Badger Ridge Farm

01/03/2025

Riding is hard and riding is expensive, but riding is also one of the best sports to shape a kid into a resilient, hard working and passionate adult. Support your riders ❤️

A few of my top tips for parents of riders. ☺️

2025 Mental skills workshops for riders, teams, barns, organizations, parents and trainers all booking now. Please be in touch, I would love to help you create success and build teamwork! 💫✨

www.TonyaJohnston.com

12/26/2024

BY PONYMOMAMMY The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. So I give you some of my favorite pearls of wisdom, in no particular order. Some of these are from trainers of mine, both past and present, some are widely recognized from BNT, some have nothing to do with horses […]

12/16/2024

What a great weekend for our team! Our last regular season show ended with 8 individual riders qualifying for Regionals as well as our Futures Team!! They decided to just go big and bring home Champion on Sunday to lock in that qualification👸🏼👸🏻 The immense growth we have seen from these riders over this season has been inspiring. Each rider really showcased their progress this weekend and we are SO proud.🩷❤️
THANK YOU to all of our families who made this weekend/season possible. Your support means the world to us trainers and these girls. Another big thank you to Liz and Anna Kate who made sure our horses and girls were taken care of all season as well.❤️ See you at regionals!

12/07/2024

We have donated 2 lesson packages to this amazing cause! Please consider purchasing a lesson package through silent auction ❤️

11/13/2024

More information to come! See Grace or AK to sign up or sign up on the sheet posted outside the boarder tack room. Hope to see y’all there!

10/20/2024

Update on Ducky! This sweet boy is coming along so nicely. We love giving baby horses a confident start in their careers and making them kid and ammy friendly. Ducky is showing us he has what it takes to be an adorable partner. Right now his only flaw is when he goes to shows, he thinks it’s race time 😂 We keep promising him there is no claiming at hunter jumper shows and he has a forever home with us. We’ll convince him eventually ❤️

10/14/2024

Y’all know him as the best lesson horse but he’s really a 🌟 We are so blessed to have him in our program along with so many other special souls. Read about Sterling’s incredible journey back to the show ring:
http://www.equinechronicle.com/comeback-kid-annamae-hart-koenig-fulfills-familys-lifelong-congress-dream-on-iron-icon/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR3aQ3XNDWvwJRoWyfEugMfSoAZMmE6w7Qr1e9YoJwnTn2gICMwGgq3zkZo_aem_m2aMwGxRMcEWjnCV4R7Juw

Iron Icon, known as Sterling around the barn, is a horse that has been special since the beginning to both Annamae Hart Koenig and her mother, Alison Hart Koenig. The Koenigs now lease Sterling, the 2007 gelding by Natural Iron and out of Saucy Bona, for AnnaMae, but their history together runs deep...

10/08/2024

We leave for QH Congress on Thursday! If you If you want to cheer AnnaMae and Sterling (Iron Icon) on from home, here is the link for the live feed. Her number is 4231 and current estimated show times are in Eastern time below showing in the Celeste Arena:
Saturday 10:30am and 2:30pm
Sunday 3pm
Monday 10am, 1:15pm and 4:15pm
Again these are estimated times. Someone will be posting updates to our stories so follow along there.
Send all the good vibes! We are so excited 😍🍀
Congress live feed: https://liveonline47.com/quarter-horse-congress/

10/01/2024

💯🙌🏼🌟🎉

All I Want To Do Is Jump

I ran a fairly large lesson program for almost 20 years. This is a statement I have heard over and over, both in my lesson barn days and from colleagues today.

All I want to do is jump.

There are a few problems with this. Let's start with the horse. I love the old horseman's saying " horses only have so many jumps in them ". Is that 100, 1000 before it becomes lame.... No one knows....but horses certainly weigh a lot and the concussion landing on those small little legs is significant. Horses also get bored, burned out....and let's face it...sour.
Respect for the horse . The riders job is to do the best thing for the horse. Most horses only need jumped a few days a week. That means if a lesson horse works 5 days a week, only 2 of those are jumping days. 3 of those are purely flatwork or hacking.

Riders : most of jumping well has NOTHING to do with jumping. Riders need to work on pace, transitions, straightness, their position, effectiveness of aids, balance, ability to change positions smoothly ( from 2 point to sitting etc ) and so much more.

So if you are one of those students who Just Wants To Jump , please replace that with "I want to be an effective rider and horseman or woman . I want to do what is best for the horse "

And instructors who cave to this plea from students
Only YOU can set the CULTURE of your barn. Talk frequently about horsemanship and doing right by the animals.

09/08/2024

IEA Season is here!!! Our girls went to yesterday and ROCKED it!🌟They all rode their absolute best and were rewarded with great placings! Our Future team was reserve 👸 We loved watching them support each other with positivity the entire day❤️ Thank you to everyone who made yesterday a success!

09/04/2024

👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 couldn’t agree more

By MARLEY LIEN-GONZALEZ Getting started showing in our sport is such a milestone moment. There are cute ponies, braids, bows, and families figuring out their engagement, timing, desire, and goals. The tradition of horse showing makes for beauty in the lowest levels- all over the country you see pack...

08/27/2024

In-barn Lease available on the sweetest girl 🤩
Lucky is ready for her first show buddy. She’s shown short stirrup through 2’6 but she is still green so a 2’6 level would need to be an advanced rider. We have the best barn family and would love to add a new member looking to show a lovely horse. You would need to lesson on her a few times to make sure she’s the right match. **This is not a free lease**
Contact for more info.

08/26/2024

We are extremely proud of our group of girls as they took on WEC for their schooling series this past weekend. Having never taken on such a venue before, the girls conquered their nerves through hard work and dedication to improvement each day❤️ We are very excited to continue this journey as their hard work continues to pay off!!
⭐️Laina brought home great placings, including champion on her own Forrest in the jumper ring!
⭐️Bexleigh conquered her first derby on her Winston and also brought home reserve in the short stirrup!
⭐️Ava continued to shine guiding baby Lucky through her new show life and brought home reserve in the long stirrup.
⭐️AnnaMae moved up to the 2’6 on her Sterling and was champion and reserve in her divisions! She also took on the derby with a first round score of an 80.
⭐️Lucky stepped up to the 2’6 for the first time as well and showed us she’s ready to find a lease!
THANK YOU PARENTS for making these dreams come true.

08/26/2024

Lesson horses are a gift! People don’t realize how hard it is for a horse to tolerate people who are learning, it takes special animals to do the job. And if we put you on a green or difficult one, take it as a compliment! That means we think you ride well enough to learn how we created the ones you’ve been riding.

A small stab in the heart is what you feel when you put up the day's riding list and you see riders sinking heavily in their shoulders when reading which horse they are assigned for the lesson. A small stab in the heart for that horse that for an hour will carry around a rider who has already decided that he does not like his horse. A small stab in the heart for the horse that did not choose the rider himself but still does his best, lesson after lesson.

Riding is a privilege and something you have chosen to do. If you chose to ride at a riding school, your instructor assumes that you actually want to learn how to ride. The instructor's highest wish is that you get good at it.

Often there is a plan and a thought as to why you are assigned to that exact horse. Before you mount up next time, ask yourself "what can this horse teach me today?" All horses have something to give, a feeling or a new tool in the box.

The art is actually in being able to get a lazy horse to move forward, to get an uncertain horse to gain confidence, a naughty horse to focus or a tense horse to be released. It takes work. If you think a horse is boring, it's more likely that you don't ride the horse as well as you think! It's not easy to be confronted with your own shortcomings, but it is in that very situation that you get the chance to truly grow as a rider.

The excuse that "it's not my kind of horse" is actually a really bad excuse. A good rider can ride any kind of horse. A good rider has trained many hours on different types of horses to become a good rider. A good rider can find and manage the gold nuggets in every horse.

If we absolutely want to ride, it is our duty to strive to do it as best as possible, even if it's only for fun. We owe it to every horse that carries us upon it's back.

Copied and shared with love for all of our horses, ponies and riders 🐎❤🐎

08/13/2024

Congrats AnnaMae on winning the Silent Run 2ft derby. This was her first ever derby and she got to do it aboard the king “Iron Icon”! 🫅🏽We are extremely proud of her hard work and beyond thankful for this amazing horse. Horses like him are what shape the next generation❤️ a million thank yous to the Bloyer family for sharing him with us!

08/11/2024

Congratulations to our wonderful group of girls on a great Saturday at ! Our riders continue to learn and grow each show❤️ Plus- it’s always fun to welcome new ones to the fun of horse showing! We are excited to see what the future brings for these bright stars💛🌟

07/28/2024

Congrats to our wonderful group of girls on a super fun weekend in KY!❤️ They continue to grow as riders AND as friends which makes for the best of fun. We traveled home with wonderful memories and some pretty great ribbons too😉
THANK YOU to the parents AND the horses who make this all possible.