Fine Print Farm LLC

10/21/2026

We have a wonderful pony for lease at the barn! Looking for kiddo lessons? Reach out!

Sarah 203 470 4521

10/20/2026

“A strong support network, calls you to your best self. They don’t shy away from telling you hard truths, but they do so with the intention of helping you grow”- Code of The West, Chris Hunt.

We are grateful for trail rides with great horses and even better friends.

📸: Connie Popwell

10/15/2026

“Learning how to win and learning how to show is just a little bit different than really learning how to ride and learning how to communicate with your horse on a daily basis," Rob Jacobs shares.

On this episode of The Plaidcast, Piper Klemm sits down with rider, trainer, and USEF “R” judge Rob Jacobs to discuss his approach to developing horses and riders, the importance of patient training, and the difference between learning to compete successfully and becoming a truly skilled horseperson.

With experience as a collegiate national champion, professional trainer, and judge, Rob brings a perspective on why the everyday work of riding and communicating with horses matters just as much as what happens in the show ring.

🎧 Listen at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rob-jacobs-by-taylor-harris-insurance-services/id1192996514?i=1000650820150 or wherever you get your podcasts.
📸 © Shawn McMillen Photography

10/15/2026

Great way to keep the momentum going into Winter Circuit! I mean, who doesn't want a sparkley ribbon.......

Thoroughbred Incentive Program? AQHA? APHA? Just want to do some open Hunter, Jumper, Eq, Trail classes? We’ve got you covered. Dec 4 - 6 in Loveland, 2 competition buildings, all the giant, sparkly ribbons, and all of the prizes. Come see us at CSC A - Z. Prize List coming soon! Message us with questions!

10/14/2026

A beautiful reminder of “Why”.

10/13/2026

We love developing horses and we love even more when they end up with incredible new homes. 🩵

10/11/2026

When Archie Cox was 12 years old, he rode in a clinic with a well-known horseman and received a piece of advice he still remembers decades later.

“Pay attention.”

“Since that day, I have paid attention,” Cox said during a live recording of The Plaidcast at the Savannah College of Art and Design.

For Cox, paying attention means studying horses, riders, trainers, tack, barns, and horse shows. It means noticing patterns in the horse underneath you and listening when experienced people explain why they do something a certain way. Some of the most useful lessons of Cox’s career came from conversations that were not directed at him at all.

Cox encourages riders to surround themselves with people who are more experienced and to make use of the education available simply by watching them. “You wanna surround yourself with people better,” he said.

At a horse show, that might mean studying riders in the Grand Prix ring or paying attention in the schooling area. At the barn, it could mean watching how an experienced horseman handles a difficult horse, prepares tack, or solves a training problem. The rider does not have to be the person receiving the lesson to learn something from it.

Cox calls those moments “free lessons.”

“You learn from them for free,” he said. The opportunity is everywhere, but only if the rider is curious enough to notice it.

📎 Continue reading this article at https://www.theplaidhorse.com/2026/10/10/pay-attention-might-be-the-most-important-advice-in-riding/
📸 © Heather N. Photography

10/10/2026

Hunters were designed to mimic the challenges of the hunt field, testing style, brilliance, and natural ability. But according to Geoff Case, USEF R Judge, trainer, and clinician, today’s hunter ring has strayed far from those origins.

“Every time you change something and it makes something more difficult, it makes it harder for the horses to go around like that,” he said. “I feel like the hunters were creating dressage with jumps in the way. Essentially it’s the same eight-jump pattern everywhere you go.”

The result? A discipline that increasingly looks like performance art, polished, robotic, and predictable, rather than a sport designed to test horse and rider.

Case believes hunters have become overly rigid in penalizing anything that deviates from a narrow picture of perfection. Cross-cantering, missed lead changes, even headshaking are all faults that weigh heavily on a score. “It was supposed to mimic the hunt field,” he noted. “And now it’s something else entirely.”

That rigidity discourages brilliance. Horses are worked until they are flat and expressionless, their personality stripped away to avoid deductions. “To be crisp and jump their best, they need to be a bit fresh,” Case explained. “But we’ve worked the brilliance out of them. You take the personality out.”

📎 Continue reading this article at https://www.theplaidhorse.com/2025/10/01/art-or-sport-has-hunters-drifted-away-from-its-roots/
📸 © The Plaid Horse