07/19/2026
We couldn’t be more proud of Miss Kelsey Dennis and her horse Badger!
This spring we were contacted by Kelsey’s Mom Jimi, she said that she and Kelsey’s Grandma was conspiring to find a horse suitable for Miss Kelsey.
So we all looked at the selection in the May Smokey lane Sale. There were a few promising candidates. But Badger stood out from the rest. So we packed up, went to the sale and got hands on every potential horse. Even then Badger was THE best option and the one Miss Kelsey had already set her heart on.
The bidding was INTENSE! But in the end, they came out the high bidder! Badger was coming home.
Badger came back to the Ranch and into our training program for further assessment, training, and to pair Miss Kelsey with her horse and teach her how to use the training he was getting. We had limited time to get these two working together before 4h camp (30 days) then fair another few weeks after. A very short timeframe between day of purchase and day of showing. However, this 3 year old Gelding had an incredible foundation already put on him, we put a couple hundred more miles on him and fine tuned a few things, found a few quirks, some we are still working on. Then, even more difficult was the distance between where Miss Kelsey lives and where we are at, so getting her here for lessons was a juggling act that her mom and grandma had to perform. Within the two months we barely managed two weeks (10-14 or so) worth of lessons.
Our lessons were very structured and intensive. We had very specific goals, and very specific roadblocks that we had to navigate.
Miss Kelsey rose to every occasion and really dug in and put in the work. She took the time to bond with her horse, she accepted that this year might not be the year to try and point in speed classes, although that didn’t stop her from working towards those goals too. But she worked hard for the western pleasure/ horsemanship classes. That hard work paid off this weekend. All of the slow work that teens notoriously struggle with after they’ve found speed… she took head on and powered through. She has been an incredible student and is the kind we all strive to fill our lesson programs with.
All of the hard work that was put in by Kelsey and Badger paid off. They earned Grand Champion in their Western Showcase at fair.
I’ve added a few pictures from a couple classes.
We are beyond proud of Miss Kelsey and Badger. We are so excited for them and can’t wait to continue helping them tackle more of their goals!
