Golden Gaits Farm

There's a large congregation of some of my favorite people in the entire world going on right now in Tennessee. So obviously I have to road trip down to cheer them on!!

Amazing opportunity getting to go to the Purina VIP Equine Nutrition Conference! 😍 GGF feeds only Purina feeds along with several of their supplements! Loved getting to see where and how it's formulated and tested! (Thanks Green River Farm for the invite!!)

I mean... I'm the only one still here, so I'm not in anyone's way 🤣

TikTok · GGF Check out GGF's video.

Mid afternoon horse ice pops were a hit! Already have tomorrow's in the freezer!

TikTok · GGF Check out GGF's video.

Still amazed at how this horse will willingly do anything I ask her to ❤️ I'm so lucky to be her human 🥰

TikTok · GGF Check out GGF's video.

I am BEYOND excited to announce that after talking to the The National Equestrian Center, they will be offering TRADITIONAL Gaited Dressage (published by National Walking Horse Association) for the next schooling show season! (Which starts at the NEXT SHOW in September!!)

There are some details still to be worked out but this is a HUGE opportunity for us!! 🤩 So spread the word far and wide!!

Praying for safe travels for anyone and everyone heading to the Walking Horse Owners Association Internationals! Here's our soaking wet pit stop in Paducah!

Adding another feather to our cap! Literally day 1 - baby steps... er, jumps!

Beau vs Umbrella Man 🤣

GGF on TikTok Beau vs Umbrella Man

Meet bun bun. 😅 S/he had an unfortunate encounter with our barn cat Brock and while I normally do not intervene when the cats get a hold of something (that is what they're here for), I couldn't stomach the baby bunny screams so here we are. 🤦‍♀️ S/he has a large but otherwise not so bad injury to its back (rabbit skin is fragile) but forums found via Google suggest it'll be just fine given time to heal.

I'm aware it could die of shock, but if nothing else I wanted it to die in a quiet safe place instead of being literally ripped to shreds by a cat 😳

It's so adorable 😍

Phew! We are home and happily relaxing after Walking Horse Owners Association 's ROAR show - which was undoubtedly the most fast paced show I have ever been to!! 😳

Had some fantastic rides, worked through some new challenges and came out the other side a better rider for it. I am not exaggerating when I say I couldn't have done it without the support of my loving husband and a multitude of friends (who will all be tagged on my personal page). ❤️

Congrats to all competitors and thanks to WHOA, our fantastic judge, and DQP for one heck of a show!!

More pics to come, just wanted to say I am SO happy to have hubby at the show now! I came down Wednesday and he's been holding down the fort at home on top of working, but he got here in time to see my last two classes today. He's spending the night to help me show and then pack up tomorrow! ❤️

Lady and I had a fantastic weekend at The National Equestrian Center ! We got our final qualifying score for championships later this year at Basic Level and continued to work on our Level 1 test!

If you've hung around me for any length of time you know I refer to my equestrian friends as my "horse family," and that's because they really are there for me the same way I'm there for them. Nice rides, good scores, and pretty ribbons are of course rewarding, but the unconditional love and support from my horse family is the real treasure ❤️ Thank you to everyone who took the time to help, cheer, or even just chat! It means the world to me.

Brock used his one "get out of tree free" card today.

Couldn't be prouder of this girl right here! She earned her her UDSF GOLD MEDAL yesterday! Congrats Colleen! 🤩 Green River Farm

Goodness gracious am I behind on updates!! 🤦‍♀️

Feed room is looking better than ever with shelves and tool rack installed! (April 25)

Lady and I had fantastic rides at the last NEC Schooling show where we got to show off our new GGF swag courtesy of a late night craft session with Erin ❤️ Lady really appreciated her show massage courtesy of Ashlie Hoch 🤩 (April 29-30)

Did my first ever oil change (of any kind) on the tractor (May 5)

Super awesome Hubby gave me my own complete set of power tools for the barn for my birthday 😍 (May 12)

Started building my own coop from scratch (ongoing)

(Side note: we have chickens! (March 18) Well, 9 chickens and 2 roosters; one Roo will become roo pot pie soon. I was keeping it a secret until my parents came to town)

Parents came to town and got to see all the property improvements! Girls went for a trail ride (thanks Lauren!) while boys played with pew pews and sharp metal objects 🤣 wrapping up with hanging out around the fire w/ Caitlin, Scott, Becca, and Mason (May 26-28)

Put temp sensors on the stall fans so now they will automatically kick on or off as needed (June 2)

And lastly:
The pasture is looking FANTASTIC (though we desperately need rain) (June 3)

TA-DA! Dragged, measured (with perfectly square corners) and marked! Gonna need to make more letters now that we've upgraded to full size!! (Small trees are the stand ins for P, R, S, and V)

🤣❤️

GGF on TikTok poor hubby is a barn widow '

Why I drive 130 miles round trip for shavings 😲:

For starters, I trust Dennis and Suzy Hills implicitly🥰. They have extensive horse knowledge and experience, and have horses at home. When they endorse a product, I know they are doing so from their own experience. 👍

Secondly, the pictures speak for themselves. 🤯 I have removed the information from the white bag because it is not a bad product - I don't want anyone to think that it is! I bought a few of the white bagged shavings locally to tide me over until I could go get more of my favorite shavings. I paid the SAME PRICE per white bag as I did for the Bootheel Bedding bags. The white bag measures 2 cu ft compressed, and 3.5 cu ft when fluffed. The Bootheel Bedding measures 4 cu ft compressed and 8 cu ft when fluffed!! 🤩

At the end of the day, the extra gas and wear and tear on the truck still cost me SIGNIFICANTLY less than buying the same volume of shavings closer to home, and my trip allowed me to visit with Dennis and Suzy (worth the trip alone!) ❤️

Bootheel Bedding is top notch. They are super fluffy, absorbent, and my horses are very happy napping in them. (I am in no way affiliated with this business/brand - just sharing my personal opinion/experience!)

Sometimes it's the smallest things that signify the biggest achievements.

To most, this is just a picture of a saddle on a stand. It's not a fancy saddle, wasn't new when I bought it. The wood the stand is screwed into is a scrap I found in my barn. It's mounted to a wall that will hopefully one day be a fully enclosed insulated, climate controlled tack room, but for now I'll keep it protected from the cats by an old secondhand homemade saddle cover.

But to me this is a picture of MY saddle in MY barn that I will reach for every time I saddle up one of MY horses to ride here at MY home. Tonight was the first time of what I'm sure will be countless times that I put it away, but for just this moment, I'm gonna sit on the ground and just look at it. One more small symbol of the dream I'm fulfilling every day. ❤️

March 17, 2022 I put out pasture mix and let it sit. One year later not looking too shabby!

Super happy horsies today! Ashlie Hoch came by and pampered Lady and Beau with top notch massages! Lady especially had some great releases of tension and tightness 😍 Thanks Ashlie! ❤️

I liked the original (credited below), but I very slightly altered it into a prayer:

“My Prayer for the Husbands”

Dear God,
Please bless the husbands of horse women
Who have no interest in horses
But love our passions because they love us.

Bless the husbands
Who stack hay with not a cross word
And offer to pull the trailer
To God knows where
And stay all day
To watch us do what we love.

Bless the husbands
Who have the patience to listen
To our every conversation
About bits and bad ground
And teeth floats and good farriers.

Bless the husbands
Who don’t complain about the money
Because soon it will become
feed and entry fees and vet bills.

Bless the husbands
Who have the kindness
To sit in the stall with us overnight
On foal watch, or colic,
Or to investigate a strange sound.

Bless the husbands
Who possess the wisdom
To let us chase our dreams
And leave the sink full of dishes
And know how we lie
“Just an hour at the barn”

Bless the husbands
Sent to horse women with a note from God
“Treasure this one, for he is so rare
He cannot be replaced”

In the horse industry, it’s easy to overlook our silent supporters. Our husbands are the unsung heroes of this wild and crazy ride. Don’t forget to Thank The Husbands.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2588612537972149&id=100004702838416&mibextid=Nif5oz

Just a couple farm girls out getting it done at Green River Farm!! 😍

GGF on TikTok couple a farm girls getting it done!! (not my arena! spent a couple hours over at Green River Farm fence painting!)

Barn projects!!

It has taken over a year and a half but the last of the old shavings (shavings that were here before we moved in) have been removed! The feed room was emptied (freezers are heavy!), stripped down to the clay, screenings added and tapped, stall mats (each if which had to be carefully cut to fit around posts and up flush against the walls) laid down, and freezers put into their new locations!

Track storage for tools arrives tomorrow! Also going to put shelving above the freezers and hooks on the freezers for supplements. (All tomorrow tasks)

Meanwhile over in the "future tack area" the mini fridge has been moved, a shelf made for the radio and security camera, and a very very beefy piece of wood installed for my first saddle stand!! 🤩

Taking a break to enjoy the weather and ride, but I'll probably work into the night chugging along!

It's FREEZING 🥶 but still had a great time at the MAHA show! Fantastic horses, fantastic rides, but best of all fantastic riders (making my job super easy and fun)! Everyone had a great night! 🤩

"You had one eye in the mirror, as you watched yourself gavotte" 🤣

I swear this is Beau's favorite part of visiting Green River Farm . As always thanks to Colleen for being the best horse neighbor in the world and allowing us to use your fantastic arena until ours is usable! ❤️

Farmer Rick working on the run out, Lady is supervising 😍

Brought my babies home from training yesterday! Had the absolute BEST rides on each of them Monday, and did my first ever simple changes on Lady!! 🤩 Huge shout out to Elliott Performance Horses and Stonewall Farm for taking top notch care and training of both Lady and Beau!

Got home after dark and tucked them away in their stalls with doors to run outs shut. Opened the doors this morning 🤣:

Congrats Sovereign Fiber on your new lambs! SUPER CUTE!

Lambing season kicked off this afternoon with two beautiful Cormo x BFL lambs!

Blessed to have the opportunity to attend the Walking Horse Owners Association DQP and Judges clinics this past weekend!

Eastbound and down once again! Excited to see Beau and Lady, but also planning on picking up some new tricks while in Tennessee this time. 😉 Stay tuned!

Phew! The last 11 days have been a whirlwind! 🤯

I was supposed to drive down to TN on Jan 23rd to pick up Beau and Lady to bring back on Jan 25th, but with a nasty winter storm in the forecast I headed down and back a day early.🤦‍♀️ Beau, Lady, and I spent Wednesday and Thursday (Jan 25-26) at home (Beau and Lady got fancy pedicures 💅 thanks to our fabulous farrier Brandon) then packed up and headed to the The National Equestrian Center on Friday for our first show of the 2023 season! 🤩

Both horses had fantastic warm ups Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, with Lady having two great tests Saturday and each horse having a great test on Sunday!

Lady came away with a 65, 69, and 70.7, while Beau (who I don't think has done a dressage test since November of 2019) scored a whopping 74.5! 😍

But even better than the scores, my confidence soared at this show. For the first time I years I felt fully confident in my riding ability (huge thanks to my trainers) and while I hate to admit this milestone publicly - this was the first show I've ever shown at where I didn't cry. 🥳 I owe that last part to my amazing supportive husband 😘 who drove out both days to help and cheer me on, and the best friends a girl could ask for: Colleen Rull ❤️, Caitlin O'Toole 💚, and Lauren Spellmeyer 💜.

We packed up and headed back to TN right after Beau's test on Sunday (Jan 29), only to hear that we made it out just in time - an ice storm hit St Louis about 2 hours after we left. We made it safely to TN where both horsies settled back into Elliott Performance Horses and Stonewall Farm respectfully (they are so spoiled by these huge stalls!)

Once again Missouri weather threw a wrench into my plans, because I had hoped to drive home the next morning, but the consensus was the roads were awful and I should stay put.🥶 That was fine by me because it meant I got to watch and learn Monday as Jessica and Mackenzie worked some fabulous horses at a fabulous facility! 🤩

So then the plan was to come home Tuesday, but Paducah got hit with an equally bad ice storm so I stayed put once again.🤦‍♀️ I'll admit Tuesday was colder so I spent most of the day in the lounge where there was heat but I did get to witness my first horse castration! 😳

All roads were fine today and it feels SO good to be home! 😍

And in 8 days I head right back 🤣

Not sure which is cuter - my husband, or the barn kittens 😍

GGF on TikTok seriously don't know which is cuter - him or the kittens?!

Got back last night from a trip down to TN! Beau and Lady are both thriving with Stonewall Farm and Elliott Performance Horses ❤️ I'll be back in less than two weeks!

While I am sad that we don't have any good walking horse trainers nearby 💔, I am very grateful that Shelbyville TN isn't too far away! Lady Belle and Beau are spending the winter at Elliott Performance Horses and Stonewall Farm respectfully. I dropped them off last weekend and completely neglected to get cute pics of them, but I'll take some when I visit. 😊

Thanks Lila (of Caballera Farm Mounted Archers ) 😍 for my fabulous banana suit! 🍌

GGF on TikTok best banana suit ever!

For anyone wanting a Lady update 🤕: injury is definitely on the mend! 🥳 After each pic I completely cover the wound with more medicated ointment

Here's the progress:

GGF on TikTok Replying to