Twisted Pine Equine Center

10/08/2025

I practice what I teach. It’s no lie that Panda and I struggled this year with our obstacle challenges. It was me, all me. I worked harder to ride the horse I had in that moment and not the horse I thought I had. Our final challenge of the year showed that progress! Panda and I were a team! I didn’t override him. I just rode, enjoying every moment. In turn, we scored one of highest scores ever for us. Stay determined!

10/08/2025

💯

The Cost of Entry

The cost of entry into becoming a good horseman, is discomfort.

Learning is not supposed to feel easy. When someone is teaching you, especially in horsemanship, it’s going to challenge you. You’ll feel awkward. Unsure. Maybe even frustrated. That’s part of the process.

Because horse training isn’t something you can memorize or “figure out” through words alone. You can’t study enough in a book to master technique.
It takes feel, and feel can only be developed through time, mistakes, and experience.

Every great hand you admire once sat right where you are: fumbling through timing, missing moments, questioning themselves. But they kept showing up. They stayed open. They let the horse and the work shape them. And most of us are still reaching, still pressing to learn more, do better, and putting ourselves in the awkward learning stage.

If you want to be a good horseman, you have to be willing to pay the price, and that price is being uncomfortable learning but still showing up anyways.

10/07/2025

Congratulations to this amazing team! 🥳👏. Lilly and Sunny won Reserve Champion in the all-ages novice division at the DCTR obstacle challenge series. Unfortunately, the buckles did not arrive in time but Sunny got his apple awarded in a timely fashion.o

09/20/2025

Horses are honest, maybe it’s time we were too.

09/19/2025

“Every day that we wake up is a good day. Every breath that we take is filled with hope for a better day. Every word that we speak is a chance to change what is bad into something good.”~Walter Mosley

"𝑺𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝑭𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑾𝒆𝒍𝒍" 𝑷𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒃𝒚 𝑻𝒊𝒎 𝑪𝒐𝒙

09/15/2025

08/22/2025

✨Show up nervous.
✨Show up unsure.
🙌🏽Just don’t stop showing up.

Every champion started as a beginner who felt awkward, out of place, or not ready. The difference? They kept riding into the arena anyway.

Your confidence is built in the doing — not in the waiting.
💪🏼So saddle up, even when your hands shake.
Because one day, you’ll look back and realise… this is where it all began. 🐴✨

08/19/2025

Thank you WIBW for covering this! We are one big family!

Horses took over Domer Arena Sunday, but the community around them makes the difference.

03/12/2025

….you still have to learn.

02/24/2025

Please don’t get your feathers ruffled! Many states are even more restrictive but it is for the benefit of all horse owners. You have “never” had a positive test until the day you do…..

Kansas horse owners: There has been confusion regarding the new requirement of a negative Coggins test. To clarify, a negative Coggins test is required for horses participating in showing or judging contests or other type of public display, including but not limited to team roping, penning, barrel racing, rodeo or other performance events. This can include events like playdays, saddle club shows, gymkhanas, rodeos, jackpots, or other organized group events with a judging, competition, or public display component.

The responsibility lies on the horse owner to follow this requirement. Event organizers have the authority to ask participants to verify their current Coggins test and are encouraged to do so, but this is not required by event organizers.

A negative Coggins test is valid for a 12-month period.

To read the regulation in full, go to: https://www.agriculture.ks.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/11378

01/13/2025

Things your riding instructor wants you to know:
1. This sport is hard. You don't get to bypass the hard…..every good rider has gone through it. You make progress, then you don't, and then you make progress again. Your riding instructor can coach you through it, but they cannot make it easy.

2. You're going to ride horses you don't want to ride. If you're teachable, you will learn from every horse you ride. Each horse in the barn can teach you if you let them. IF YOU LET THEM. Which leads me to…

3. You MUST be teachable to succeed in this sport. You must be teachable to succeed at anything, but that is another conversation. Being teachable often means going back to basics time and time and time again. If you find basics boring, then your not looking at them as an opportunity to learn. Which brings me to…..

4. This sport is a COMMITMENT. Read that, then read it again. Every sport is a commitment, but in this sport your teammate weighs 1200 lbs and speaks a different language. Good riders don't get good by riding every once in awhile….they improve because they make riding a priority and give themsevles opportunity to practice.

5. EVERY RIDE IS AN OPPORTUNITY. Even the walk ones. Even the hard ones. Every. Single. Ride. Remember when you just wished someone would lead you around on a horse? Find the happiness in just being able to RIDE. If you make every ride about what your AREN'T doing, you take the fun out of the experience for yourself, your horse, and your instructor. Just enjoy the process. Which brings me to...

6. Riding should be fun. It is work. and work isn't always fun.....but if you (or your rider) are consistently choosing other activities or find yourself not looking forward to lessons, it's time to take a break. The horses already know you don't want to be here, and you set yourself up for failure if you are already dreading the lesson before you get here.

7. You'll learn more about horses from the ground than you ever will while riding. That's why ground lessons are important, too. If you're skipping ground lessons (or the part of your lesson that takes place on the ground), you're missing out on the most important parts of the lesson. You spend far more time on the ground with horses than you do in the saddle.

8. Ask questions and communicate. If you're wondering why your coach is having you ride a particular horse or do an exercise, ask them. Then listen to their answer and refer to #3 above.

9. We are human beings. We make decisions (some of them life and death ones) every day. We balance learning for students with workloads for horses and carry the bulk of this business on our shoulders. A little courtesy goes a long way.

Of all the sports your child will try through their school years, riding is one of 3 that they may continue regularly as adults (golf and skiing are the others). People who coach riding spend the better part of their free time and much of their disposable income trying to improve their own riding and caring for the horses who help teach your child. They love this sport and teaching others…..but they all have their limits. Not all good riders are good coaches, but all good coaches will tell you that the process to get good is not an easy one.

*thank you to whoever wrote this! Not my words, but certainly a shared sentiment!