BR Performance Horses

10/31/2026

I’m baaaack 👻

Not only am I going to continue to share my thoughts here, but I’ll be putting together some informational posts on the Elm Creek Equine page!

We are so excited to have Elle from BR Performance Horses back on our team after her maternity leave.

Elle has taken on a few roles which include assisting our West vets; managing our rehab and repro patient care, and also stepping up our social media presence.

We love sharing information and believe education can prevent so much unnecessary suffering in horses.

We hope you enjoy the more frequent posts and please feel free to share them!

Without further ado:

❄️🌱❄️🌱❄️🌱❄️

Did you know that your horse is at a higher risk of laminitis when grazing after the first killing frost?

After the first killing frost, where temperatures are below freezing for multiple hours and the growing season has ended, the NSC (non structural carbohydrates) in pastures are much higher than usual.

This increase in sugar can put your horse at a higher risk of developing laminitis- especially horses who are prone to obesity or laminitis or diagnosed equine metabolic disease or Cushings/PPID.

It can take plants up to 7 days to return back to normal sugar levels and it is recommended to keep your horses off pasture for this time.

10/30/2026

One year since we sold our first home and moved back to my family farm to start all over again 🫶🏻

Not only did we spend 5 years building our acreage into our dream- work in every room in the house, cleaned up a semi abandoned yard, built individual pens, trenched a waterer, built a shelter, moved a barn in, fenced pasture, etc- we then dismantled most of the yard before we left.

The bright side is that we’re semi professional fence builders and fence dismantlers now 🤪
And we got to take all of our sucker rod and gates with us.
Just a minor sting that no one will enjoy all our hard work there.

That place will always be so special to us and a big part of BR- we had somewhere around 60 horses come through that yard. Not a crazy number, but a fair amount for someone who had another full time job and then mat leave.

We then moved “home” to my family farm.. to start the whole process all over again.

This yard has had cattle, sheep, pigs, and mules over the years. It had horses on it as well, and this is where I had horses growing up, but it was never truly set up for them.

Plus any improvements I had once made.. have now been deemed wrong by the people that now have a little too much yard design and fence building experience 😅🤪

We’ve spent the last year pouring everything we have into making this place exactly what we want it to be.

Last fall we fenced just enough to move horses into pens for the winter and then spent the winter working on projects in the house.

Since spring, we have done all sorts of projects- big and small- such as:
-worked up ground for the arena
-tore down very sad page wire, barbed wire, and smooth wire to then replace posts and redo with electric rope in the front half of the pasture
-built a 10x20 shelter
-re did half the fences we built last fall.. because it must be *just* right
-gutted the barn and installed box stalls
-replaced a waterer and its concrete pad
-built a frame for the waterer and replaced frames for both of them
-took down two cable fence lines and replaced with sucker rod
-fixed up old wind break
-cleaned up old trees and burn piles
-built multiple new fence lines in sucker rod
-tidied, purged, reorganized, and all the other fun things that come along with taking over a farm yard that’s been passed down and never truly cleaned up for 145+ years.

It has been a labour of love, and a wee bit trying, to take yet another old farm yard and turn it into our dream.. but it couldn’t be any more rewarding.

Our son is the 7th generation of our family to live in on this land.. and I think that’s pretty dang cool.

I sure hope my Grams is watching it all unfold. She made sure I knew how badly she wanted us here, and I just know she’d love all the progress we’ve made 🤍

10/29/2026

To say I’m proud of this baby is an understatement.

I’ve always enjoyed bringing along young horses, but breeding and producing them from the very beginning has brought out a whole new level of emotional investment.

I’ve been proud of this perfect little filly before she ever hit the ground.

My rational brain knows I should sell her and I will be her very biggest cheerleader wherever she ends up. But I’ve been avoiding working with her because of it lol One would think I should be putting all my time into her to get her perfect to sell, but I just KNOW the more time I spend with her the harder it’s going to be to let her go.

She is so smart and willing and just wants to be such a good girl.. even if she’s occasionally a little spicy while doing it 🤪
( she has no choice with who her parents are)

BR TOUCHMYPANTALONES
Adios Pantalones x SRS Sundays Touch (Touch of Virtue)

10/28/2026

Is that even a real question?

10/28/2026

The picture almost makes it look like we’re friends 🤪

Casual reminder when horse shopping.. pictures and videos can make horses look a whole lot quieter than they are. This one has made a lot of progress, but is still very much one with the wild.

10/28/2026

I spend far too much time just staring at her.

She’s available to the perfect performance home

10/28/2026

I was 100% on board with selling Roo until I put her out with Enzo.. don’t ask me why, but putting the brother/sister duo together just makes me love them so much more.

Also V.
She makes such perfect babies, it’s tempting to just let her live her best broodmare life.

She’s a lovely mare but honestly, she has out produced herself both times now. I couldn’t have asked for anything more from her.

(Ignore Enzo’s janky foot wrap please and thanks)

10/27/2026

I had a friend explain to me years ago that she would rather light a fire than put one out- meaning she would rather start with a quieter, laid back horse that she needed to light up later.

However, I find myself to be the opposite.
If I have to choose between something I need to push for every stride and a fire breathing dragon.. I’ll pick the dragon almost every time (within reason 😅)

I naturally ride on the quieter side and find that I have a knack for bringing those spicier horses down.
Whether is actual speed of their feet or speed of their brain.. hint- it’s almost always comes down to the speed of their brain.

Will I train on one that needs a little fire lit under their ass? Absolutely. I can get along with that type as well, I just know my strengths are with the ones that are looking for excuses to speed up.. not the ones looking for excuses to slam on the breaks.

However, this does bite me in the butt as I raise my own colts.. I don’t really over work them, and yet I accidentally end up with colts that are borderline quiet to a fault and do need a bit of a fire lit at some point.
I guess it’s a vibe 🤪

So I’m curious, what’s your preference?

10/27/2026

We haltered Dan for the first time on Friday, spent a few minutes handling him over the weekend, and here he is today.
He’s a pretty honest little guy that’s coming around rather quickly- considering we had only ever given him butt scratches until this weekend!

(Kody moved him into a clean stall and he lead so nicely I made Kody bring him back out for a quick video 🤪)

He’s available and ready to go.

10/26/2026

A calm, reliable old horse is always an asset when teaching young horses. Especially the newly weaned babies that need some help regulating their big feelings away from their mamas.

Apparently Enzo, the yearling, has decided that’s an excellent gig.

Roo spent the first 4 days of her weaning in the barn next to him and is now enjoying day 2 of turnout. No matter what feelings or outbursts she has had, he just chills. It didn’t take her long to follow suit 🥹

Here’s hoping he’s sound one day and doesn’t spend the rest of his life as a very over priced babysitter 😅