Decode Horsemanship

Decode Horsemanship Slow, soft, honest training | From fresh starts to forever homes | Focus on desensitized compananions

Look at the stripes.That's the view from Cali's back (which I have NOT been on yet!), and those tipped, striped ears are...
05/29/2026

Look at the stripes.

That's the view from Cali's back (which I have NOT been on yet!), and those tipped, striped ears are part of what makes the dun coloring so striking up close.

Learning about her for the first few times has felt like meeting someone whose company I want for a long, long time.

Two photos, one feeling.The first is the day she arrived. I sat by the fire and she stood behind me, and neither of us n...
05/27/2026

Two photos, one feeling.

The first is the day she arrived. I sat by the fire and she stood behind me, and neither of us needed to do anything more than that.

The second is a hot afternoon a few weeks later. She loves a cold rinse. She also loves attention, and being told she is good, and being told she is loved, which I do constantly and without restraint.

Some horses you have to earn. Cali decided about me on day one.

Some of you have been waiting for this announcement.This is Cali. Her registered name is Riverpointe Lucy in the Sky of ...
05/25/2026

Some of you have been waiting for this announcement.

This is Cali. Her registered name is Riverpointe Lucy in the Sky of GGR — a 2023 Gypsy Vanner filly, homozygous dun, bred by Gypsy Glory Ranch. She came to us from across the country, and she has changed our barn already.

Two more things you should know.

She's expecting a foal in July.

And the first photos here are her as a baby. The horse she'll grow into is built for the work we do at Decode — feathered legs, calm eyes, a body made for partnership.

I love her. That's the whole post.

Day starts with: "Hey, the truck is losing power while we tow these horses up a hill."Day continues with: "Looks like it...
05/22/2026

Day starts with: "Hey, the truck is losing power while we tow these horses up a hill."
Day continues with: "Looks like it's just low on transmission fluid."
Day ends with: "...the entire transmission is blown."

If you run a farm, you know there are two kinds of expenses: the ones you planned for, and the ones the truck plans for you.

We are now in the second kind.

Running a horse farm involves a surprising amount of engineering you don't learn in any horsemanship clinic.Slide 1: New...
05/20/2026

Running a horse farm involves a surprising amount of engineering you don't learn in any horsemanship clinic.

Slide 1: New electric fence on an old post. Day after install. Draft gelding has not yet questioned my authority.
Slide 2: Cinder blocks zip-tied to a chain harrow. Adds the weight you need to actually drag a field. Sometimes the fix is just heavy.
Slide 3: A fresh salt block.
Slide 4: The same salt block, after the horses got involved. That groove down the middle is from the frenulum — the underside of the tongue. They love it.

Half of horsemanship is observing animals. The other half is hardware store creativity.

05/19/2026

BlackJack is small. BlackJack is opinionated. BlackJack has, until this moment, never been in a herd of full-sized geldings.

Watch his confidence adjust in real time.

He'll be fine. They'll all be fine. But he just learned something today that no human could have taught him.
**t

What you are looking at is one of our young stud c**ts attempting to romance our biggest, oldest mare. She is in her mid...
05/18/2026

What you are looking at is one of our young stud c**ts attempting to romance our biggest, oldest mare. She is in her mid-twenties. She is also, as you can see, considerably taller than him.

He could not, mechanically, reach.

We laughed. She tolerated him with the dignity of a queen humoring a peasant. And then we made some management changes, because this is exactly the kind of moment that reminds you why intact young males don't get to free-range with the herd indefinitely.

Even when they're, uh, vertically challenged.
**t

No Reins.A half-day retreat for women, on a working horse farm in Chapel Hill.Some women have done all the right things ...
05/16/2026

No Reins.
A half-day retreat for women, on a working horse farm in Chapel Hill.
Some women have done all the right things and have started to feel like everyone else is holding the reins.
No riding. No sharing circle. No journaling prompts. No one will ask you to set an intention.
Just you, a small group of women, and four horses who have nothing to sell you and no opinion about what you should be doing with your life.
If you're the woman who is fine, and is tired of being fine — this is for you.
Third Saturday of every month. 10am–2pm. Lunch included. Four to eight women. $375.
https://decodehorsemanship.com/no-reins

This is Bazooka. He came home with us in July, which means this is the first spring he's spent shedding a winter coat — ...
05/15/2026

This is Bazooka. He came home with us in July, which means this is the first spring he's spent shedding a winter coat — and his first coat ever was a full foal fluff.

If you've never watched a young horse lose his baby fur, it looks something like the second photo. Patches. Tufts. Strange textures. New colors underneath that no one expected.

He has no idea any of this is happening. He just itches a lot and demands extra scratches.

Welcome to your first molt, kid.

Second cohort: Saturday, May 30. 8:30 AM – 4 PM. A half-day at Decode for women who've been holding a lot. No horse expe...
05/14/2026

Second cohort: Saturday, May 30. 8:30 AM – 4 PM.

A half-day at Decode for women who've been holding a lot. No horse experience required. No agenda except being present with horses that respond to what's actually true.

A few seats. Comment INFO or check out this link: https://www.decodehorsemanship.com/eal/no-reins

Meet BlackJack. He's a stud c**t with a serious case of Napoleon syndrome, which means he is small, certain of his own i...
05/13/2026

Meet BlackJack. He's a stud c**t with a serious case of Napoleon syndrome, which means he is small, certain of his own importance, and absolutely convinced that he is in charge.

Spoiler: he is not in charge.

But he is one of my favorite characters on the farm, and grooming season with him looks like the second photo. That much dirt came off one small, opinionated horse in a few moments.

Stud c**ts. They keep you humble.
**t

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1120 Whippoorwill Lane
Chapel Hill, NC
27517

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