Ponder's Western Riding Lessons

05/30/2026

It’s getting hot out 🥵 Hydration is a top priority! 💦

Are you aware of these signs of dehydration?

⚠️ Poor concentration and performance
⚠️ Lethargy or depression
⚠️ Darker-coloured urine

There are three good ways to check your horse for hydration levels which should be combined.

Find out more here - www.horseandrideruk.com/expert-advice/articles/equine-dehydration

05/28/2026

☀️ Summer riding spots are filling FAST! 🐴
If you’ve been thinking about starting lessons, getting your child involved with horses, building confidence in the saddle, or continuing your horsemanship journey ➡️ NOW is the time to get on the schedule before availability becomes limited!

Our program focuses on more than just riding circles in an arena. We strive to create knowledgeable, confident horsemen and horsewomen through individualized instruction, horsemanship education, safety, horse care, communication, and real understanding of the horse as a partner. 💚

Current openings are limited and summer scheduling is actively underway, so reach out soon to reserve your spot on the roster while availability remains! 🗓️

05/27/2026

Hay!

Planning your hay needs can be stressful, but this breakdown makes the math easy. Learn the simple step-by-step formula to calculate exactly how much hay you need to buy and store to keep your horse healthy, while minimizing waste.

05/26/2026

05/23/2026

☀️🐴 SUMMER CELEBRATION PONY RIDE SPECIAL! 🐴☀️

To celebrate the summer’s approach, we’re doing a special one-week pony ride promo at Happy Trails Farm! For a limited time, enjoy $10 OFF our 20–30 minute guided pony rides around the farm ☀️🌻

✨ Special runs June 14th – June 21st ONLY!

During your visit you’ll get to:
🐴 Meet one of our sweet horses
🐓 Enjoy a guided pony ride around the farm
📸 Snap some adorable pony photos
🍎 Visit with the animals after

These rides are short, fun, and beginner-friendly! Perfect for younger horse lovers, a fun summer outing, or anyone wanting to spend some time around the horses. And yes… adults are welcome too 😉 ☀️ This special is only running for one week, and spots are limited! If you’re wanting to come out, we definitely recommend booking ahead to reserve your spot for that week before times fill up.

👉 Send us a message to get your ride booked! Let’s celebrate summer with ponies, sunshine, smiles, and fresh air!

05/23/2026

Looking for something fun to do this weekend? Visit Happy Trails Farm this Sunday! We will be open from noon to 5 pm. Admission is free, but donations are greatly appreciated, and some activities cost cash.

05/18/2026

As riding instructors we spend a lot of time managing the gap between what new students expect riding to be and what it actually is. Most of that gap could be narrowed significantly with one honest conversation before the first lesson ever happens. So here is everything I wish every new student and every new riding family walked in already knowing...

1. Riding is harder than it looks
This is the one that surprises people most. Watching a good rider looks effortless but it is not effortless. It is years of muscle memory, feel, balance, and body awareness built through consistent work over a long time. Your first lessons will feel awkward and uncoordinated and that is completely normal. Every rider you have ever admired felt exactly the way you feel right now when they were starting out.

2. The horse is not a bicycle
It is a living animal with its own personality, its own opinions, and its own good days and bad days. It does not always do what you ask the first time and that is not always your fault but it is always your responsibility to figure out the communication. Learning to work with a horse rather than on top of one is one of the most valuable things riding teaches and it starts from the very first lesson.

3. Progress is not linear
Some weeks you will feel like you have jumped forward three levels. Other weeks you will feel like you have forgotten everything you learned last month. Both are completely normal parts of learning to ride. The students who improve consistently are not the ones who never have bad lessons but they are the ones who show up anyway and keep working through the frustrating ones.

4. One lesson a week is a start but not a program
A single lesson per week gives you exposure to riding. Two lessons per week builds skill significantly faster. The riders who progress quickest are the ones who ride consistently and frequently enough that their muscles and nervous system have time to develop real memory around what correct feels like. If budget allows for more than one lesson per week it is worth it.

5. Your position will feel wrong before it feels right
Correct position in the saddle feels deeply unnatural to most people at first. Heels down feels like you are pushing your foot through the floor. Sitting tall feels like you are leaning back. An independent hand feels like you are doing nothing. Trust the process and trust your instructor. The things that feel strange now become automatic eventually but only if you commit to doing them correctly rather than defaulting back to what feels comfortable.

6. The time around the lesson matters as much as the lesson itself
Grooming your horse before you ride. Learning to tack up correctly. Understanding how to read your horse's body language in the cross ties. This is not the boring part before the real lesson begins. This is horsemanship and it makes you a better rider than an hour in the saddle alone ever will.

7. Bad rides happen to every rider at every level
Including the ones you look up to most. A bad lesson does not mean you are not cut out for this, it just means you are learning something hard and doing it on the back of a living animal that is also having a day. Come back next week and it will be different.
Your instructor is on your side.

8. Every correction we give is in service of your progress and your safety
We are not pointing out what is wrong to make you feel bad but we are pointing out what needs to change so you can get where you want to go faster and more safely. The students who improve fastest are the ones who hear a correction as information rather than criticism and apply it without taking it personally.

9. Riding changes you in ways you will not expect
The patience it builds, the confidence that comes from communicating with an animal ten times your size and being understood. The resilience that develops from falling short of a goal and coming back for it anyway. The community you find at the barn. None of that shows up in the first lesson or even the tenth but it will show up at one point. For most riders it becomes one of the most significant things in their life and not just what they do on Tuesday afternoons but part of who they are.

If you are a riding instructor share this with every new family who walks through your gate. If you are a new student or a parent of one - welcome. You picked something genuinely worth doing!

What do you wish someone had told you before your very first riding lesson?

05/15/2026

When we’re not giving lessons, we’re knee deep in animal care ❤️ 🐾 😁 Please like & follow our sister page

05/04/2026

Core Vaccines vs. Risk-Based Vaccines: What Midwest Horse Owners Should Know

Core vaccines are recommended for every horse because they protect against diseases that are severe, widely distributed, or a public health concern. In horses, those include tetanus, rabies,
West Nile virus, and Eastern and Western equine encephalomyelitis. Risk-based vaccines are selected differently. They are used according to a horse’s age, travel, housing, breeding status, exposure to outside horses, and regional disease pressure.

In the Midwest, the risk-based vaccines that most often deserve discussion are influenza, EHV-1/4, strangles, Potomac Horse Fever, and, in some cases, leptospirosis. A closed-herd pasture horse does not carry the same exposure risk as a show horse, lesson horse, broodmare, or horse living on wet ground with heavy insect and wildlife activity. That is where risk-based planning becomes more specific.

Here is the quick breakdown:

Influenza: important for horses that travel, show, board, train, or mix with new horses.

EHV-1/4: important for young horses, show horses, breeding farms, and horses in busy barns. Pregnant mares often need a separate EHV schedule.

Strangles: worth discussing for farms with a history of it, young horses, or horses with frequent outside exposure.

Potomac Horse Fever: a bigger concern on farms near streams, rivers, ponds, wet pastures, or irrigated ground, especially as we head into summer and fall.

Leptospirosis: worth a conversation on farms with standing water, flooding, heavy wildlife pressure, or broodmares, because it has been associated with abortion, eye disease, and kidney problems.

Bottom line: Core vaccines are for every horse. Risk-based vaccines are for the horses whose lifestyle, environment, or region puts them in the line of fire. That is why there is no true one-size-fits-all vaccine program.

Talk with your veterinarian before spring and summer exposure ramps up. The best vaccine plan is the one built for your horse, your farm, and your risk.

05/03/2026

Our lessons go MUCH deeper than just learning how to ride 🧠🧐

With Ms. Ponder, students aren’t just taught how to sit in the saddle, they’re taught how to truly understand their horse. From the very first lesson on, information is constantly being layered in. Not just the “how,” but the why behind everything. A big focus is always placed on the horse’s overall welfare. That means learning anatomy, understanding equipment, and paying attention to the details that directly affect the horse’s comfort and soundness.

Time is spent going over things like hoof structure and function, making sure students know what they’re looking at, what they’re feeling, and why it matters. These aren’t just riding lessons, they’re building blocks for REAL horsemanship. The goal isn’t just to create riders that look good or go win classes. It’s to create knowledgeable, aware, and capable horsemen who can advocate for the horses they work with.

Ignorance isn’t harmless in the horse world, it can be costly, and more importantly, it can impact the horse. Sometimes that means a lesson looks like this… Standing still, talking through a hoof, asking questions, and learning piece by piece. Because that kind of understanding matters just as much as anything taught in the saddle.. 🐴 ❤️

If you’re interested in learning about horses or how to ride, join us for some lessons. 2026 season is JUST NOW STARTING!! 🤠