Dragon Scale Equestrian

15/09/2024

As someone with a chronic condition that causes pain of varying levels and presentations, I absolutely 100000% agree with this.

As someone who had a horse that I spent 13 YEARS trying to convince anyone to believe me that something was WRONG with her only to be told over and over again that “we ruled out pain” just to discover after 13 YEARS that I was right the entire time and all she needed was a hair test, I 10000000% agree with this post.

As someone with a horse that I spent the last several months going “seriously, something isn’t right. I think he’s in pain” while everyone else looked at him and said “I don’t see anything” only to find he has a rather large OCD lesion requiring surgery that he completely passed a flexion test on, I 10000000000% agree with this.

Just because pain can’t be found doesn’t mean it isn’t there.

I hear this phrase ALL the time and every time I do my heart breaks for the horse in question.

It is a very big misconception in the industry that pain can be ruled out in the horse.

What leads to this statement can also vary drastically from person to person.

The horse might have had a quick muscle palpation, they might have just been scoped for ulcers, or they might have had a very extensive (and expensive!) veterinary work up over days or months.

Regardless, you cannot rule out pain. You might not be able to find a source, but you cannot rule out pain.

Ask any human who has not received an immediate diagnosis for their pain or not been listened to regarding their own health concerns.

Pain does not have a blood test or a specific color or feel.

Pain can be obvious, it can be concealed, it can be complex, it can be poorly understood.

There are certain things, like gastric ulcers, that can be definitively ruled in or out as a SOURCE of pain with a gastroscopy.

But it is the horse’s behavior that says whether pain is or isn’t present. And unfortunately, very often pain in the horse is not a simple thing to diagnose and cure.

When a trainer, owner, rider, or vet says “we have ruled out pain” it is often an invitation to train the horse with harsher methods to overcome performance or behavioral problems.

If the horse refuses to do something, doesn’t cooperate, struggles with tasks, has a change in behavior, or exhibits behaviors that have been scientifically studied to indicate pain in the horse (such as the equine discomfort ethogram and ridden horse pain ethogram)….ALWAYS keep in mind that just because it can’t be located, DOES NOT mean a horse is not in pain.

01/09/2024

I have had a couple of people reach out and ask if there was anything specific William might need/want to help with recovery after his surgery. I made an Amazon wish list with some toys and treats for stall rest, plus a couple of items that will help with recovery and rehab.
I figured I’d go ahead and share it here incase anyone else was interested.

Also if you have any of these items used you’d be willing to sell please let me know.

If anyone has any other stall toy suggestions please send them my way.

https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/3G85X1C94YHNF?ref_=wl_share

01/09/2024

I have had a couple of people reach out and ask if there was anything specific William might need/want to help with recovery after his surgery. I made an Amazon wish list with some toys and treats for stall rest, plus a couple of items that will help with recovery and rehab.
I figured I’d go ahead and share it here incase anyone else was interested.

Also if you have any of these items used you’d be willing to sell please let me know.

If anyone has any other stall toy suggestions please send them my way.

https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/3G85X1C94YHNF?ref_=wl_share

25/07/2024

“It’s only a 1 minute video”
-I. Don’t. Care.

“We don’t know what the horse did to deserve that reaction”
-literally nothing. There is no universe where that horse did anything to deserve being struck 24 times. She’s lucky that horse was already so wholly shut down it just took it. Molly, and William actually, would have kicked her daylights out.

“It happens in barns all over the world every day”
-those trainers and riders should face consequences too.

“It was probably a one time thing. She doesn’t deserve to be punished for a onetime incident”
-well, people are in jail for only stabbing someone once, only driving drunk once, only shaking their child once, only doing drugs once, only stealing once…

“Everyone has done something like that at some point”
-yup. I sure as hell have. I know I have. And if video surfaced and I received sanctions today, or next year, or in ten years, I would take them and know I deserved all of it. We are not entitled to this sport. We are not entitled to these animals. We damn sure are not entitled to profit off of their pain and suffering. Sometimes the threat of external repercussions is the only thing that controls some people’s behavior and forces change. This industry has too long turned a blind eye on these type of training techniques.

I’m exhausted. I’m so damn tired of being so damn disenchanted by what should be *literally* the most magical sport in the history of the world. These living, breathing, thinking, feeling, magical creatures are as close to unicorns as mere humans will ever have the privilege to demean the presence of… yet they LET us ride them. They let us put them in tiny boxes, travel the world with us, sometimes literally walk through fire for us…

It is absolutely our responsibility to put in every effort possible to provide them with kindness and compassion and safety. Not a single human on this planet is perfect, myself thoroughly and completely included, but actions have consequences. Period. As an industry it is far past time for a major restructuring of what kind of behavior is acceptable. The gaslighting and pressure to “sit down and shut up” just because an adult ammy doesn’t have an Olympic medal, or a Jr rider is only 16, or whatever lack of human designed accolades someone is painted with in order to make them compliant to poor behavior.

Riders should feel safe saying “I’m done. I’m leaving. Your behavior is unacceptable.” To ANY trainer at any time and not fear the entire horse community shunning them, or worse verbally and emotionally abusing them beyond repair. But they don’t. ESPECIALLY Jr riders. And this gaslighting goes beyond speaking up about horse abuse, just look at people’s reaction and behaviors anytime a SafeSport allegation is made against someone’s idol.

Stop.
Putting.
People.
On.
Pedestals.
Period.

Hold everyone accountable. Everytime. IF it’s truly a lapse in judgment, then accepting responsibility and taking your consequences will provide more time for education, anger management, whatever is needed in order to move past that mindset that resulted in that lose of control. Then move on and do better.

16/07/2024

I had a splinter in my foot today and it made me think about how easily pain and discomfort is dismissed in horses.

See, I know exactly when I got the splinter. It was last night before bed. I felt it stab me but when I ran my hand over my foot I didn’t feel anything and it didn’t hurt. So I figured it just poked me and fell off.

This morning when I woke up I felt something in my foot but again ran my hand over it and felt nothing, no stab of pain, so I figured it must have just been sore from stepping on it last night.

I go to put my sock on and the sock caught the splinter and I felt immediate sharp pain and finally realized there was still something in my foot.

Tweezers and a few minutes later and I got it out. Not much damage done. No blood. It still kinda twinges a touch in that spot but it’s manageable and I’m sure in an hour or so I will have forgotten it’s there.

How many times did I feel for it though and come away without finding it or getting a reaction telling me it hurt? I just happened to have rubbed my foot in a direction that didn’t catch the end of the splinter.

I would have been increasingly uncomfortable all day if when my sock caught it I went “well I checked before and didn’t find anything, so I’m clearly faking this pain to get out of work.”

So why do we do this to horses? If they are telling us they are in physical or mental pain/discomfort why do so easily check one or two things and then assume they just have a bad attitude?

Horses are designed not to show pain or injury. They may not always show the same level of distress, or the same stress behaviors, around different people.

Sometimes we have to just take them at their word that there is a splinter there and keep looking until we find it.

15/07/2024

Best boy ever on farrier day. Just wanted mom snuggles.

30/05/2024

So. Much. This. THIS is where I am. The universe made me stop. Molly told me she was ready to slow down and William wasn’t old enough to ride/show… and then Molly was gone and William still wasn’t old enough to ride and show… and somewhere along the way I realized all the things I was holding onto so hard, chasing blindly in this life, desperately clinging onto with the hope of “making it” someday…

All of those things were drowning me and while I was occasionally getting external validation, I wasn’t finding an ounce of internal peace… and I was looking at Williams sweet face everyday, an innocent soul full of curiosity and peace and trust and I realized I never wanted to take that away from him by putting us both back into the rat race of trying to keep up with the Jones. Once I let myself consider a life without showing/training/scheduling/pressure I started to find peace with my horses again.

A large number of people who come to me for help with their riding motivation, lack of time or feelings of self-doubt or lack of confidence are looking for a prescription or a formula that they can apply that will fix their lack of ‘not riding’.

Some arrive with the belief that the accountability provided by our relationship will be the cure to the problem. That maybe if I tell them exactly what to do on what day, if I give them a precise schedule, or the right things to action that things will once again feel ok-- that time will open up, they will become unstuck, they will once again feel motivated.

Often, if they perceive that they ‘aren’t doing enough’, scattered in amongst our conversation are their own ‘solutions’ to the problems…

Perhaps if I got up earlier? Or when this situation at work changes? Or once the kids go back to school? Maybe I can take this out and slot this in? Try things at a different time of day?

It’s not that I don’t have things to say, and I certainly offer things (I hope) that people will find helpful.

But more and more, I am faced with a reality which is this:

Most people I work with are not professional riders. They are riding or have horses for the love of it. And in amongst this, the fact they are custodians for their horses, they are also many other things.

They are often working full time, some are caregivers, many are mothers, or mothering in ways that we don’t socially recognize. The days are full to the extent of asking for 30 minutes of their time feels the same as asking them to lasso a woolly mammoth.

And beyond that, the real truth?

Most people are exhausted. Not just a little bit tired, but chronically so. Tired to the inside of their bones.

And that tiredness is not just an individual ‘issue’; it’s part of a wider, social narrative, the same capitalist system that trains us to treat how it is we are with our horses, how we take care of ourselves, the same way it wants us to engage with everything else:

As a schedule of production.

One that leads us to harbor unreasonable and inhumane expectations of what’s possible, and then gets us to turn around and beat ourselves up when what we’re able (or unable) to do falls short.

A practice of any kind- and this is different to a routine or a schedule- is an energy that we are in relationship with. Riding is not referred to as an art for no good reason. To my mind, good riding and good horsemanship are subject to the same creative muse, the same inspiriting forces as any other creative medium we are involved with.

If we think of our riding and our horsing adventures this way, our interactions become a part of a wider ecosystem; it becomes something we are in collaboration with, not in control of in the way that we might traditionally think.

Which leads us to the question:

How are you in collaboration with your riding and with your practice of the art of horsemanship?

Do you only feel ‘successful’ if you’ve ridden or worked your horse(s) ‘x’ number of times? When you have done something that the outer world will tell you means you’ve done something that is good? Where you are given two thumbs up by someone other than yourself?

If we are going to throw our relationship with riding and our horses in the same basket as any other that relates to productivity and output, then pretty soon we are going to find our relationship with our horse producing the same pressure as work, as anything else that can be both bought and sold.

And what’s more, it’s like pouring concrete on the soul.

A horsing practice is different to a routine and different again to a schedule.

Practices are fluid and responsive. They change with the seasons; of the year, but also of life. Is it not to be expected that your horsing practice will change, adapt to children, work, the fact you have been sick, the lack of available light?

This is not an individual failing; it’s something that’s to be expected. Practices are molded and informed by the complexity and fullness of our lives; often they exist not in spite of them, but because of them.

A riding and horsing practice is not a schedule. It is not a fixed routine. It is not you grinding yourself into the ground, martyring yourself to a riding schedule that leaves both of you feeling depleted instead of nourished.

What would it look like to approach your riding and horsing with a playfulness, the spirit of creative venture?

What would it look like if you lay down your beliefs about productivity, the tight schedule you might have around when and where you show up and what exactly that needs to look like?

What if you treated your riding and horsing practice like someone you loved, treated it the same you would a treasured friend?

What would it mean to step out of riding (and beyond that, how you look after yourself) as a ‘have to’ and treated it as a creative practice?

What would things look like then?

xx Jane

18/05/2024

24/7 group turn out only.

A picture that truly speaks volumes...From our human perspective we can see a beautiful environment with green grass and elegant white fences, but if we just look closer from our horses' point of view instead...Well, then everything changes. Then we see how desperately they try to remain next to each other, no matter their inability to touch either, then we see where the grass just doesn't grow anymore, evidencing so clearly where they always remain to be together as much as they physically can...Please, horses are herd animals, horses are social animals, they are meant to be together, as it's just where their sense of safety and peace comes from. There's absolutely no way to change it, there's no way to pretend not to know it. If we can only keep our horses alone then I'm sorry but we just cannot have them 💚

Picture credit: Tracey J Parker

07/05/2024

Why DSE trust Majyk every ride

28/04/2024

Check out the new LA Equestrian line from Majyk Equipe!!! Just debuted at Kentucky and looking pretty snazzy!

So great to see and her team stop by and check out the brand new LA Equestrian line from !

12/04/2024

Saddle and saddle pad fitting a baby mammoth 🦣 is hard.

Luckily he’s a saintly good boi and told his mother exactly what he thought about the very fancy expensive pad his mother so lovingly bought for him… and how much he loved the random old ranch pad we found wasting away in the tack room that our kind barn owner let us try out.

Obviously the fancy one he HATED. He was a very good boy but as soon as I climbed up he was like “uh uhh nope. Get off. I hate it.” So I hopped off and swapped to the other pad and he was like “cool, this one is great! let’s go explore” and proceeded to drag me across the arena to investigate the weedeater. 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️

So if anyone needs western saddle pads I have two stupid nice ones for sale that my monster despises.

Also, I deserve all the brownie points for getting on my baby pony by my damn self for the first time not once, but TWICE while trying out new tack AND while the arena was being weedeated and the neighbors where mowing and someone down the way were shooting bottles or something. 😅😅😅😅 (for the record, NONE of these things bother William. They do all make me incredibly anxious… 😬 he is such a saint.)

30/03/2024

Show Time!
Blackwing Mythical Twist in the YHSS 2yo in hand and at liberty and jump chute.

30/03/2024

Myth Jump Chute Schooling!

28/03/2024

Stickers!!!

26/03/2024

Finally getting around to making an Etsy store for my Tee-shirt designs. Also considering making some other items with fund designs as well!

Shop Unique and custom gifts for Equestrians & Bookworms by DSEDesignsByPaige located in Texas, United States.

20/03/2024

Major Trigger Warning - Detailed Discussion of Animal Abuse:

So many people don’t believe me when I say I have seen this s**t/similar s**t/worse s**t happen over and over again in show barns from trainers of all levels and program sizes.

The fact that the industry as a whole has not implemented a industry wide witch hunt and full blown open season on banning these trainers at all costs is the number one reason I will never encourage people to show, have about 2 people in the world I would send a horse too, and in all honestly will likely never show other than small local fun shows again.

More people should be foaming at the mouth outraged by the level of abuse that is STANDARD PRACTICE across disciplines at all levels of the sport.

And before someone starts in with “well not all trainers” yes I know. There are good ones, but the fact that even good ones turn a blind eye to abuse happening, owners turn a blind eye as long as they are winning, sponsors and investors and judges and associations all ignore the abuse, make excuses, and continue to let it thrive and be rewarded time after time tells me that as a whole the show horse industry is infected in an unacceptable way and I will guard myself and my horses from it at all costs.

7877 likes, 534 comments. “ Case 4:23-cv-00871 Sneed v. Gibbs Show Horses”

21/01/2024

A year ago I knew we were setting a date to let Molly go… I fell in love with this painting when Beatrice Rudolph first posted it in 2019 and she somehow still had it last year to my shock. So knowing time with Molly was short I decided I really needed this piece for my home even though at the time I had no where to hang it… so I never even opened it from the very carefully packed box it was shipped to me in. I think I got it in the mail almost exactly a year ago today… it’s now hung up over my desk in the living room. I might move it later but for now it’s up. It’s even more stunning in person.

Thank you so much Beatrice/Blue Unicorn Studios: Art by Beatrice Rudolph for creating such a special piece.

09/01/2024

My happy place. My home. ❤️🐴

01/12/2023

I’m sure many of you have noticed a lack of content on the DSE platforms of late.

I am here to say that that is probably not going to change anytime soon. I have owned horses for 20 years at this point and dedicated every single ounce of energy and time I could to them for the vast majority of that time.

While I don’t resent a moment of that time, I have come to realize that in many ways I have paid too high a price for too little in return.

The industry, not the horses themselves, crippled my body image and self confidence for years, and completely gutted my mental health. I don’t say this in blame, no single person is responsible for any of this. Rather it is the result of generations of collective trauma that has become so ingrained in the culture it’s almost woven into the very foundations of the industry.

I’m tired.

13 months ago I started a “temporary” job with Barnes & Noble booksellers while I figured out what my next move was in the horse world. After all, I uprooted my entire life on a wing and a prayer to be able to do more horse things… the best thing that happened from that move was finding that “temporary” job that has become my lifelong career now.

In 13 months I have advanced in my position ten times further than I ever could have in any position related to the horse world. I have been treated better on my worst days by my boss here than I was often treated on my best days in horse/animal related jobs.

13 months in a job and my life has changed ten fold for the better.

Compared to 20 YEARS (yes many of those as a minor but still) dedicating every waking moment to doing the best I could do with the hand I was dealt and nothing to show for it but bone deep unhappiness and misery.

William & Myth will stay with us forever, we will probably always have horses in our lives, but I am no longer putting the rest of my life on the back burner in a desperate attempt to “be enough” for an industry that doesn’t have room for me.

That said, I am completely getting out of therapy and PEMF work.

But I will continue to do select graphic design work from time to time.

We will probably keep this page up for updates on the boys, but it will take a back burner to the social media platforms I manage for my career in the book world.

I have a ton of incredible friends in the horse world that I love and adore and will never give up and always be there for. But the future of my involvement with horses outside of being a happy pony mom will basically be see what makes me happy day to day. If it doesn’t bring me joy, I’m not going to kill myself to do it anyways in some desperate attempt to “be enough” for a world who’s standard of “enough” is a constantly moving target.

30/11/2023

Fuzzie wuzzie was a William. 😂😂😂😂 also that’s a size 80 blanket… he’s only 2. Send help. And a ladder…

28/11/2023

Okay friends.

Bobbie Clements and I are looking to downsize our trailer at this point in our lives. Or upsize…? 😂😂😂 We want a 2 horse straight load bumper pull that will fit William’s mammoth ass.

So if anyone is looking, or knows someone looking, for a 2016 3H trailer that has been well maintained (minus a couple of cosmetic dings), and/or willing to trade for a 2H oversized straight load, please message us/send them our way.

It has a brand new emergency brake installed in January, all the lights and wiring where checked in March, it will come with a camera system for the horse compartment, it has tons of aftermarket storage and accessories, swing out saddle rack and 50gal water tank in the dressing room, storage box under the nose for emergency supplies. It’s an amazing trailer. It’s just not what we need for the foreseeable future.

Clean Texas title ready to transfer. New tires and had a full brake and bearing work up in January.

27/11/2023

Counting down the days until this handsome face moves to his new home only 15 minutes from our work and apartment. I miss seeing him every day.

02/11/2023

Chaos Brothers 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

23/10/2023