Sun Fire Stables

07/05/2025

Last minute lesson opening Sunday at 10:00 am, email/text/call.

07/04/2025

Sun Fire Stables at Cadillac Mountain, Maine !

07/04/2025

Happy 4th of July- Our Independence Day!🇺🇸

06/25/2025

TWO spots today at 4pm, call Jen K!

06/24/2025

06/21/2025

Happy 1st day of summer!!

06/21/2025

What a great experience for all involved! Thank you!

06/20/2025

👍🐴

Horsemanship is about effectiveness in horse and rider safety. Old sayings like "The devil is in the details" and "It's a game of inches" apply to authentic horsemanship. I was taught horsemanship and how to ride by a US Army Cavalryman. He explained that there is a right and a wrong way to do everything. And he meant everything, never kind of, sort of, maybe. Everything at his barn had to be done the right way.

The other day, I went to get my new young off the track mare from a paddock. She is doing well, learning how to become a riding horse. I went into the paddock, snapped a lead on her and went to the gate. Once there, I saw that someone had placed a large object in front of the gate such that I could not swing it outward. I unsnapped the mare and went back outside the paddock to move what was blocking the gate.

Went back in the paddock, led her to the gate and swung it outward the way I was taught to do it correctly. I closed the gate and a young person there told me I didn't have to move the obstacle to get my horse out of the paddock because the gate also swings inward into the paddock.

I saw this as a teachable moment and I explained why I moved the obstacle so the gate would swing outward, which is safer. The young person told me again that I didn't have to go to the trouble of moving the obstacle.

I just thought it might be helpful to explain the right way because it is safer. Instead, I got a lesson on how I had wasted my time.

The top set of images shows the risk of taking a horse, especially a young not fully trained horse through a gate that swings inward. Young untrained horses when they see the opening will often bolt out of a paddock or pasture. In the process they can yank you into the gate if it's swung inward, cracking a couple of your ribs or some other injury. This is why my first instructor explained that there is a right and a wrong way to do everything. The bottom images show the correct, safe way to lead a horse out through a gate.