Partnering with horses to support children who have experienced difficult life situations.
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Look at them go!! 🙌🤩 Watching this sister-brother pair grow over their 2 years in the program, and getting to see just how much their independence as riders has exploded over the past year as we we started into their third summer of riding = June highlight ❤️
A couple more serious Go Fish competitors! It’s fun getting to put together some different pairings of students for summer classes who don’t usually match up on schedules during the school year, and seeing these two longtime students working and playing together for the first time was a blast!
Carsen and Maddy had some highly competitive Go-Fishing skills to show off! As independent Star riders they also had the challenge of lining their ponies up side by side close enough to pass the card whenever they had the card their competitor requested, and to line themselves up to reach the draw pile on the barrel!
June card games theme weeks! Monday morning gals competing in Go Fish, and the evening gals and their partners testing their deduction skills and animal knowledge as they try to narrow down what animal is on the card I taped to their back, by asking each other yes or no questions as they zig-zag the arena.
First rides for our spring Horse Care graduates who started their Beginner Level 1 riding session in June!
For the June “Bubbles” theme week, riders completed riding skills challenges including a focus on the back-up obstacle, weaving through cones, and a backwards barrel pattern. Each challenge completed meant they got to pick up a new bubble container, take it to their target on the wall and blow bubbles until some pop on the target! 🎯
Finally being able to share our horses with kids from Lighthouse Ministries which was such a formative part of leading me to where I am today and inspiring my passion to create Stirrup Courage = one of the most anticipated events of my summer!! 🎉
June brought the opportunity to welcome 2 groups of new students into “Intro to Horse Care” classes! It also gave me a chance to bring brand new teams of first-time volunteers into training and get them started doing an awesome job of mentoring for these classes! 🙌
Bubbles, 🫧 bubbles, 🫧 bubbles! 🫧 The next groups of June session riders taking on the challenges and “popping” into summer!
First rides of the summer session in June! We kicked it off with a Bubble Target Challenge
Next round of May students to complete their 3rd lesson in Horse Care!
The first half of the May Horse Care groups to complete Intro lesson #3 with creative horse hairstyles, barrel racing, and barn craft painting!
Homeschool riders Hunter and Presley went head-to-head with our Horse Vocabulary Memory Matching competition, with some bonus milestones for both—Presley learning how to exercise her horse on the lunge line for the first time, and Hunter earning his way to going off-lead!
Myah’s awesome purple color-coordination with Misty 💜 And the Monday girls trying their hand at some beanbag tic-tac-toe against their leaders, and working on that posting trot! ❌⭕️❌⭕️
And the other half of our new May students completing lesson #2 of Intro to Horse Care. Clearly some engaging discussions were being sparked by the get-to-know-you questions 😁
Do you recognize this rider?
Lesson #2 for the first half of our big group of May horse care students! They get to meet and work with a new horse or pony each time they come, so we get to know lots of the horses in our barn by the end!
Back to catching up with May class photos for a bit! So much keeps happening so fast!! The Monday night girls were on the move practicing their trotting through a weave pattern, and Collins and Pistol trotted their way around the arena with some summertime Would You Rather along the way.
We have a brand new playground! A big thank you to the Salem Mennonite Church - Kidron Youth Group for making us their local Missions project this week. Also thank you to Woodland Mulch and Barn View Furniture for making this project more affordable. Come out this Thursday, July 11, starting at 5pm for a corn hole tournament and fundraiser to help us cover the costs of this playground set. https://www.facebook.com/events/1177908886887831
Early May rides—Myah and Thea helping clean up and test out new trial pony Oreo who we are trying to help get into better shape (check out all that shed hair, great grooming work girls!) and then the Monday morning crew practicing their horse color identification skills! (Hunter picked Pistol a special buttercup bouquet 💐)
Our other May Intro to Horse Care groups in their first class meeting our horses. 😍 We could still squeeze in one or two new kiddos next week for the 4-days-in-a-row 10-11am class, July 8, 9, 10, and 11, if someone wants a chance to skip the waiting list!
In May I opened up the schedule to start 7 new kids off the waiting list in Intro to Horse Care classes. Here are some moments from the Friday morning group's first time meeting our horses 🥰 If you know of a child who would like to get their own first introduction to horses and who qualifies for our program, I have a special opportunity for one or two more openings in a 4-days-in-a-row Horse Care session next week, mornings at 10-11am July 8, 9, 10, and 11! Rare chance to get in immediately if they claim a spot right away, so reach out if you know of someone!
Made it to the last rides of April! 😅 So many pictures to catch up on from summer session already, but these sweet spring moments couldn’t get skipped over 🥰
Our spring Monday groups finished out their April session with deep conversations in anticipation of summer, such as “Would you rather spend vacation traveling with your family in a camper, or stay in one place at a hotel?” and “Would you rather have a summer job as a pool lifeguard or a carnival ride operator?” 🎡 🏊♀️ 🚐 🏨
When these two girls got together at the end of April for the solar eclipse relay game, of course there had to be silly poses and creative adaptations to the game rules 🤪 💪
The final Saturday morning ride of the spring session for these 2 sibling pairs at the end of April. Some serious conversations over our summer “Would you rather” questions and what they were looking forward to most about summer break!
Missing this skilled and silly group all together from Thursday evenings this spring! Including this goofy trio of esteemed judges in their “judges booth” telling everyone that their circles are NOT ROUND ENOUGH (as all good judges should) in our spiral exercise 🤪. From new patterns to trotting over poles to learning how to canter, this rider group is always ready to try new challenges and push themselves to improve! 🥇(Also you have to click on that middle photo of Landon to see his "Alfalfa" helmet hair 😆
Liam was one of our 3 newest riders doing their first riding session this spring, who completed their Level 1 in April. Beginner Level 1 is completed all on lead without reins, so we can challenge our new riders to start to trust their own balance in the saddle using lots of stretching and reaching exercises and games. We are excited to be starting 6 brand new riders in Level 1 this summer!
Level 2 spring session as they continued to focus on how to use their reins with new patterns to practice walking through. Lots of fun changes in levels of confidence we have been able to see with this group!
823 South Kohler Road
44667
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