RKR Farm

11/08/2024

Sometimes ❤❤...!!
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Reading books daily brings many benefits, improving both intellectually and emotionally. Here are 10 reasons why you should read books every day:
1. Expand your knowledge: Reading exposes you to new information and deepens your understanding of various topics such as culture, history, science, art, and everyday life.
2. Enhance critical thinking and analysis: Regular reading improves your ability to reason, analyze, and solve problems logically and creatively.
3. Improve writing and communication skills: Exposure to a wide range of vocabulary and sentence structures helps you refine your expression and writing abilities.
4. Reduce stress and anxiety: Reading helps reduce stress by transporting you into different worlds, allowing your mind to relax and unwind.
5. Develop focus and patience: Reading requires concentration and patience to follow complex narratives or concepts, improving these skills over time.
6. Boost imagination and creativity: Reading, especially fiction, stimulates your imagination and enhances creativity by helping you visualize scenes, characters, and scenarios.
7. Improve memory: Reading encourages you to remember details about characters, plots, and information, which strengthens your memory retention.
8. Develop critical thinking: Many books, particularly those on science, philosophy, or politics, challenge you to think deeply and develop your critical reasoning abilities.
9. Inspire and motivate: Self-help books, biographies of successful individuals, or inspiring stories can provide motivation and guidance for your own life.
10. Increase empathy and social skills: Reading about other people’s lives and emotions helps you understand and empathize with them, which enhances your ability to connect with others socially.

Reading daily is a positive habit that benefits your mental health and fosters personal growth.

11/05/2024

Its the anniversary of this post, and I think it deserves a reboot. I was in awe of how far it reached. Feel free to share it again with credit. 😊

I've been compiling this list for quite awhile. Fellow instructors, feel free to add to it.

Things your riding instructor wants you to know:

1. This sport is hard. You don't get to bypass the hard…..every good rider has gone through it. You make progress, then you don't, and then you make progress again. Your riding instructor can coach you through it, but they cannot make it easy.

2. You're going to ride horses you don't want to ride. If you're teachable, you will learn from every horse you ride. Each horse in the barn can teach you if you let them. IF YOU LET THEM. Which leads me to…

3. You MUST be teachable to succeed in this sport. You must be teachable to succeed at anything, but that is another conversation. Being teachable often means going back to basics time and time and time again. If you find basics boring, then your not looking at them as an opportunity to learn. Which brings me to…..

4. This sport is a COMMITMENT. Read that, then read it again. Every sport is a commitment, but in this sport your teammate weighs 1200 lbs and speaks a different language. Good riders don't get good by riding every once in awhile….they improve because they make riding a priority and give themsevles opportunity to practice.

5. EVERY RIDE IS AN OPPORTUNITY. Even the walk ones. Even the hard ones. Every. Single. Ride. Remember when you just wished someone would lead you around on a horse? Find the happiness in just being able to RIDE. If you make every ride about what your AREN'T doing, you take the fun out of the experience for yourself, your horse, and your instructor. Just enjoy the process. Which brings me to...

6. Riding should be fun. It is work. and work isn't always fun.....but if you (or your rider) are consistently choosing other activities or find yourself not looking forward to lessons, it's time to take a break. The horses already know you don't want to be here, and you set yourself up for failure if you are already dreading the lesson before you get here.

7. You'll learn more about horses from the ground than you ever will while riding. That's why ground lessons are important, too. If you're skipping ground lessons (or the part of your lesson that takes place on the ground), you're missing out on the most important parts of the lesson. You spend far more time on the ground with horses than you do in the saddle.

9. Ask questions and communicate. If you're wondering why your coach is having you ride a particular horse or do an exercise, ask them. Then listen to their answer and refer to #3 above.

8. We are human beings. We make decisions (some of them life and death ones) every day. We balance learning for students with workloads for horses and carry the bulk of this business on our shoulders. A little courtesy goes a long way.

Of all the sports your child will try through their school years, riding is one of 4 that they may continue regularly as adults (golf, tennis, and skiing are the others). People who coach riding spend the better part of their free time and much of their disposable income trying to improve their own riding and caring for the horses who help teach your child. They love this sport and teaching others…..but they all have their limits. Not all good riders are good coaches, but all good coaches will tell you that the process to get good is not an easy one.

11/01/2024

Thought for the day...

Your trainer breathes with you through every movement whether at home or at a show. Your trainer stands at the in gate and physically rides the test with you - mentally moving your horse forward, or giving a whoa or riding your rhythm through every turn. She gives you words of wisdom and encouragement as you go by. Your trainer shares your nerves as you walk in the ring, feels your disappointment when things don’t go right and rejoices when you smack down that amazing test. They celebrate your tiny achievements and are filled with pride when you achieve a huge goal. They love your horse as if it were their own, making sure they are happy and healthy. Your trainer beats themselves up when things don’t go as planned. Your trainer takes on the responsibility of caring for your emotional needs ... both through the good and bad. Your trainer respects your budget and tries with all their might to make a very expensive sport as affordable as possible. Your trainer takes the job of matching you with the horse of your dreams very seriously and are filled with happiness when that partnership produces success. Trainers are therapists, sisters, brothers, mothers, fathers, doctors, care givers, equine linguists, supporters, cheer leaders, and optimists. We love what we do, love the sport and are forever grateful to the clients and horses that come into our lives!!

Please remember this the next time you see your trainer. They are, like you, human, trying their best to make you successful. They are your biggest fan!! • Jodi Bondar

📸 Photos by Furey

10/31/2024

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10/31/2024

10/23/2024

With new sports schedules and other school commitments, we've had some lesson times open up.

Don't miss your chance to get on our schedule and start or improve your riding over the winter!
Message the page or Kimberley Reynolds or Haley Anthony directly!

10/09/2024

Being a champion isn't buying the most expensive horse, having the most expensive barn, trailer, or tack. Being a champion isn't winning a class or a buckle. Being a champion isn't always glory and great times.

Being a champion is love, passion, hard work, dedication... It's tears and screaming, it's not always easy. It's working no matter what conditions you have to do it in. It's late nights and early mornings, it's horses before yourself, before your friends, often before your family. Its sore bodies, bruises, and cuts. It's vet bills and last dimes to make sure they have all they need. It's crying in their mane when you had a bad day. It's smiling when they finally get that thing you've been trying to teach them for a month. It's having the best network of people to care for them and to support you. It's farriers, vets, dentists, chiropractors, feed store owners, husband's, wives, family, friends and even enemies. It's learning how to take the good with the bad and never knowing what each day may bring. It's the happy and the sad. It's the highs and the lows. Its wanting to give up but never doing so. Most of all, it's the love that you feel every time you see those eyes and hear that nicker. Being a champion really has little to do with victories in the show pen as it does with victories on every road to get to that show. Being a champion is living for what you love and loving what you do and who you do it with and NEVER giving up. The victories are many and the ribbons and the buckles are icing on the cake so to say. But being a champion is so much more than just winning... And once you can learn that, you too will be a champion.

~• Author Unknown ~•

10/06/2024

I couldn't be more proud of these riders. ❤️❤️ Several of them made their horse show debuts today, and the rest improved their test scores and equitation rides immensely. All of your hard work paid off today!

Thank you Haley Anthony ...it is an honor to coach with you. And to Jordyn Martin for keeping us organized today! ❤️

Shout out to the parents and families.....without you none of this would be possible. ❤️