Outside the Turn

19/01/2025

Sunday morning musings…

Here are my thoughts this week, based on a discussion that was had earlier in the week in a cow horse group I’m part of.

Were it not for a barely double digits that day, I’d have likely missed this discussion - about internships and why they seem to be hard to get in the horse industry.

The poster was opining about how you had to be a slave to make it in this industry. That they were begging for opportunity and couldn’t find one. And, while I don’t disagree that this industry can be hard, and that there are those who use help this way (as slaves), there are plenty more that don’t. And opportunity, well, often, it’s actual work.

Interestingly enough, countless people are willing to pay for college, and work a part-time, or even full-time job, while they go to school.

Yet, for some reason in the horse industry, people think they should be paid to learn. I’ve heard time and again from people, that they can’t afford an unpaid internship.

If the job is simply cleaning stalls , that’s one thing. But to come into a program and expect to make a livable wage, well guys, that’s not reality.

You’ll need to learn how the trainer wants horses led, saddled, unsaddled, how they prefer to tie up and store their cinches, how they tie their horses, how the feed program works. And that’s just to start.

The underlying theme from the trainers is that most folks don’t want to work hard, so lots of trainers struggle to accept interns because it’s kind of a revolving door anymore.

I don’t have the answers, but I do accept interns.
I don’t pay them with dollars.
I pay them with knowledge, with my time, and try to shortcut for them some hard learned lessons.

That said, it’s still work. It’s still hard. But it’ll be worth it. Nothing in this life worth having is ever truly free.

Smile and ride!

17/01/2025

The Friday Five!

If you’re new around here, I’ll clue you in on a little secret: on Fridays we list five things we are grateful for!

This week:

1. Amazing clinic students!
2. Surprise emails!
3. A couple DANG GOOD assistants here at the ranch.
4. Winter temps in SD , that force me to SLOW down.
5. An endless supply of teachers (the horses of course)!

Now, it’s your turn!

What are you grateful for this week?

10/01/2025

Your Friday Five!

I’m hoping to make this a weekly gratitude practice that we can all participate in - because we know practicing gratitude is good for our souls.

If you didn’t know that? Well, now you do. ❤️

So, let’s focus for a few moments on 5 things that went well this week, 5 things we are thankful for, or 5 things we are looking forward to!

1. A warm house. It is winter in South Dakota after all!
2. My health and my ability to ride, move, and nurture my body.
3. A herd of handy, talented horses both those I’m already riding and the up and comers.
4. A supportive partner.
5. Good help! These girls here working with me busted their tails this week!

And the bonus for me: a SOLD OUT clinic in Sheridan Wyoming this weekend.

Now, it’s your turn. Tell me, what five things are you grateful for?

08/01/2025

A good reminder if you’re trying to vein your horses!

You may wonder why we pull back into the syringe when giving injections in the vein. This picture explains why. We don't pull back to make sure we're in the vessel, we do it to make sure we're in the RIGHT vessel. Today I went to give an injection and pulled back and saw blood brighter than I wanted. I decided to go and get a new dose of sedation and once again pulled back and then gave my dose of sedation. The syringe on the left was my first injection and the syringe on the right was my second injection. Does anyone know why I shouldn't have injected that first syringe? And had I injected that first injection, what would have happened?

06/01/2025

Here is your Monday Mindset:

Treat the horse like you want them to be: like they are inherently good and aim to please.

Because they are and they do.

If you treat them like they’re naughty, or sticky footed, or bad, or what have you, you’ll manifest that. And then you’ll put something into them that’s likely not there in the first place.

Do not treat your horse as if they’re out to get you, out to do things due to spite. They cannot think or reason in this way. When you do that — you bring a negative energy to the table that’s absolutely off-putting to the horse and anyone around you.

These are just my observations as someone who has been at building foundations in horses for almost 30 years.

Now, go smile, ride, rub your horses, and always reward the try.
❤️❤️❤️❤️

05/01/2025

Sunday Morning Musings:
It is time to plan for the 2026 futurity season, which means we start now!

Did you know that because the season begins 11/25/25, that some of your payments/nomination fees start as early as January?

Be sure not to miss them! If you want to enter the BFA - that payment is due 1/15/25!

This is the time of year to be making a list of the places you plan to enter your 4/5yo in 2026!

That’s what I’m doing this week!

Now, I’m not the expert on this: I’ve spent a lot of my life riding c**ts, rodeoing, and only entering barrel races, along with derby side-pots, because for many years it took me too long to get them prepared to be entered as 5yos.

But as I’ve improved, I have gotten to where we now have a slew of upcoming c**ts that will be ready to enter by their 5yo year.

My 2026/2027s are only Colorado classic and Legendary Stakes but the younger ones are paid into a lot more!

I've found that Hot Barrel Horses calendar is completely worth the $25 annual fee - and that's been my jumping off point!

What are your favorite futurities? And why? Or do you even have futurity c**ts? What goals do you have set for yourself or your horses in 2025?

The Photo is of En Ferno 75 (Felong) one of our upcoming 2028 futurity c**ts.

04/01/2025

2025 is a year of setting goals for me.

I haven’t set them publicly in years. Heck I’ve barely set them at all, other than to enter and try to do right by my horses and be a little better each day.

This year, we are setting them. Setting for the year, and planning tasks to accomplish them!

Today, we nominated Bet Shesa Lady (Fireball) to the 2025 Barrel Futurities of America.

Watch out world, this pretty roan mare from Perry Quarter Horses is comin' in HOT!

This will be a first for me! What is a first for you in 2025?

01/01/2025

Drop them here!!!!
⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️
2025 goals!

I’m going first!

Entering my VERY FIRST BFA on my 4 yo — As a 4yo for her 2026 season!
And I will have my 5yo off track Big Lew Daughter placing in the 2D by the end of the year!

And I'm going to lose 20 lbs.

Photos of said superstars!

Roan is the 4yo!
brown mare is the Big Lew Daughter!

Your turn!

01/01/2025

[From 2020]
"Turning a horse out until its third birthday and then beginning race training will adapt the skeleton to turnout for a year, but not to training or racing. The bone modeling system will largely atrophy. The horse is then introduced to training and will have to recreate the vascular supply and cell population devoted to remodeling. By contrast, the horse who trained at two only had to repurpose the vasculature and cells already present for growth.

This can be complicated by the fact that the heart and lungs, which are oft-used indicators of a horse’s fitness, don’t respond to training exactly the same way as bone. Horses have such relatively large heart and lungs that they respond faster than the skeleton to training, especially when a previously sedentary horse begins training. Dr. Larry Bramlage believes the horse who went through a year of turnout and began training at three is at greater risk of skeletal injury down the road because its skeleton may be less able to keep up the pace. Thanks to heart and lung conditioning, the rested horse may appear to be getting fit just as quickly (or even moreso) than his stablemate who trained at two, which could fool a trainer into increasing his workload too quickly for the skeleton.

The data bears this out. Year after year, the Equine Injury Database has shown that 2-year-old runners had a significantly lower fatality rate than 3- and 4-year-olds. Preliminary data released earlier this year showed that older horses who had raced as 2-year-olds had a decreased risk of career-ending injury to those who had not."

https://bit.ly/4iVCrVP

29/12/2024

As I sit and muse on this last Sunday of 2024, I can’t help but think of all the lessons I learned I learned this year from clinics, from the internets and more… So here we go!

1. People are going to judge you and your choices. Their judgement of you and your choices is a reflection on them, not of you. Remember this.

2. You don’t owe anyone an explanation. Your choices are your choices. I’ll use myself as an example - recently I posted a photo of how I chop ice in the winter, and was rudely condemned for trying to run a “summer set up” in the winter and told that Canadians do it better and that I was dumb. This commenter judging me, isn’t a reflection on me and my choices, it’s a reflection of her.

3. Who you hang out with matters. If you’re surrounded by negative, be down on other people-kinda-people, you won’t get where you want to go. That said, you do need people in your life who are honest with you about your ability, the ability of your horses, or whatever other goals you’re setting for yourself and you need to know that there’s no such thing as an overnight, success. Find the winners, the ones who practice gratitude, the ones who find the good in the worst situations, and who find the little wins every day.

This one can be hard, because it may mean, finding ways to remove yourself from toxic people. However, it’s only as hard as we make it. So tell yourself it’s for the good of your mental health, and goals and well being. That it will be easy to make better choices.

4. Work Hard. Stay Humble. *And stop blaming your horse.* I see this one everyday, in every group - My horse does this. My horse does that. Well yeah, he’s going to do what you allow. He is a direct reflection of your skillset and ability. So until you commit to grow your skill set, make the sacrifices to skip the barrel race, attend a clinic, take some private lessons, pay for a membership, whatever you choose to improve your ability, you’re going to struggle. But the horse - is NEVER wrong.

When I see someone post in a group with a “problem”, I almost always ask several followup questions because rarely is an answer so cut and dry. Training horses isn’t linear, as much as many would like to believe. The sooner we wrap our head around getting good at enjoying the minutiae, the better off we will be. The sooner we realize the foundation is the best part of the whole thing and the strong that is, the ”pattern” is just the icing on the cake of our communication.

5. Let go of your ego. I worked real hard on this for a lot of years. the horse will humble you. Your ego is what rears its ugly head when someone gives you advice and instead of thinking critically about taking it you get defensive a somehow about it. It’s what makes you delete a comment, because you think someone was personally attacking you. It’s what gets you “offended”. let it go. Someone somewhere is always going to know more than you. Learn from them, watch them, be brave enough to ask them questions. Rest assured, the pros call other pros. I have a pretty deep rolodex of other pros I call if and when I need help with something.

6. THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE FUN. You’re likely not doing this for a living, so enjoy it. There’s plenty of other things you could spend your earned money on, to have fun. Any time you get on and off your horse of your own accord, you win. Anytime, you make a clean run, you win. Find the wins in all the things.

As we move into 2025, let’s make a list of goals for 2025, and share them below, along with an action plan to accomplish them so that we can make big things happen! Are you with me?

24/12/2024

Merry Christmas friends!

Our weather finds us in a thick fog today, but it’s warm and cozy inside.

I hope your holiday finds you surrounded with family, friends, and good horses.

Merry Christmas to you and your herd from me and mine! 🎄🎄🎄

23/12/2024

How will you work to make your dreams come true this week?

Life is all about choices. Adjusting to fit the situation, and you making adjustments to fit your goals.

If you’ve outgrown your current horse’s ability, then it’s time to find one that has more ability.

Do you need to develop more skill? Find the clinicians/mentors/instructors that will help you make the most of your opportunities.

Feel like you don’t have enough opportunities? Make them. Take the chance. Make the time.

Let’s make 2025 your best year yet!

22/12/2024

Sunday morning musings…

Invest in yourself first.

If 2024 has taught me anything it’s that’s too many people today want the quick fix, the easy way out, the overnight success.

First, there’s no such thing as an overnight success.

And there’s no such thing as a short cut or the easy way out.

You’ll either learn things with time or money, or through trial and error of the above: did you buy an expensive bit? Did it help or make it worse? Did you skip out on taking your horse to the vet? Did you skip the barrel race in lieu of the clinic?

Did you spend that $250 on a new fad, only to find out it didn’t help in the long run?

The BEST thing you can do for yourself and your horse is take the lesson. Go to the clinic. Pay for mentorship.

It won’t be easy.
It won’t be cheap.
But it will be better for you and your horse to invest in your knowledge base and take the time it takes.
There’s no quick fix. There’s simply not.

What did you learn in 2024?

21/12/2024

This is how we cardio in the winter here in South Dakota… yes there’s a tank heater. But this is a 900 gallon water tank.

Chopping ice is good exercise. 😂😂😂

If you don’t live in the frozen north and find yourself complaining about “the cold” be grateful it’s not “chop through 10 inches of ice cold!

16/12/2024

Are you going to chase your dreams or let life chase you?

15/12/2024

Sunday morning musings….

I saw a post recently where someone said they charged less for c**t starting because there is no detail work involved.

I about spit my coffee.

They said the detail work is in teaching the horse “the pattern”.

I'll also often hear people say, I need someone to put some "buttons" on my horse.

Full STOP.

The idea that “detail” work and “buttons” is more than c**t starting is asinine to me.

*C**t starting IS THE DETAILS.* It is THE foundation upon which your horse’s career will be begin.

I often charge $1500 or more for restarts because they’re a lot more work. In most of those cases the c**t starter either didn’t know or wasn’t concerned with “details”. This goes hand in hand with the idea that RIDEABLE doesn’t equal EDUCATED.

The foundation starts on THE GROUND, and is carried into the rides.

I will say again: rideable doesn't equate to educated.

Lots of gentle horses will let you put a leg on both sides, but they don't know how to move the parts of their body independently, they can't yield to the bit, they don't understand speed control from my seat, or how to shape up off my legs.

It takes a lot of time to go back and re-write that program - especially on horses with a year or more of poor education. Me putting Ninety days days on those horses is a drop in the bucket.

If your horse comes back from the trainer and isn’t soft and reaching for you, can’t sort out how to separate the parts of their body, the “detail” work was missed. Unless they’re absolutely dog gentle by nature, a dull, non-responsive horse isn’t safe.

NOW- let’s get something clear your horse isn’t a machine.

If you own a horse, you are also responsible for educating yourself.

Horses aren't machines, and we shouldn’t want them to be.

I am responsible for growing myself and my skill set to better communicate with the horse.

The horse will always ride better for the trainer — unless you the owner/rider will take the time to do the things necessary to help broaden your understanding and education and communication. That, friends, is a lifelong commitment.

So, next time you hear, “it’s just c**t starting”, remember it is more than that. If the details like softness, roundness, correctness, thoughtfulness are overlooked, you or someone else is likely going to be struggling later.

The details absolutely matter.