K&M Stables LLC

09/30/2026

K&M has board spots available immediately!

We have multiple spots open, check out our website for detailed information about each pasture!

We would love to welcome you and your mare to the K&M family! Here’s what we have to offer:
☀️ Tack barn with feed & tack storage with two tie rings
☀️ 55’ Round Pen
☀️ Massive sand arena with GREAT drainage, it is rarely too wet to ride safely! Yall, it has cup holders on the fence!
☀️ We have arena lights!
☀️ 4 Tie posts with a saddle post
☀️ Picnic tables with umbrellas
☀️ All pastures connected to the barn have stalls with fans. Six 10x10, two 10x11 and one 16x14
☀️ Pastures without access to the barn have shelters with fans
☀️ All pastures have shade from trees
☀️ Wooded areas to ride in the shade! Hills, ditches, a creek, and a path around the pastures. Trails have been started!
☀️ While we encourage a forage first diet, every horse gets a tailored diet to suit their needs. Hay is included in board. Most horses are grained once a day, but we have a few who are grained twice a day
☀️ Horses are pastured based on dietary needs and compatibility
☀️ Rinsing as needed in the heat
☀️ Fly gear on / off as desired
☀️ Blankets as needed in the winter
☀️ Electrolytes mashes when the barometric pressure calls for it
☀️ Owners live on-site, your horse will be watched closely!

What do we do at K&M?
☀️ Western riding lessons
☀️ Groundwork training and lessons
☀️ MagnaWave PEMF available on-site
☀️ Barrel racing, trail rides, fun shows, any level horse, any level rider
☀️ Two riding instructors with similar training & teaching styles
☀️ Training board is also available!
☀️ Haul-in lessons are welcomed!

What is the atmosphere like?
☀️ While K&M IS a lesson and training barn, it’s pretty quiet and peaceful here!
☀️ There’s always a place to tie your horse and ride even in the busiest of times at lessons.
☀️ You’re welcomed into the arena during lessons and even join in on the fun or join us when we take a trip around the property!
☀️ We have zero tolerance for drama so we can keep your happy place stress-free. It’s commonly said how tranquil it is here.

Kenly NC
$600/mo includes 3lbs alfalfa + 15lbs TimOrch or Fescue
Check out our website for more information!
https://brand.page/kmstablesnc

Come see for yourself!
Other info:
Lessons
- $70 1 hour lesson
- $85 1.5 hour lesson
- $40 to $90 MagnaWave
- Boarders receive a $10 discount on all lessons (Does not apply to MagnaWave)

Mandie Johnson's Lesson and Boarding barn website.

09/30/2026

New boarding spots available! See the pinned post or our website for more information.

09/29/2026

CANCELLED

Come join us for our show on Sunday!
If you plan to attend and would like to make sure you make it to the golosboro show on time please message me!

09/28/2026

A good lesson should do more than fix the problem a rider is having that day. It should teach them how to recognize it, understand why it is happening and know what tools to use the next time.

One thing I take a lot of pride in with Anna is that I honestly hardly ever have to get on one of her horses and fix something for her.

That does not mean every ride is perfect. It means we have spent a lot of time teaching her how to feel what her horse’s body is doing, understand why something is falling apart and know how to use her hands, legs and body to make the correction herself.

It is easy for a trainer to jump on, fix the problem and hand the reins back. Sometimes that is necessary but if I solve every problem for the rider, the rider never learns how to solve one without me.

My goal is not simply to make the horse look better while I am riding it. My goal is to give the rider enough understanding and confidence to improve the horse from their own saddle.

When choosing lessons for your child, ask yourself: Are they only being told what to do, or are they also being taught why? Are they learning to recognize a mistake, make an adjustment and feel when they find the right answer?

The best lesson is not always the one where the instructor fixes everything. It is the one that sends the rider home with more knowledge, more confidence and more tools than they came with.

09/21/2026

I get asked all the time, “What can I do to help my horse stay sound and not need to be adjusted as often?”

One of my biggest answers is simple:

“GIVE YOUR HORSE A PROPER WARM UP”

As both a chiropractor and a competitor, I see horses from both sides. One common thing I notice in horses that are frequently sore, tight, or dealing with different issues is that many are going from standing around to strenuous exercise with very little warm-up in between.

There is science behind why that matters.

A proper warm up is doing much more than just “loosening them up” or “riding the edge off one”.

As your horse begins warming up this is what begins to happen:

• Blood flow and tissue temperature increase
• Muscles become better prepared for contraction and movement
• Tendons and ligaments are progressively exposed to increasing loads and preparing for stretch
• The cardiovascular system prepares for harder exercise
• The joints begin moving and their natural lubrication system gets to working to lubricate the joints

This last part is especially important: SYNOVIAL FLUID.

Many don’t know it exists or if they do they don’t understand its function. Synovial fluid is the slippery, lubricating fluid found inside your horse's joints. It helps reduce friction between joint surfaces and supports the health of the articular cartilage.

Movement changes how synovial fluid behaves

As the joint repeatedly bends and straightens, synovial fluid becomes easier to flow and distribute across the joint surfaces. At the same time, repeated loading and unloading of the cartilage helps move fluid within the cartilage and supports normal joint lubrication and nutrient exchange.

Think of the warm-up as giving the joints time to cycle through movement before they're asked to handle maximum forces.

That becomes pretty important when the next thing we're asking that joint to do is stop hard, turn a barrel, jump, collect, or accelerate.

⏱️ Preparing the body takes TIME.

One equine study measured temperature changes in the lower limbs during different warm-up durations. In trained sport horses, 25 minutes was still not enough to significantly increase temperature in every area measured, while the highest measured temperatures across all studied limb regions occurred after approximately 30 minutes of warm-up.

That does not mean every horse must warm up for exactly 30 minutes.

But it does tell us that walking for 5 minutes and then asking for maximal effort isn't the same thing as progressively preparing the body for strenuous work.

For a performance horse, I generally like to think in terms of a 15–30+ minute progressive warm-up, depending on the horse, weather, fitness level, discipline, and what you're preparing them to do.

Start with relaxed walking. Gradually add trotting and loping, bending, large circles, and changes of direction. Then begin introducing movements and intensity specific to their job.

🐴 Being YOUNG doesn't mean they need less warm-up.

A 4-year-old may feel loose, fresh, and ready to run.

But energy does not equal warmed up and ready to perform.

Their muscles, tendons, ligaments, joints, and cardiovascular system still need time to transition from rest to strenuous exercise.

Think about what we ask of a barrel horse:

Accelerate → rate → collect → load the limbs → turn → push off → accelerate again.

That's a tremendous amount of force being placed on the body in only a few seconds.

A good warm-up can't always prevent every injury or soundness problem, but we can give the muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints a better opportunity to prepare for the forces we're about to place on them.

If we're going to ask our horses to perform like athletes, we need to prepare them like athletes.

—Dr. Hope Lockhart, DC

Pictured is my personal horse JJ, you can see how much stress is really put on the horses body when we ask them to perform.

📸: the gritty lens

09/05/2026

A good trainer shouldn’t want a student dependent on them forever.

The goal is to build riders who can eventually think, feel and make decisions for themselves.

That means learning how to warm up their own horse instead of always having someone else get one ready for them. Learning what their horse feels like on a good day so they can recognize when something feels off. Learning when one needs more work, when one needs less, and when the smartest thing they can do is leave it alone.

It means being able to walk into the arena without someone telling them every single move to make.

Of course there are times a trainer needs to step in. Sometimes I need to get on one. Sometimes a student needs more direction. Sometimes we need to go back to the basics and work through something together.

But the end goal should always be progress toward independence.

I want my students to understand WHY we’re doing something, not just memorize instructions.

Because eventually I want them to be able to make a run, come out of the arena and tell me what they felt before I tell them what I saw. I want them to recognize their own mistakes, recognize when their horse needs help, and start figuring out what adjustment needs to happen next.

That’s how you build horsemen—not just riders who can follow directions.

And honestly, I think one of the biggest compliments a trainer can get is watching a student handle a situation correctly when you never had to say a word.

At what point do you think a trainer should start stepping back and making a student figure more things out for themselves?

08/12/2026

**Training Tip Tuesday: Softness doesn’t start in the face.**

This weekend, one of the riders here was struggling with a mare who kept doing something unusual with her face. I could see what she was talking about, but I didn’t want to assume I knew why it was happening just from watching. I asked to ride the mare because sometimes you need to feel what is happening before you can understand where the problem begins.

Once I was on her, it became clear that the problem wasn’t really in her face. Her feet and body weren’t in the right place, so the lack of connection was showing up as a brace in her face. Within about five laps, she was working in perfectly beautiful circles to the right—not because I worked harder on her face, but because I helped her feet understand where they needed to go.

You can make a horse laterally soft while standing still, but real softness has to connect the reins to the feet and travel through the entire body. When the feet aren’t connected to the reins, the brace may show up in the face, but the face isn’t necessarily where the problem began. The better those pieces become connected, the softer the whole horse becomes.

This is why professional eyes on your horse can be so valuable. A good coach can help you recognize what you’re feeling, sort out where the problem is actually starting, and keep you from spending weeks trying to fix the place where it happens to be showing up. That is exactly the kind of problem-solving we work through at my clinics and in my virtual coaching.

If you’re ready for help sorting through what you’re feeling with your horse, send me a message to learn more about upcoming clinics or virtual coaching.

08/12/2026

How much do you actually watch your horse?

Not ride them. Not train them. Not ask them to do anything.

Just watch.

Watch how they walk out of the stall. How they stand tied to the trailer. How they eat. How they move around after a haul. How they warm up before you really start asking for anything. How they cool down. How they interact with other horses. What they do when they’re comfortable versus when something feels a little off.

I think knowing what’s normal for each individual horse is one of the most valuable tools we have.

Sometimes the first sign that something needs attention isn’t a head bob or an obvious problem. It’s the horse that normally cleans up suddenly leaving a little feed. The one that usually stands square constantly resting the same leg. A change in attitude. A different way of carrying themselves. Something small that you’d probably never notice if you weren’t paying attention on the ordinary days.

Good horsemanship isn’t only what happens when you’re in the saddle.

What’s something you’ve caught early simply because you knew your horse well enough to notice something had changed?