Griffin Hollow Stables

Griffin Hollow Stables Horsemanship & Horseback Riding, English (with a background in Hunter Jumpers), Saddleseat, & Western English & Western Riding lessons for ages 5+

We have a couple weekly lesson spots available for November! Please shoot us a message for availability, FCFS. Lessons a...
10/27/2025

We have a couple weekly lesson spots available for November! Please shoot us a message for availability, FCFS.
Lessons are required weekly ($220-275 at $55 each), an hour long each, generally one on one, both English and Western offered. Over 20 years teaching experience & 15 years MIHA coaching experience. Helmets provided and fully insured.

10/24/2025

Ask Dr. Holly Helbig what she worries most about for the future of the sport, and her answer isn’t about judging systems, prize money, or even veterinary shortages. It’s about kids.

“We’ve done this to them,” she said during a recent Plaidcast In Person event. “We’ve tacked up for them, been their grooms, enabled them. They aren’t getting the hours it takes to build intuition around horses.”

That loss of hands-on time—the small, daily habits that teach empathy and awareness—has become one of Helbig’s biggest concerns. And as both a veterinarian and professional trainer, she’s seen how taking those opportunities away doesn’t just change young riders; it changes the horses too.

Helbig describes herself as a “horse-crazy girl, not from a horse family.” She didn’t grow up surrounded by resources, but she found a way to make it work. “My parents went through bankruptcy,” she said. “Being a kid, not coming from a ton of money, I had to be scrappy.”

That scrappiness, she believes, is part of what shaped her success. “I didn’t have the money to pay a braider or a bunch of grooms,” she said. “You just jump in and do what you have to do. At the end of the day, I wouldn’t trade it. My relationship with that horse was stronger because of all the time I spent with him.”

Today, she worries that many young riders aren’t getting those same opportunities. “I think we’ve created a generation that can ride beautifully,” she said, “but hasn’t had the chance to really know horses.”

In her own training program, Helbig made sure her students stayed involved in every aspect of horse care. “My kids tacked for themselves at the horse show,” she said. “We had grooms, but they tacked for themselves.”

When something medical came up, she used it as a teaching moment. “Whenever anything happened in the barn, I’d scoop all the kids up and say, ‘Come look at this. What is it? Look at this ultrasound. Let’s look at this x-ray together.’”

Those experiences, she said, taught her students to see horses as living, breathing partners—not just show animals. “They learned to pay attention, to notice things, and to ask questions. That’s what builds confidence.”

📎 Continue reading this article at https://www.theplaidhorse.com/2025/10/22/let-the-kids-tack-up-why-the-next-generation-needs-more-time-in-the-barn/
📸 Lauren Mauldin / The Plaid Horse

10/19/2025

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10/16/2025

🤠🤙🏻🐎

09/28/2025

Are today's riding students really learning to ride or are they learning to be passengers? Over the past few decades riding instruction has become increasingly simplified. Now the primary goal is teaching students "what" to do on a horse. Teaching "why" we do things and even "how" to do certain things when riding are fundamental to horsemanship. But these fundamentals are disappearing. Learning why and how to achieve unified balance and movement with your horse cannot be conveyed in a simple set of what-to-do instructions.

Very important "hows", like "Let the horse move you", and the essential "whys" of optimizing your horse's energy require time in the saddle along with insightful observations from the instructor. Instead, students are regularly taught workarounds that avoid riding's fundamental challenges like balance.

Short cuts separate rather than unify a horse and rider. For example, teaching riders to lean way forward up a horse's neck when jumping places the rider in a static position at a time when their horse is increasing their movement. This shortcut creates a situation where the static rider cannot follow the dynamic movement of their horse. These kinds of separations can and do become very dangerous. The danger reveals itself often in minor challenging moments when riders discover that they really don't know how to ride.

It is easy to blame the trainers for not teaching the fundamentals. We need, however, to also consider that students and their parents today often insist on immediate outcomes like learning to jump after only a few lessons. Today's students and parents demand to set lesson goals and sometimes require specific lesson content that is irrelevant to an effective learning process.


The fact that many contemporary trainers have not learned the fundamentals of horsemanship further complicates today's learning process. To cover up these voids in knowledge and experience, some trainers encourage fantasies in their students in favor of building their business. Students then believe they are progressing as a rider when in reality they are stuck on a low novice plateau, unprepared for the risks inherent in riding.

The scarcity of quality horsemanship instruction, combined with today's parents and students that insist on controlling instruction, creates an uncertain future for riding as animal rights groups seek to end access to horses. We need qualified trainers who oppose unrealistic demands and dangerously unrealistic student goals.

If lesson barns stopped pandering to student expectations and using workarounds that hide the true requirements of learning to ride that takes time and hard work, will students disappear? Maybe, but we who teach must take professional responsibility for our teaching outcomes. We must resist the unrealistic demands from students and parents for the sake of students' safety and out of respect for horses. Fantasies have to be confronted with the truth if horsemanship and access to horses is to survive in today's world.

09/26/2025

What does it really mean to "let them go on a good day?"

It means it will be your hardest day. It won't matter if you've never done it before, or if you're gifted a dozen good days, each good day is always the hardest one.

It means they won't know what the fuss is about, why they're getting so many treats and extra belly scratches and hugs.

It means you will second guess your decision right up to the very last moment, the very last breath. You'll second guess yourself afterwards.

They'll knicker at you when you arrive, just like any other day.

The weather, perfect. They are content. They look sound today. They are breathing well, eating well, they get up easily enough from a nap in the sun....the list goes on. Whatever issue they struggle with, today they aren't.

Today you euthanize them.

This is what going on a good day means: sending them out while they are happy, while they are healthy, while they are eating well, walking well, etc. You make the choice to do it before an emergency takes the choice away from you, before your horse has to experience any more trauma or pain.

Their last memory will be filled with love.

It'll rip your heart out every time.

We can see the patterns and the increasing trends. We can predict it a little. We can obsess over the past and worry about the future.

Fortunately, horses, all animals, live in the moment. They don't worry about those things. They aren't worried about winter. They aren't worried about July, or allergies, or progressive diseases like cushings or dsld. They don't think about the close calls they've had before, and they certainly aren't thinking about the close calls that are destined to come, as their body continues to age and break down. They just are. They are happy and healthy, or fearful and in pain, on that day, in that moment.

It is the most difficult, most loving gift we are blessed to be able to give.

And that first ice storm will come, that first deep snow, that first heat wave....and you will find a little relief, no longer doubting the choice you made.

They were happy, and safe, and loved. That is all that matters.

It is never easy. ~Kelly Meister, author

So, we have been asked to make this list for the farm with the holidays coming up! Go ahead and take a peek and if you'r...
09/26/2025

So, we have been asked to make this list for the farm with the holidays coming up! Go ahead and take a peek and if you're feeling generous we would be grateful for any of these contributions ☺️
*We will be adding and removing things from time to time*

Address

1215 S 4 ¾ Mile Road
Midland, MI
48640

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 9pm
Tuesday 9am - 9pm
Wednesday 9am - 9pm
Thursday 9am - 9pm
Friday 9am - 9pm
Saturday 9am - 9pm
Sunday 9am - 9pm

Telephone

+19897089180

Website

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