Welcome

Hay There!

Welcome to this equestrian’s guide! A guide to what, you may ask? Well, I’d like to call it a guide to equestrian life. This will include everything from horse training tips, product reviews, stories about my horse and probably some aspects of my own life included.

So you’re probably wondering who I am and why I wanted to start this blog in the first place. Well, my name is Lauren and I’m from the windy state of Oklahoma. I’m a life-long horse lover and have been riding for over 15 years (both western & English…currently English). I went to a liberal arts college and majored in graphic design so I’ve pretty much perfected the term “starving artist”. While attending college, I met my wonderful husband Ryan who just happens to be highly allergic to horses. Go figure! We have two furry kids – my horse, Dancer, a 13yr old Appaloosa gelding and our Husky puppy, Koda. We recently moved onto 120 acres outside of the city and have been enjoying country life so far!

I have finally gotten back into riding and training more than just for pleasure and I wanted to start this blog as a way to connect with other like-minded equestrians in the hopes that we might all learn from each other. I have learned a lot of things during the process of training Dancer and I hope to be able to share some of those so that others might learn from my success stories and my mistakes.

I first met Dancer 13 years ago – not long after I had begun riding lessons at a local stable. I saw him just hours after he was born and couldn’t take my eyes off of him. He was adorable and totally ornery….and we had a strange connection from the beginning. By the time he was old enough to be turned out during the day, we had already developed a friendship. I had to walk along the fence of his pen in order to get to my lesson horse’s pasture. He would follow me all the way down and stand watch until I came back. A few weeks later, his owner asked if I wanted to help halter train him. I, of course, said yes!

So, months went by and I became very attached to this little guy. My grandma came out to watch me ride one November day and saw what a connection I had with Dancer. I didn’t know it at the time, but she ended up buying him for me right then! My mom was shocked to find out what she’d done, but somehow managed to keep it a secret from me for a few weeks. I probably wouldn’t have found out until Christmas if it hadn’t been for a few of the other boarders at the stable. I overheard them talking as I cleaned out some stalls and one of them mentioned that Dancer had been sold. I was immediately heart broken, but did my best to hold it together until I got home. It was then that I fell apart. My mom could see how upset I was and called my grandma. They decided I had to hear the truth…even if it was a few weeks early.

Dancer and I worked hard for the next few years and I learned more than I ever dreamed about horse training. I went through 3 different trainers, 2 stables and multiple training methods until I finally figured out what worked for us. When Dancer was just 2yrs old, we started showing in western pleasure and halter. We both enjoyed going to new places and Dancer loved showing off in front of the other horses!

When my dad got transferred to another city a year later, my parents decided to buy some land so that I could keep Dancer at home. We switched to riding English, but continued our training (using Parelli methods) until I left for college. Even though I had to slow my training down and stop showing during college, the desire to get back into it never left. After getting married, finally finding a full-time job and moving out onto some land, I feel like it’s finally time to start back up again.

Dancer and I have been training for the past few months on our own, but I look forward to taking lessons again this spring. (The worst part about living in OK is the unpredictable weather. Without an indoor arena to ride in, we do our best in the ever-changing weather.)

I hope you enjoy this blog and encourage any questions or comments you may have. I would love to make this a place to discuss training tips, share thoughts and ideas and to learn as much as we can from each other. Thanks for reading and happy trails!

Lauren