Willow Tree Farm and Riding School LLC

My friend is looking for a home for a sweet dog! If interested, pm me and I will send you her number!!

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⚠️ WARNING: This story does not have a happy ending.

We tell this cautionary tale to ALL of our students, but if you would prefer not to read about a horse experiencing preventable suffering, please scroll away. 💔

A long time ago, we had a sweet young student - let's call her Jane. Jane was learning to canter and hop over little crossrails when her parents decided to surprise her with a horse. Just a few problems:

🚩 Jane was an enthusiastic student, but her experience was limited to weekly riding lessons. The only horsekeeping she had participated in was caring for her horse before and after a ride.

🚩 The surprise horse was beautiful, but a young, powerful, and headstrong gaited mare... not the best match for a timid young rider interested in English disciplines.

🚩 The family had a limited horse budget, so they asked if they could join our self care boarding co-op to cut costs. But they did not have enough horse savvy to be trustworthy caretakers, so we compromised: they could do the evening care for their own horse only.

This tricky situation ended swiftly and tragically on a bitter winter night several months later. Jane and her family came to feed and top off the mare’s hay late one evening, after we had closed up shop for the night. The hay they purchased and left in the mare's stall was moldy through and through. But it was cold, so she ate most of it... and was already going into shock from colic pain when we arrived early the next morning. The vet did not make it in time to ease her passing. 😭

We learned a lot of painful yet valuable lessons from this tragedy. Chief among them, the importance of unmounted education - and of helping our students understand that "book learning" can literally be the difference between life or death.

Thus our unmounted HorseSense curriculum was born, along with FIRM Levels requirements for future lessees, barn staff, and boarders. We emphasize safe feeding practices in Red and Yellow Level, and developed multiple teaching tools that help us review this knowledge frequently.

Here's to all of you making unmounted education a non-negotiable in your lesson program. Let's save some lives together!

Another baking day with Miko…epic fail but still tastes delish! We call it cookie mush! 😂

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Congratulations to Scarlett who received her Rainbow Ribbon today and is almost done with Red! 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉