Sweet River Farm Whately, MA

11/23/2025

Ba****ck on a cold November Sunday!

11/11/2025

There are still spots available for our annual Wreath-Making Workshop! Sessions will take place November 30-December 3 at the Deerfield Community Center. Space is limited to 30 makers per session, and pre-registration is required, so book your spot soon!

Historic Deerfield will provide greens, wreath frames, wire, and shared decorative materials like winterberry, lemons, oranges, and cranberries. Makers are encouraged to bring their own natural materials to personalize their wreaths.

The wreaths will be hung on the doors of historic houses and buildings throughout Old Deerfield for all to enjoy!

A detailed schedule and sign-up form are available at https://www.historic-deerfield.org/events/2025-wreath-making-workshops/

11/05/2025

If you are looking for top notch, high quality instruction, this is the place to go! Located about 45 min from the farm, Johanna has created a fabulous program. Highly recommend.

Located in the heart of Connecticut’s Farmington Valley, Metro Stables is one of New England’s premier hunter/jumper programs! 🌟
We’re dedicated to developing confident riders, well-rounded horses, and lasting partnerships, both in and out of the show ring.
From beginner lessons to national finals, we help every rider reach their goals through personalized training, meticulous care, and a supportive team environment!

11/03/2025

It’s fuzzy horse season (in the northern hemisphere, at least), which means it’s sweaty coat season! 🦣 This week’s lesson is all about helping our furry friends keep their cool during winter workouts.

We learned - the hard way - that the time to teach this lesson is BEFORE your students are responsible for post-lesson cool downs in the winter. ⚠️ It’s also important for parents to understand the importance of caring for a horse after a ride. ⚠️ Otherwise, your students may rush through the process due to pressure from their parents to “Hurry up!”

Ask your students to come to the lesson with their warmest winter coat. Begin by asking them to put on their coat, then demonstrate jumping jacks or a similar exercise for at least sixty seconds - or long enough that they start to feel hot and sweaty! Ask:

🧥 How do you feel about your coat right now?
🧥 Would you like to take it off? What if you couldn’t?
🧥 What if you kept exercising and your coat got SOAKED with sweat? How would that feel as your body temperature dropped?
🧥 What if you had to stand outdoors in that wet coat on a freezing cold night?
🧥 How can we help a horse with a similarly heavy coat?

Have students help you create a pros & cons list for clipping, then learn about different clipping styles by drawing them onto the outline of a horse or matching flashcards/photos. 🪒 If there are horses in your barn who are routinely clipped, you can time this lesson to coincide with a demonstration, or even give your advanced students some hands-on practice with clippers.

Hands-on practice is also ideal for learning the cool-down process - can a horse be exercised during the first part of your lesson, and handed off to students during the second half? If not, organize a “You Be the Horse” simulation in which students must practice walking, evaluating and grooming a hot and sweaty “horse.” Be sure to address:

🐴 How to tell when a horse is actually cool enough to put away and/or feed.
🐴 What is a cooler, and when is it actually helpful to the horse?
🐴 What are the best ways to remove sweat from a winter coat?

If you’re teaching younger students or need to keep the lesson moving at a brisk pace, limit the clipping portion of the lesson to just a few minutes. Begin the lesson with a discussion about warm-ups, emphasizing how skipping the active walk period can damage a horse’s joints, and lead students through a series of unmounted warm-up stretches for the rider. 🧘 (This can also be extremely beneficial for older students who spend all their time at a desk!)

Learning Levels resources you might find helpful:

🆓 Horsey Hairstyles Worksheet
🟧 Level Up Flashcards: Equine Body Clips
🟡 Teaching Guide for Yellow HorseSense Level: Cool It
🟠 Teaching Guide for Orange HorseSense Level: Close Shave

Want more ideas? THE BIG BOOK OF BARN LESSONS is a treasure trove of unmounted lesson activities like this one. 📚 LLPro members can also find lesson activities for every objective in our unmounted curriculum in the HorseSense Teaching Guides - plus worksheets, games, flashcards and more!

11/01/2025

Summer made it safely to NEER North and is settling in beautifully. We will miss this beautiful soul, and wish her all the best as she finds her new home!

10/25/2025

Halloween themed obstacle course today!

10/25/2025

Final Books with Bugsy of the year with a pumpkin theme!

10/19/2025

Equine Academy registration is open for CURRENT students! Tuesdays 4-5:30 starting November 3rd!

10/11/2025

Saturday, October 11: Morning programs are ON today! Hope to see everyone on this gorgeous fall morning!

10/11/2025

Fall morning on the farm!

10/09/2025

Welcome to Piper! She is visiting for a few weeks. A gorgeous mare, 11 years old.