TRF Dragonfly Equestrian Center

Fall 2026 board openings:
Pasture 1: No openings (extremely dominant horses)
Pasture 2: HEAVES horse that cannot be on hay - splitting cube cost with one other boarder....must be a dominant mare, or a pair containing a dominant mare!
Pasture 3: 2 openings for mid-rank mares or geldings....mixed pasture.
Pasture 4: No openings (oldsters and donkeys)
Board price: $300 pasture with shelters. Includes unlimited 24/7 grass hay, once daily graining (you provide), salt added to feed regularly, fly spray, dewormer, and spring fecals. Blankets and fly sheets can be applied at no cost, but you are responsible for checking regularly for rubs, etc. In winter, heated tanks + squares in shelters and wind protected areas during cold snaps.
SAFE electrobraid fencing - horses do not generally challenge it more than once.
30 day quarantine before herd entry mandatory - no extra cost to you. Required vaccines: rabies/6-way, and clear Coggins - health cert only if coming over state lines.
Farrier pre-scheduled every 8 weeks, vet pre-scheduled spring and fall. Drafts stocks available for trimming.
Boarders have access to 150'x250' outdoor grass arena, arena toys including barrels and jumps, 50' solid side roundpen with sand footing, permanent and temporary obstacles, trails on property, and miles of road to ride! Heavy tie posts available, and hi-ties will be going up this fall.
Horses end up desensitized to dogs, equipment, vehicles, guns, sirens, etc.
VERY LITTLE MUD! I hate being knee deep in mud, so I fix it when it shows up!
Call/text/message if you have any questions!

This is a horse I ended up with, and she is SOOOO nice. She has a bad tooth, and of course it is one of the HARDEST ones to get to. I can afford to keep her until we can get her back to health, and find her a person of her own, but this surgery is brutally expensive and I am already tapped out from getting the diagnostics done (see details in the post).
If you can't help, please share....I'm just trying to figure out a way to get this done for her before it gets much worse.

www.gofundme.com

Another advantage to boarding barns if you do things smart....we all band together to purchase feed. Due to barn and owner discounts, there are some feeds we are paying almost TEN DOLLARS LESS A BAG! That's a significant discount! At a bag a month, it's more than one board payment worth of savings in a year!
If you are boarding - talk to other boarders who use the same feeds that you do....most feed stores offer a bulk discount for any purchases over a certain number of bags and taking advantage of that can save you hundreds of dollars a year!

This is why we have big pastures, and water and hay tend to be at opposing ends. If I had a million bucks for fencing we’d have a track system….but, someday!!!
(Also another reason I have a ranch….id like to say it’s cheaper than a gym membership, but a five year old with a free calculator could disprove that. Instead I will tell you that nothing other than live for animals will motivate me to get off my butt and do hard physical labor 1-2 times per day!)
If you hate the gym and want to learn to work hard, let me know! Comes with a free farmers tan, horse nose smooches, and mysterious bruises you don’t remember getting!!

Acute Risk Has a Helmet. Chronic Risk Has a Recliner. 🤔

Horse riding can be dangerous.

We know this because horse riding has the good manners to make its risks spectacularly obvious. Horse goes left. You continue straight. Thank you, physics. And depending on how the afternoon unfolds, somebody produces an ice pack.

So we take it seriously. We buy safety stirrups, contemplate body protectors and have heated arguments on the internet about wearing helmets. Fair enough. Sitting on an animal with one of the fastest reaction times going around was never going to be entirely without consequences. 😆

That's *acute risk*. Humans understand acute risk rather well because something happens. We can see it. We can connect cause and effect. 😬

Chronic risk is much less considerate.

You sit at your desk today. Nothing.

You sit there tomorrow. Still nothing.

You drive to work, sit all day, drive home and sit down because you're exhausted from a hard day's sitting.

Still nothing.😬

There is no particular day when your cardiovascular system suddenly announces:

*Right. That's it. You've officially done too much sitting.*

And that's why sedentary behaviour is so easy to ignore.

Nothing appears to be happening.

Except, rather annoyingly, quite a lot is.

Our bodies are spectacularly responsive to what we ask them to do. Muscles need regular contraction and loading. Bones respond to mechanical loading. Movement helps maintain cardiovascular fitness and metabolic health. Joints and connective tissues experience the changing forces and ranges of movement that come with actually using the contraption.😎

Remove enough movement and the body adapts accordingly.

It doesn't think, *Shelley intends to get fit eventually, so I'll keep everything in excellent condition until she's ready.* 😬

It thinks, *Ah. Apparently we're a chair-based organism now. I'll make the necessary arrangements.* 😃

Which naturally made me think about horses.

Because we are very concerned about horses moving *too much*.

A horse gallops around the paddock and everyone tenses up and holds their breath.

*OH GOD, HORSE. PLEASE DON'T HURT YOURSELF.* 🫣

The same horse stands under a tree for five hours looking increasingly like a badly assembled camping chair and we think:

*Lovely. He's relaxed.*😍

Then we arrive at four o'clock, look at his topline and decide something must be done.😱

Poles!

Raised poles!

Carrot stretches!

Hill work!

A supplement containing magnesium, turmeric and something harvested from an alpine bush that apparently remembers when horses were wild!

We become intensely interested in activating the thoracic sling for twenty minutes while overlooking the rather awkward question of what the thoracic sling has been doing since breakfast.😬

Bu**er all, possibly.😒

Because horses evolved to move.

Not necessarily to gallop around like idiots. Mostly to walk. Graze. Wander. Find water. Follow other horses. Graze somewhere else. Walk some more.

Then we domesticated them and, because humans are extremely good at making life convenient, put the hay here, the water there, the friends beside it and the shade just behind.

*We've invented the equine home office.* 🙄

Having a paddock gives a horse the *opportunity* to move.

But opportunity for movement isn't necessarily the same as *movement*. 🧐

And perhaps this is where we need to think differently about both species.

The answer isn't necessarily *more exercise*.

It's *more movement*.

For us, use a 30-minute reminder to get off your backside. Walk around. Change position. Take the stairs. Walk while you're on the phone. Get a sit-stand desk if you like, although spending $1,500 to discover you can remain completely motionless in two different positions is perhaps peak Homo sapiens. 😎

And look at your horse's day with the same curiosity.

Where is the water? Where is the forage? Where are the other horses? How much wandering actually happens?

Could resources be spread out? Could you create multiple forage points? Add varied terrain? Encourage more walking? Perhaps a track system? A compatible paddock mate? Simply give your horse more reasons to potter about being a horse?

Because we're very good at managing risks that come with sirens. 🚨

We're not nearly as good at managing risks that arrive slowly, quietly and without an interesting story attached.

Acute risk gets a helmet, a risk assessment and an ambulance.

Chronic risk gets a recliner and a biscuit.🍪

Unfortunately, only one of them looks dangerous. ☠️

Collectable Advice 274/365.

Please SHARE, to tip as many people onto the importance of MOVEMENT.❤

If you have horses on Adequan, please check your lot numbers!!

RECALL ALERT: American Regent, Inc. Animal Health is conducting a nationwide recall of two lots (25011 and 3369) of Adequan® Canine Injection (for dogs), 100 mg/mL 5mL multi-dose vials and two lots (24416 and 25265P) of Adequan® i.m. Injection (for horses), 500mg/5 mL single-dose 5mL vials to the consumer level. The products are being recalled due to the presence of glass fibers found during testing of internally retained samples. MORE: https://bit.ly/454WV92

This summer is HOT, HOT, HOT....if you are planning on coming out for the obstacle course tomorrow, please let us know! We will meet you out there!! Otherwise, we will be working on cooling off our own horses and fly control as the new crop hatches!
No problem if you want to come out, but it's gonna be a scorcher!! Make sure if you're riding today/tomorrow/next week to share some water with your horses!!

A few photos from the last obstacle session.....we apparently were also desensitizing a kitten! If anyone is missing him, he is declawed and was turned into the pound to keep him safe (Nero is a bit big to be around one that small!). He has no sense of self-preservation.
Fun day with the horses - lots of concerns overcome!

Let's talk about speed for second.
There are several things that can affect a rider's ability to ride at speed, but BY far the most important one is rider balance - which is 100% linked to having an independent seat.
An independent seat is when your body moves separately from your hands, allowing you to cue the horse without using the reins for balance....and most beginner to intermediate riders lack this skill.
If you have to hold on at speed, or your horse is throwing their head at every turn, YOUR balance is off, and you are actually affecting theirs! This is vital in ALL disciplines, not just speed disciplines! This also dictates if you can effectively train a horse.
Being able to control your body translates to clear cues to the horse, and allows a more consistent response.

So how do you fix that?
Whelp, hitting the yoga mat is one part, and the next part involves no handed riding practice! You have to learn to follow the horse's movements and not hinder them by accident!
The best drills for that are actually longing rides - where someone else controls the horse and watches your body to help you find the spots you are not "sticking" to the seat. By adjusting your seat, you can lock into the saddle better, resulting in smoother movement from your horse.

Ultimately, slow is smooth and smooth is fast. Don't drill yourself or your horse at high speeds....the goal is always to get smooth responsive movement at lower speeds because high speeds emphasize the errors. Once you're flowing at the walk, you move up from there.

Most professionals get their main training work done at the walk and trot....building up to the canter. Hills, uneven ground, and varied surfaces are also vital to teach yourself and your horse to balance.

The foundations of classical riding apply to EVERY discipline...understanding the movement of your horse and how your body affects their biomechanics is massive.

When you finally get to that point, you can ride a horse at true speed, which for most fit and relatively athletic horses is upward of 45mph!

If you're coming out today to play on obstacles, this is the access path to the arena!
Make sure you take the NORTH access road off the gravel pad, I haven't installed the actual road surface on the south one yet!