Future Performance Horses

12/08/2025

17” Stubben Ascend de Luxe 31 cm
Serial number D174926
Received on 3/16/2022

Custom ordered simply to serve as a back-up saddle, while mine was off being re-flocked, this Ascend has the deluxe Ebony leather, Stubben’s soft seat, wool flocking, front and rear Velcro blocks, plus every other possible upgrade option that was available at that time, to include rose gold fittings.

Regularly cleaned and conditioned with Stubben products to preserve the leather, it was also recently deep cleaned and deep conditioned to prepare for sale. The entire saddle is supple, buttery soft, and better-than-demo wear-and-tear-wise, since it hasn’t even had enough rides to be considered broken in yet, was only ever used by a professional, and has never been touched by anything other than Stubben calfskin stirrup leathers.

Stored inside, covered, and always on a padded saddle rack to protect the shape of its wool; it’s actually sitting in my dining room, at the moment, with three other extra saddles, spare show halters, etc… I would continue to keep it, since I can no longer order a new one for the same money, but I really need to make some room, so come Christmas my guests aren’t sitting on saddle racks in lieu of dining chairs! 😆

I have another one of this exact same saddle that is a mainstay in my lesson program because, with the Velcro blocks, I can not only make it fit just about everyone, but I can also adjust their leg position in the moment for flatting or over fences work, so I know it will be appropriate regardless of whether we are doing a dressage, show jumping, or cross country session. I also love this model as a training or trail riding saddle because it’s super secure!

Asking $2750 with free shipping within the continental United States. I’ve done the market research for you to make sure I’m offering it up at a good deal; a couple comparable used Ascends are currently out on trial through consignment tack stores for $3500 with $300 shipping plus tax, and lesser quality, used, foam Ascends, with fewer upgrade options, are listed for sale right now on Stubben’s website for $2500 plus tax.

I think I’ve included more pictures in more different kinds of light than anyone could possibly want, lol, but if I’ve left anything out, I’m happy to take even more. 🦄

12/03/2025

Wrapping up our week of water work, celebrating Zander acing his final exam, and announcing his official graduation from baby boot camp! 🥳 Brynn and her new buddy weren’t super sure, at first, but after letting them stand around and just look for a little while sans any pressure, curiosity inevitably got the better of both itty-bitty beasties, and then we were confidently wading through all the ways. 🙌 Plus, bonus footage of no-hands-hills and touching all the butts, lol! 😆

12/01/2025

Fabio crosses the mighty Mississippi. 🙇‍♂️🤪 Today was about thanking God for the bold bay mares He put on this planet to lead the less-gung-ho golden geldings (who, mind you, have lived their whole little lives on this exact same type of terrain) through the tremendously treacherous tribulations faced on the fictitious frontier. 🐉🧚‍♂️

11/30/2025

Tested our mettle on the trails again today… if this sentence sounds counterintuitive to you because “trail riding” brings to mind a nice, leisurely, stroll through the peaceful woods, please remember Tara and I know how to turn everything up to Level 100,000,000, plus, we have legit coordination and conditioning goals for these critters, so… 🧗‍♀️🌊🚵‍♀️ I absolutely love it - I’ll take my daily dose of adrenaline in any form, thank you 😆 - and (un)surprisingly the show horses just go with it because, first and foremost, they are horses… THIS is what they were made to do! 😉

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𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐚 𝐈𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦?

I never grew up with an arena.

My father thought it was a complete waste of money. He was a cow man, dairy farmer to be exact, not a horse man, dislikes them 🫣, and if you could work cattle across it, you could ride a horse on it. So schooling didn’t happen in a fenced area with sand, it happened wherever the land allowed.

Without realising it at the time, that shaped everything.

We schooled in fields and woodland. We had hills that taught balance without explanation. Cow roads dressed with gravel and lime slippery, uneven and honest where horses learned rhythm and respect for their own feet. We jumped ditches and drains because they were there. My father, God love him, built a few jumps himself for me, never level, never the right height, and absolutely never forgiving. There were blue barrels, stony ground, bog ground that would put the fear of God into most people before it ever troubled a horse.

And the horses relaxed.

Not because it was easy, it wasn’t but because it made sense.

This is what I think we lose when we rely too heavily on the arena. For many horses, the arena is the most unnatural place they are ever asked to exist. Straight lines that aren’t really straight. Circles that don’t occur in nature. Repetition without a destination. Pressure without release they understand. It’s not laziness or defiance that unsettles them, it’s confusion, vigilance, or memory.

Out in a field, the land does half the teaching for you. A hill explains engagement better than a dozen instructions ever could. Uneven ground demands attention without tension. A ditch doesn’t care about an outline it cares about honesty from horse and rider.

Forward thinking horses, especially, settle better outside. Their brains have somewhere to go. They’re allowed to look, to process, to travel. In an arena, that same intelligence often turns inward. The body braces because the mind is trapped.

And then we blame the horse.

We call them sharp. Difficult. Opinionated.
Better outside than inside said as if it’s a flaw. When very often it’s the opposite the horse is easier because the work carries meaning.

Field schooling allows imperfection. There is no expectation of symmetry, no constant correction. If a stride shortens uphill, that’s information. If a horse hesitates at bog ground, that’s self preservation. They learn to balance themselves before a rider ever interferes.

Compare that to the arena, where we can mistake stillness for relaxation and obedience for understanding. A horse can look beautifully rideable and be tight as wire underneath held together rather than moving freely.

I’m not anti arena, I’d love an indoor arena (I hate rain🤣). Used well, it’s a valuable tool. But it should refine education, not replace land, variety, and common sense. The arena should never be the only place learning happens.

Some horses will never fully relax between boards. That isn’t disobedience or attitude. It’s often a horse saying quietly, this environment doesn’t explain itself to me.

The field does.

And sometimes the most honest schooling isn’t neat or symmetrical. Sometimes it’s mud on your boots and horse, crooked lines, uneven ground and a horse that finally breathes out because the world around them makes sense.

Below was prime example of a fence on the woodland I used for schooling, this was at a drag hunt years ago on Daisy the Connemara by Woodfield Sammy.

11/28/2025

NEVER stop asking why, and NEVER settle for using a coach/trainer that won’t explain or won’t find out/figure out the why, if they don’t already know!

You owe it to your horse and yourself to commit to understanding at the deepest level!

Learn how to ask probing questions politely and how to phrase them to help the professionals on your path impart information in the most personally relevant ways.

Embrace being a serial student; even the most accomplished masters of their craft will quickly assert they are excited to be continuing their own education and are always open to the possibility of further knowledge acquisition by experimenting and embracing alternative perspectives!

The fact that there will forever be more out there to discover is what randomly wakes me up at 3 am every morning and inevitably keeps me engrossed in study until the sun actually rises! 🥱😆

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Any system or practice worth following will be open to robust questioning.

A red flag always pops up for me when someone expression irritation or pushes away my queries to understand more, to get a better grasp on what it is that’s being presented.

Within my own work, I know I’ve tired quickly of my own righteousness, my own certainties or fixedness that what I offer in the only way or the best way.

The world, the information we have access to currently, what we understand to be true about the body, the mind, the universe, our place in it, holds so many grey areas, so many things yet to be discovered, expanded on, understood.

It’s part of the beauty, not the drawbacks.

Here we aren’t knowers, but adventurers. We should never lose our curiosity to ask, or the ability to receive questions.

I find strength, not weakness, in looking at things from a different point of view, and not being sure what to do with it. In being told, I don’t know, or I’m not sure.

In exploring from that place.

In letting ourselves rest in the 'we’re not sure'.

In letting ourselves rest in, 'that didn’t work, what else can we try?'

One of the arts of being human is to be able to hold the questions, the nuance, the ambiguity. And not just privately, but publicly, with each other.

To let ourselves live in the zones with the fuzzy edges and share what it is we find there.

Onwards.

❤️ Jane

11/25/2025

A lot of stables and students cancel due to inclement weather, but not me and not my people; we eagerly embrace these opportunities to expand our horizons and Alyssa actually had Dom begging to join Luca and Lyla this morning, when he found out about our intended agenda for indoor activities! 😁

We spent the first half of our lesson in the first barn, learning what it feels like to be both the horse and the driver, by taking turns holding the bit and the diving lines, respectively. Then, we headed over to the second barn to do the same thing using the actual cart! I love encouraging kids (and adults) to explore the similarities and differences in cues and control when sitting on versus behind our horses!

Dom was already eagerly asking questions about “next time” as we parked. 🥰 There are so many ways to enjoy being an equestrian!!!

11/19/2025

When your long-time client (who is just as bad as you are about buying horses sight unseen, off video, from clear across the country, resolved to simply deal with what we actually get, when it unloads off the transporter’s trailer) finally shows up with the new (hopefully 🤞🙏🍀) husband-safe steed, you immediately put him through the ringer of exaggerated idiocy to (for once in your lives) be PLEASANTLY SURPRISED that he actually rides like a flomp-along’s dreammmmmm! 🤩🥰🙌

Axel will be equally pleased to learn his new human sits a saddle MUCH better than I did during this silly test sesh! 😅 We just wanted to make super sure he’d be a safe spouse-sitter, if Brandon ever randomly had an unexpected seizure/existential crisis in his saddle. 😆 He passed with flying colors! Nothing like a pretty 😍 , fun 🎈, comfy ☁️, good boy 😇, Quarter Horse GELDING. 🤣

11/18/2025

LITERALLYYYYYY “holding her” for the farrier. 😅 Mare was snoring, using my shoulder as a headrest. 😴

11/18/2025

I live for the days owners visit and they get to be blown away by their babies’ progress (and beefcake b***y building, lol)! 🥰 Devon had Zander moving his shoulders around so super softly with the lightest of little cues, and then iced the cake by loping around lovely, too!!! They even got an awesomely-accidental, absolutely perfect, right-to-left flying lead change because he was so tuned into the subtleties of her seat! 🤠

Please excuse my horrendous videography; it’s hard to “camera” and coach simultaneously - the clip cuts off because I completely lost them around the corner, as I vicariously rode through it with her, lol! 😅

11/17/2025

NT meet Hill, Hill meet NT. In case you were unclear, NT hates Hill because he unapologetically makes her overtly aware of all her physiological/psychological/philosophical weaknesses, lol, while nonchalantly forcing her to regroup, reflect, and retrain. 😎 Everyone needs a friend like Hill. This is one of my very most favorite places on property! ❤️

11/08/2025

“Increase your amount of volume or increase your patience.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/DQzN63hEbEh/?img_index=4&igsh=MTIyM2VqOHlpcHN1Yg==

11/08/2025

Dear World,

This is only the beginning.

Love,
NT and these 4’ fences 😎