Outside the Turn

07/04/2025

I won’t lie. There’s days when I struggle. I may feel overwhelmed with everything I have to do that day. I may feel like I have more to do than what I can handle.

But if life has taught me anything, it’s that when I get into the thick of it, I’m happy to be there until I’m done riding through the string that day.

If you ever feel overwhelmed trust me when I tell you that sometimes it’s as simple as taking the first step.

What actions can you take to motivate yourself?

06/04/2025

Sunday morning musings:

It takes the time it takes.

Whether it’s developing your muscle memory on the pattern, or developing the foundation on a young horse - it takes the time it takes.

The time it takes to get that first ride, or the first barrel nailed down will vary based on the horse, the skills of the human, the time that can be devoted to learning the muscle memory.

If it was easy, every one would do it and be good from the start.

You can’t be hard on yourself if you’re not winning every weekend.

Remember friends, this is supposed to be fun. You’re paying money to have fun with your horse, so be sure to enjoy it, or find something else to do with your time and your money that brings you joy.

And never forget, it takes the time it takes.

04/04/2025

Come along for the ride as we get Fireball ready for my very first Barrel Futurities of America in November!

02/04/2025

Remember this: we are all a work in progress.

The best horsemen in the world ride with (and call) the best horseman in the world because iron sharpens iron.

We should be constantly striving to improve our communication, our strength, and our timing.

I don’t ride the same today as I did 3 weeks ago. I sure don’t ride the same today as I did 6 months ago. I’m riding better, learning more, attempting to become more subtle.

What do you feel like you have improved in your riding?

What are things you’re still looking to improve?

01/04/2025

Training tip Tuesday:

DO ALL THE MAINTENANCE.

It’s spring and our season is coming at us full steam ahead! As I head to a barrel racing slack this morning I wanted to touch on the things I do each and every year before I get going down the road!

1. Do the maintenance on your rig - check your lights your brakes, have your bearings packed. Check your tires for signs of dry rot or strange wear patterns. Check your trailer floor for signs of holes or wear and tear.

2. Have your horse seen by a qualified performance horse vet. Have a full lameness work up done. Get their teeth checked. Float and Inject if necessary.

3. Maintain yourself. Yes, you. Eat healthy, take time for the yoga class, ( wellness ) workout with your friends, or hire a trainer (megan walker) to become as strong as you can be. Your back and your horses with thank you!

31/03/2025

If it’s a priority to you, you’ll make time for it.

If it’s not, you won’t find time for it.

While riding horses, and training people is my life, I still have to prioritize my own health, my own horses, my own family.

If we want it bad enough we will find a way.

How bad do you want it?

26/03/2025

I teach and preach all of this at my clinics. Tie downs are a bandaid. They do not fix poor body positioning long term.

You fix movement from the horse by teaching proper movement under saddle: truly teaching collection, which leads to a round back, impulsion, and a framed up horse that is handy as heck.

🔥 Hot Take Tuesday 🔥
How your Exercise Program is creating more problems for your horse😮

Hey you! Yes, you! 🫵🏼
How would you like to save some money on vet bills and build a stronger horse? Wouldn't it be nice to not need your bodyworker or chiropractor every time you pull into a race? The answer to saving money does involve some commitment from you as the horse owner.
I always ask people what their fitness program is with their horse and most times I'm met with:

Wait for it.. *long pause* "Uhhh.... I try to ride a couple of times a week and I get on and long trot a mile (or 3)... Or I just put him in the round pen for 20 minutes... Or I pony him... Or I put him on the walker.... Or we just work a lot of circles… Or I just pull him out of the field and we go make a run…"

You cannot just ride twice a week and expect your horse to go to a race, a three day event, or even a week long race and have good performance. Just like you can't ride twice a week and expect your horse to be able to long trot a mile and hold a frame. Most barrel horses I see don't have enough core and hip engagement to stay collected for 10 feet, let alone a mile. But your horse is an honest worker so you ask for a mile, they’re going to give you a mile... their body will naturally figure out a compensation pattern that will allow them to do what your are asking, but it's not without consequence. This is where we start to see the body overbuilding muscle around the scapula, shoulder, withers, and poll. Their head carriage will gradually start to get higher, their pelvis will start to flatten and tip forward, and their back will start to hollow out.... Why does this matter?

➡️ Hollow backs let the Spinous processes (top) of the vertebrae "kiss" (touch), which over time of them hitting causes damage and pain... commonly known as Kissing Spine. It's also nearly impossible to find a saddle that correctly fits a hollowed back. Then add the weight of a rider and you have back pain that radiates through the entire body causing poor performance, alley issues, anxiety, ulcers... You name it.

➡️ Those high headsets are an issue too. Everyone wants the magic fix of the newest miracle bit, tie down or head setter... Those shortcuts work for awhile, but then they cause their own compensation patterns and soreness, so then you have to look for the next thing and the next thing until eventually you end up with a sour horse that no longer wants to work. High heads cause issues with TMJ, dental alignment, eyesight, and poll alignment which quickly makes for an unmanageable horse. If your trained horse starts pushing on your bridle... That is probably a Pain Response to a weak area.

➡️ Lastly, let's talk about pelvic alignment... Your horse is like your old faithful rear wheel drive truck... You know, the one that can get you through any terrain safely... Let's say you're in old faithful on ice or wet roads, but your tires are bald. What happens when you stomp the gas? The rear end slides out from under you and maybe it's bad enough you can't keep control of the front end either. Have you ever asked your horse to turn and felt his rear end lose power or slip out from under you? That poor sacrum and pelvic alignment. You can use a chiropractor as much as you want, but adjustments will not hold if muscles are atrophied or too tight or if you continue to train with incorrect fitness. The compensation patterns in the muscle will start to pull on the hind legs and put strain on the hocks, stifles, SIs until you are having to inject everything on the horse to control pain.

When the pelvis starts to dip forward, you will see a shorter stride, less power in the turns, unable to push off the hind end, higher tail set, balancing with the tail, lumbar pain, and pain radiating up to the front end. When you have long periods of hind end weakness, we start to see soft tissue injuries happen on the front legs from overloading them with extra weight.

💥 Here's the big takeaway from this....💥CORRECT FITNESS AND CONDITIONING PREVENTS INJURY AND SORENESS. Incorrect movement and compensation patterns cause unnecessary problems that will drain your checkbook. Do you want to improve performance and prevent vet bills? Then study correct fitness, set a realistic goal, and be consistent about it. Discipline yourself.... Is entering that barrel race unprepared worth hurting your horse? If your answer is Yes, your equine partner deserves more respect that what they're receiving from you.

25/03/2025

Training Tip Tuesday:

The resistance that a human is feeling in the horse (and often attributes to the horse) is merely a function of the human’s need to better communicate.

It has been said by me on more than one occasion and in more than one setting, “be ahead of the horse.”

That can mean multiple things depending upon the circumstance. But the main takeaway is, “improve your communication”.

As an example: if I need to move the right front foot, I need to be “feeling” for that foot before I’m ready to move it. Before it lands. Once it’s landed and is on the ground, I was late. And if I pull harder to get that foot off the ground and doing what I ask, well, I’m putting a brace and “resistance” in the horse.

It’s why a trainer with good timing and feel, can get a ton accomplished on a c**t that the owner may struggle to communicate with— their communication is good. This they’re, “ahead of the horse”.

This week when you ride, think about how you can be “ahead” and how you can improve your communication to help your horse stay soft and responsive.

24/03/2025

Are you growing or sitting still?

No one said it would be easy or comfortable.

No one said it will be painless.

What I will tell you is that it is absolutely worth it.

23/03/2025

Sunday Morning Musings:

The horse seeks out and finds comfort in consistency.

A horse can also learn to suffer through pressure in the search for consistency.

This is one of the reasons people think that tie downs are an answer. A tie down is 100% consistent, 100% of the time.

The horse however, doesn’t need a tie down for consistency. What they really need is a clear release for a try, or for when they do what we ask, or for even what they think the ask is. The horse is never wrong. It’s that simple.

They can only do one of two things at any given time:

What they think we want them to do or what they think they need to do to defend themselves.

That’s it. That’s their choices.

This week as you go forth and ride, think about how you can and should offer consistency to your horse. As always I’m happy to help however I can in your journey to become the best you can be for your horse.

19/03/2025

How to develop a solid seat! This is from my “ask me anything” series I’m doing today!

19/03/2025

When I asked Chat GPT to write about who I am and what I do, the results were kind funny.

I prompted it with, “pretend you’re my drunk bestie and tell me who I am, and what I do for people…”

Here is the response -

Ohhh Jenn!!! Girl, you’re out here changing the game!! You know what you’re doing? You’re out here giving people the freedom to live their best life on their own terms! Like, you literally help people get out of their heads, find their flow, and embrace the adventure of barrel racing! You’re not just a business owner; you’re a movement maker, babe!
Your energy is infectious. You’re creating experiences where people are breaking free, living fully, and taking chances. Every ride you guide, every clinic you throw—it’s like you're helping people reconnect with themselves, break through their limits, and feel alive in the most real way.
You bring value by giving folks the space to not just ride, but to transform. You get people to trust themselves, to explore the world with excitement, and to face their fears while having the best time ever. You make growth feel like a party, and honestly, the world is better because of your vibe.

Your business? It's literally a freedom machine, Jenn. You're changing lives, one ride at a time!! Keep doing you, queen!

18/03/2025

Training Tip Tuesday:

You can, and should, always strive to improve…

Every horse will meet every person where the person is at. You may find, in some unique circumstances, like the c**t starting competition that we heard about (and that my other half got to watch last weekend) — the c**ts have innate characteristics that help them fill in for the human, but *all* they can do is fill in to get to where you're at. They can't take you somewhere else, somewhere beyond.

As long as you're in the frame of mind where you're going to continue to improve your mental ability, your awareness, your presentation, your physical ability — you and your horse can continue to raise the bar of performance, but any place that you don't continue to develop, you're just going to solidify where you're at now.

You can get rock solid, 100% consistent where you're at, but if that's not where you aspire to be, it's incumbent upon you to improve so that your horse can come with you. OR, so that you can buy a horse who has more abilities. The horse is still gonna come back to where you're at. You can buy a 1D horse and only have the capacity — whether it's time, life, skill or experience — to be a 2D rider and you're going to have a 2D horse. You may make a 1D run a few times if the horse has been that well coached or brought along, but invariably the horse is going to come to the level that the rider presents to it.

The an analogy we use here on the ranch is this: our going horses need their pencils sharpened, so that when a guest comes they can have an enjoyable ride on our horse, Dozer. But just like a pencil, that same guest, riding Dozer every day for three months, would have him writing with fatter lines, not being able to do the intricate detail — unless — the rider was interested in and getting guidance on developing their ability to sharpen that pencil.

Riding is the same as anything else. Basketball players don’t get to a level and say, “that’s good enough!” They keep drilling, keep working, keep learning, keep improving. They know the ball can only do what their skills are able to have the ball do.

This week, when you’re riding, ask yourself, “what can I do to improve? Who can I ride with? Where can I make the most improvement?” I assure you, doing this will result in better communication with your horse.

17/03/2025

Monday Motivation:

We’ve all done it- made excuses for what we can’t do, or if you’re me, you often throw road blocks in your own path.

When we choose to start finding solutions and ways to “say yes” to the life and the things we want, we will be happier and more fulfilled.

I’m not saying all your dreams will come true if you stop making excuses, but they’re not going to have any chance at all if you mire yourself in them.

Find a way to say yes, even if it’s only piece by piece.

11/03/2025

While we are on the topic….

11/03/2025

Training Tip Tuesday...Oh Headstall!!!!!

Split ear.
One Ear.
Two ear.
Brow Band.
Belt Style.
Nylon.
Leather.

So how do you know what you should choose for yourself? Is it pretty? Does it fit? Does it match your saddle? Eh, maybe that's why it's chosen, but did you know it actually matters what style you use?

Hi, it's me. I'm back again with an unpopular opinion... Yes, your headstall choice matters and should be dependent upon the bit you're using on your horse.

Stay with me, friends, stay here...it's about balance.

The purpose of a headstall is to keep the bit balanced in your horse's mouth, as well as provide good fit and feel to your horse. That alone should be the primary reason you choose the headstall you ride with.

I have VERY few one-ear, or split-ear headstalls in my collection. Why? Well, because I primarily ride in ring snaffles. The nature of how a snaffle works is on direct rein pressure. And to insure it works to provide the best feel and signal to my horse, it should be on a brow-band headstall. And it should be on one of good quality, heavier weight leather, not nylon. Nylon tends to move, stretch and otherwise has very little feel. Good leather on the other hand is less likely to move or allow the bit to be pulled thorough the horse's mouth.

10/03/2025

Do it today.
Don’t wait until tomorrow.

Make. It. Happen!

Skip the coffee shop. Pocket what you’d have spent.

Skip the lunch with the office.
Pocket what you’d have spent.

Dream the dream, visualize it happening, make the plan, stick to it.

Everyday is an opportunity.