Copper Head-Ranch

16/06/2025

It's fly season 🪰 ugh.

What's your go to fly control?

We love using a watering can for floors with lemon scented pinesol, overhead fans and of course the dreaded fly spray. I love the lemony 🍋 scent throughout the barn!

**Reminder if your fly spray isnt working- most directions say you need to thoroughly coat the horse until wet- not just mist them**

01/05/2025

This is genius 👏 🤯

Thank you for sharing this tip! Off to the store we go for a Y valve!

23/04/2025

🫶

15/04/2025

Summer is on the horizon!

The big one we always see is, "Putting water on a horse that is hot from work or being turned out in the hot sun, can cause the horse to over heat"- this is FALSE.

Water does NOT insulate and cause animals to over heat.

Cool your horses.
They will thank you for it. 😘

*Peep the below information taken direct from studies*

🐎COOLING HOT HORSES - THE STATE OF THE ART🐎

*** PLEASE SHARE ***

Apologies to those in cool climates at the present time :)

Seems we need to keep sharing this basic information to counter the myths that keep being circulated by certain "experts" :(

🐎WHY DO WE NEED TO COOL HORSES AFTER EXERCISE OR IF THEY GET TOO HOT?
-Horses produce heat 3-5 times faster on a per kg basis than we do
-Although horses are 6-7 times heavier, they only have 2 to 2.5 times as much surface area
-The majority of heat (~85%) is lost at the body surface
-Heat loss is also impaired in horses because they are covered in hair
-Horses can sweat faster than any other animal
-Sweating is efficient but slow
-Cooling with cold water is fast
-When horses compete in hot climates they can struggle to cool down after
-We cool them down with cold water (less than 15°C/60°F) to reduce the risk of heat illness and because there is no advantage to them being hot and uncomfortable after exercising. The quicker they cool, the quicker they drink, eat and recover.
-The methods to cool them are now well understood.

🐎Since Atlanta 1996 we have known that using continuous application of cold water (less than 15°C/60°F) all over the horses body without scraping is the most effective way to cool down horses that are moderately to severely hyperthermic (re**al temperature in excess of ~40°C/104°F), especially in hot or hot/humid conditions.

🐎The sources for this evidence are:
PEER-REVIEWED PUBLISHED PAPERS
1) Williamson, L.S., White, S., Maykuth, P., Andrews, F., Sommerdahl, C. and Green, E. Comparison between two post exercise cooling methods. Equine Vet J., 27(S18), 337-340.
https://beva.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/7MBUJJWJZPVWQKTNIJWN?target=10.1111/j.2042-3306.1995.tb04948.x
2) Marlin, D. J., Scott, C. M., Roberts, C. A., Casas, I., Holah, G., & Schroter, R. C. (1998). Post exercise changes in compartmental body temperature accompanying intermittent cold water cooling in the hyperthermic horse. Equine veterinary journal, 30(1), 28–34.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9458396/
3) Kohn, C.W., Hinchcliff, K.W. and McKeever, K.H. (1999) Evaluation of washing with cold water to facilitate heat dissipation in horses exercised in hot, humid conditions. American Journal of Veterinary Research, 01 Mar 1999, 60(3):299-305. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10188810/
4) Takahashi, Y., Ohmura, H., Mukai, K., Shiose, T., & Takahashi, T. (2020). A Comparison of Five Cooling Methods in Hot and Humid Environments in Thoroughbred Horses. Journal of equine veterinary science, 91, 103130.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32684268/
5) Kang, H., Zsoldos, R.R., Skinner, J.E., Gaughan, J.B. and Guitart, A.S. (2021) Comparison of post-exercise cooling methods in horses. Journal of Equine Veterinary Science 100 (2021) 103485
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jevs.2021.103485

🐎DATA COLLECTED & ANALYSED AT
a) Atlanta 1995 Olympic Test Event
b) Atlanta 1996 Olympics
c) Athens 2003 Olympic Test Event
d) Athens 2004 Olympics
e) Beijing 2007 Olympic Test Event
f) Beijing 2008 Olympics
g) Tryon 2018 World Equestrian Games
h) Tokyo 2019 Olympic Test Event
i) Tokyo 2020(1) Olympic Games Dressage and Eventing

🐎Cooling hot horses with cold water DOES NOT
1) cause muscle damage
2) cause laminitis
3) induce shock
4) give horses heart attacks
5) prevent them from cooling by constriction of skin blood flow
Water left on horses DOES NOT
1) insulate and prevent heat loss
2) cause them to overheat

🐎It is NOT MORE EFFECTIVE TO
1) start at the feet and work up
2) scrape water off whilst cooling (it causes them to warm up)
3) focus on large blood vessels
4) cover the horse with wet towels
5) place ice on large blood vessels near the surface such as the jugular veins or femoral arteries
6) put ice in the re**um
7) rely on misting fans

*** PLEASE SHARE ***

04/04/2025

I had no idea! 😍

*Hitches Up Trailer*

Xoxoxo

Remember! :-)
'
'
' #

02/04/2025

Ride with intention 💜

🐴✨ Trail Riding: Where Confidence Goes to Die
(and how to do something about that😆)

Trail riding.
That romantic fantasy where you and your horse glide along in spiritual synchronicity—
they’re reading your mind,
you’re breathing deeply,
the scent of eucalyptus filling your lungs and aligning your chakras,
and not a single muscle in your body clenched in terror.

HAHAHA—no.😎

Here’s a common version for many lovely people😱:

Trail riding is a shared panic spiral.
You and your horse, locked in a feedback loop of fear, reacting to shadows, rustling leaves, and plastic bags possessed by demons.

Each of you nervously amplifying the other, like a badly tuned emotional guitar.

It’s not teamwork.
It’s co-dependent doom anticipation.
One of you is wearing a helmet.
The other has hooves and better faster reflexes.
Neither of you is helping.

If this is you—I see you. Once I was you....

Luckily, trail drama is highly treatable.👩‍⚕️

Spoiler: the horse is not necessarily the problem.🫣

I didn’t know how to help my horse—or how much I was making things worse.

I wanted them to be chill and brave... while I rode like a caffeinated meerkat at a fireworks show🎆.

Then somewhere between “I never want to do this again” and “Why is my Apple Watch registering this as a cardiac event💓?” I learned the secret:

👉 Look up. Ride somewhere.

Yes, really. That’s the whole thing.
Stop scanning for threats like a doomsday prepper.
Pick a direction. Ride with intention.
Your horse doesn’t need you to narrate the trail. They need you to act like you’ve got a plan and you’re not afraid of crunchy leaves.

But let’s be clear: this didn’t happen because I lit a candle and whispered affirmations into my saddle pad.

I trained for it.

I worked on myself.
I trained away from the trail, and on it.
On windy days. On weird days.
I built my seat. I built my horse’s understanding.
I stacked experience and skills like bricks—until we had a foundation we could ride out on.

Because confidence isn’t a vibe.
It’s a skillset with receipts.💪

🐴 Want to actually enjoy trail riding? Try this:

1️⃣ Expose your horse to nonsense.
Tarps, prams, balloon-wielding children.
Let them freak out in a controlled fashion somewhere safe, so they don’t do it at a canter near a cliff.
And yes—it’s as much about training you as it is them.

2️⃣ Ride with someone unbothered.
Find the trail boss whose horse would walk through a Bunnings calmly.
Study them. Channel their energy. Borrow their calm until you’ve built your own.

3️⃣ Start where you won’t die.
Stick to familiar tracks. Know where the monsters live (usually it's that one letterbox).
Then expand like a cautious amoeba.

4️⃣ Lead on the ground.
Yes, groundwork.
Be the bushland tour guide your horse didn’t ask for.
Confidence grows when you both experience the trail without pressure.

5️⃣ Learn what a freeze really means.
When your horse turns into a statue, they’re not plotting your demise.
They’re buffering. Investigating. It’s called the orienting reflex.
Don’t poke the buffering horse. Wait. Then look up and ride somewhere like the kind of human they’d follow into a dark alley.

6️⃣ Train your seat like it’s a seatbelt.
If you can’t sit a spook, fix that.
Balance isn’t about elegance. It’s about not eating gravel. Or at least get a saddle that gives you an advantage against physics!

7️⃣ Be less dramatic than your horse.
It’s not their job to keep you safe.❌
It’s your job to keep them safe.✅
Be the Wi-Fi they can plug into. Be the calm. Be the “we’re good” human.🦸‍♀️

Trail riding isn’t for the faint of heart. Or the unprepared.
And confidence? It’s not magic.

Confidence is like IKEA furniture.
There is a clear way to build it:
Start with instructions. Work on yourself. Build your skills. Prepare your horse.
It’s all there in the metaphorical Allen key of training.

But most people approach trail riding like they approach flat-pack furniture:
No prep. No tools. No plan.
Just blind optimism and a pretty photo in a catalogue.
Then they wonder why it’s wobbly, missing screws,
and held together by hope and the ramifications corner-cutting.

Confidence isn’t a gift.
It’s self-assembly—
built through repetition, strategy, and mildly uncomfortable effort.

Not because you’re broken.
But because you’re a detail-oriented control freak who really hates uncertainty.🤓

And honestly? That’s not a flaw.
It’s a superpower—
once you learn how to aim it properly.🎯

So if you want your horse to be calm,
be the one who stops feeding the panic loop.
Do the work. Ride forward. Ride like you’re in charge of this amazing two-headed organism called you and your horse.

They don’t need you to be fearless.
They need you to be competent.
And ideally…
not freaking out at every snapping twig.

If you're ready to stop white-knuckling trail rides and start riding like you mean it, come hang out with me. I teach this stuff.😉

IMAGE📸: A couple of trail bosses (Fiona & Mary-Anne) and the magnificent Clarence River in the background 😍

Please do hit the share button if this post sparked something for you. But don’t copy and paste it—I wrote this with my own brain cells and more emotional processing power than I usually admit to. Be a sharer, not a pirate. Respect the source code. 🤓

01/04/2025

What a wonderful new bit they've come out with!

Who doesn't like a little music while they ride?

🎶🐴 Introducing the Whistle Bit: Teach your horse to whistle, and they can make their own freestyle soundtrack. Get ready for some serious performance upgrades 🎧

17/03/2025

Make what's best for the horse your #1 priority. It's not about you.

🫶

Do what is best for the horse.

I witnessed a conversation where an owner stated that the horse would be better off somewhere else, however they refused to have someone else beat them on that horse.

How sad, is what I thought.

If you don’t enjoy or get along with your horse and you know it may have a better life somewhere else, yet you worry about yourself…

I have no problem when you love your horses and enjoy them, but they don’t win as much as you think they should.

However, if your attitude is bad and you won’t give that horse a better life, then you may reconsider being a horse owner.

Our priority should be the care and well being of our horses first!

www.betweenthereins.us

13/03/2025

Opening the barn after winter is one of my favorite things ☀️

The grounds a little rough.
Horses still wooly.

But we we are so happy to feel summer coming.

09/03/2025

We welcomed Spring here in Michigan with every horse getting some time spent with us. 🫶

Standing tied was, and always will be, #1

Some additionally had some extra work done as we are heading into show & riding season.

Hopefully everyone got out and enjoyed the beautiful day! 😍

🌼

18/02/2025

We love our humble trainers 🫶

Have you ever noticed how the best riders/trainers are usually quiet and humble? They are confident and speak positively about their training but don’t have to go around obnoxiously bragging on themselves or belittling and critiquing others. You won’t find them commenting criticism on your Instagram posts. Even if that’s not how they would train they keep it to themselves. Just hustle, stay quiet, kind, and humble.

23/01/2025

Our boys are loving the snow today ❄️