Forward Farm LLC

10/31/2024

Happy Halloween!

10/09/2024

We have a fall tournament coming up! November 10th at 12:00. Interested in competing? Message us to sign up.
🐴 New for 2024, costume class! Bring an approved costume for you and your horse and see how you rank among the competition.
🐴 Ask us details in your next lesson 😀

09/27/2024

09/17/2024

“Put the horse first.

Easy to say. Hard to do.

Putting the horse first requires commitment. It requires integrity. And patience. And energy. And money. And oh, does it require time.

Putting the horse first means earlier mornings and later nights. It means quality feed plans and the best hay that you can buy. And extra brushing so that coats gleam and manes and tails shine.

Putting the horse first means that you buy three extra bags of shavings for your stall at the horse show (yes, I know they're expensive!!), because even though you can "get by" with two, you want to do right by your horse. If you don't want to stand on concrete all weekend, why would they?

Putting the horse first means that you have a good working relationship with a quality equine vet. It means that every horse gets the best quality of care that you can afford to give it. Your performance horse is an athlete. Treat them like one.

And when your vet says, "Rest them for 10-14 days," be generous and give them the 14. Even if it's inconvenient. Even if you've aleady paid your stalls and entries. Even if it's the last thing you want to hear.

Putting the horse first means that if you've been rained out of the arena for two weeks and your horse isn't fit, you don't haul to the horse show. You choose to be fair to the horse and keep them home, instead.

It also means that if you haul three hours to the horse show only to find that the ground is dangerous, you load up and go home. It takes discipline, but you don't jeopardize what you want in the moment for the long-term confidence, health, and soundness of your horse.

Putting the horse first means that no saddle, no halter, no buckle, no trophy, no paycheck comes before the well-being of your equine partner. No matter what.. And it ain't an easy row to hoe.

Many will ride. Many will compete. Many will win. But few will be horse(wo)men.

Don't just be a competitor. Be better”

written by “Jessica Lash”

09/05/2024

Our first week on our “after school” schedule was a success. Such a fun a group of riders this fall!

09/04/2024

Watch us tonight! Copper and Stacy in class 27, it starts at 6 p.m.
🎉🐴❤️
Glitter and Grace class 39.
🎉🐴❤️
Good luck!
🍀
Click on the free livestream.

Our mission is to mainstream horse shows across the country and offer a “Crown Jewel” competition for this market space. This concept resulted in the new Monarch Show Series National Championship that will be held in the Coliseum of Champions on the Illinois State Fairgrounds in early October.

08/23/2024

Same with horses...
🐴❤️

06/28/2024

When a horse walks, trots and canters its body throws off waves of motion. Some riders get flung around by these concussive forces, some can pretty well be in rhythm with the horse, while the best riders have become so integrated into the motion of the horse that they become almost one flowing entity, like the Centaur of myth and fable.

Having this blending seat and body more than any other skill defines the better riders, so much so that the former multi-gold medal winning USET 3-day coach Jack LeGoff phrased it like this---

“What are the three things that you must have in order to become a good rider?”
1. A good seat
2. A good seat
3. A good seat

Jack wasn’t big on listening to riders in self-praise mode. I have heard him say more than once, “Don’t tell us how good you are. Get on that horse and show us.”

Almost instantly he could spot the fakes from the real deals just by whether or not they were part of the motion or apart from the motion. The seat doesn’t lie. You either bounce or you don’t bounce.

If your body isn’t supple enough and trained enough to merge with those waves of motion thrown off by the moving horse, you are not, by LeGoff’s high standards, a good rider, nor will you be until or unless you learn to blend.

If this seems harsh, too demanding, that’s not LeGoff’s intent. He wasn’t a coddler, rather he was telling a truth as he saw it. You either can sit the gaits or you can’t sit the gaits. Pretty basic and simple as he saw it.

06/04/2024

I read a theory about why so many riders lack a deep command of basics, and it was explained like this---

Correct basics are hard to master because there is an enormous amount of repetition involved, and if someone has tried something hundreds, possibly thousands of times, and still can’t do it, it is easy for the person to conclude that he/she is taking on an impossible challenge.

In his book “Mastery,” George Leonard wrote that on the quest to become good, there will be long stretches of “seeming non-improvement.”

Like watching grass grow, change is happening, but so slowly that it can’t be measured daily, weekly, or even monthly. But at some point, for those who stick with it, “suddenly” they can do things that before they couldn’t do.

The issue is giving up in frustration before putting in those many many many many months of practice.

That is ONE theory. I am sure there are many others, but this one does ring true.

05/27/2024

Did you know Shetland ponies were used in the coal mines? In the mid 1800s they were put to use after women and children working was outlawed and were chosen because they were remarkably strong for their size and could pass through low underground tunnels. They played a crucial role in the mining industry until the late 1900s - we wonder if our Shetlands know how hardworking their ancestors were?