Sky High Farm

04/27/2025

♥️

04/25/2025

♥️

My Favorite Affirmations
When I'm riding, I'm living my best life.
I have what it takes to be a great rider.
I am successful because I persevere and never give up.
I am exactly where I am supposed to be in my dressage journey.
What I learned today in my lesson improves my tomorrow.
Every time I ride, I get fitter and stronger.
My relationship with my horse is what matters most.
It takes as long as it takes to succeed in dressage.

04/23/2025

It’s hard not to be romantic about dressage.

It’s a language with no words. Just breath, balance, and belief.
It’s the quiet conversation between two beings who have nothing in common… except everything that matters.
It’s a rider spending a decade learning to ask a question with less effort, and a horse learning to listen to silence.

You watch a good ride, and something happens.
Time slows down.
The world disappears.
And the arena becomes a cathedral, where silence speaks and movement prays.

Not because it’s perfect. But because it’s honest.
Because both horse and rider showed up, fully present, fully vulnerable, and tried to make something beautiful in a world that too often rewards speed over patience.

That’s the romance.
Not the ribbons. Not the scores.
The attempt.
The quiet.
The unity.
The glimpse of harmony that reminds us what’s possible when ego gets out of the way.

To me, that will always be romantic, because dressage isn't about movement. It’s about meaning.

04/04/2025

I miss my Danny every day. But i’m so grateful that she was mine and I was hers. 🥰And that I have our magical Tino to help carry me through this journey.🐴 I thank God for blessing me with being able to take good care of them and helping make my dreams come true 🙏🏻

❤️ There will come a time...When you ride them for the last time.
When you buy their feed and cringe at the price, not knowing it’s the last bag you’ll ever buy.

When you scrub the dirt from beneath your nails, their hair from your clothes...unaware that soon, you’ll miss the mess.

When you text the vet about a mystery lameness, dreading the bill...never realizing it's the final call.

When you clean their sweat from the saddle pad, pick the wads of hair from the washing machine, and don’t think twice about the routine.

When you send their blankets off for repair, frustrated by the baseball sized holes, never imagining they won’t need it next season.

When you cancel a ride because they found the only muddy spot in a ten acre pasture and rolled until they were unrecognizable...just as they always do.

And then, the time will come when you hang up their bridle.
When you clean their halter and tuck it away into a shadowbox, a silent tribute in the hallway.

When you carefully store the tail you sent them to heaven without, waiting to turn it into something that keeps them close.
When you hold onto their worn horseshoes, knowing you’ll never hear them clinking down the barn aisle again.

It never happens the way you expect.
You always think there will be more time.
You’ll wish life had slowed down, just enough for you to be there more, to appreciate them longer.

And then, one morning, you’ll wake up...just as I did...and realize the horse that raised you is tired.
That they need you to be strong one last time.

Maybe, somewhere down the road, another horse will come along and leave their mark upon your heart.

But it won’t be them...they wove themselves into your soul...
And nothing...or no one can take that away.

🩷 Michelle Knutson | Born In The Barn

10/21/2021

“There’s something different about the way a good mare connects with her rider. It’s special. Like an unspoken agreement. Once a mare chooses you as her person, it’s like she has an instinct to protect you, to fight for you. It’s almost as if she takes ownership of you.

I believe the good mares have a deep sense of intuition. They can read your mind. They know what you’re thinking even before you do. The good mares I know breathe fire in the face of challenge and then somehow, miraculously, know to quiet themselves when a timid child is plopped on their back for a pony ride.

They are clever, cunning and calculated, which can be your greatest enemy or your saving grace. The good mares I know do not tolerate egotistical riding. They do not tolerate force. They demand tact, finesse and emotional control. But once you have won a mare’s heart, you have won all of her. In exchange for your best—and nothing less—she will give you everything.”

Written by: Lindsay Paulsen

09/03/2021

Hey horse riding friends interested in learning more about the Dressage training join by sharing this link

https://www.ameliasdressageacademy.com/trainingscalewebinar/

02/21/2021

Still another reason for a slow, calm walking warm up,

Klaus Balkenol said a MINIMUM of ten minutes of walking, and to use a watch if you are the impatient type, as ten will feel like 20-----

15 minutes is better still.

Don't have time for this PLUS work? Do this instead of work---

Hard to accept? Top trainers are not top trainers because they fail to understand how horses operate----

01/17/2021

🐴♥️

BY CHLOE HARDGRAVE I know from experience that not enough equestrians slow down and remember why we joined this sport in the first place. With the hustle and bustle of school, lessons, shows, and the occasional drama that the barn brings, equestrians can find themselves riding with no motive nor pas...

12/19/2020

♥️🙏🏻🐴

Somewhere in the world, the 2028 Olympic champion is a foal out in a field. He’s ewe-necked, sickle-hocked, downhill and shaggy, with a club foot and a chunk of mane missing, because his buddy chewed it off.

Somewhere in the world, there’s a young horse that everyone says is too short to make it big. In three years, he’ll be jumping the standards, but right now he’s fat and short and no one is paying him any mind.

Somewhere in the world there’s a 7-year-old who can’t turn right, and a 10-year-old who has not shown the ability to put more than two one-tempis together without losing it, and a 14-year-old who hasn’t yet reached his peak, and all of them will be at the next Olympic Games.

Somewhere else in the world, there’s a rider who is thinking of packing it in. Maybe the bills are getting out of control, or she’s killing herself to get enough help in her own riding development because she’s having to spend all her time riding and teaching to make ends meet and change needs to happen, and she’s wondering if it’s worth it. She’s thinking it’s time to just give up and be a local trainer, to shelve her dreams of international competition. And then she’s going to shake off the doubt, double down, and make a team in the next 15 years.

Somewhere in the world, one of the next great team riders is 9 years old and couldn’t tell if she was on the right posting diagonal if her life depended on it.

Somewhere in the world there’s a future team rider who just got told that she’ll never make it because she’s too chubby, because she’s too short, because she’s too late.

There are horses who will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars that will never amount to anything, and there are horses who will be touted as the Next Big Thing only to be never seen or heard from again, and there are horses who will fly under the radar until suddenly they’re setting the world on fire.

There are riders who will win Junior and Young Rider competitions only to quit riding completely, riders who will be touted as the Next Big Thing only to get stuck in their comfort zones and never come to fruition, and there are riders who will make their first Olympic team at 50, at 55, at even older than that.

And yes, there are the horses that will be brilliant from day one, and there are the riders for whom success both comes early and stays late. But more often than not, history has shown that the unlikely story, the horse who was passed over in favor of his more expensive stablemate, the rider who no one saw coming, is the more likely path to greatness.

Credit and written by Lauren Sprieser at Chronicle Of The Horse

11/23/2020

This is a game changer, especially if you ride a lot of young horses and/or mares.

Reward the try. Reward the half try. Reward the horse when it feels like he is about to try. It doesn’t matter if the horse gives the wrong answer-if he’s trying, you need to be rewarding.

Everything else can be negotiated, but encouraging and protecting a willing heart is so important. A happy, confident horse with self esteem and a sense of himself is a wonderful thing indeed ❤️

07/23/2020

“Courage was more important than confidence. When you are operating out of courage, you are saying that no matter how you feel about yourself or your opportunities or the outcome, you are going to take a risk and take a step toward what you want. You are not waiting for the confidence to mysteriously arrive. I now believe that confidence is achieved through repeated success at any endeavor.” ✨ Tim Ferriss

Be courageous in chasing your goals, the fear and adrenaline will be there, but the braver you become the more confidence will appear. The key, however, is stepping outside your comfort zone and earning that confidence through courage. 💪

01/19/2020

👇🏻😂

12/30/2019

♥️🙌🏻🙏🏻

❤️🐴

12/29/2019