Moon River Training

03/01/2025

Sending love and warm wishes over the rainbow bridge to Girlfriend.

She and her mom Kelsey Steller were my (and later Clover’s) first horsey friends in the Triangle. Girlfriend was a foundational piece to the early days of Moon River Training, and we definitely wouldn’t be where we are without her.

Hug your horses extra tight today 💕💕

02/25/2025

Two horses for on or off-site lease Chapel Hill, NC

Stella Luna “Stella” 14.2(ish, could possibly get the measure) black Welsh X mare. Has been brought along carefully by her professional owner and teen half leaser (pictured). She’s showing at 2’, has schooled over 3’ with owner at home. She has a lead change that is nearly automatic. She will truck over crossrails with the best of them, but will require a rider with confidence for the bigger stuff. Likes a soft ride. She trails, rides bridleless, and loves to go through water! Local and C show miles to 2'3".

Moon River “River” big bodied 14h grey Welsh X mare. Did the kids pony job with previous owner, but has much more enjoyed the bigger jump job with professional owner and teen leaser. Bold to the fences and will jump from anywhere. Will be well suited to a pony jumper home, but has played in the hunter ring too! Green lead change. Can be pushy on the ground, so not best suited for a small child. Local and C show miles to 2'3".

✨Will only let them go to professional programs✨, but selfishly I'd love to keep them with me. They have been the most fun projects I've worked on in awhile, and I'll be sad to not have their sweet personalities around the farm!

Mid-fours if leased on-site at Moon River Training (would do half leases on each if there were two riders interested) in Chapel Hill, NC, low-fives if leased off-site; insurance and lifetime USEF registration included. Would consider ⛵️ to the perfect home.

Tons of video available! Lots on the Moon River Training Socials

02/19/2025

Thankful to call Ardenwood Farm home! All the horses are safely snuggled inside (and so am I)! So lovely to be with the horses as the snow started to fall 💕

02/14/2025

02/03/2025

Great description of the two seats! Which one do we use on course in the hunters?

Two VASTLY different seats.
 The forward seat and the deep seat both absolutely have their places! But what you don’t want to do is smoosh the two together!
There is no in between- you either want to have a shorter stirrup, a very deep heel, and a tight “sandbag leg”, or you want to sit deep and heavy and plug in those seat bones with a long draped leg.
The Forward seat gets its security from the mid-thigh down. I compare it to those inflatable clowns 🤡🥊with the sand in the bottom that kids box- no matter what you do to those suckers they pop right back upright again because all the weight is in the bottom!!! That’s what it feels like in a secure forward seat.
In a good deep seat, your lower leg, just dangles. Heck, you could get cut off at the knees and it not change much, because your security comes from your glutes and core! In the deep seat, it is so important that your hips move with the horse, and that your core stabilizes your spine.

Both of these pictures are me and I’m riding the same horse.

02/01/2025

I think this is why it is so hard to work with our own horses sometimes! We lived the story, so it’s hard to move past it. That’s where trainers, instructors, and mentors can help you both get out of the “story” and make progress!

Let horses move past their “story”

When you’re in the thick of it, the story is real. The behaviors can be explained by a past, near or far. Some of it may be valid, some may be our interpretation, some may be best guesses. Either way, here we are.

But horses have a strong desire to be balanced. If given half a chance, most of them, I’ve found, adapt. Some need a little more help, some have a missing ingredient that helps them complete the recipe of wellness. But usually, people are in the way.

I’ve been that person too. It’s easy. You tell the story over and over - “she was traumatized.” “You won’t be able to catch her, she hates men.” “She doesn’t trailer.” “She had an accident while tying so she doesn’t tie.” These things may have been true at one time, but without adapting our awareness to the current moment day by day, moment by moment, we so often keep the horses progress stifled.

I can’t tell you how many troubled horses I’ve had that I tip toed around, told the public to watch out, and one day discovered them calmly standing. Before my very eyes they had turned into another horse, and I was so busy talking about them I hadn’t noticed who they were now.

Photo by Caitlin Hatch

01/26/2025

Had so much fun jumping around in our new HUGE ring! What a treat! Soren and Emma looking like they didn’t take any time off from jumping 💪

01/25/2025

Thanks for coming by today!!!

🎉 Exciting news! Libby & Josh will be at the Open House for Moon River Training at Ardenwood Farm this afternoon! 🐴✨ Come hang out, grab some fun goodies, and say hi! 👋 Are you stopping by? We can’t wait to see you there! 🎁🎊

12/26/2024

OMG Missy Sugar! The most beautiful!!

12/18/2024

Absolutely!!!! Position matters!

12/13/2024

“People get to choose the philanthropy they are involved in” -Gayle Dauverd

I am in the process of moving my barn and revamping my business. In this moment I’ve had to make some really tough decisions that are forcing really hard decisions with my clients (many of whom I consider friends too). Most of these decisions are around money.

I’m raising board. I haven’t raised board in the three years I was at my current location, my costs have exploded in that same timeframe, but because I’ve wanted to keep my amazing current boarders, I’ve made up the difference with training board and leases. I chose my boarders as my philanthropy.

I’m no longer offering lesson horses. Doing the math on running a riding school and having lesson horses just wasn’t adding up at my current rates. In order for one of my lesson horses to break even they had to have five riders a week. So not only did they have to sustain five lessons, with five different people, someone also needed to be in the arena teaching that lesson. That was just to make enough to justify keeping them, not talking making any kind of profit. That’s A LOT of work for everyone! BUT there is a huge demand and need for this service (this will be another post as I hype of lesson businesses to charge more for this service and explain why).

In these two major changes, I am more intentionally choosing my philanthropy. I am choosing to no longer subsidize people’s hobbies by reducing board or maintaining lesson horses. This opens the door for me to offer other charity and looking strategically at what I want that to be.

Is that philanthropy buying a green horse for a good riding kid to help bring along when her family can’t afford to buy one? Is it offering a working student position to a rider who wants more saddle time? Is it taking on a rehab project? Having the opportunity to finally think about these things is a breath of fresh air.

The quote is from my lovely trimmer as we were discussing these changes. I felt a huge relief with this mindset; I’m not being selfish or ruthless, but I’m opening the door to provide opportunities I otherwise wouldn’t.

If you’re interested in board in Chapel Hill, contact me!

11/29/2024

This!!! I know kids (and parents) roll their eyes at unmounted lessons, but they are integral to well rounded horsemen!

BY DAPHNE THORNTON OF TWO BIT TRAINING When it comes to riding lessons, I understand that riding is the overwhelming desire, as well as the underlying principle, guiding most participants. However, sometimes riding is not possible, or even advisable. On those days, I am a fan of unmounted lessons.....

10/21/2024

Can’t wait to listen to this one!!!

Very excited about episode 33 with the incredible Helen Ingersoll! Every time I meet with Helen my mind is blown.

Her story is one of survival, grit, profound intellect and intuition. A rider, trainer, coach and facilitator, you really don’t want to miss this episode.

Find it everywhere you get your podcasts

Thank you Helen!

09/28/2024

Nuno Oliveira told us: ‘If the horse is happy, everything will be all right; if he is constrained everything will go wrong. And in case that it is necessary to use force, then one enters a domain that does not fit the equestrian art, neither for that matter, in the circle in which civilised people dwell’.
“I urge my readers to apply the aids to help the horse, not to put him in a mould.”
https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/2021/10/the-aids-and-the-horse-a-classical-approach/