Border Creek Sporthorses LLC

12/09/2021

As we all know, a busy lifestyle makes it easier for us to rush in and out of the barn. Read about taking your time in the barn and appreciating the time spent on the crosswise.

03/23/2020

06/29/2019

2 Chainz is joined by Dallas Mavericks owner and featured 'Shark Tank' guest Mark Cuban to hang out at the Dallas Equestrian Center, home of the best horse t...

06/23/2019

Fact check me here, but I think Michael Matz might be the only Olympic show jumping medalist who has also trained a Kentucky Derby winner (editor’s note: we checked, he is). Once retired from the top levels of competition, Olympic riders often take on a second career as a clinician or go off to fl...

06/14/2019

114 signatures are still needed! USEF Membership withdrawal due to Rob Gage su***de over Safesport allegations

05/27/2019

I’ve always had a personal rule for determining if I’m ready to show, and it has nothing to do with my riding. If I’m more worried about how much the four faults from a dropped rail just cost me in show fees, I can’t afford to be there. This rule has kept me from showing for most of my life....

05/09/2019

Yessssss!!

“Ann, 2017 was a wild and crazy year in the horse show world. Between the debates about Depo, USEF hearings over positive tests, and an ever-growing range of products claiming to calm your horse and 'not test,' it’s hard to know what to put my sh...

04/29/2019

Happy Pony!!

04/09/2019

It's been a while since I've seen many true barn rats but it's definitely how I grew up. Even if the kids who ride aren't "rats", horses can teach them (and me because it's never ending) a lot. Great points in this article.

BlogsBarn LoungeBarn Rats Over Mean Girls: Life Lessons from Growing Up in a Barn April 4, 2019 Photo courtesy of PonyMomAmmy BY PONYMOMAMMY I feel like I am constantly trying to justify the expense of the horses to my husband. I get it. It’s not cheap, and it doesn’t ever end. My go-to defense ...

03/20/2019

I've been hearing about all this going on so very glad they caught these dirtbags.

03/09/2019

Tennessee's State Veterinarian has announced that several horses returning from out-of-state events have been sickened by equine influenza virus (EIV) in Tennessee. Equine influenza is highly contagious, and the virus is spread by contaminated stable equipment and infected, coughing horses. Symptoms...

01/14/2019

Yes!! If they are good, stop!!! If they do what you ask, stop! This!!!

The curse of perfectionism, and the power of "pretty good."

All over the world, every day, riders are schooling horses.

Horses do not "want" to be schooled. If you think that, you are a dreamer, still thinking like an eight year old, which is OK if you are 8, not so productive as you become more mature.

And good trainers know that training is "hard" on horses, just as soccer practice or track practice or basketball practice or any sport that requires running and high energy expenditure is "hard" on human athletes.

It is called athletically induced discomfort, and any human who is any kind of athlete will remember (or currently be experiencing) the pain of tired muscles, racing heart, panting breath, the feeling that running hard down that lacrosse field "one more time" near the end of a game is taking her/him out toward the end of her/his strength and endurance.

But human athletes have goals, like earning a varsity letter, or having the esteem of the other kids, or winning a State Championship, and to attain those goals, they are willing to push through the pain.

Horses have "goals", too, to eat grass, and hang in pastures with other horses. These goals have zero to do with "pleasing my darling owner who loves me."

And when our horses are "being resistant", it is almost always because of either not understanding the aids being applied, or understanding them, but being tired and starting to get to that point, like the lacrosse player at the end of the game, where "one more time" is about the last straw.

But perfectionist humans tend to be all over "one more time", because that last attempt wasn't good enough. And neither is this one, so do it again. And again. And again-----

Learn to accept "pretty good" as good, and quit after a couple of "pretty goods."

Don't keep drilling and drilling and grinding for perfection, because that will make the horse hate and dread the work. Get a little, quit for the day. Loose reins, a nice little pat, go for a walk.

Lots of days of "pretty good" can turn into very good indeed, in ways that an insistence on "perfect" never can.

Every time I hear that "Practice doesn't make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect", in relationship to horse training, it makes me cringe.

If you are one of those people with a visceral "need" to be perfect, take it out on some inanimate object like a musical instrument or a baseball bat, not on some living creature.

01/07/2019

These are very cool.

Photographer Andrius Burba is back with more incredible animal photography. Continuing his Underlook series, now he's shot the underside of horses.

12/30/2018

As taken from ABC's Wide World Of Sports, the most exciting jumping competition in equestrian comes to Birmingham, England where riders such as Donald Cheska...

09/23/2018

tee hee tee hee