South Wind Equestrian Center

08/19/2026

07/19/2026

I think we interrupt horses too much.

Not because we're unkind.

Because we're enthusiastic.

A horse finally lies down.

We walk over.

Two horses begin quietly grooming each other.

We reach for our phone.

One horse chooses to stand beside us.

We stroke them.

A curious horse starts investigating something.

We call their name.

A horse looks toward the horizon with complete attention...

and we ask for it back.

I don't think we mean to interrupt.

We're just excited to be part of whatever beautiful thing is unfolding.

I've caught myself doing it countless times.

Then one morning, I stopped.

Eclipse was standing quietly, watching something in the distance.

I have no idea what had captured his attention.

A bird.

A squirrel.

Another horse.

The wind.

For a moment I almost walked over to see if he wanted scratches.

Instead, I stayed where I was.

He never looked at me.

He never asked for anything.

After a while, whatever had held his attention passed, and he went back to grazing.

Nothing extraordinary happened.

Except perhaps this:

For once, I didn't interrupt a moment that didn't belong to me.

The more time I spend with horses, the more I wonder if love isn't always about joining in.

Sometimes it's about quietly protecting another being's experience from our own enthusiasm.

Maybe one of the greatest gifts we can offer those we love...

is the freedom to finish their own moments.

O

If today’s post resonated with you, you’ll find much more in my book, Chosen, Not Obeyed. It’s an invitation to see horses—and perhaps yourself—through a different lens.

📖 Get your copy here: ⁠ https://a.co/d/0dPCSVyv

07/17/2026

Please don’t let that horse that gave you the best years of its life starve to death. Starving is painful. As horses grow older and they lose teeth or their teeth get ground down, it is our responsibility to soak pelleted grass for them, add some mineral salts and fat, maybe even an arthritis supplement, for as long as they want to be happy and enjoying their time on the planet. starving is painful. They do not deserve to slowly starve to death in a pasture or with a pile of hay they can’t chew.

Blunt reminder: if you are going to own animals, you need to be willing and able to make ethical decisions regarding their end of life.

I’m sure everyone has heard the saying “let them go on a good day.” I don’t know that everyone truly understands the meaning.

Letting them go on a good day means not making the 32 year old arthritic broodmare suffer through one more winter just because “she’s still happy” even though her weight is dropping and those hills are getting harder on her.

Letting them go on a good day means exhausting all options and making the call for that 9 year old with a genetic disease that’s running its course even while others argue “but he could be happy in the pasture.”

Letting them go on a good day is knowing that late twenties bonded pair needs to go together, even if one isn’t as physically ready, the mental toll will be the downfall.

We are advocates for our animals. That means being the ones to give them a voice, even when that voice is saying “it’s time for me to go.”

And bluntly, if you cannot handle making that decision, if you are so selfish you cannot see the unnecessary suffering or pain, or if you are so uneducated as to not knowing what those markers are, you do not need to own a horse.

Good or bad, young or old, babysitter or outlaw, horses die.
It is your job to give them dignity in death.

Pictured: George, one of the ones we’ve had to make the call for over the years, and while he is incredibly missed, he’s also pain-free and grazing lush green grass on the other side of the Rainbow Bridge

07/08/2026

Bomb proof…kid safe…broke broke broke

All phrases people use to describe the perfect horse.

Guess what, when we circumvent the horse’s natural responses and flood them with stress and fear, they resort to freeze/disassociation.

Creating a zombie can backfire. That bomb proof kid-safe horse will wake up one day. When they do it can be dangerous for people, but it is not because the horse is “dangerous”. It is because it was not allowed to be a part of the process.

Relationship is the most important thing to a horse. At a visceral level their survival depends on others. Horses want to be in healthy relationships. Read that again.

Therefore, it is imperative that trainers and owners become partners not aggressors. Healthy boundaries, of course. Herds teach those for the good of the individual and the group. But not to kill the spirit of their herd mate. That does not benefit the herd at all.

Your horse will perform better for you, whatever you ask of it, if you treat it with respect and place the relationship above task, paying attention to what the horse is telling you and learning about equine ethology.

07/05/2026

This is so important to remember. Horses need time to adjust. 

One of the hardest conversations to have in the horse world is what happens after a horse goes to its new home.

It's a sensitive topic between trainers, owners, and buyers, but it's an important one.

The reality is this: if you aren't willing to accept that a horse may be different during the transition into a new home—even a very well-broke, seasoned horse—then it's probably better not to purchase one at all.

Every horse is an individual, and we cannot predict which horses will struggle with a move and which ones will settle immediately. Some walk off the trailer as though they've lived there their entire lives. Others need weeks or even months to fully adjust.

Owning a horse means accepting that possibility and being prepared to support them through it.

When a horse moves, everything changes.

A new environment. New sights. New sounds. New people. New feed. New water. New herd mates. A different routine. Even a different climate.

That is an enormous amount of stress for any horse.

Of course we all wish horses would step off the trailer and be exactly the same as they were at the trainer's barn. But that's simply not how horses work.

Just like people, horses need time to adjust before they truly settle into new surroundings. During that transition, many horses can perform at a fraction of their normal ability. They may seem more reactive, more anxious, less confident, or more sensitive than they ever did before.

This transition period is critical.

It is when horses need calm, consistent leadership. They need routine. They need fairness, patience, and direction. Most of all, they need someone they can trust.

As trainers, we hear it all the time:

"He was perfect at your place, but since I brought him home he's a completely different horse."

More often than not, that isn't because the horse changed. It's because the environment changed.

A horse doesn't automatically transfer confidence, trust, or understanding from one person to another.

Respect is not transferable.

Every new owner must earn it through consistency, fairness, and good leadership.

It's also important to remember that every interaction matters. Whether we realize it or not, we are either training or untraining our horses every single time we handle them. The habits, responses, confidence, and respect we build—or unintentionally erode—are shaped by our daily interactions.

Horses are herd animals and prey animals. Their instinct is first to flee, then, if necessary, to fight. They naturally seek stability within the herd. If they don't find confident leadership from the person handling them, they'll either look for it from another horse—or they'll decide they need to become the leader themselves.

Understanding this transition, and supporting a horse through it instead of fighting against it, is often the difference between a partnership that flourishes and one that struggles. ❤️