Kristin Yde • Barrel Racer

Kristin Yde • Barrel Racer Call or E-mail for prices

4X American Semi-Finals Qualifier • 2016 & 2017 SRA Champ • 4X IFR Qualifier • 2016 SEBRA Champ • 2025 BBR 1D Finalist • 2025 PWR Pro Finalist • 2022 NBHA Open World 2D Champ • WPRA/IPRA/SRA/BFA/BBR

I think there’s a big difference between being coachable and being easily influenced.Being coachable means you can liste...
08/30/2026

I think there’s a big difference between being coachable and being easily influenced.

Being coachable means you can listen, ask questions, take constructive criticism and apply something that makes sense for you and your horse.

Being easily influenced means changing your entire program every time somebody with a fast horse tells you what THEY do.

New bit this week.

Different feed next month.

New exercise because you watched somebody warming up.

Change your approach because of one bad run.

Then change it again because somebody else gave you different advice.

There is SO much information available to us now, and that can be an incredible thing. We have access to great trainers, veterinarians, farriers, nutrition information, videos and educational content that people would’ve killed to have years ago.

But at some point you also have to develop your own feel.

Especially as a competitor.

Listen to people you respect. Keep learning. Ask for help when you need it. Be willing to admit when something you’re doing isn’t working.

But also learn your horses well enough to know when something DOES work — even if somebody else would do it differently.

The goal shouldn’t be to have enough confidence that you never take advice.

It should be to have enough knowledge that you can tell which advice actually applies to the horse underneath you.

Do you think social media has made riders MORE educated… or just more likely to second-guess themselves?



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08/30/2026

Sunday funday, cleaning the trailer, doing water, w**d eating - the work never ends on the ranch & we love it!

I think one of the hardest parts about having multiple goals in this industry is accepting that they don’t always cooper...
08/30/2026

I think one of the hardest parts about having multiple goals in this industry is accepting that they don’t always cooperate with each other.

I want to rodeo. I want to futurity. I want to go to the big super shows. I want to keep developing my own young horses. I have training horses that deserve the same consistency whether I competed the night before or not. And somewhere in the schedule, I’d also like enough sleep to actually function like a normal human.

The problem is that every goal has a different demand.

Rodeoing can mean driving through the night, running on whatever sleep you can get and being right back to work the next morning.

Futurity horses need consistency. You can’t just disappear for a week every time there’s somewhere else you want to enter and expect a young horse’s program to stay exactly where you left it.

Super shows require days away from home, but they’re also opportunities to run against great competition, make substantial money and see exactly where your horses stack up.

Then there’s the actual business that makes chasing those goals possible. Training horses still need ridden. Lessons still need taught. Horses need fed and cared for. Clients deserve communication. The barn doesn’t magically shut down because there’s a rodeo three states away.

And then there’s the part we probably ignore the most: ourselves.

You can only run on four hours of sleep, gas-station food and caffeine for so long before your riding, decision-making and patience start paying the price.

So I’m learning that chasing everything doesn’t mean doing everything, every week.

Sometimes rodeo gets the priority. Sometimes a futurity horse needs me home. Sometimes the right super show is worth skipping something else. Sometimes staying home, riding my horses and getting eight hours of sleep is probably the most productive decision I could make.

I don’t think balance in this industry means everything gets equal attention.

I think it means knowing what needs the MOST attention right now without forgetting where you ultimately want to go.

For those trying to compete at a high level while also running a horse business — how do you decide what gets the yes and what gets the no?

I think horse training might be one of the most romanticized professions in the horse industry.And maybe one of the only...
08/29/2026

I think horse training might be one of the most romanticized professions in the horse industry.

And maybe one of the only professions where doing something a few times automatically makes people comfortable putting it in their job title.

Riding your own young horses is training horses. Helping a friend with theirs is training horses. Being knowledgeable and capable absolutely counts for something.

But being a professional horse trainer is a whole different animal.

It means taking horses you didn’t pick, with problems you didn’t create, owned by people with different goals, expectations and timelines — and figuring out how to make progress with all of them.

It’s riding when it’s 100 degrees and when it’s freezing. It’s managing a barn full of different personalities, soundness concerns, feeding programs, farrier schedules, vet appointments and owner communication.

It’s sending invoices. Answering messages. Making videos. Scheduling lessons. Hauling. Competing. Keeping records. Paying insurance, fuel, help, facility expenses and everything else that comes with running an actual business.

It’s riding the easy ones AND the difficult ones.

And the biggest difference might be this:

When it’s your profession, you don’t just get to train horses when you feel inspired to train horses.

They are waiting on you every morning.

I don’t think that makes a professional trainer automatically more talented than someone who trains their own. There are some incredibly handy horsemen and women who have never taken a training horse in their life.

But I do think there’s a difference between knowing how to train a horse and choosing horse training as your profession.

Social media tends to show the pretty parts — riding all day, winning, nice horses, traveling and getting paid to do what you love.

It doesn’t show nearly as much of the responsibility that comes with making your living responsible for someone else’s horse.

And if you’re young or seriously considering making this your profession, one of the best things you can do before hanging out your own shingle is go work under an established trainer for a summer.

Not just take lessons. Not just ride the fun ones. Actually WORK there.

Show up when they do. Help feed. Saddle. Ride. Clean up. Handle the problem horses. Watch how they communicate with clients. See what happens when one gets hurt, a truck breaks down, the schedule gets blown apart or there’s more work than daylight.

Give yourself a few months of seeing what the profession looks like when nobody is making a highlight reel out of it.

You may come out of that summer wanting it even more — and with a whole lot more knowledge about what it actually takes.

Or you may realize you love training horses a lot more when you don’t have to make your living doing it.

Both are perfectly good answers.

For the people who do this professionally: what’s the part of the job you wish you’d gotten to experience BEFORE you decided to make it your career?

Are we developing better riders… or just better button pushers?I think as trainers and coaches, sometimes we can help ou...
08/29/2026

Are we developing better riders… or just better button pushers?

I think as trainers and coaches, sometimes we can help our students too much.

Warm the horse up for them. Fix every problem before they get on. Tell them exactly when to pick up, when to release, where to put their hands, when to use their feet, when to stop, when to go.

Then they make a great run — but do they actually understand what they felt underneath them?

I don’t make a habit of warming horses up for my students. I want them to learn how their horse feels that day.

Is one side stiff? Are they heavy in a shoulder? Are they moving off their leg? Are they distracted? Does something feel different than normal? What needs to be worked on before they ever walk toward the alley?

They need to learn how to recognize a problem, think through it and make an adjustment — not immediately look to someone on the fence to fix it for them.

That doesn’t mean a trainer should never get on.

Sometimes I absolutely need to step on one, feel something myself, fix a spot, demonstrate something or help a horse and rider get back on the same page. That’s part of the job.

But there’s a big difference between helping a student learn and constantly doing it for them.

Eventually, they need to be able to get on without someone holding their hand through every step.

Because we’re not just teaching them how to make a barrel run.

We’re teaching them how to ride a horse.

The goal should be to develop riders who can feel when something is right, recognize when something is wrong, understand why, and have enough tools in their toolbox to start figuring out what to do about it.

A good coach shouldn’t make a rider dependent on them forever.

They should be building a rider who becomes more capable every time they swing a leg over.

Where do you think the line is between helping a student and doing too much for them?

“Protecting my peace” has become one of those phrases that sounds healthy… until you realize how often it’s being used t...
08/28/2026

“Protecting my peace” has become one of those phrases that sounds healthy… until you realize how often it’s being used to avoid accountability.

There’s a difference between setting boundaries and removing every person from your life who tells you something you don’t want to hear.

Sometimes the person “disturbing your peace” isn’t toxic. Sometimes they’re asking a fair question. Sometimes they’re pointing out a pattern. Sometimes they’re holding you to something you said you’d do. Sometimes they’re simply not willing to agree with you just to keep you comfortable.

Growth is uncomfortable.

Accountability is uncomfortable.

Being told you handled something poorly is uncomfortable.

None of those things automatically make someone negative, jealous, toxic, or bad for your “peace.”

Absolutely protect yourself from people who consistently bring chaos, disrespect, or unnecessary drama into your life.

But if protecting your peace always seems to require removing anyone who challenges you… eventually you might have to consider whether you’re protecting your peace or protecting yourself from accountability.

Where do you think the line is between a healthy boundary and avoiding something you probably need to hear?

If barrel racing disappeared tomorrow… what horse sport are you switching to?And you HAVE to pick one. No sitting this o...
08/28/2026

If barrel racing disappeared tomorrow… what horse sport are you switching to?

And you HAVE to pick one. No sitting this one out.

For me, I’m going straight to cross country or Grand Prix jumping. Give me a horse, a giant obstacle and a questionable amount of self-preservation and apparently I’m in.

Are you heading to the rope pen? Cutting? Reining? Cow horse? Mounted shooting? Racing? Jumping? Eventing?

I think it would be interesting to see where everybody lands because as much as we love barrel racing, a lot of us really just love horses, adrenaline and competition.

And I have a feeling some of y’all already have your secret second career picked out.

Barrel racing disappears tomorrow — where am I finding you?

If barrel racing came with a scouting report on every rider… what would yours say? 😂Not your horse. You.Because we spend...
08/27/2026

If barrel racing came with a scouting report on every rider… what would yours say? 😂

Not your horse. You.

Because we spend plenty of time describing our horses:

Free runner. Push style. Ratey. Strong. Sensitive. Needs confidence. Needs you to stay out of their way.

Meanwhile, every single one of us has our own tendencies too.

Mine would probably read something like:

Competitive.
Can adjust to a lot of different horses.
Trainer brain and jockey brain occasionally fight for control.
Will replay a run in my head until I figure out exactly where I could’ve been better.
Probably going to choose “send it” more often than “play it safe.”
Has never seen a diesel bill or entry fee capable of stopping a questionable decision.

So now I want to hear everyone else’s.

Give me your brutally accurate barrel racer scouting report. 😂

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1362 Chic Ennis Road
Benson, NC
27504

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