RC Bar Quarter Horse Ranch

02/02/2026

01/31/2026

lol

01/17/2026

Tis a frosty mess mornin’!

08/20/2025

Good times at the Omak Stampede!

05/18/2025

Spokane parade is in the books!

08/05/2023

Okay, trying this again - but different! There’s only room for one bay filly with a star in these pastures. Both of these girls are marvelous and I cannot choose, so they’re both being listed. They have both been hauled and ponied on the trials; they stand for the farrier; they tie; and they lunge. They differ in size (photo for reference)! I have video of movement and am happy to answer any questions by private message. 🙂

1. “WISHN ON ASTAR” 2022 filly by Chics Luv Money and out of a Shining Spark mare. Her siblings have all been very non-pro friendly and successful in the local reining pen! She is very level headed but sensitive.

2. “A MOBSTERS REMEDY” 2022 filly by a son of HF Mobster and out of a cow bred mare. This filly is petite but has a very big personality. Super light on her feet with a very natural stop!

11/23/2022

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2870694516315081&id=203612946356598&mibextid=qC1gEa

10 handy facts about lameness

1. A forelimb lameness is identified by looking for the head nod. The head will go up when the lame limb hits the ground and down when the sound limb hits the ground. It is easier to notice the 'head nod', therefore when the head nods, it is the opposite leg that is lame.

2. Check for heat and a pulse. Inflammation brings blood to the area.

3. A horse with arthritic wear and tear (common in older horses), will often get better as he goes, which is known as 'warming out of it'. The lameness will usually be less obvious after a few minutes. Additionally he will often be worse on hard ground (tarmac) in comparison to the ménage. This is due to more concussion on his joints.

4. A horse with soft tissue damage will often get worse as he goes and is often lamer on a soft surface (ménage), as the tissue such as an affected tendon or ligament is being stretched more than it would be on a hard surface with no give.

5. A horse with bilateral forelimb lameness will be harder to detect as the head nod will now be apparent when both limbs hit the ground. However he will show a shorter cranial phase (his forelimbs will not come out very far from underneath him resulting in a 'choppy' gait).

6. If you are struggling to detect lameness get the Slo-Pro app for your mobile phone and record your horse. This will slow everything down until you train your eye into detecting lameness.

7. A hind limb lameness is more difficult to detect. If you watch the horse trotting away from you, the lame leg usually has more movement at the hip. It helps to attach white sticky tape to both hip bones to make this more obvious to the eye.

8. Putting a horse on a circle (lungeing), often shows up a forelimb and hindlimb lameness more easily.

9. If the horse looks lame on one limb, but has a stronger pulse in the opposite limb, it is usually because the sound limb has taken more weight to allow pressure relief of the affected limb.

10. A horse can look completely sound without a rider, and then almost three legged once someone is on board. Therefore if your getting a feeling that something just isn't quite right, do not just jog him up on the straight or on the lunge and assume all is well.

** Shoeing/trimming intervals should be kept as short as possible. Studies have shown that as the toe grows, the foot 'shoots' forward (long toes, low heel), putting excess strain on the flexor tendons. If your horse always looks slightly 'off' just prior to shoeing, then this is a very probable cause and it may be worth shortening your shoeing cycle.

As a horse owner, developing an eye for lameness is one of the greatest skills you can learn. This will not only allow you to have your horse treated more quickly, but will hopefully nip smaller issues in the bud before they escalate into far bigger ones.

E. J Westwood.

10/20/2022

Food for thought!

PREY OR PREDATOR?

Something that I heard many times over many years is the importance of the prey/predator relationship between humans and horses. It seems when the subject of horse behaviour comes up one of the first things that come to a lot of minds is the notion that the relationship between humans and horses is dominated by the relationship between a prey animal (horse) and a predator (human). This view seems to have shaped the approach to horse training of many people.

I can’t recall ever hearing or reading Tom Dorrance, Ray Hunt, Harry Whitney, etc talk about the relationship between people and horses in terms of a prey/predator relationship. I don’t think these really good horse people ever thought of it in those terms and never gave it any importance. But since the early days of Parelli Natural Horsemanship, the idea that a horse’s concern about humans comes from a natural fear of predator species has gained popularity. I guess it is a testament to Pat’s influence in the popular horse world – whether good or bad. After Pat started espousing this idea other people got on the bandwagon and added weight to the topic. To my knowledge, there is no substantive work to show that horses view predator species as friends or foes. It is just a theory and not much more.

There is no doubt horses exhibit fear or worry to all types of new experiences, but to claim that it is because something can be categorized as prey or predator seems to me to be far-fetched and alien to how horses actually see the world.

I certainly don’t believe that the reason horses and people don’t always get along has anything to do with the idea that the human is a predator species and the horse is a prey-type species. Horses are often scared of kangaroos, ostriches, wombats, sheep, and deer yet these are not predatory species. They are herbivores. They do not hunt. They are just like horses, yet many horses are naturally fearful of them.

Likewise, many horses are not afraid of predators. I have never owned a horse that showed fear of my dogs. Even horses that are worried by people can be okay with dogs. Zebra (another prey equine species) can be grazing very relaxed even when lions are roaming around the herd. They only become afraid when the lions go into hunting mode. They are not afraid of lions, they are afraid of lions hunting.

The behaviour of a horse towards a human is not shaped by the fact that we eat meat. It’s shaped by the fact that sometimes we present ourselves to horses in a way that makes them feel fearful for their safety. Our energy, lack of clarity, and our intent is what makes them alarmed. A horse can feel the same way about a sheep even though sheep do not eat meat and are not natural predators (hunters). But a sheep can act aggressively towards a horse and make the horse fearful. I had a ram that would attack the horses and they became very wary of it. At feeding time that ram could move any of the horses away from their food without fuss.

I want to get across the idea that just because we have the physical characteristics of a predatory does not explain why our horses may be wary of us. I know a trainer who use to tell people not to look a horse in the eye because it would be interpreted as threatening. Another trainer would turn away from a horse to encourage “join up” with him in a round pen because he said to face squarely to a horse was to challenge him. This is all nonsense in my opinion.

It’s not what you do; it’s the way you do it. Horses don’t care if a human is a predator species. But they do care if we act like a predator. They judge us by our intent and not the way our eyes are set into our heads. They don’t see predators, they see predatory behaviour.

Photo: Who’s the predator now sucker?