Arcese Quarter Horses USA reach a milestone

Arcese Quarter Horses USA, of Weatherford, TX, became NRHA's third Million Dollar Owner with horses surpassing the million-dollar mark with earnings accumulated at the 2008 Italian Futurity and 2008 NRHA Futurity & NAAC Show.

Read more HERE.

Equine Motorcoach- luxury for you and your horse

This is a luxury motorcoach for both you and your horses. What a way to get to and from shows now! I know this isn't in our budget anytime soon but I'll keep working and within a few short years, it will be.



Visit the website of Equine Motorcoach to learn more about this incredible vehicle.

Visit the Equine Motorcoach blog to get updates from horse shows and the road.

Some great horse related stories in the paper today

The gelding we nicknamed Big Brown, in honor of the Kentucky Derby winner, loped off to the far corner of the arena as if he were looking for a place to hide. I exchanged frustrated frowns with my teammate, Shanda Steenburn, a tall, curly-haired nurse and hospital pharmacy manager.

We were participating in an introductory exercise at the Horse Institute in Ancramdale, N.Y. Our assignment was to catch Big Brown, slip a halter over his head and hook him to a lead line.

Our seemingly simple task was proving to be more daunting than either of us had expected. Shanda knew a lot about handling medications for humans but next to nothing about handling horses.

My previous experience with horses was limited and not especially pleasant. I’d taken fewer than a dozen riding lessons during my youth in Texas. The last time I’d been on a horse as an adult, I’d suffered a back injury that took three months to heal.

To make matters worse, Big Brown shared the arena with three other very large and very wary steeds: a white one, a second brown one and one with a mottled brown and white coat, a breed called a paint. Three pairs of nurses who worked with Shanda at Columbia Memorial Hospital in nearby Hudson, N.Y., were simultaneously trying to catch and halter those horses. But instead of cooperating, the paint, the white and the second brown kept darting away and huddling with Big Brown.

Suddenly, Big Brown separated from the herd and walked toward me. I patted his neck and stroked his face, cooing sweet nothings in his ear for at least a minute. Shanda handed me a halter. As if on cue, Big Brown bolted away again.

Read the entire story HERE.


A thoroughbred named Tchaikovsky, a grandson of Secretariat, was having a tooth pulled in one stall. A horse in another was given a sponge bath. Out the stable door, about a dozen horses shared a sun-lit field.

Somewhere, far out of sight if not entirely out of mind, countless other former racehorses were on their way to being slaughtered.

“I struggle with it,” Diana Koebel said. She is the owner and trainer here at LumberJack Farm, one of hundreds of horse farms around the country helping rescue and rehabilitate thoroughbreds considered too slow or damaged to be worth anything more than horse meat. The rescuers cannot keep up.

“Are we really helping?” Koebel asked as she stood in a stable stall. “I know we are, and every one counts, but it’s overwhelming at points. Can we really fix this industry?”

LumberJack Farm works with a nonprofit organization called ReRun, which prepares discarded racehorses for a second career — as jumping show horses, maybe, or just as pets — and then makes them available for adoption. ReRun annually places about 40 thoroughbreds once destined for the slaughterhouse.

Read the entire story HERE.

Horses in the pasture

Charlie Hutton from Hilldale Farm talks about the move from Tennessee to Kentucky

A packed house greeted Dr. Charlie Hutton here Wednesday when he talked to local residents about the factors that led him to relocate his quarterhorse operation to Caldwell County.
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Hutton, who entered the horse business after teaching at the university level for 15 years, and his wife Tammye rely solely on the Hilldale Farm operation for their livelihood.

“We have no other income — everything we earn comes from our horses,” he told a crowd of about 45 people. “We are different from most horse operations because we are not only breeders, but trainers, too.”

And the business objective is simple — “we must raise the best quarterhorses possible.”
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Hilldale Farm gained national prominence in 1999 when Hutton rode to two all-time records on Nu Chex To Cash, becoming the American Quarterhorse Association’s all-time leading open reining point earner, and Nu Chex To Cash became the only horse to ever earn national high point championships in reining and working cowhorse in the same year.



Nu Chex To Cash is one of eight living studs who have sired winnings over $1 million in reining competition. Total earnings of its offspring are now at $1.3 million.

Read the entire article in the Times Leader newspaper from Princeton, Kentucky.

Hats autographed by Shawn Flarida

They will be on ebay by March 17.

Visit Threadventures for Custom Embroidery this Christmas

Do you want a unique gift to get someone for christmas or you have something but you want a name or design added to make it that one-of-a-kind gift? Here is your source for quality work that is made in America.

Check out the Threadventures Embroidery website and contact them for more information tell them you heard about them from Webbspun Ideas.

Where the Reiners Meet

MTSU Animal Science Arena (Next to Miller Coliseum)
304-B W. Thompson Lane
Murfreesboro, Tennessee

Every Tuesday night
6:00pm-9:00pm

If you are into reining-style horse riding then come out every Tuesday night to meet like minded people and have a good time.

The Stress of Preparing for a Reining Horse Show

I have a horse that is no longer eligible for the aged events. Translation=he is well trained and show smart, also is likely to have some arthritic changes taking place from years of hard work. He takes a different kind of preparation than the futurity and derby horses. Consistency is still key, but diversity in schooling is what keeps him fresh minded and fit. I liken it to cross training in human athletes.
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He has to stay fit enough so that I don't hurt him warming up and showing, but not so fit that it will take hours of loping to take the edge off. I don't want him sour, sore, pin eared, and swishy tailed but I also don't want him too fresh and "big" when he is in the pen.
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First I find the date when the competition occurs, then I track backwards to the current date. From there I can pencil in work sessions on my calendar in three or four day rotations to take me through the show. I seldom do circling, turn arounds, and stopping in one session on a year round basis-but I WILL have to do so as the competition nears.
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Next, I check my bank balance to be sure that I have budgeted funds for the trip. By this time, I am generally exhausted thinking about how I am going to pull this off and I could easily be talked out of going. Instead, I will have a glass of wine, get a good night's sleep and attack the organizing effort in the morning.
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Read the full post at The Practical Guide to Reining blog.

The Reining King aka Shawn Flarida

Reining is a crowd-pleaser with its showy sliding stops, speedy spins and controlled-speed circles, moves that originated from cowboys' herding cattle on the ranch. The idea is to make it look effortless, and Shawn Flarida has gone around the world doing just that.

"In my mind, I've never had a real job," Shawn Flarida said this week as he kicked up a cloud of dust riding in the outdoor arena of his farm near Springfield in Clark County. "I get to do something I absolutely love to do."



Five years ago, Flarida bought 72 acres on Beard Road, mowed down the crops and built a home, a 35-stall barn, an indoor and outdoor arena and a fenced pasture. He boards and trains 35 reining horses, all owned by others. Nineteen of them will go to the Congress, and Flarida will compete on nine.

Read the full article about this sport and this legend in the Columbus Dispatch newspaper.

Some Reining Horse People

Hilldale Farm- A great place in Tennessee with some of the nicest people who just happen to also be some of the best in the reining world. It is a beautiful drive to their place and they have such a great business. It is inspiring to visit and to see what they do.

Hanson Performance Horses- We met them in Oklahoma City last November at the NRHA Futurity. Phenomenal horse trainers that are also truly nice people.

Brian Bell- Watched him at a clinic in Murfreesboro, Tennessee recently and the man is pure magic on a horse. Taught "Chuck", the horse, how to dig in more when he spins and made him a better horse overall. It is incredible to watch someone that good at something.

"Alexis" Horse Trailers- An incredible lady with a dreams and a passion that just won't be stopped. She has created a line of trailers that are so nice and hopefully we can get one in the future.

The Weasel, The Witch and Ward

Here are three beautiful horses that we nicknamed "The Weasel", "The Witch" and the little guy is now called "Ward". The nicknames come from their personalities and we didn't plan on calling them these names but it just happened. We were figuring out what to call the little guy and since we have the weasel and the witch already it just felt like a C.S. Lewis book title. Hence the little guy being called Ward, as in wardrobe.

Ward, the Weasel and the Witch

The Weasel- She is so cool but a little bit of a sneak and thus the weasel.

Ward and his mom, the Witch. She can be kinda ornery and wants to show the Weasel who is the boss sometimes and thus she became known as the witch.

He is the Youngest Member of the Family

Coffman-Baird Ranch

A horse trainer that works out of the ranch
http://www.performancehorse.com/0107quicktips.htm