The Horse Fix
The Horse Fix
Grit, Over Talent, Decides Your Ride
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Frozen mornings set the scene, but the real heat comes from commitment. We open with practical, no-nonsense winter horse care—how to keep water intake up with electrolytes, why extra hay matters, when to blanket, and how to spot early frostbite before it turns serious. A sobering barn-heater story underscores safety, reminding us that curious horses and loose cords never mix.
From there, we trade the icy arena for a warmer plan. I share my big target for the year—competing at the AQHA World Championship—and break down how a lofty goal becomes actionable. We map consistent lessons, event-specific skill work, and a smart show schedule that simulates the final environment: enclosed arenas, bleachers on every side, and the echo of a busy coliseum. If you ride horsemanship or trail, you’ll hear concrete benchmarks: a smooth, show-worthy flying lead change, quiet feet over poles, and clean patterns that score.
We also get honest about mindset. “Try” becomes “will,” because language shapes action. Talent is a story people tell after years of practice; the scoreboard favors consistency, feedback, and obsession directed by care. Surround yourself with the right people—trainers who challenge you, friends who model effort, partners who cheer your happiness—and watch your ceiling rise.
A heartfelt listener letter about losing a beloved horse brings it all home. We talk about guilt, sudden loss, and how love can expand to meet a new partner without erasing the old one. Like an egg or a potato in the same boiling water, it’s our response that defines us. If winter has you indoors, let it also pull you forward: safer barns, clearer goals, better rides, and a kinder voice in your head.
If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a horse friend who needs a lift, and leave a quick review to help more riders find us. What’s your one non-negotiable goal this week?
May all your blues be ribbons
Hi everybody, welcome back to the horse fix, where you can get a horse fix, you can fix your horse, and perhaps even help yourself along the way. I'm Dr. Sandra Holt, and I'm coming to you from my studio here in Longview, Texas. One word comes to mind today, and it's brrrr. Yes, we're having that Arctic invasion that many people in the United States are having right now, and it's keeping us all indoors. So I thought, you know, I'm indoors, you're probably indoors. Good time to do a podcast. So here I am. Today we're going to talk about priorities, planning, goal making, the kind of things that you think about the first part of the year, and then address a couple of questions that have come my way. And I hope you enjoy it. So let's get started. Well, I've never considered myself a fair-weathered rider. I usually ride in just about anything, except for weather like today. The ground is covered with ice and so it could be very dangerous. Yeah, it's it's pretty cold. I don't think a horses would appreciate it if I rode them either today. So yes, I'm sitting here in the house staying warm and talking to you. Speaking of horses in cold weather, do be cautious that you remember that some horses really like to drink a lot of water in the cold and some horses don't. So give them electrolytes through the winter time. They need it now just as much as they do in the heat of the summer. That will keep them drinking water, which they definitely need, and give them extra hay. Even if they're a little pudgy and they're on a diet, this is the time where you can splurge a little bit and give them some hay that will fuel their bodies and help keep them warm. Give them shelter if at all possible. If they don't have a winter coat, be sure to put blankets on them. One, two, three, however many they need depending on their coat. Also watch for frostbite. If they've gotten wet, if they've been rained on and then the wind is blowing, they could likely get frostbite. Sometimes it occurs in the feet, many times in the ears, where the blood flow isn't as generous. So watch for their skin color. If that skin starts turning purple and then turns black, you're in trouble. So you want to call the vet. But you know, if you feel like they it's starting to turn purple, go ahead and rub them like you would your hands if you were trying to warm them up, cover them with mittens, do a few things like that, and then if they don't get any better, then definitely call the vet on that. I wouldn't worry a whole lot about frostbite if the horses haven't gotten wet and they're not standing in the wind. Do be careful though and watch for that. Horses do like to be outdoors, so be cognizant of the fact that they are grazing herd animals and you know being cooped up inside is not always beneficial to them. You definitely want to get them out of extreme weather, but whenever the sun starts shining a little bit, give them a moment outside if you can. Do be careful that they're not slipping and sliding and and that you're not slipping and sliding and hurting yourselves. Depending on where you live and what your horses are used to, you can gauge as to whether to force them to stand inside a a stall for a while or that or not. I grew up in Michigan and our little furry ponies would stand out in sleet and they'd have icicles uh off their ears and their s their hair, and they would just stand there and not go in the barn. You know, it's it all depends. If you've got a horse that you just brought to your home in, let's say, Ohio, and it came from Florida and it doesn't have a big furry hair coat, you're gonna want to keep that horse under wraps and keep them nice and warm and snug with extra blankets and such. Some people put heaters in their barn. I caution you to be sure you get the kind that will not catch on fire. If you string them up overhead, be sure fasten them firmly so that they can't fall down into the stall, and that the cord is way, way higher than the horse could possibly reach. I'll tell you a sad story and in a a cautionary tale. Way back when I was a child, my father had a horse, and we were lived in Michigan and it was very cold out in the barn. That barn wasn't insulated, so he put some space heaters uh over the stalls, came loose and fell down, and the horse chewed on it, and the next day we found the horse laying dead. Had been electrocuted. So it's a grim tale, but it's I think important for all of you to understand that horses wake up in the morning trying to hurt themselves, basically. If there's trouble to get into, they will, most of them. Do think ahead. Think of the horses like you would in a child, a toddler that would be crawling around left by itself and getting itself into trouble. Otherwise, you know, now we have to figure out what we're gonna do if we're not riding our horses. And I know that you all know there's plenty going on there. If you want to stay involved with the horse-related things, clean your tech, listen to a podcast about horses, and read, learn, take these precious moments that you have to yourself to develop some self-growth. I couldn't emphasize that more. I think it's so important to all of you that you do. You know, my doctorate's degree is in equine behavioral science. But crossing over with that is human behavioral science, and they're more parallel than you think they are. One thing I know about horses is that when they learn something, when they have their aha moment, their endorphins are released as far as we can relate to happy in horses. They are happy. They're happiest when they're learning something like that. So are people. So rather than sit around and twiddle your thumbs or just be a couch potato, take some moments to learn something and you too will be a happier camper as you camp inside your house. Okay, I'll get off that soapbox now. Let's talk about goals. You know, it's January. This is the time where many of us make goals for the year. We spend some time reflecting. If we're wise, we reflect on the good and the bad. We reflect on what worked for us. When it comes to horseback riding, we reflect on what kind of techniques that we used or what kind of connection did we make with a horse that actually resonated with the horse and that we got something accomplished. And then we look at the things that didn't work, things that might have even caused some difficulty with our horse. Those are the learning moments. I have to say I had a lot of learning moments in 2025. It was one of those years where things did go well, and I'm definitely not discounting those. But those learning moments were plentiful. It seems though when you get a new horse, which I did this past year, I'm finding myself having to learn his buttons and having to connect with him because he is new to me. But you know, I like that. I as I said before, I really like a challenge. And if I were to buy a horse that was 100% push button and that all I had to do was be a passenger on that horse, I wouldn't enjoy myself half as much. Those kind of horses are few and far between anyway. However, I I do appreciate having to to earn my way into the horse's mind. My trainer Alan Shaw is doing a wonderful job with Cyrus, helping me to get prepared for the horse shows coming up. I actually have a horse show coming up as soon, uh middle of February. I'm excited about it. Will I be ready for it? Not completely, but I'll be ready enough to go and to do an earnest job and to not embarrass myself, I think, and and to have fun and so and that's what it's all about. I have now developed some goals, and which I usually do in in January. I come up with a plan for the year, and so my plan this year and my goal is to take Cyrus to the AQHA World Championship show in November. I think it's October, October slash November, in Oklahoma City. I want to make the at least the top five, if not do better. So I'm really eager to get there. Now, that goal is going to have to have a lot of planning and a lot of increment goals along the way to get to where I want to be. My friend Phil Hogan says goal is only a wish if you do not have a plan. And I I think he's right on. So I'm developing a plan, taking it step by step. I haven't shared my plan with my trainer yet, which I definitely need to do, but I wanted to wrap my head around it first and get get everything kind of sorted. I'm kind of a list outline type write down person, so I want to get it on paper and look at it and tweak it a little bit, and then sit down with Alan and say, okay, here's my plan. Generally, in a roundabout description of my plan, it will be to be involved in the consistent lessons, of course, and consistent training. But I also want to plan out my strategy for the shows and which shows I want to go to and why I want to go to them. We don't just pick shows randomly, at least I don't. I like to look at, well, their location, what type of atmosphere it is, and what kind of environment it is, so that I can get my horse used to the kind of environment that he will have at the world show. And that one's kind of hard to parallel with, but still do our best to get close to it. Go to some of the bigger shows that will have a little more action, that will be in an enclosed arena, a coliseum type thing, so that he feels the bleachers on all sides of the arena and and hears the echo and hears people uh tromping up and down the aluminum benches and stands, things like that. But then I break down that land into smaller increments, smaller goals in order to reach the bigger goal. For example, one of the classes that I want to go in is horsemanship. Now, in horsemanship, it's useful if your horse can do a flying lead change. It shows element of difficulty and will give you more points in the showpin. Well, my horse has a kind of a green flying lead change, so Alan's working on him to get it smooth and to get it where it's show worthy. And so my goal for Alan and Cyrus will be for him to get that lead change, and then for me to be able to perform that lead change with Cyrus as well. An another one of my smaller goals will be to handle the trail maneuvers, to handle the obstacles in a smooth and quiet and clean way. And by clean I mean that when we're trotting over poles or backing through a maze of poles or cones, that we don't hit them, that we stay completely clean and out of their way, and that the horse travels smoothly over and through them instead of clunking. And again, it's all it's all a part of scoring higher. But when we make goals, it's important that they are realistic. I took a long time to decide if this goal of mine to be in the top five is realistic, and I think I I am realistic with it at least in one or two classes. I think particularly in the Western Pleasure class, I believe I can be up there. My horse moves nicely in the pleasure event, and and I've been watching videos of past world show competitors in that class particularly and in my division, and I've been watching them carefully and gauging them and sizing them up as far as where I am, where I want to be and where I think I can be. And you know, in sizing them up competitively wise and thinking, now would I fit in there? And right now I'm optimistic about it, cautiously optimistic about it. I but I do believe, I even though I don't know my horse well, I'll know it better by the time the world show comes around, and I believe that I can make a good show of it. But again, you need to be realistic about your goals no matter what they are, no matter if they're learning to cook, which I should put down as one of my goals, or whether it's winning a world-class horse show. It's important that you really be brutally honest with yourself and say, is this realistic? You know, at seventy-four years old being four foot ten, I know that I couldn't have a realistic goal of running a Olympic race, for example. Being in the Olympics in basketball, you know, I mean, those are just outrageous. They're beyond my control. And so I don't even go there. You want to shoot for the for the stars, or shoot for the moon and land on a star if you can. But you don't want to limit yourself at the same time. You really do need to be realistic. And the things that are out of your control you need to dismiss and focus on the things that are in your control. For me, it's in my control to really study my my riding and really hone my skill level. That's in my control. The more I ride, the more lessons I take, the more coaching that I receive, the better I will be. You know, that people say, well, the harder I work, the luckier I get. People who win, they have gone that extra mile. They have made their plans, they have worked hard toward winning. That doesn't typically just come to them. Any kind of skill is work. I'm fairly good at my painting now. I wasn't in the beginning twenty something years ago. I was not very good at it. Same thing with playing the piano. I wasn't good at the beginning. And as I took more and more lessons and as I practiced more and more, I got better. And that's just the way it is. And you know, people will say, Oh, you're just naturally talented when it comes to my painting. They say, Oh, you you know, you have a gift from God. Actually, you know, yeah, God gave me the gift, the desire, but I had to work toward it. I had to develop the skill. It just it just isn't a natural thing. So, and those people who say, Well, I can't paint, it's because they haven't put the effort in. So, I mean, I feel strongly about that. Same thing with writing, you've got to put the effort in, yeah, or it just isn't going to happen. I know you've seen people that make their skill or their job look easy. Those are the people that have worked hard to make it look easy. So don't be fooled by someone who it just seems to naturally get on a horse or naturally paint or naturally cook a meal. Don't be fooled that they just inherited that natural ability. They worked hard to get there. I can guarantee it. I have a couple of good friends, actually you know, Nora and my friend Carolyn. They can cook like they were born to do that. I know they worked at it, but I know that that was a skill that they developed over time. Now they may have started as a child in the kitchen with their mother, I don't know. But I know that they can go into my kitchen and I'm thinking my kitchen has nothing in it, and they can whip up a meal or whip up a tasty hors just in seconds. My own daughter does that, and I know she didn't learn it from me, but she did work at it, I know that. I guess my my message there is that you know we can all get to where we want to go. We have to have the desire, we have to believe in ourselves, and we have to have the motivation to work and to study and to not give up. That's kind of where I am at as far as my goal is concerned. I'm not gonna give up. I'm going to be a steady eddy, I'm going to be consistent, and I'm going to uh I'm going to get the job done. Now you noticed I didn't say I will try to be consistent, and I will try to work hard. I've talked to you about this before, and I really think it's important. Take the word try out of your vocabulary and say, you will, you will do it, not you will try to do it. No matter what you're thinking about right now. I don't care if you're 85 and you're thinking that you want to strengthen your body. Don't say, I'm gonna try and walk every day. Please don't say that. Say I will walk every day and then do it. And I don't care if you're 16 years old and you want to be the president of your debate team in in school. You're not going to try. You're going to do, and you're going to take the steps in order to make that happen. I have a lot of supporters out there. People have reached out to me and have told me how proud they are of me for being my age and doing what I'm doing. And encouraging me, don't quit and don't let the old girl in. I like the song, Don't Let the Old Man In. Well, I won't let the old girl in. She's not old yet. I doubt if I will ever really feel old. Honestly, I don't think I will ever feel old. My body may encourage me to feel old, but my mind will never allow it. And I suggest that you feel the same way. Oh yeah, we're gonna have our aches and pains, of course, we always do, but we're gonna walk through those. We're gonna just bulldoze through those aches and pains, knowing that that's just the season. That's part of our life. But what really counts is where is our brain and where is our heart. Develop friends that feel the same way you do. And I've mentioned this before. Iron sharpens iron. Winners want to rub elbows with winners. You do the same. You sharpen other people's skills by being around them. Pick those people that are around you that will do the same for you. So my priorities, my goals this year, my priority is to be a blessing to someone every day. It's always been my priority, every single day, and all of my time and all of my moments spent are to be a blessing to someone. I've had my moments where I've been all wrapped up in my own self, but for the most part, my my goal is to help others. That's who I am. I don't apologize for it. It's just who I am. And that may mean that I have to sacrifice something of my own, whether it be time or money or things, uh sacrificing something I'd rather do at that moment than help someone else. But that's what I do. Now I'm not saying everybody should be that way or everyone should do that, but pick something, be passionate and be obsessed about something. That will help you to be who you are. You know, when you have a passion, that's wonderful. And I encourage everyone to have a passion of some sort, no matter how old you are, whether you be five years old or whether you be 105 years old, be passionate. But having a passion just is it it comes. It's it's kind of a wish, and you're feeling strongly about something. But what you really need to do is be obsessed. When you have an obsession, you wake up in the morning and you think about it. You're going through your day and you're thinking about it. You're going to bed at night and you're thinking about it. And in between all those times you're thinking about it, you're doing something about it. You're obsessed. And if you really want something really badly, if you really, really, really want to reach your goal, be obsessed. I guarantee it works. If my husband didn't love me the way I loved him, he wouldn't understand my obsession. But he does. He understands it and he wants me to be happy. Does he like it all the time? No. He's not crazy about me going off to horse shows and going off to practice and spending money on equipment and what have you. It doesn't always thrill him. But what does thrill him is that I am happy. And when he observes my happiness, then he's happy. And it's vice versa. I feel the same way about him. So no matter what his passion or obsession would be, I would be right there behind him, helping him and encouraging him to achieve it. So that's my spiel on priorities and goals and wishes and obsessions. And I hope it resonates with you. I hope that when you wake up tomorrow morning, you have decided that you're going to make some good choices. Go forward with what you want to do, be courageous, and acknowledge and embrace your obsession. Okay. I'm going to go on to a question now. This question is from Jamie Bronswell from Prescott, Arizona. And she writes this Dear Dr. Holt, six months ago I lost my soulmate, my beautiful horse, Admiral. I don't think I've loved anything ever as much as I loved him. I am seventeen years old, and I've had him for two years. I woke up, went to feed him. I found him dead in the pasture. I have no idea how it happened, and the vet had no idea either. I am trying to figure out whether it was my fault or not, and whether I deserve to have another horse. I am ready to buy a new horse, but I feel guilty. I'm afraid that I will do something to harm that new horse. What are your thoughts on this? Sincerely, Jamie. Well, Jamie, I oh I'm so sorry for your loss, and my heart breaks for you. I know what it's like, I've been there. What I can say to you is that it was not your fault. Horses have problems. You do not know what went on, and I would not try and guess. It could have been anything. Could have been a heart attack, it could have been colic, it could have been anything in the middle of the night, could have been struck by lightning. I don't know. But what I do know is that it sounds like you were a caring, loving owner. You should not blame yourself for what happened to Admiral. Now then, going on to get a new horse? I recommend it. I think it's a good idea. I think you'll be fine. I think the horse will be fine. Look forward to your relationship with your new horse. And, you know, look at the things that were wonderful about you and Admiral and learn from those. Do not dwell on his death. That could only be disastrous for you. You know, it's it's not what happens to you, it's how you use what's happened to you. Let me give you an example. There's several ways you can look at things, and there's several ways that you can use the things that have happened to you to your benefit or to your detriment. Let's look at a very s silly and simple thing. Let's use boiling water. Okay. You can put an egg in boiling water and it will become hard. You can take that same boiling water and put a potato in it, and that potato will use that boiling water to become soft. Well, the same thing in life. Take or what has happened to you and use it in a beneficial way. Cook your egg or cook your potato so that it suits you. I wish you the greatest luck in finding just the right horse for you. And don't ever give up your passion or your obsession about horses. Allow this new horse to become your new soulmate. God bless you. Alright, people, that's it for me today. I hope that you enjoyed this podcast. I love you guys. I really appreciate everyone who listens, and I am hoping that you have a wonderful, bright, encouraging, positive new year. So, until next time, may all your blues be ribbons. Bye bye.