Been teaching her since she was nine. She trained that rescue mare herself, and she's hauling her off to college on Thursday. Our last ride together for a little while 😭💖

Tension issue, round #2. I wasn't confident in my ability to remove and reassemble the entire mechanism, but she's humming now 🥳🎊 Only took two YouTube videos this time, personal best 😆

A little quiet time 💖

Made a bridle bag for a longtime student. Going off to college with her horse in a couple of weeks 💖

Turquoise goes with anything 🩵

Dog getting skunked at 10:30pm after a twelve hour day was not on today's bingo card. Zero stars, would not recommend.

Yeah, it's a lot!

..rhythmic walk on the ground, trying to tune the horse's footsteps to your own. It's actually a fun game to play with them.

It be like that sometimes, for ALL of us. The older I get, the less I stress if it feels like we've taken a step backwards. Life happens, and it's usually an invite to go back to basics. Rhythm and relaxation, the foundation of the dressage training scale. And that can look like working on a

Essentially, we tend to need many short sessions of doing nothing but relaxing and breathing to convince the nervous system to rewire itself. It takes the time it takes, there's no deadline.

Also, we don't always have control of some of our tension when we've experienced trauma, don't spend ANY time beating yourself up if your body and mind don't seem to cooperate in the beginning.

It takes TIME, like, a LOT of time for literally all of us to work through it. Small goals, as in, sitting on your horse at the halt, and working on breath to down regulate the nervous system.

What you're describing is real trauma, and your nervous system has learned that there's a need to be protective.

Listen, I've spent my entire adult life helping riders become more confident, you are NOT alone. Our industry is evolving, we're beginning to train horses with more empathy, but we almost NEVER give ourselves that same grace.

'Cruel' isn't heavy enough a word for THIS. My heart aches for these kids 💔 😞

Fuck ice, fuck trump.

Five barns, six horses later 😵‍💫😆

Still stained, but cute anyway 🥰

Toxic gas 🙋‍♀️

This. White privilege looks like: me, listening to Rage as a teenager in the 90s, not fully understanding the "rage." He's been right all along.

Can you imagine landing on that knife edge cantle? 😬

"Before"

Picked up this old saddle a few years back, from the daughter of the cowboy who rode it. It was very clearly one of his most prized possessions, he took meticulous care in repairing it over its lifetime. I've restored it to the best of my ability, and loved every second 💓

Very good ponies today, despite the heat 🥵🦄

#horsesofbluesky

The world might be ending, but at least there's horses 🦄💖

#horsesofbluesky

BEAUTIFUL 😍 🤩

Time to call a spade a spade.

He sure does 🥰😻