While I really appreciate the “spotlight” given to me by Rising Rainbow in this trash-talking controversy that’s taken the horse blogging community by storm, I hope we can all focus on the issue at hand rather than the people surrounding it.
In case you hadn’t seen it yet, there’s been a lot of talk going around [...]

Posted in Jackie's Thoughts, Making a Difference 11 Comments »

Monday was another cold night for volunteering at Pegasus Farms, a therapeutic horseback riding facility in northeast Ohio. We were short on volunteers, and had barely enough to cover classes. Typically, we have enough people that a few can stay behind and do barn work while the rest are in class. This week, we were [...]

Posted in Jackie's Thoughts, Therapeutic Riding 7 Comments »

I unfortunately started my day by coming across a new horse blog whose writer is close-minded, ignorant, and rude. I’m not about to do it the favor of giving it a link so you can go check it out either.
This blog is written by a woman who shows western in the AQHA. And she spends [...]

Posted in Jackie's Thoughts, Making a Difference 16 Comments »

I figure that anybody who loves horses also tends to love animals in general. We’re typically surrounded by a menagerie of pets, whether it cats and dogs or llamas, alpaca, goats, chickens, cows, birds, guinea pigs, hamsters, fish, whatever.
So knowing that, I’m going to subject you to a non-horsey post about my kids, er, I [...]

Posted in Crazy Cats 3 Comments »

T is one of our most difficult students in the Monday night therapeutic riding groups at Pegasus Farms. I talked about working with her a while ago in the Therapeutic Riding Chronicles.
T is an adult student who has been riding at Pegasus for years. Randy, the Monday night instructor, told me that ages ago T [...]

Posted in Jackie's Thoughts, Making a Difference, Therapeutic Riding 5 Comments »

In my years of work with horses both as a riding instructor and therapeutic riding volunteer, I’ve been privileged to meet and work with children and adults suffering from cerebral palsy. Their brains don’t function well enough to entirely control their bodies, but they have big hearts, beautiful smiles, and caring personalities. They also have [...]

Posted in Therapeutic Riding 6 Comments »

On a less somber note following my most recent post (see Teach Kids To Be Safe Around Horses) I just had to share this link to a Parody on a Jumping Clinic With George Morris. The writer critiques a serious of hideous jumping photos following the George Morris style used in his monthly Practical Horseman [...]

Posted in Horsin' Around 4 Comments »