OUT Of the Arena Ranch

12/10/2025

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12/10/2025

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12/10/2025

We are pleased to announce a unique winter break opportunity for six select participants, offering an exclusive non-traditional camp experience. This intimate setting allows our campers to explore breathtaking locations on trail rides, moving beyond the traditional arena or barn environment. Instead, we will embark on an adventure through nature. If you and your child are interested in this distinctive experience, please contact us as space is extremely limited. The 3-day camp will feature three days of trail exploration, with the first day focused on preparing our horses for the rides. The cost for this experience is $400.

12/09/2025

Such a good piece of information

TIRED LOOKS DIFFERENT IN PREY ANIMALS!!!
Sometimes riders totally miss signs that their horse is tired, because they don’t understand that it can respond differently than they expect.
When a confident adult (human, dog, or cat) who is comfortable in their surroundings is tired, 🥱 they look tired! They slow down.
Sometimes when children get tired, they get hyper and maybe throw a tantrum.
Prey animals often get nervous abd hyper vigilanant

Tired can mean death.
If they are too tired to outrun trouble, their only chance is if they react early.
Thus, tired horses can be highly reactive!!! 
Tired Horses can be frantic.

And keep in mind that this can be for physical tiredness or mental tiredness.
Horses that are mentally tired might shut down or they might get combative. 
Horses that are physically exhausted might also get combative.

And of course, it’s the higher energy horses that are more likely to hide their tiredness, just like it’s the high energy toddlers and preschoolers that are more likely to be bouncing off the walls when what they really need is a nap.

My stallion is high energy- and when we compete, he does his best if I do “work him down” a little. But I found I have to balance his mental and physical energy. Our first year competing I did a lot of experimenting and got it wrong. Plenty of times until I figured out what prep worked best for him….. if I’m showing and working equitation or Dressage, one of the best things I can do the day before is a jumping school!! we don’t jump a whole lot so it wears him out physically pretty quickly, but he also enjoys it so it keeps him mentally very fresh!! He finds it both invigorating and also takes the edge off of his energy, so when we compete the next day, he’s feeling confident but settled.

If we go to a multi day show and arrive the day before, the long trailer ride is already a little exhausting, and I found it can be so hard to keep his attention that our rides and that scenario often don’t go well…. So instead, I go and walk him. Usually for a good two hours. He gets to see all the things and settle in. It’s not mindless hand walking- I often do a lot of speeding up and slowing down or asking him to lower his head or maybe doing just a little shoulder in occasionally.
And sometimes when he’s really hot, we really do just have to go canter for 20 minutes!!! If the pot is boiling, you don’t want to weld it shut. Sometimes you just gotta go move! But when that’s the case, I have to make sure I’m not expecting him to look tired like I would look if I was tired. There is a fine line between letting them burn off some steam and passing the point where we are now stressing them out.  If we don’t know that our horse sometimes acts chaotic when tired, it is easy to not only miss the early signs, but actually misread those signs and think our horse needs worked more. 🫣
Opps.
Don’t do that.