There is a well-known quote in the horse world that horses offer a mirror to your soul. Whether you like it or not, your horse is sending messages to you, reflecting to you what they sense and opening the opportunity for you to face your deepest fears, insecurities, and the emotions you tend to bury.…
Many of our guests come to the ranch with visions of cantering (aka loping or galloping, but we won’t get into the distinction between the three here) through the mountains with their horse’s mane blowing in the wind. It is a great feeling to move out that fast on a horse, but it is also…
“It is easier to prevent bad habits than to break them.” — Benjamin Franklin Bad habits. We all have them, and for many of us it is a lifelong goal to maintain the discipline to manage or redirect them. But we humans are complicated and have so many influences that lead us towards bad habits,…
There are so many areas in our life where we are defined by being called a “beginner” or “novice” or “advanced” or “expert”, and everything in between. But when it comes to horses and horsemanship, what do those labels mean? It is common that people equate speed with ability. We hear from many riders that…
Several of the horse lovers here at Vista Verde have gotten hooked on podcasts from horse trainer Julie Goodnight. Julie is a Colorado-based trainer who also partners as a clinician with our friends and fellow dude-ranchers at C Lazy U Ranch. We love the way she approaches teaching and training with her pragmatic philosophy that…
All of us at the ranch are students of life. We focus on growing as leaders, we support each other through different stages of relationships, and many of us lean on each other as we grow while raising our children. Of course, with horses and horsemanship being a fundamental part of the ranch, over the…