Timeless Farm Hunters & Jumpers

10/09/2026

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https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1ExnEqwXEG/?mibextid=wwXIfr

An exaggeration, perhaps, but the sentiment is widely shared. Rising costs are a global problem, far easier to describe than to solve, but that is no excuse for doing nothing.
Read the story—link in comments.

10/09/2026

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https://chronofhorse.com/en/article/Opinion-Why-Jumping-Should-Return-To-Its-Literal-Grass-Roots/?fbclid=IwZnRzaAU1LP5leHRuA2FlbQIxMQBwZG9mBWZkaWQWUP-HC5FaheAbziiu5E09phaSU13f4nNydGMGYXBwX2lkCjY2Mjg1NjgzNzkAAR6rE-yuz9YhHjv8gIt28AE8Rbmzhw9WHNAjeeim4efzixCqMEHoqJXgjiUqsA_aem_23sxIylox1lRlMoKEAZeiA

Kent Farrington and Steve Guerdat walk the course on the grass field at Spruce Meadows in Calgary, Alberta. Columnist Armand Leone makes the case for bringing grass competition fields back to all levels of show jumping. © Sportfot Opinion: Why Jumping Should Return To Its Literal Grass Roots Voices...

10/02/2026

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https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1JewzoCzLQ/?mibextid=wwXIfr

For years, people have made decisions about when horses should wear blankets. But one group of Norwegian researchers wondered something surprisingly simple: what if we actually gave the horses a way to tell us what they wanted?

So they trained 23 horses to use a board with three different symbols. One meant “put my blanket on,” another meant “take it off,” and a third meant “leave things as they are.” Using reward-based training and small pieces of carrot for just 10–15 minutes a day, every horse eventually learned what the symbols meant. On average, they reached the free-choice stage around the 11th day, and all 23 successfully learned the task within 14 days.

Then came the fascinating part. The researchers tested the horses under different weather conditions. When conditions were cold, wet and windy, the horses were much more likely to choose the symbol asking for a blanket. When the weather was pleasant, they generally preferred to remain without one. Their choices were clearly related to the weather rather than being random.

A later study using the same communication method found similar patterns. Horses showed a stronger preference for blankets at very low temperatures and during moderate temperatures combined with rain or strong wind, while very few wanted a blanket when temperatures rose above about 10°C.

The researchers weren’t proving that horses could speak human language. They were demonstrating something much more interesting: with the right training, horses could learn a simple system that allowed them to communicate a preference about their own comfort.

For the first time, instead of humans simply deciding for them, the horses were given a way to answer.

And they had an answer. 🐴

10/02/2026

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https://www.facebook.com/share/1MUthauVvs/?mibextid=wwXIfr

It’s incredibly frustrating—this whole mess with horse showing and USEF rules and drug rules and membership prices and costs of showing, Ann De Michele writes. Not to mention the cost of literally everything in the country increasing to an exponential point.

I have begun to truly wonder if I can continue what I’m doing. Should I get a second job? Should I drop the price of my nice horses and get out now? Are my clients going to be able to go to any shows? If they go, will they be able to compete?

It’s exhausting.

The biggest problem is that, in the end, no one actually cares to listen to the majority of members. The majority of members of USEF, like the majority of people in this country, are not wealthy. They don’t horse show all the time. They can’t compete for points because points actually don’t matter to someone who only goes to four shows a year. They, most likely, don’t get to ride much either because they have regular jobs.

Listen, I’m all for horses’ well-being and safety. I don’t want horses injured because people drug them or work them to exhaustion. I think we can all agree that more clever ways of drugging these horses are happening now. I hate to tell you, but it’s not coming from the majority of members. It’s coming from the trainers with the people who have the most money and are chasing those points. The majority of members recognize that they aren’t competitive compared to those horses and just want to enjoy what they’re doing. Maybe they pick up a ribbon in good company on their best days, and that’s something to be really proud of.

Why is this happening?

📎 Continue reading this article at https://www.theplaidhorse.com/2025/10/29/frustrating-doesnt-even-begin-to-cover-it-the-reality-of-showing-today/
📸 © The Plaid Horse

09/12/2026

Time Bandit aka Ed, Eagle Rose aka Pony ❤️🦄

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1CGYLqFTJV/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Every riding school has one, and when he finally goes, the yard does not recover for a year. 🐴

He is usually not much to look at. Thick neck, roman nose, a coat that never quite shines however hard anyone brushes. He has one speed in the school and a completely different one out on a hack, and he has known for twenty years exactly which is required.

What he actually does is triage. He can tell, in the first ten strides, whether the small person on his back is nervous or bold, and he adjusts. For the frightened ones he becomes furniture. For the cocky ones he develops a sudden interest in the arena door, and teaches them something about attention that no instructor ever managed to say out loud.

He has carried, over the years, several hundred children. Some of them are now bringing their own children to meet him.

Nobody ever writes these ponies down. They do not win anything. They are not for sale. They simply come out, six days a week, for two or three decades, and quietly build every rider the school will ever produce.

Then one morning there is an empty stable with the name plate still on it.

What was the name of yours?

09/10/2026

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https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19RpRjgA7B/?mibextid=wwXIfr

I have watched this industry chew people up and spit them out for years. Not through bad horses or hard falls or the inevitable physical demands of the work but through other people. Through the culture of criticism, gatekeeping, and quiet cruelty that exists in equestrian circles in a way that most people who are embedded in it have stopped noticing because it has just become normal. It is not normal and it is costing us more than we realize...

It happens to new riders...
The beginner who posts a video of their first canter online and gets torn apart in the comments by people who have apparently forgotten what it felt like to not yet know how to do something. The adult who finally worked up the courage to take lessons and walked into a barn where the culture made it immediately clear that unless you arrived with experience, the right equipment, and the right breed of horse, you did not fully belong. The young rider who loved horses more than anything and was told by someone with more experience and less kindness that they were not good enough and believed it and left and never came back.

It happens to new instructors...
The instructor new to teaching who asks a question in a professional group and gets condescension instead of an answer. The instructor who is still developing their eye and their skills and who makes the mistake of sharing their work online where more experienced professionals decide that public correction is more appropriate than private support. The instructor who quietly stops asking questions because the cost of asking has become too high.

It happens in the show ring...
The culture of commentary at the in-gate that tears apart riders who are trying their best in a discipline that is genuinely hard. The parents, trainers, and spectators who treat a schooling show like an opportunity to establish a pecking order rather than a learning environment where mistakes are supposed to happen. The rider who placed fourth and cried not because they were disappointed but because of what they overheard someone say about their position on the way out of the ring.

It happens online every single day...
The Facebook groups, comment sections, and forum threads where people say things to strangers about their horses and their riding and their choices that they would never say to someone's face. Where expertise is used as a weapon rather than a resource. Where the pile-on replaces the conversation and nobody stops to ask whether the person on the receiving end is okay.

What it costs us...
People. Good people! Riders who would have stayed in this sport for decades and did not because the culture told them they did not belong. Instructors who would have become exceptional teachers and burned out instead because the support was not there. Horses who lose good homes because the humans who wanted to love them were driven away before they could learn how.

The equestrian world is small. We need every person who loves horses. Every new rider who walks nervously into a barn for the first time. Every instructor who is still figuring out how to teach. Every backyard horse owner who is doing their best with what they have. We need them to stay and that only happens if we build a culture worth staying in.

What you can do...
Welcome the beginner without making them feel like a burden. Answer the question without the condescension. Keep the comment to yourself if it is not going to help anyone. Mentor instead of criticize and remember what it felt like to not yet know the thing you now know so well.

The horse industry is one of the most extraordinary communities on earth when it is at its best. At its worst, it is one of the most unwelcoming. We get to choose which version we are contributing to every single day.

Choose the version that keeps people in.

Have you experienced or witnessed bullying or gatekeeping in the horse industry?

09/06/2026

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https://www.facebook.com/share/p/14oucRD17gJ/?mibextid=wwXIfr

08/21/2026

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05/17/2026

All set for our first show of ‘26 tomorrow Rain or Shine! Gramma’s decorations are on point as usual ❤️🦄☀️ 🏆

05/17/2026

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https://www.facebook.com/share/p/18jUvZqTDj/?mibextid=wwXIfr