Bear Paw Barn, LLC

10/22/2026

Spooky Season is here. 🍁🍂👻👻👻

10/16/2026

Smile!

10/15/2026

Listen for the translation 😂 “confidence of half a walnut”

10/03/2026

Fall spooky season hits differently for Equestrians. 🍁🍂🍁🧙‍♀️

09/01/2026

Small business, owned by “Super Woman” who stands up for what’s right.

08/27/2026

So a horse walks into a warehouse… even non horse people know that you don’t mess with ponies 😂🐴

07/23/2026

This is very common. If the horse is not balanced they will eventually break.

I’m pretty sure I lamed my horse by riding her “leg into hand.”

That’s not an easy sentence to write.

Nine years ago I bought Daisy, a bum-high ex-broodmare with more than a few trauma triggers and set out to “do dressage.”

I did everything I believed was right.

I lunged her in a Pessoa because I’d been told she needed to learn to work over her back.

I took lessons with talented, successful competition riders.

I was taught to ride her more firmly from leg into a firm hand.

She fought the contact but eventually her head came down.

She produced huge amounts of power from behind but all that power poured onto the forehand and into a heavy contact.

At the time, I thought we were making progress. We could eventually do a lot of advanced tricks.

Now I watch those old videos and see:
- a horse with no real thoracic sling stability
- dysfunctional movement patterns
- hind limbs producing force without being able to carry weight
- stifles and hocks under strain
- a body that was becoming stronger at compensating rather than stronger at functioning

Then she went lame.

The diagnosis was catastrophic damage to her left stifle.

Looking back now, I think I spent years asking a body with significant asymmetries to work harder instead of helping it work better.

She was naturally built on the forehand; her right hind was weaker; her pelvis lived in an anterior tilt.

I didn’t know how to address any of that
so I did what I’d been taught.

I added more leg, held a firmer contact and chased more power and eventually the left hind succumbed to the stresses of over-compensation.

I don’t write this because I want to blame trainers or say everyone riding leg into hand is harming their horse.

I write it because I know there are riders doing exactly what I was doing: following well-meaning advice, trying their absolute hardest, and believing that more power must be the answer.

Sometimes it isn’t.

Sometimes the answer is improving the quality of movement before asking for more of it.

Now I know more, I can do better. Daisy reminds me that learning is about giving our horses a better future than the one our yesterday knowledge would allow.

If this story resonated, follow my page. I share the mistakes I’ve made so your horse doesn’t have to pay for them.

07/02/2026

Love it 😂

06/17/2026

Greenhawk Sends Letter to Dover Vendors Following Acquisition of Select Store Locations

As the liquidation of former Dover Saddlery stores continues, Greenhawk Equestrian Sport has sent a letter to vendors outlining its plans for a number of former Dover retail locations.

In the letter, Greenhawk states that it has been “successful in acquiring a significant number of former Dover store locations from the liquidator.” The company emphasized that it did not acquire Dover Saddlery itself, but rather secured select store locations through the liquidation process.

📎 Continue reading at https://www.theplaidhorse.com/2026/06/17/greenhawk-sends-letter-to-dover-vendors-following-acquisition-of-select-store-locations/