Greenmarch Farm

10/24/2024

Pongo was a good switch ride for Ev tonight! A nice start to Pongo's potential lesson pony career.

09/16/2024

We had a little schooling show yesterday: no one came off and much improvement was shown by all! I only took this one picture of students looking at coures (oops) Next show Oct 19 at 10 am.

07/27/2024

Aug 3: We are starting our Horsemanship classes back up! It's pretty much Pony Club without the membership commitment.
NEW! The Starting Horsemanship class is geared younger learners, but a great review for olders. Minimum age 8, all ages welcome.
Our Advancing Horsemanship class is going again. This is focused on more advanced veterinary topics, conformation, horsekeeping, etc, and isn't really suitable for younger.

Come to one or both sessions: $10 for the night (and snacks!)
Starting Horsemanship at 5-6:30 pm
Advancing Horsemanship at 7-8:30 pm
First Saturday of the month (usually)

07/26/2024

It was a beautiful day to ride, and the cross country areas look immaculate! If you happen to see Jason around tell him :)

07/24/2024

The mosquitos may have finally arrived for the first time in a year and a half, but there's still terrain opportunities to ride on

06/09/2024

New hopeful Banks (JC Max Express, but Max is a dog name)

06/06/2024

The obstacles at the new Allen County Equestrian Course are fun, and if intimidating, just work in hand. Del was the best at this exercise of the group (nobody else stayed on) which is pretty good for a horse we thought had EPM a year ago.

06/05/2024

Field trip to the new Allen County Equestrian Course: Del, Anakin, Pearl, Moki, Rye and Daisy all did wonderfully (even with the gun range going off next door).

03/12/2024

I didn't know last November that it would be the final time I rode Marshall. Despite rest, injections, ulcer regimen and more, our trusty boy had become spooky and defensive in all situations. We made the decision to put him down last Saturday, as his half blind state was never going to improve.

03/01/2024

Horsemanship class Saturday March 2 at 7 pm! $10, and I'm making chocolate torte and queso for snacks :) Lameness videos, conformation clinic, supplements talk, and more. Come visit and snack after the Jen Foreman lessons.

02/15/2024

L-R. Pearl, Dinah, and Goldie (who is actually the tallest). If Goldie and Dinah had a baby, it'd be Pearl. These chestnut mares somewhat break the stereotype: they are good girls :)

02/13/2024

Going to miss riding outside when February comes back.

02/11/2024

New horse Pearl was all we hoped for in her ride here.

02/09/2024

We are really enjoying this warm weather! Riding outside has been a bonus.

12/15/2023

Indoor footing much improved! Once the added sand dries we will see how much mag to add to keep the dust down.

11/30/2023

Yay! We have new cavaletti blocks! Unexpectedly early from SmartPak.

10/27/2023

It’s not uncommon for me to teach one lesson to a student and then, to never see her again. I say ‘her’ because it’s very rarely, in my neck of the woods, that men will take basic horsemanship lessons.

I may have thought that we got along well and that my teaching had been respectful and encouraging. I may have seen a distinct improvement in how the horse is working and the rapport between horse and rider from the lesson’s start, to its end. All this and yet, I know that this lesson will very likely be a one ‘n’ only.

The simple reason is that not everyone is ‘our people’. We all have our own goals.

This can be a hard lesson to learn but if we’re in the business of educating, learn it, we must. Everyone who is looking for a teacher is looking for something different. Most everyone who is teaching is offering similar information, with a unique delivery. A surprising number of people want to ride with a particular name and then, move on to ride with the next. Most of us just want to make the greatest strides in whatever time is availed us.

I’m a person who teaches little more than the basics. Over and over, again. I have spent my whole life with horses, polishing up fundamentals that I can remember first learning four, even five, decades ago. Some things that I pass along, I learned last week.

I’ve learned that maybe half of the people who call me and haul in for lessons, are finished after the first one. This used to bother me, until I realized that it was a thing. That the average beginning-to-intermediate rider craves going on to the higher levels quickly, while the advanced riders, naturally in the minority of people taking lessons, want to nail the basics until they become second nature. Until they become like breathing.

Until the fundamentals can be done with a maximum of feeling and a minimum of conscious thought.

Now, it’s true that the more advanced riders are generally always bringing on young or green horses. This keeps the same old, same old feeling ever fresh. When you are constantly in the realm of making the next good horse, there is very little time or opportunity to feel bored. I say, tired of doing the same little exercises? Show up in a strange arena on a spicy three-year-old!

Whenever we ride with a new teacher, there should be a lot of going back to basics. This means that the horse and rider who come ‘just to work on lead changes’ may well spend the entire hour working on rider position and body control. If this gets going in the right direction, we might spend time on improving bend, or relaxation of the horse, or acceptance of the bridle, or…

Often, their goal isn’t even on the menu that first day. It might be visited the next lesson later, or maybe—and this happened long ago, with my own teacher and a running fool of an off-track Thoroughbred—the next year!

Slowing things down isn’t a stalling tactic, meant to make your coach more money, nor is it usually an oversight. Those of us who teach this way tend to solve major problems with little fixes. We’re big on seeking the 1% improvement with each ride. One student, after being gently reminded of this, stopped dead in her tracks.

“You mean, I have to work on this, at least one hundred times?!” Surprisingly, she became a regular student.

I may ask you to spend a disappointing amount of time at the walk, just guiding the horse, shaping different parts of his body with your own. Maybe, we’ll seek sustained cantering without any contact whatsoever, until the horse learns how to handle his own body and speed control, without rider input. Until you learn to leave him alone. This fundamental step isn’t pretty, or graceful, and it has precious little to do with riding the horse ‘on the bit’.

When we’re peeling layers, it isn’t uncommon to have the feeling that we’re actually going backwards. Many times, things get a bit ugly before they get better.

As a naturally ‘feely’ rider, the geometry of riding in a school never fails to challenge me. Always trying to marry sensation with precision, I have never once schooled my horses and grown bored. Never once.

Long ago, I learned that the better my horse understands me, the better and safer we will be, out in the real world.

To my horse and me, this fundamental work represents the deposits in our joint account. We will draw upon them, time and again. I know, all too well, what happens should I make only withdrawals upon this same horse, for the sensitive personality who does nothing but mentally and physically demanding work, day after day, will soon start to come undone.

The longer we’ve ridden and the more we know—the more ‘expert’ we become, if we even dare breathe such a word—it seems the more we’ll crave revisiting our basics. The students who come back to me, year after year, tend to be those who have ridden for a long time, people who want to go back and make a study of their foundation. We ride, experiment, discuss. This is especially true with the same six or eight students who join me weekly to ride with our own trusted mentor. We know what’s coming. We hear his voice in our heads, before he speaks. We fine tune, we improve, we do it all again with the next young horse…

At first, riding is all about the destination. We want to arrive already, before we run out of time! By the end, we’re entirely immersed in the journey. Whether we’re opening a gate from the saddle, cantering to a lead change, or loading our horse in the trailer, it’s no longer enough for us that we can…

By going back to our basics, we can see to which point we are right and where, exactly, we begin to go wrong. Whatever our questions and answers, are we in full agreement, with full understanding? Are we simpatico? Are we correct? Are we soft?

📷 Ramblin’ Rose Creative.

10/17/2023

Greenmarch Farm's first two Horsemanship meetings will be Nov 4 and Dec 2 at 7 pm. An hour session on a variety of equine topics , and then socializing with snacks (sweet and savory, of course, for now BYOB).

Geared towards middle school to adults, these meetings are not discipline specific and will cover a range of topics from the latest disease research to sports psychology for riders, to the best clipping techniques. $10 for youth, $15 for adults.

These are modeled after the best of the Pony Club unmounted meetings that I did in the past, and I'm taking requests for topics/speakers. There will be ongoing miniseries session to session, but all sessions can be enjoyed as a standalone meeting.

10/15/2023

Jenna's release is better than my videography skills. A great evening at the end of a rainy weekend :)

10/14/2023

Due to the rain, no show tomorrow!

10/10/2023

I'm grateful for the indoor every day.

10/08/2023

Sign up for private lessons Oct 21. This is an extra lesson in addition to your monthly subscription. Be warmed up at your designated time. First come first served times and horses.

These are 30 min lessons. Be ready and warmed up at the time desired. (10 min warm up advised, you may be in the arena with the lesson before: be considerate. Please review the available slots below and click on the button to sign up. You must pay for your slot within 24 hrs of scheduling for the sl...

10/01/2023

Beautiful evening for schooling

09/27/2023

Oct 15 last schooling show of the summer here! Sign up with Julie

09/27/2023

Ride and Review with Lynda Weese Oct 7: Ride a dressage test and get feedback sign up here:

Lynda Weese will be coming to Greenmarch Farm on October 7th for a ride-a-test dressage clinic. Rides are $25.00/test ridden with mini lesson(10min) You could ride the same test twice if you want to focus on areas to improve on that test after help from Lynda. Video taping of ride and review with au...