Episode 47: The Ride – EB Combs We'd like to thank Farnham for sponsoring this code of the ride. Admit it, bug suck there. The last thing you want hanging around your horse and stable, our friends at Farnham could help Richard barn of those annoying filter disease carrying back. If you're ready for the best way to protect your horse, you're stable and yourself. Look to foreign is no fly solution over at Farnam have discovered. The best way to set yourself up for success is by fighting on all fronts with their three-stage approach of block repel. Reduce you can be sure it flies. Mosquitoes and ticks are kept. Well to find them.com that's F a R N a m.com to learn more and download a free copy of the horse owners guide to creating your own no fly zone. Plus you can find money saving offers to help get you on your way to a fly free zone. Find your partner in fly control. Thanks again to Farnham for sponsoring this episode of the ride. Hey everyone. Thanks for joining me on another episode of the bra. Right now, it's just me, Jillian, introducing our guests to you today because at the time of recording this horse and rider is getting ready to send their fall issue to print. So Nicole is super busy getting the little last minute details finished up there, but y'all the fall issue is going to be so good. I am so honored to have been a part of it. This is, you know, my first issue with the magazines since I've only been here about three months now. So it was just really great seeing how hard Nicole and everyone at the magazine works to put out this, this incredible magazine for you guys. So look for that in a few weeks, but let's talk about AB Combs who. Is a multiple world champion horsemanship writer who has kind of transitioned into a career in the horse industry, but it's almost the opposite of the horse show world that she got her start in. So she runs a photography studio in Denver with her husband called realm Denver. But the real reason we had her on the show, it was to talk about this new venture that she and her friend and business partner, Amy Morrison have started called the ranch lands, restorative retreat, Eby, and Amy are hosting their second annual retreat at the ranch lands in Colorado. This may. And if you aren't familiar with the ranch lands because I definitely wasn't. I am from Florida as y'all know. So I haven't really been out to Colorado, but. When I saw the pictures of the ranch lands, I was blown away. They are a group of ranches out west that are real working cattle ranches, but a huge part of their business is promoting the conservation of the ranch lands with, you know, innovation and sustainability that also supports the American ranchers. So it sounds like an incredible experience that Eby and Amy are offering. Really the chance to just go out and unplug from the stress of your normal day-to-day life and reconnect with yourself in the ranch lands while learning. Some really great techniques for stress relief, with breathing and yoga and things like that, that will just help keep you grounded and focused. Once you return back to your normal life outside of the ranch lands. But obviously this retreat has a lot to do with horses, which means you get to ride through. And Eby even said that you can Gallop through the sand dunes and other incredible parts of the ranch lands. I don't want to spoil it because Amy is going to explain the whole retreat during the episode, but I can't think of anything better than spending a week in the most beautiful and remote part of Colorado, riding horses all day and learning how to manage your stress and just reconnecting with yourself and your mind. So for more information and pictures of the experience, check out the website, which I've linked in the episode notes below, but it's, um, at true core health.com/ranch lands retreat 2022. And like I said, y'all go look at these pictures because I can't even describe the ranch lands and the amazing landscape that's out there. So just go look at these pictures that Eby has taken. She is an incredible photographer and they'll blow you away. So let's get to know Eby and how she started showing horses to becoming a multiple world champion. And isn't how hosting an equine focused restorative retreat in Colorado. Let's get into. Hi guys. Welcome back to another episode today. We are sitting down with ed Combs, who I actually I've known you since I was like 12 years old. So it's like really exciting to have you on the podcast and talk about things that not aren't necessarily about showing horses. Cause that's how we met. But. You have kind of extended your career past the show horse industry and have started to do some other really fun things within, uh, horses. So thank you for coming on the podcast. And why don't you kind of explain who you are and what you do and all that fun stuff for anybody who hasn't gotten the chance to know you. Thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited to be on this. I grew up writing and showed in quarter horses and the all around events. Um, and I'm now a, and I'm now a photographer up here in Denver, Colorado. Um, I've been up here for about eight years shooting and kind of building a life here with my husband, Jonathan, we have a fleet of animals in our household. Always have, um, I'm a big animal lover, so that's kind of the scope of my life. Right. It's so funny to me that, you know, either we're both living in Denver now yet, we've like, we're doing those over zoom and we haven't seen each other in years. Uh, so we need to change that first of all. But yeah, no, I, the, the reason that we decided to have you on the podcast is that you're kind of. Involved in a really new, cool event. That is something that you're really passionate about. And it's something that's totally opposite from the horse show world, which we'll definitely get into here in a second, but do you, and we'll definitely talk about this event a little further down in the podcast, but do you want to briefly explain what you're doing like within this retreat that you've helped create? Yeah. This is something that I've kind of stumbled into. Um, ranch lands is this kind of experience. At different ranches, one specifically just south of the great sand dunes in Colorado. Um, it's a Potter ranch and you can actually go and stay at the ranch. You like eat their incredible food. It's all inclusive. And then every day you're meeting a Wrangler who you ride with. It's just your group and the Wrangler. And you go out on and ride on one of their three different locations. It's incredible environments. It's nothing like any kind of writing that I had done before. Mostly because it's. In an arena and it's also not nose to tail. You're pretty much encouraged to spread out across these like thousands of acres of ranch lands or even the sand dunes and just like open up the horses. And it's, it's just like wildly intoxicating and super foreign to me. Like, I didn't realize that people like my age group. You know, like ranching still, like I thought this was like a movie moment, like cinematic, not something that like people had actually created like a lifestyle and like lived their life doing that. It's just like wholly natural and familiar to them. Isn't it wild after coming from like the all around and the show performance stuff. And I know that, especially out here in Colorado, uh, I'm sure you can agree to that. Like, I feel like the ranching heritage and the cowboy lifestyle. So much and you're from Texas. So obviously that's, you know, your idea of that kind of stuff. Growing up was probably a little skewed from mine, which I'm from Chicago. So. It's like a totally different thing. And, um, but like out here, like you really do learn that these people live on these huge ranches and they're working ranches and cattle drives are a necessity. They're not just a tourist thing that you do at a guest ranch. And, um, I learned a lot about that too. Just like joining into like, kind of. Starting my life into like the cow horse industry where like a lot of these guys show these horses, but then those horses are also loping 10 miles checking fence line in their free time. You know, like they're, they're like high end horses show horses, but they still work.