Black Horse Hollow

09/15/2025

09/14/2025

In just under 24 hours I will be boarding a plane that will take me to the other side of the world on an adventure that I never dreamed I would be part of when I drove into Oregon six years ago - homeless, horseless, and very nearly hopeless.

The universe also saw fit to remind me of WHY I am undertaking this journey in the form of a letter from the state...a letter that will allow others to make that same leap into the unknown to escape the darkness

in a time when it is needed more than ever.

There will never be adequate words to thank those who have given so much to help us reach this next phase of our work. Your faith, kindness, curiosity, and fierce compassion has been the lighthouse we needed to guide us to our true purpose.

Together we rise. 🖤

Magpie's Purple Halter is officially launching operations October 25, 2025 - More information to follow!!

09/12/2025

For any parents feeling heavy today 🫂
From my collection Ever More

09/10/2025

Ahhhhhhhh!!!!!

09/09/2025

09/08/2025

When I talk to modern dressage riders about their saddles, I get pushback when I tell them that their saddles promote abuse. They say that the new saddles are more comfortable for the horse. With the advances in saddle design and flocking, this might be true. However, while their tree design is probably more physically comfortable, these saddles enable a new and different kind of discomfort for horses in how they encourage riders to use these saddles to inflict pain.

The high cantles and the huge knee rolls/thigh blocks allow a rider to maximize their strength when applying their hands to the bit. Modern dressage riders can easily lean back against the high cantle beyond the traditional 5 degree. This allows them to use their body weight to apply excessive rein pressure.

The big thigh blocks facilitate their leaning back by stopping the rider's legs from launching forward beyond the flap when they apply the increased leveraged power of their body weight to the bit. Imagine trying to apply your body weight to the reins when riding in a traditional dressage saddle like the pictured Stubben Tristan dressage saddle at the top.

The older minimal saddles provide a great deal more communication between the horse and rider. This is important because horses are herd animals that need constant communication with their herd, which is the rider when a horse is being ridden. Without connection there is stress from separation and isolation. This is the horse's psychological basis for their need for unity of balance and movement with the rider through communication.

I think that people who push back on the idea that modern saddles are not an improvement do not fully understand unity or the connection needs of the horse. Additionally, these riders obviously do not ride in a high level of unity because they require such a restrictive "bucket seat" saddle in order to ride their horse at all. These new saddles are one more example of purchasing a solution to poor riding skills instead of doing the work to improve one's riding skill.

When you ride in a modern, heavily padded saddle, communication with your horse becomes so muffled that some horses will react negatively to the muddle in several ways. They might shut down, become stressed or ignore the rider. This is why I begin training young prospects ba****ck and later train horses using saddles designed for maximum contact and communication, like a minimal style polo saddle, between me and the horse. Constant communication soothes a horse more than any big fat stuffed saddle will.

I recommend that instead of using a modern dressage saddle for the horse's physical comfort, that riders improve their communication skills with their horses by riding better in a simpler, more communicative saddle. Shared balance and unity of motion, both of which I think are challenging when using modern dressage saddles, are most effective in making your horse psychologically comfortable. Riders can provide greater comfort to their horse by riding with a deeper connection and consistently clear communication. Most horses can manage some physical pain much more effectively than they can endure the pain inflicted by psychological stress and physical force.

Bottomline, Henry Whynmalen said, "Let the horse move you." A horse can't move you if your lower body is jammed between a high cantle and giant knee rolls.

09/07/2025

The Dirty Four Letter Word...Can't

The hardest horse I ever started was a gray mare named Sugar. She was a tough one that tested every part of my being. I started her as a five year old straight off the plains of South Dakota. I wasn't supposed to end up with her as someone had spoken for her before I asked to buy her. But they backed out and I ended up with her.

She was a tough mare, every time I asked her for a lope, she bucked, sometimes she gave me a new grass stain. Sometimes I made the walk of shame, that is the walk back to the barn, without the horse you leave on.

I wanted to quit on that mare. Many times I thought, I can't do it. She's tough, she will buck me off. She's capable of it, I knew this from first hand experience.

There were two people in my life that kept telling me to stick with her. I wanted to make her a bucking horse in the rodeo, she had an affinity for it. But they kept encouraging me to not quit. Every day she would buck, hard, when I'd ask her to lope.

One day while I fully anticipated her to buck as I asked her to lope, however, this time, she just loped out. I was so surprised that I pinched myself. I was shocked, I must be dreaming.
Maybe I can do this.

I again asked her for a lope, and she stepped right out. Maybe I can do it.

This simple belief of can, or can't, makes all the difference. I have learned that if I am convinced I can't, I'm probably right. If I'm convinced I can, I'm probably right as well.

Although I initially thought I didn't have what it took to get through to Sugar, I stayed with it though because I didn't want to let those people down that meant so much to me.
I was too stubborn to quit and say, I can't.

Sugar ended up winning me my first saddle, buckle, and appeared in the pages of a national saddle catalog. I still wear that buckle nearly every day. I just needed to keep at it realizing that I was just what she needed at the time. She was capable of flying lead changes every other stride. So was I, although I didn't know it at the time.

How about you? Are you stiffled by the belief that you can't. "Whether you think you can, or you can't. You are probably right."

Henry Ford

Edit: I want to address a few comments as a whole as I think some have taken this post too literally. I am not saying everyone should ride every horse. Part of everyone's journey is making those tough decisions. What I am referring to is when we want to quit but are actually capable.

09/06/2025

09/06/2025

We might have some goals to hit….