Sarah Rhodes I A New Equestrian Mindset

08/27/2026

A client asked me this week why her mare gets so exuberant into the canter depart to the right. Every bloody time.

I love that question. Not because I had a clean answer ready, but because asking it puts you in exactly the right mindset.

She didn’t ask me how do I make it stop but what is my horse actually telling me.

So I started listing possibilities out loud. Discomfort somewhere in the body. A learned pattern from something that happened a long time ago. Lack of clarity in how the depart is being asked for. Rider imbalance or unintended tension. Tack that does not fit quite right on that side.

I told her this list is not even the whole list. Horses are individuals with histories and bodies and nervous systems that are entirely their own. But those five areas are where I start almost every time something does not make sense yet.

Ponder on this for a moment...

Your horse is not being bad. Your horse is saying something. Every behavior, every exuberance, every refusal, every moment of confusion makes complete sense from where the horse is standing. Your job is to get curious enough to figure out what they are trying to say.

When you shift from frustration to curiosity, that is where everything changes.

I am sending out a two part email series this week going deeper into horse psychology and all five of those reasons. If you are not on my list yet and want to read it, send me a message and I will make sure you get it.

08/20/2026

I ran my first veteran trial session on Tuesday this week. We didn’t ride, just did groundwork with a horse and had a conversation about leadership.

Four-time combat veteran and a leader of soldiers, Brandon, told me it gave him “a different perspective on leadership with how to guide soldiers on the right path… And how to take care of them.” he said the same principles carry over to his kids and everyone in his life.

He also said something that made an impact on me: talking and being with a horse took his mind off his own struggles for a while and left him feeling better.

It was only one session and an honest reaction, but that’s proof enough for me to keep building this.

Do you know a veteran who would want an hour like this? If so, send them my way. 🐴💜

08/14/2026

Things seen out riding. Some are “normal” some are “scary” and some you just don’t ask questions… 😳💀

Show me some pictures of things you’ve found out riding and if you don’t have any go for a ride 💜🐎

08/06/2026

The hardest stretch in any trust-rebuilding process is the messy middle.

You have already decided to do the work and are showing up differently. Your attitude has changed, your consistency has improved, your intentions are genuinely good. All of the things to make it happen!

And nothing has shifted yet. 🫠

The horse is still cautious. The relationship is still careful. The results are still lagging behind the effort. A voice that starts asking whether it is worth continuing when the evidence is not there yet.

This is where belief does its most important work.

Not belief that everything will be easy or that the outcome is guaranteed. Belief that what you are doing matters, that the direction is right, and that the next consistent day is worth showing up for even when this one did not give you anything to feel good about.

Horses teach this lesson with remarkable clarity because they do not speed up the timeline to spare your feelings. They take exactly as long as they take. And the people who earn their trust are the ones who kept going through the middle part.

You are probably in the middle of something right now. Are you wondering if it is worth it to keep going? I’m here to encourage you to keep going. Tell me about it because your journey is worth talking about. DM me or drop it in the comments. 🐴

08/03/2026

So excited for this opportunity 💜

Good News for Equestrians in and around Waxhaw NC!

Contact Sarah Rhodes for your all natural equine needs and get great products straight to your barn!

704-771-0387

07/29/2026

There is this moment I get to watch happen more times than I can count now.

A horse who has been careful, measured, keeping his distance while he watches and decides.

And then one day he walks up to a young his own. Without being asked.

People often describe this as the horse finally trusting them. And that is true, but I want to offer a different version of this.

The horse is not giving you something. He is reflecting back what you gave him. Hundreds of small moments where your attitude was steady. Where your trust and belief in the process held even when nothing confirmed it. You showed up the same way whether things went well or not.

He noticed all of it. He just needed enough of it to make a decision.

This is exactly how trust and belief works with people too. The team that finally starts to bring you real
problems instead of polished updates. The person in your life who stops being careful around you and starts being honest. The relationship that moves from guarded to genuinely open.

Nobody hands you that. You build it. One consistent day at a time.

have you ever had this feeling? Leave a comment or send a DM. I want to hear your story 🐴

07/22/2026

Nobody sets out to erode trust. That is the part that makes it so uncomfortable to look at.

The moments that do the damage are almost never the big ones. They are the small inconsistencies. The times your attitude did not match your intentions. The moments where you were technically present but not actually there. A pattern forms of saying one thing and
doing another in ways that seemed minor at the time.

With horses, these things show up quickly because horses don’t have the capacity to rationalize them away.

They just feel them and respond accordingly. There is something clarifying about that, even when it is humbling. With people the feedback loop is slower. But the accumulation is the same.

The good news is that what erodes trust in small ways can also rebuild it in small ways. You do not need a grand gesture or a perfect plan. You need enough consistency, repeated often enough, so that the pattern changes.

One honest interaction at a time. One day of showing up the way you said you would. One moment where your attitude matches your belief in the relationship.
That is where trust gets rebuilt. From the ground up, the same way it was lost.

Have you ever lost your horse’s trust or are you currently building it back? 👋🐴

07/18/2026

There is a version of you that your horse meets before you have done anything.

Before you pick up the reins.or ask for a single step. He has already assessed your nervous system, your breath, the quality of your attention, and whether you believe today is going to go well or not.

He is not being psychic but he is being a horse. Prey animals read the energy of everything around them and make decisions based on what they find.

And here is where it gets interesting for everyone, not just riders…

The people in your life are doing the same thing. Your kids feel it when you walk in the door.
Your team feels it when you join the meeting.
Your closest relationships feel it in the first few seconds before you have said anything that matters.

Your attitude is not something you put on like a jacket. It radiates before you choose it consciously. Which means the real work is not performing the right energy. It is cultivating it from inside you.

When things get hard finding your inner peace and strength from inside matters most.

The horse is not fooled by performance. Neither is anyone else, not really…

What would it look like to walk in with something brave radiating within you today? Bring it into the world and leave a comment below! 💜

07/15/2026

Before a horse will trust you, you have to trust yourself.

This sounds simple until you are standing at the gate with a horse who will not come to you, or in front of a presentation you are not sure you are ready to give, or facing a conversation you have been putting off because you are not certain how it will land.

In every one of those moments the same thing is happening. Something in you is asking whether you actually believe you can do this. And everything around you, including the horse or the people in the room, are picking up the answer before you have said a single word.

Horses are just more honest about it than most. They do not pretend they did not notice.

They show you exactly what they feel, which means they show you exactly what you are carrying.

The rider who walks in with a settled belief in themself, not perfect, not fearless, just genuinely committed to showing up and figuring it out, gets a different response than the one who walks in already apologizing for being there.

Your attitude is the first thing your horse meets. It is also the first thing every room you walk into meets.

What would it look like to walk in differently today?

Want a freebie I’ve created to reset in under five minutes?. DM me or drop “YES” in the comments. 🐴

07/11/2026

A client asked me once how she was supposed to trust herself when she had gotten it wrong so many times before.

I thought about that for a minute.

Because she was not asking how to feel confident. She already knew confidence is not
something you manufacture. She was asking something harder…

How you rebuild belief in yourself after you have collected enough evidence that things do not always
work out.

Here is what I told her-

Trust in yourself does not require a perfect record. It requires a willingness to believe that what you do next matters, even when what you did before did not go the way you hoped.

The horse does not care about your history. He is only ever responding to who you are right now, in this moment, with this much belief in your own next step.

That is actually incredibly freeing if you let it be. You do not need to earn your way back from the past before you are allowed to begin again. You just need to decide that beginning again is worth doing.

That decision, made with a genuine attitude of belief rather than wishful thinking, is where trust starts. Every time.

What is one thing you are ready to begin again on? Tell me in the comments or send me a message. 🐴