Hidden Meadow Farm

08/12/2024

Thank you to Michelle King at Hand Made Luck Stables for working so hard through uncertain weather to put on a nice show today. Great work Scarlet and Baylee!

08/05/2024

08/05/2024

Make Them Carry Their Saddle

A father of a darling girl and I were talking last week and he said that he wanted his daughter to ride more and not have to do the work part of the catching, grooming, and saddling. I smiled as I explained.

Riding horses is a combination of strength, timing, and balance. Kids in this country are physically weak (unless they are actively involved with weight training and physical conditioning 4+ times a week.)

When you walk out to the field, you are clearing your stress from being under fluorescent lights all day; feeling the sun soak into your bones. As your body moves on uneven surfaces, it strengthens your legs and core.

When you groom your horse (especially currying), you are toning your arms and stabilizing your core.

When you carry your saddle, your arms, chest, and back are doing isolated strengthening work.

Being near horses, calms and makes you tune into the splendor of these empathetic animals.

When you ride at a posting trot, it’s equivalent to a slow jog calorie burn wise.

After a lesson, the riders are physically tired and mentally quiet and balanced.

Horses feel your heart beat and mirror your emotions back.

Riding large and somewhat unpredictable animals makes you resilient and pushes your expectations.

Working with horses is so much more than learning how to ride.

So parents, make your children carry their saddles. Don’t do the hard parts for them, as long term it actually hurts them. To advance with their riding, they must get stronger. You can help by doing the high parts.

I love having you all at the farm, and am so grateful to get to share these fascinating animals with you.

Hannah Campbell Zapletal

08/05/2024

Lessons aren’t just about riding a horse…

Make Them Carry Their Saddle

A father of a darling girl and I were talking last week and he said that he wanted his daughter to ride more and not have to do the work part of the catching, grooming, and saddling. I smiled as I explained.

Riding horses is a combination of strength, timing, and balance. Kids in this country are physically weak (unless they are actively involved with weight training and physical conditioning 4+ times a week.)

When you walk out to the field, you are clearing your stress from being under fluorescent lights all day; feeling the sun soak into your bones. As your body moves on uneven surfaces, it strengthens your legs and core.

When you groom your horse (especially currying), you are toning your arms and stabilizing your core.

When you carry your saddle, your arms, chest, and back are doing isolated strengthening work.

Being near horses, calms and makes you tune into the splendor of these empathetic animals.

When you ride at a posting trot, it’s equivalent to a slow jog calorie burn wise.

After a lesson, the riders are physically tired and mentally quiet and balanced.

Horses feel your heart beat and mirror your emotions back.

Riding large and somewhat unpredictable animals makes you resilient and pushes your expectations.

Working with horses is so much more than learning how to ride.

So parents, make your children carry their saddles. Don’t do the hard parts for them, as long term it actually hurts them. To advance with their riding, they must get stronger. You can help by doing the high parts.

I love having you all at the farm, and am so grateful to get to share these fascinating animals with you.

Hannah Campbell Zapletal

07/24/2024

All Lessons for Thursday 7/25 are cancelled due to an event. Please contact your instructor if you have questions!

07/17/2024

Unfortunately,
Lessons need to be canceled again today due the heat index 🥵

07/16/2024

All Lessons are cancelled due to temperatures today!!! 🔥🔥🔥

07/04/2024

Happy 4th of July!! She has her problems but it is still the greatest nation on earth! Blessed to live here! 💜

05/08/2024

It’s the honest truth…a little naughty pony is how Mrs. Brenda and Mrs. Laura K learned!

05/01/2024

So proud of all our riders at the Blue Ridge Arabian Horse Association - BRAHA show this past Saturday! Watching all of you grow in skill and become beautiful riders brings us great joy. Thank you to BRAHA for working so hard to put together a great event. Thank you to all the barn helpers and parents for always pitching in to make things happen! And of course so grateful for the blessing of our wonderful horses! So many photos that we could only share a few here!

04/25/2024

REMINDER!!!
No Lessons this Friday 4/26 and Saturday 4/27

We will be away at a show!

03/21/2024

These words will always ring true - year after year after year ❤️
Just know that I am good this post just reminded me to be thankful for all I have ❤️

On the days I am feeling less than happy or when I am feeling a little more stressed than normal and the craziness of life is more than I want to deal with - it is surprising the calm a four legged friend (or two or three or a hundred) can bring! I can tell them the secrets of life that I can't tell anyone else! They will always keep my secrets! I can cry and they won't tell anyone, I can laugh, sing, or just sit in silence and they will be OK with any and all of it!🙂 They are honestly just good for the soul, to have never opened up my heart to the love of an animal would honestly have left me missing a piece of my heart! The days I can't smile on the outside and the days that may seem like more than I can survive, I can always count on these crazies to make my heart smile! Once my heart starts to smile it tends to spread to the outside even in the midst of tears and confusion ! They are my very own therapist in hairy, four legged bodies! They said an animal loves you unconditionally and I do believe that and I know they will love me in spite of all the ugliness going on in our world today! Life is bumpy sometimes - lots of twists and turns and just as soon as you think your road is clear and straight forward - A nasty speed bump jumps out and reminds you - you can never take life for granted!
Sometimes those reminders are rough and leave you wondering “Why” The “Why” may never be answered!!! Make the most of your todays - whatever we are going through -I can almost promise you someone else is going through the same or even worse! I am thankful - but sometimes I have to be reminded!
As they say : It’s Better to have loved and Lost
Than to have never loved at all!!!
Even with the broken Heart 💔 and Tears!

03/20/2024

Lesson Families: Reminder - No regular lessons with Mrs. Brenda from March 23rd through April 4th. Lessons resume on Friday, April 5th.

03/06/2024

03/02/2024

Reminders this week!

No lessons tomorrow (Saturday) due to a farrier clinic. No lessons the 5th through the 8th due to spring vaccinations!

Thank you!

02/21/2024

The Prince of Wales taught me to look for the beauty buried deep within the beast...

With some loving, knowledgeable commitment, Charlie proved that sometimes, we just need that second chance. Many times during his reschooling, I could be heard to mutter my well-worn mantra, "Love and rules! Love and rules! Love and rules!"

Charlie also taught me about the bitter pill of buyer’s remorse.

Together, we learned that after the ‘honeymoon period’ is over, you will have to chunk your big dreams down into tiny baby steps. You will have to start over and over, how ever many times it takes. You will have to find satisfaction in the smallest of victories, trusting that one day, it will all be worth it in the end.

The 13:2 pony was so keen, so lovely to look at… but also, so reactive and so lacking in courage. We'd make progress, only to see it dashed upon the rocks, like waves hitting the shoreline. But now I’m getting ahead of myself.

This is the story of how Charlie and I crossed paths.

I’d been looking for a ‘medium’ pony—which is code for 13:2 hands—for the entire winter, some nine or ten years ago. A project that was either unhandled or newly started, one that I could bring along in my program and market in the hunter, eventing or dressage pony world. So, it needed eye appeal, correct movement and conformation and it needed to be in the right price range.

As always, I was looking to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.

An ad came up online. From a hunter-jumper barn about four hours’ drive away, it showed a lovely pony being ridden by a small adult over some cross rails. He looked a bit high-headed perhaps but he stopped me from mindlessly scrolling through hundreds of listed horses. It was a good sign.

Though he was not papered, of “unknown Welsh breeding”, the pony was just the right size. He was about six years old and a pretty cream-coloured palomino. He was nice and thick, to take an adult's leg. He had great bone and a natural forwardness. What was not to love?! I made the call.

During our initial visit, the seller mentioned that he would be sold 'as is', without a riding trial. I asked for video of him on the lunge and received thirty seconds of an obese pony, huffing and puffing on a circle, in a dimly-lit arena. I have no idea why, but I made arrangements to go and see him. I took the trailer. Due to the price, I didn't even bother having him vetted.

I was going wholly off a hunch.

My first glimpse of Charlie was memorable, in that he was ungroomed and standing with his head buried in a round bale feeder back of the arena, well out of sight. Clearly, he was not the barn favourite. There was no fanfare, no ‘ta-da!’ moment when the young manager led me out to his pen.

“Here he is,” she said. “He’s spun off my last lesson kid. I’m done with him. Take him, or leave him… that is, if you can catch him.”

With that, her phone rang and she walked off and left me, already disinterested in what was going on. It was a weird situation, having driven all this way and then, nothing. Left entirely to my own devices, this was the polar opposite of a slick sales pitch. All the while I was standing there, a ginger tomcat wove his way in and out of my legs.

I peered in at the fat pony, who looked dangerously close to laminitic. His bare crest bulged up where once there had been a mane. Before he’d rubbed it out on the round bale feeder, that is. There were no other horses in sight.

I tried to attract the pony's interest with a friendly voice but he neatly avoided any interaction, moving over to the far side of the big hay bale. I tried several times to join him but the thick mud and manure in the pen sucked at my boots. I couldn’t seem to get on the same side of the feeder, as the palomino pony.

I was making further inroads with the barn cat.

I went back to find the manager and ask if she had a halter. Without pausing her phone call, she motioned with her head in the direction of a row of hooks in the aisleway. I chose a likely fit and grabbed a few cookies from the tackroom of my trailer. Back I went, into battle.

After a four-hour drive, I was prepared to wear the little character down with relentless kindness.

Eventually, he took a cookie and I turned around and walked away from him, before he could make any move to do the same. This interested him enough, twice more, that I was able to reach out and scratch him on the side of the neck. Soon, he was all mine.

I led the pony without incident from the pen to the barn, got the manager’s attention long enough to say that I’d take him.

“I hope you can get him loaded,” was her only comment. I smiled and said that I’d hold off paying for him until he was on the trailer and then, I asked her to do the job. Rising valiantly to my challenge, the young pro did her darnedest to get that pony to step in through the open door but he was having none of it.

Just when it was looking as though I was going home empty, the ginger tom appeared from nowhere and jumped into the trailer.

In a flash, the pony pinned his ears and leapt in after him. The cat zig-zagged off again, like lightning, the lead rope was thrown up over the pony’s back and I slammed the door. We’d work on the niceties of trailer loading when I got him home. I reached into my pocket for the agreed-upon little roll of cash, in exchange for a handwritten bill of sale. I had my new project pony and away we went.

Looking back, I have no idea why I even went to see Charlie, in the first place. I can only sheepishly wonder what force had me purchase him. There was only a little voice inside my head that said he needed me.

"Cream-coloured ponies and crisp apple strudels, these are a few of my favourite things..."

I began to sing loudly on the long drive home. As the miles rolled by, I made plans. For some strange reason, I felt happy, though long experience was telling me that it would be ages before Charlie would proudly wear my brand.

We went through all the usual steps of restarting a problem horse or pony. Going right back to the very beginning, the palomino’s journey was made longer due to his condition, or lack thereof.

I'd been warned. He could shy in a heartbeat, spinning around so fast and often, right overtop of you if you were unlucky enough to be standing beside him. Charlie was also far too wide to be carrying any of my saddles, so I went to work with him on my lunge line, instead.

We spent weeks ground driving all over the ranch, where I could send Charlie boldly on ahead of me, telling him that I believed that he could be brave. Once he'd the idea in his head, he began to turn his life around, becoming all that I imagined, and more.

I do remember that I’d been riding him for nearly a year, before I could persuade him to canter. He seemed afraid of what he might do, if ever he got into third gear!

Like the ugly duckling, Charlie became svelte and very elegant. I rode him for another year with my own mentor, working the flag and then cattle. He gained a beautifully soft feel in the bridle and an understanding of lateral work. His confidence grew and grew. Charlie became a star on the trails and to build his resume, I loaned him to a local trainer with a great youth program. It takes a village and they provided his entry into a new world.

Charlie had a natural flair over fences, with tons of style and beautiful knees. He was just ‘looky’ enough to have presence, a good thing, as he was going to be a star.

He went to a few local hunter-jumper shows with the kids, something that I couldn't offer him here on the ranch. Our pony improved with every class and he soon caught the eye of a family who was looking for that special pony for their daughter. It was a wonderful home and a perfect match for Charlie.

The Prince of Wales never once looked back, nor let his people down. He went on become the Pony Club’s provincial champion in dressage, as well as a regular winner over fences. Charlie served with distinction at home, too, carrying his little girl out beside her father while he rode out to check their herd of cows. Finally, he had it all.

Sadly, children grow and ponies stay the same size. Charlie is now serving a petite senior rider in the US, though, a lovely lady who is also a Keystone follower. I’m so happy that I get to hear how he is doing. Pictures show that he is loved and cared for, like the treasure he truly is.

I can only look back at Charlie’s journey with pride and fondness. I’m glad I listened to the little voice inside my head… that long ago day I drove for hours, just to see a naughty pony in a muddy pen.

Photo: Sue Smith.

02/20/2024

BOARDING CLIENTS AND LESSON FAMILIES PLEASE NOTE:

Spring vaccinations have been scheduled for all horses. There will be no lessons March 5-7 due to veterinarian recommended downtime.

01/31/2024

Some days the ride isn’t 100% spot on. It doesn’t make it a bad ride. It makes it a learning experience. It teaches students to understand that horses are living creatures with feelings and pains of their own. It pushes students to be better, think harder, and work a little more toward connection with a partner. It teaches us all that sometimes the imperfect times are perfect opportunities and that we all still have a lot to learn.

01/28/2024

I mean they aren't wrong... careful ladies, don't let your husbands see this sound advice!

01/28/2024

I can't be the only one who does this! 🤣

01/27/2024

A little too accurate to be funny 🫣🤣🤣

01/27/2024

As she stood in front of her 5th-grade class on the very first day of school, she told the children an untruth. Like most teachers, she looked at her students and said that she loved them all the same. However, that was impossible, because there in the front row, slumped in his seat, was a little boy named Teddy Stoddard.
Mrs. Thompson had watched Teddy the year before and noticed that he did not play well with the other children, that his clothes were messy, and that he constantly needed a bath. In addition, Teddy could be unpleasant.
It got to the point where Mrs. Thompson would actually take delight in marking his papers with a broad red pen, making bold X's, and then putting a big "F" at the top of his papers.
At the school where Mrs. Thompson taught, she was required to review each child's past records and she put Teddy's off until last. However, when she reviewed his file, she was in for a surprise.
Teddy's first-grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is a bright child with a ready laugh. He does his work neatly and has good manners... he is a joy to be around.."
His second-grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is an excellent student, well-liked by his classmates, but he is troubled because his mother has a terminal illness, and life at home must be a struggle."
His third-grade teacher wrote, "His mother's death has been hard on him. He tries to do his best, but his father doesn't show much interest and his home life will soon affect him if some steps aren't taken."
Teddy's fourth-grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is withdrawn and doesn't show much interest in school. He doesn't have many friends and he sometimes sleeps in class."
By now, Mrs. Thompson realized the problem and she was ashamed of herself. She felt even worse when her students brought her Christmas presents, wrapped in beautiful ribbons and bright paper, except for Teddy's. His present was clumsily wrapped in the heavy, brown paper That he got from a grocery bag Mrs. Thompson took pains to open it in the middle of the other presents. Some of the children started to laugh when she found a rhinestone bracelet with some of the stones missing and a bottle that was one-quarter full of perfume.. But she stifled the children's laughter when she exclaimed how pretty the bracelet was, putting it on, and dabbing some of the perfume on her wrist. Teddy Stoddard stayed after school that day just long enough to say, "Mrs. Thompson, today you smelled just like my Mom used to." After the children left, she cried for at least an hour.
On that very day, she quit teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic. Instead, she began to teach children. Mrs. Thompson paid particular attention to Teddy. As she worked with him, his mind seemed to come alive. The more she encouraged him, the faster he responded. By the end of the year, Teddy had become one of the smartest children in the class and, despite her lie that she would love all the children the same, Teddy became one of her "teacher's pets.."
A year later, she found a note under her door, from Teddy, telling* her that she was still the best teacher he ever had in his whole life.
Six years went by before she got another note from Teddy. He then wrote that he had finished high school, third in his class, and she was still the best teacher he ever had in life.
Four years after that, she got another letter, saying that while things had been tough at times, he'd stayed in school, had stuck with it, and would soon graduate from college with the highest of honors. He assured Mrs. Thompson that she was still the best and favorite teacher he had ever had in his whole life.
Then four more years passed and yet another letter came. This time he explained that after he got his bachelor's degree, he decided to go a little further. The letter explained that she was still the best and favorite teacher he ever had. But now his name was a little longer.... The letter was signed, Theodore F. Stoddard, MD.
The story does not end there. You see, there was yet another letter that spring. Teddy said he had met this girl and was going to be married. He explained that his father had died a couple of years ago and he was wondering if Mrs. Thompson might agree to sit at the wedding in the place that was usually reserved for the mother of the groom.
Of course, Mrs. Thompson did. And guess what? She wore that bracelet, the one with several rhinestones missing. Moreover, she made sure she was wearing the perfume that Teddy remembered his mother wearing on their last Christmas together.
They hugged each other, and Dr. Stoddard whispered in Mrs. Thompson's ear, "Thank you Mrs. Thompson for* believing in me. Thank you so much for making me feel important and showing me that I could make a difference."
Mrs. Thompson, with tears in her eyes, whispered back. She said, "Teddy, you have it all wrong. You were the one who taught me that I could make a difference. I didn't know how to teach until I met you."
(For you that don't know, Teddy Stoddard is the Dr. at Iowa Methodist Hospital in Des Moines that has the Stoddard Cancer Wing.)
Warm someone's heart today. . . pass this along. I love this story so very much, I cry every time I read it. Just try to make a difference in someone's life today? tomorrow? Just "do it".
Random acts of kindness, I think they call it?
"Believe in Angels, then return the favor."
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01/24/2024

PLEASE NOTE: Lessons with Mrs Brenda are canceled tonight.
We are sorry. She is still not feeling well.

01/24/2024

01/23/2024

Unfortunately, Mrs. Brenda is not feeling well today. She will have to cancel her evening lessons 😞