11/2022

Sweet Einaudi 3 days old 💕

04/08/2022

Welcome to the world Einaudi 💕 my new little girl! A full sister to my Tremolo ☺️

04/06/2022

My sweet Rhapsody will be having her foal any day now! It will be a full brother or sister to my boy Tremolo. I am beyond excited! Thanks to Anita and Carol for helping me prep her foaling area before the storm ☺️

02/15/2022

Sonora and Her Diving Horse. Calgary Stampede 1925 - The horse dived about 50 feet into a tank of water about 10 feet deep and Miss Carver stayed on the horse during all of the jump. She lost her eyesight in 1931 when her horse landed badly, but by 1932 was again diving horses. She retired in 1942 and died in 2003 at the age of 99.

01/29/2022

09/10/2021

08/21/2021

Hurricayne is still for sale! Reg KWPN, 16.3hh, 10yo.
This is an amazing horse! He's fun, very athletic, a phenomenal mover and incredibly scopey over fences. He has big, strong, beautiful gaits and always scores in the low 30's (will improve with continued training). He has wonderful lateral movements, easy lead changes and smooth transitions. His sister is Bella Rose, ridden by German rider, Isabel Wurth and they have won WEG and the Olympic games. Cayne could absolutely excel in Dressage alone.
Cayne has been competing Novice and is very scopey over fences. He is nimble, quick and bold. On XC water, ditches and banks are no problem. He's ready for training with a bit more fitness. Cayne is great alone or in a group on trails, loads easily and is great for the farrier.
His only issue is that he cribs (managed with collar) and he has OCD in right hock. Vet said ok to leave unless issues or to go ahead and remove. So far, no problems have been seen. Both of these issues resulted in dropping of price from 25k to 18k. Wagener, SC

Reg KWPN yo HH Liver Chestnut gelding 'Hurrcayne'

08/19/2021