Misty Morning Farm

01/27/2022

08/14/2020

It was a great week for MMF! Two students passed Pony Club testings and many more helped in the barn and jump ring.

02/11/2019

09/14/2017

Good advice, for the slow ponies. The quick ponies need to walk well too, but that's a different challenge.

Best recent quote---(Heard on a GMHA trail ride)

"Make that horse walk so he will get home in time for supper. Don't sit on him like a sack of soggy pablum and let him amble like that."

Have you noticed how some riders have horses that swing along withe verve at the walk, while other riders---soggy sacks of pablum??---have horses that creep along like they are going to their own funerals, and don't want to get there?

Horses will go if you ride them to go, but if you just sit there, so will your horse.

Ride the horse, don't just sit there.

09/14/2017

Woohoo! Anyone want to go to NC with me in a year?

Mark your calendars to be first in line to purchase a variety of ticketing types and prices for the Tryon World Equestrian Games

01/16/2017

Yes, yes, and yes! I learned from some great schoolmasters, and also tried to "learn" with green horses. I was a much better rider for the green horses once I rode the schoolmasters, as I knew then what I was trying to achieve. Now, as an instructor, the older, wider horses are worth their weight in gold.

Here's another incidence of a horse who is older than the teen age rider "teaching" the youngster what it feels like to do various things that many kids never get to experience.

Yet many parents automatically turn down an older horse, thinking it isn't a good return on their money. They are right, if they think they can sell the horse later for a profit, or even for what they paid, but that is the wrong way to look at these "been there, done that" horses.

What the parents are buying is education.

Sure, a 15-20 year old horse may crump out soon, but so can a 7 year old horse. And in these days of better nutrition, hock injections, vet care, 15 is probably the new 10, and 20 may be the new 15.

So, given the choice of buying the kid some unschooled 4 year old, "so they can learn together" or an old wise one, it's probably better to pay for experience.

Yes, we all know of some cases where the young kid and the green horse worked out, but there are far more cases where it was a recipe for the kid getting discouraged, sometimes even hurt, and, too often, quitting riding.

11/15/2016

Have you ever wondered what it is like to work as a horse trainer? It is an incredibly rewarding, but difficult job. Find out more in this week's blog!

11/08/2016

I've seen this going around and finally took time to read it. Priceless & exactly

Recently, a trainer that I admire on Twitter asked me, “How much would you ask to be paid to set jumps?” I thought this was an odd question, but I followed up with one of my own. “Am I a barn kid, client, or just a random person at the barn?” She replied that in Continued

11/07/2016

09/01/2016

Great end to the summer with three days of day camp at MMF. Wonderful to have campers and their ponies back on the farm.

08/30/2016

MMF day camp day 1 is in the books. Five campers for 3 days before the dreaded start of school brings an end to summer.

08/22/2016

Great day for a ride! Arwen, the MMF lesson horse, enjoying a sunny day with some great girls.

06/26/2016

I have the best horse and some of the best students:
https://youtu.be/KNsT-vdTl9s
XC Schooling at Sundance, June 2016

Sundance Farms XC Schooling

04/04/2016

yes!

FROM A PARENT:
One of my friends asked "Why do you pay so much money for your kids to do horse riding?" Well I have a confession to make, I don't pay for my kids horse riding. Personally, I couldn't care less about horse riding.

So, if I am not paying for horse riding, what am I paying for?

- I pay for those moments when my kids become so tired they want to quit but don't.

- I pay for those days when my kids come home from school and are "too tired" to go the stables but go anyway.

- I pay for my kids to learn to be disciplined.

- I pay for my kids to learn to take care of their body.

- I pay for my kids to learn to work with others and to be good team mates.

- I pay for my kids to learn to deal with disappointment, when they don't get that score they'd hoped for, but still have to work hard in the grading.

- I pay for my kids to learn to make and accomplish goals.

- I pay for my kids to learn that it takes hours and hours and hours and hours of hard work and practice to create a champion, and that success does not happen overnight.

- I pay for the opportunity my kids have and will have to make life-long friendships.

- I pay so that my kids can be in the arena instead of in front of a screen...
..I could go on but, to be short, I don't pay for horse riding, I pay for the opportunities that horse riding provides my kids with to develop attributes that will serve them well throughout their lives and give them the opportunity to bless the lives of others. From what I have seen so far I think it is a great investment!

04/04/2016

Fun times over spring break with some MMF riders. (Thanks to awesome Google Photos for making the video!) w/ Lisa Ford, Lilly Hall, Lilly Ford, Teresa Przybyl, Lorraine LaManna Shillingstad, Casey Rowe

03/10/2016

Marlie & Toby schooling the water at IEA May 2015. Here's shooting for a penalty-free water jump season for all MMF horses & riders this year.
Toby's a 1998 MustangxMorab. He and Marlie have been toegether since 2003, though he really belongs to Marlie's brother, Trevor.

02/26/2016

Another great post from Denny.

02/25/2016

Same for this riding instructor. :-)

CrossFit coaches does the same - for sure 😂