West End Farm

01/27/2025

What a week! Congratulations are also due to Luna Jesik on her purchase of Kaiser Von C. This is another special, special gelding who I was having a very hard time parting with. Luckily, he sold in the barn, so we get to keep him around! Look for Kai and Luna's show career to start at the Gulf Coast Classic in March! We are so excited to see how far these two go together-sky's the limit with this talented Trakehner gelding!

Also thanks to for the beautiful photo, when I tell you Katelyn is multi-talented you better believe it!

01/27/2025

Congratulations to Meg Hawthorne on her purchase of On High. It was incredibly hard to let go of this special homebred, but his talents were in the dressage ring and mine definitely are not! We are so lucky to have him staying in Kansas in the absolute best home.

Thank you so much to Katelyn Kok and KV Dressage. Katelyn runs the best dressage sales program in the Midwest, and if you can get on her waiting list, it's well worth it!

12/25/2024

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from all of us at West End Farm.

Also, reminder that this is the last day of our holiday sale! Purchase your discounted lessons today.

12/05/2024

Congratulations to the Perkins family on their purchase of Montego! We headed south to pick up the perfect jumper for another client and ended up finding the perfect children's hunter as well! Thank you ES Sporthorses and Liz Siadous for another great one!

Mo is already proving to be the kindest and gentlest first horse for Quinn. We are absolutely in love!

12/03/2024

Congratulations to Christine Ely on her purchase of Cornet's Karl! This 7 year old gelding has been rocking the 1.20s down south, and we are so excited to watch him step into the jumper ring with Christine! He is truly the best boy, and his personality is even sweeter than his adorable face!

I cannot thank ES Sporthorses enough for an easy, straightforward sale. I highly recommend Liz to anyone shopping for a horse-so highly than my clients bought another of hers. More on that later 😎.

12/03/2024

We are so excited to announce that WEF is hosting a clinic with Grand Prix rider Shana Barnett Winkel! Shana will be joining us January 18 and 19 for small group instruction. Groups are $120 per day, with length to be determined by number of riders at each height. Groups will run from 18" to 1.10+. Please DM me for details.

Shana's bio: Shana has been the head trainer and farm manager at Far Hills Farm outside Omaha, NE since 2017. A graduate of Kansas State University with a B.S. in Animal Science, Shana rode all four years on KSU's NCAA Equestrian team. Shana also has a masters and PhD in Animal Science with a focus in nutrition from the University of Nebraska.

Shana’s riders have qualified for equitation finals and medaled in upper level jumpers and championships. As a rider, she is strong, but with a light feel bringing along many young horses and successfully competing in every division up to 1.45m with horses she has trained and developed.

11/26/2024

Congratulations to Rachel James on her lease of LF Enzo. We're so excited to see these two out eventing this year! Thank you to Emily Beshear for making the connection.

11/25/2024

Located in Kansas City, KS.

Lielielie "Fable" is a 16.3 9 year old huge bodied TB gelding. He's got substantial bone and a round barrel. Seriously, my vet asked what kind of warmblood he is when he was filling out his coggins.

This horse is NICE. He has 3 great gaits, his canter is exceptional. We've jumped him up to 3'3 in gymnastics and he definitely has scope to do the 1.10. He lives out 24/7, he's fat on air, he has killer feet. Never loses a shoe in a 10 acre pasture.

Fable is a graduate of my sales program, he sold to an AA who did the 2'6 jumpers with him. Hes been to a bunch of schooling shows and was 2'6 reserve champion at his last one. He's schooled the entire starter XC course with his owner for both of their first time. Owner has bought a WB, so Fable has been sitting in my field occasionally getting ridden by my working student. He's way too nice to sit around, this is someone's dream horse!

Fable is green for his age, no naughty business but needs a rider with enough leg to keep him straight. Suitable for a teen or AA in a program, not ready for a kid yet.

1️⃣2️⃣5️⃣0️⃣0️⃣, but owner is motivated for a great home and an easy sale. She doesn't want to sell but priority needs to be given to her show horse, sweet retiree, and broodmare.

Video taken yesterday with me in the irons-I've ridden this horse one other time this year. https://youtu.be/ZnxnLXte_As?si=1F2DdwJZwVEruYRJ

Show video available on same YT account.

10/29/2024

Spooky Show Wrapup 3: The Costumes!

If you thought I was done, I was only just getting started! We had some fantastic costumes this year, and WEF finally broke our streak of losing with Bo and Charlie's 4th place performance! It cannot be overstated how saintly Atticus and Ice are, they jumped tandem with one jump in the warmup as practice! Great riding, girls!

Maria Spidle and Sydney also competed in the costume contest with Scooby and Dilly, who earned their sainted status too. Dilly has only jumped a handful of jumps in her life, and she gamely followed Scooby around a course of jumps with loud music, mini ponies, jingle bells, and general chaos.

Please note my jumper post (post number four if you're counting) is pending the jumper results from Sunday. Unfortunately the Stormont Vail Events Center was put on a brief lockdown because of a man yelling outside, and I still don't know how our riders did! I'll hopefully have those results and that post ASAP.

10/28/2024

Ok, next Spooky Show recap is 2'+ hunters!

I gotta admit, things got very busy for the 2' and 2'3, there were SO many entries. I know the 2'3 had at least 17 competitors! So I don't know exactly what ribbons everyone got and for what, feel free to fill me in in the comments!

Melanie Koup joined our barn family in August and started leasing Sterling in September. Sterling is a very good boy, but he thinks he's the smartest person in the room and occasionally tries to pull one over on the dumb humans. There were some nerves in the schooling ring, and Mel was a bit uncertain. I'm proud to say because of Mel's great riding, Sterling stepped around the hunters perfectly, with his only issue being that he was occasionally too slow (a good problem to have!). This pair have a great future ahead!

We found Scooby for Sydney Freiberg in late June, and that partnership has been blossoming for the past 4 months. Scooby is everything we were looking for-he's massive and takes up 6' of leg, he's kind and dead honest, but there's enough for Sydney to learn with him to teach her to be a great rider. This was the pair's first offsite show together, and they spent the hunters getting a feel for each other.

Lastly, my boy Atticus. Atty was found half starved in a pen by Amanda Barnum, who knew that he was something special. He came to us as a consignment, but I couldn't let him go, and I bought him for myself. Between Florida '24 and showing at HITS Chicago, he proved he's going to be a star. Charlie has the great fortune to be leasing him right now, and she does a fantastic job. He's still green, but the pair got to know each other in the hunters on Saturday and then put in stunning trips in the .75 that would have been worthy of top hunter ribbons (but more on that later)! Atty was also 4th out of 17 in his second ever flat class, showing his quality. Thank you so much Charlie for doing such a great job with my boy, I couldn't have asked for any more.

10/28/2024

I LOVE OUR BARN!

I love it so much, in fact, that I'm going to post several spooky show recaps!! We took 7 horses and 8 riders to the show and they all did absolutely amazing. I'm so proud of our horses and riders and our team!

Post 1: GP-18"

Quincy's family purchased Moonlight Star from White Fox Manor in late July. At the time, Quincy, age 7, was VERY timid around horses and didn't even like to walk into the pasture to catch her lesson pony. Quincy has come SO far in 3 months. This was her first off property show and she piloted her pony expertly around the ground poles and even got a blue ribbon for equitation!

Maria Spidle got the ride on Kimberly Hansen's Dilly in the beginning of August when we tried the mare over her first few fences and she seemed to love it. Before this month, Dilly had only ever showed AQHA shows. It's so fun to introduce a horse to jumping and have them absolutely love it. Maria and Kim worked very hard, and Dilly is a natural. Within a month of starting jumping, she jumped all the scary Halloween filler without hesitation at the show. She got several ribbons for the 18" hunters and was reserve champion in the 18" jumpers!

Parker was a late addition to the show, I think she signed up a week before we hauled out. I was a little skeptical, but Parker rode beautifully and Ice proved for the thousandth time he's the BEST boy that ever lived by taking champion in both the 18" hunters and the 18" jumpers. Icy is 22 this year and means the whole world to us at WEF.

Thank you to Alyssa Somerick for coaching the hunters through 2', the quality of your training really shone this weekend and we are so lucky to have you!

Thank you Maria for being the best working student/assistant/barn manager hybrid I could ever ask for, I couldn't do any of this without you! Next up: 2' plus!

08/28/2024

West End Farm had a wonderful summer showing!

In June, we headed to HITS Chicago, which was an instant favorite. Lots of ribbons were won, but more importantly our riders gained experience and skills. Favorite comment of the week: "I learned more in one week of showing here than I have at every other show!"

In August, the barn spent the week at Maffit Lake Equestrian Center. It was a lovely week with beautiful weather and lots of firsts-first A show for some riders, first out of town show for others, and first show at the height for still another. Once again, the barn brought home ribbons, as well as lots of good experience and some serious bonding for our riders.

Next the barn will travel to St. Louis for St. Louis Charity Horse Show. Looking forward to a fun week and hopefully some fall weather!

Looking to add an October or November rated show to our schedule, what's everyone's favorite autumn destination?

08/16/2024

West End Farm is having a Back to School Sale! For a limited time, lessons on a lesson horse are 15% off if you buy a package. Shop now on our Square Store!

Boarders, we didn't forget you. All lessons for boarders are 10% off our already discounted rates. Get your package now before the sale is gone!

05/27/2024

05/27/2024

We are so grateful to host The Property Shop Dressage & CT Schooling Show Series' shows! Another fun and educational weekend on the books! Thanks so much to Maggie and Sarah for a well-run show and to everyone who came out. What a wonderful group of equestrians we have in KC!

05/26/2024

Final weather update: everything (and everyone) on the farm is safe and sound. We even have some jumps still standing!

05/26/2024

Weather update: the storm is here, but so far nothing too extreme. Rain and wind. Seems to be lightening up again (for now). All of the horses and buildings are safe and sound.

05/26/2024

Weather Update: The wind has calmed considerably for now. The rain is starting soon, so I'll continue to keep an eye on things.