07/12/2026
❤️🥰❤️🙏❤️🙏🥰❤️
When I buy a horse, I don’t try it first. I buy with discernment.
I buy knowing that whatever I haul home belongs to me—the good, the bad, and the ugly. That’s part of the responsibility.
And honestly? I’m almost always grateful I didn’t know everything beforehand. If I had known every flaw, every quirk, every challenge, I probably would’ve passed on some of the very best horses I’ve ever owned.
My philosophy is simple: never spend more than you’re willing to gamble with.
I choose the horse with my heart, but I choose the next steps with my head.
I know that sounds backwards, but if I had followed the traditional horse-shopping checklist, many of the horses I’ve sold that went on to change people’s lives would’ve never come home with me in the first place.
These days, I hardly ask questions anymore.
I get quiet.
I watch their eyes. I watch how they carry themselves. I watch how they handle pressure of auction. I watch how they move. Then I listen to that still, small voice God placed inside all of us.
People can tell stories. Horses usually tell the truth.
I don’t buy based on someone else’s opinion of who a horse is, or the story they tell about the horse. I buy the horse I feel led to buy, bring it home, and then I evaluate it for myself. I decide who that horse is—not what someone else said it was.
Take the mare in these photos.
She has false nostrils, so without nose clips she struggles to breathe in a run.
She’s grade because no one will transfer her papers.
She sets back when you cinch her, so you can’t saddle her tied.
She’s prone to ulcers.
Getting her hind feet trimmed is a challenge, even though she’ll let you pick them up.
On paper, there was every of reasons to walk away.
Yet this year alone she won over $15,000, a saddle, six buckles, two pendants, the HOYRA Finals average, the HOYRA Year-End Championship, and she carried my daughter to the short round at the NLBRA National Finals.
Most people would’ve never picked her as a youth horse.
But God did.
Discernment isn’t ignoring problems. Discernment is recognizing that not every problem is a deal breaker.
Sometimes the horse you love just needs a trainer.
Sometimes it needs better nutrition, proper supplements, good veterinary care, and time.
Sometimes it needs someone willing to see what it could become instead of only what it is today.
I’ve got a 25-year-old horse that looks and feels like she’s 12 because we invested in keeping her healthy instead of writing her off because of her age.
I do think we’ve become so focused on finding reasons to say no that we’ve forgotten to ask, “What if this is the horse God intended for me?”
Horses are living, breathing creatures. They can be trained. They can be treated. They can be managed. They can surprise you.
So don’t only look for reasons to pass them up.
Look for the potential.
Pray for discernment.
Then trust God to guide your next step.
Sometimes the horse that doesn’t check every box ends up checking every box that really matters.
