Meadow Brook Farm

09/07/2026

🔥🔥Triple-decker show update comin’ in hot 🔥🔥

1️⃣ First up: August Dressage at Lamplight….

For the second year in a row, this show was kinda an Achilles heel for our D ladies. It’s run at the same time as the USDF Festival of Champions so the judging is tougher, the rings are different, there’s a bit more atmosphere, etc. It’s a real test for horses and riders and the results are sometimes mixed.

Did we have a great time? Yes. Did any of us achieve a personal best test score? No. Did we maintain a positive attitude 100% of the time? Also no. What we DID do is support each other, laugh a lot, trusted our horses even when it felt a little scary, pushed ourselves through some fatigue and frustration, and left the show Sunday with more confidence (and homework) than when we arrived.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: it is hard to be an amateur in any discipline when your attention and time are always being pulled in 20 different directions. We are so proud of our D ladies for always showing up even when it’s not the easiest or the most fun❤️ Kate Wallace Margret Schrant Cari Shanks

2️⃣ Bailey Finnestad competed at the American Eventing Championships last weekend with her homebred mare Open Aire and ended up 5th in a BN-Amateur division of over 25 riders! This is an absolutely massive achievement and there were definitely some misty eyes in the MBF camp when we saw Bailey and Ariel in the awards ceremony in the legendary Rolex arena. Way to go Bay! So happy for you! 🥲

3️⃣ Wojtek Drezek and Bailey popped over to Lamplight this weekend for a jumper schooling show and had some really great, educational rounds with both horses. Wojtek’s young horse stepped out for just his second show ever and he was such a good boy! Ariel was unimpressed after her championships last weekend 🤣 Both horses moved up in height yesterday and handled it like total pros.

Props to anyone who read through that entire post; props to our horses and riders for some great outings; and of course, we can never end a post without thanking the Birthday Boss himself for his literally never-ending patience, guidance, coaching, and general propping up of his riders. Helmut was sitting at the D show doing a virtual course walk with Bailey between dressage tests….we are so lucky to have a trainer who is so invested in helping us succeed and more importantly, helping us LEARN.

😅😅😅 next up is Regionals in two weeks, then a horse trials at Silverwood, and then….we rest. 😴 Except Helmut because he does not appear to need sleep and downtime like the rest of us mere mortals.

09/04/2026

🚨MAY WE HAVE YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE 🚨

🥳🥳 TODAY IS HELMUT’S BIRTHDAY!!!! 🥳🥳

🎶Go Boss Man, it’s your birthday🎶
🎶We gonna….horse show??…like it’s your birthday🎶

In true Helmut fashion he’s spending his birthday riding, teaching, and taking students to a show. Luckily for him it’s jumpers and not yet another boring D show 🤣

Thank you Helmut for everything you do for us! We hope you have a great day!

EDIT: if any of you actually show this to him-please make sure you tell him that is a DOUBLE STUF OREO. Thank you.

08/26/2026

Our favorite eventer Bailey Finnestad is headed down to AEC’s today! 🤩🤩🤩 Bailey and Ariel qualified at the BN level-a big accomplishment on a mare Bailey bred and brought along herself. We are so incredibly proud of these two and everyone at MBF is wishing them good luck this week!

Safe travels Bailey & Ariel—we will be watching and cheering you on every step of the way! 💗

08/14/2026

⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️Flashback Friday! ⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️

Helmut gets stuck going to a LOT of D shows with us, but his heart really lies in the jumper ring. So, we thought we’d do a little throwback to the days when The Boss 😎was jumping the real big stuff…with perfect equitation to boot. That automatic release is 🤌🏼🤌🏼.

Also, the Stubben was lookin’ FRESH back then! Clean, shiny, probably wasn’t hard as a rock like it is today 😬

Gold star to any of our MBF friends who can name those horses 😊

08/11/2026

👀

08/05/2026

Guys, we’ve gotta admit, posting again and again about how well our riders are doing is getting a little….difficult. Not that we aren’t proud of our peeps—we 100% are—but our social media manager lacks creativity and we’re having a hard time finding new ways to describe the awesomeness of the MBF team. 😝

ANYWAY.

Kate Wallace and her Opportune K expanded their horizons at the end of July and headed to Silverwood for the first time. As usual, Oliver was a super good boy and he and Kate were the AA champions 🏆🥇at Training with a really lovely pair of tests at T-3: 67.8% and 70.6% 😍😍😍 Helmut threw in a super casual 72.08% with Oliver at 1-3 to round out a REALLY great show day.

Bailey Finnestad and her big homebred mare Open Aire made the hike up to Revel Run this past weekend and once again took BN by storm-they marched around XC in the rain, jumped clean XC and SJ, and finished second 🥈on a 26.3 in a HUGE division. PLUS, Bailey and Ariel won Adult Low Score Rider 🏆at the Silverwood July HT with a 23.5. 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

We continue to be so proud of our AA ladies and the work they’re putting in with their young horses. And of course none of this would be possible without Helmut and his patient, consistent guidance along the way. We’re lucky to have someone with so much knowledge and experience to help us—even though TBH it’s kind of annoying that he’s, like, ALWAYS right. About everything. All the time. 🫠 🙄

Speaking of The Boss 😎- inspection season is upon us and he’s pretty much gone till September. So if you’re looking for him, peace be with you. We have no idea where he goes. Might have to put an Air Tag on him.

07/22/2026

Team MBF is sending out a HUGE congratulations to our resident eventer Bailey Finnestad, who won her open BN division at the Silverwood Horse Trials last weekend 🏆🥇🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻!!!!!!

Bailey and her homebred mare Open Aire finished on their dressage score (a KILLER 23.5) which is just the icing on the cake of this huge accomplishment.

We often highlight the young horse journey on this page and Bailey & Ariel are no exception. Ariel is out of Bailey’s prelim mare and, as we all know, bringing up the babies is not for the faint of heart. There are so many ups and downs along the way, so many nerve-wracking moments, so much time and money and tears…..the feeling of getting one you put on the ground all the way to a win at a recognized event is incredible.

We could not be more proud of Bailey & Ariel and all the hard work they’ve put in both on their own and with Helmut to get to this point.

Congratulations Bailey! Next stop: AECs!!!!! 🐎🐎

07/06/2026

By The Numbers: MBF Show Circus 🎪

🗓️ 2 weekends
🎪 3 shows (2 dressage👸🏼, 1 jumper 🏇)
😬36-ish classes
🐴 9 horses
🕺🏼8 riders
🚲1 squished bike
😬1 temporarily misplaced gelding
🤹‍♂️1 trainer juggling it all

Buckle up friends. We are behind on show updates and it’s past our bedtime so this is gonna be quick & dirty!

IDCTA Summer Kickoff at Silverwood:
🥇Margret Schrant brought out her new guy Ferdinand and killed it right out of the gate, winning 4 😱 of their 5 classes! Highlights: a 69.25% and a 68.25% at 3-3 AA!

🥇Olivia Pilch had a great weekend with Zeke and Bon, including winning two 3-3 Open classes. Highlights: Bon winning at 3-3 with a 71.75% and Zeke getting a second at 3-3!

🥈April Morris’ Alluwe WF was reserve high point for ISR/OLD (shout out to Vanessa Carlson for breeding such a lovely mare 💗) and finished the weekend with a pleasant 66.66% at 1-3 Open.

Lamplight Summer I and II:
🥇Cari Shanks and the best grape-loving baby Pjoter won a 3-3 AA and a 2-3 AA. Highlight: 65.4% at 2-3! Second highlight: seeing Cari’s WONDERFUL parents! We ❤️the Shanks’!

🥇Kate Wallace’s Opportune K was a rockstar all weekend; Kate and Oliver won two T-3 AAs with a 69.4% and a 69.6% 🤩! And, as if that wasn’t enough, The Boss 😎hopped on and busted out two MORE wins with Oliver-67.4% at 1-1 and a freaking 71.6% at 1-3!

🥇Olivia and her boys are total pros at this point and just carried on with their winning ways…Bon won a 3-1 Open on a 72.9% and Fashion won BOTH I-1s!

🥇April and Aloof returned to AA land (hallelujah 😅) and won their 1-3 on Sunday with a 67.5%.

Summer Series H/J Show at Lamplight:
🥈Bailey Finnestad and her Open Aire came over from the really dark side-oops, we mean eventing-and promptly kicked ass, placing well in nearly all their classes. Highlights: 3rd/21 in a low jumper class and 2nd/19 in the low jumper classic!

⭐️Wojtek Drezek brought his young horse Civaandro out for his very first horse show ever and he was just an absolute superstar-he took in all the craziness and cruised right around like it was NBD. Highlight: 5th/21 in a low jumper class!

⭐️Helmut’s sale horse Cellie tagged along for his first jumper show and literally could not have behaved any better nor been any cuter! This one has a perfect AA personality, super cute over fences and SUPER broke on the flat if anyone’s looking….👀

Soooo that turned out to be a long post-kudos if y’all actually read this whole thing 🤪 While we of course like to highlight good scores and high placings, what we REALLY like to recognize at every show is the hard work put in by all of our riders.

It’s not easy to work through tension in a crabby mare; it’s not easy to bring along BIG young horses; it’s not easy to be an AA and balance the riding with a full time job; it’s not easy to forge a partnership with a new horse; it’s not easy to build the strength and skills to move up to FEI…..and what it’s REALLY not easy to do is be Helmut and manage all of this 👆🏼👆🏼insanity. Last weekend he was literally running back and forth to two different shows and schooling people on both sides while also doing his own riding. We are, as always, so grateful for the amazing job he does supporting us all. Couldn’t do it without The Boss 😎!

We are also really grateful that he had a backup bike to fill in for the squished one. He never would have made it back and forth to the rings without it 🤪.

06/29/2026

👀 👀 👀

Helmut Schrant and Opportune K also achieved a 🥇 victory at the HITS Lamplight Summer Dressage II Show! Riding in the USEF First Level Test 3 - Open, this combination posted a final score of 71.667%.

📸: Andrew Ryback Photography

06/08/2026

MBF D Squad were winners at Windy City last weekend!

The dressage girls were out in full force for the first show of the season; we were lucky to have beautiful weather and the horses were absolute STARS all weekend long. Recap:

🥇Kate Wallace and her Opportune K were freaking on fire 🔥 and laid down a couple of beautiful tests, with the highlight being an AA T3 win with a 74.4%!!!!! 😱🤩😱🤩😱🤩 So proud of these two-Oliver is a big, strong, young horse and Kate has been patiently bringing him along with a focus on correct development-we are thrilled to see that patience paying off!

🥇Duewer Rich Teri brought her golden baby Querinus F to his first Lamplight show and we seriously could not have been more impressed with this 5 year old! His behavior matched his color all weekend long-he literally never put a foot wrong. Teri and Henry had some really good tests including an AA T3 win with a 70%. Teri has done the majority of the work on this young horse by herself and he’s one of the best-brained babies we’ve seen. Yay Teri!!!!

🥇Cari Shanks and Pjoter came out of the winter at full send, making their Third Level debut as well as taking on the 6 Year Old classes. Those young horse classes are TOUGH and this show was no exception. Pjoter earned a 68.5% in the 6 YOs on Sunday and got some really good feedback from the judges, as well as getting 2nd place at Third 3. We’ve adored Pjoter since he was sent to Helmut to be started 3 years ago and we love that he and Cari are doing so well together!

🥇Olivia Pilch brought FOUR (😳😳😳) horses-she was just a little busy-and per usual, her whole herd were total professionals. Her new ride Baileys on Ice won a Third 3 class on a 70.5%; Mollegardens Fashion won the PSG on Sunday (69.7%); and her best buddy Zeke returned to the show ring after a long break—these two gave the USEF Dressage Seat Equitation a try and earned a killer 78%! Last but not least, her young guy Dancer got in some really good schooling with both The Boss 😎 and Olivia and handled the atmosphere like a champ.

We had a great weekend and loved seeing so many friends after a long, cold, boring winter. HUGE thanks to everyone who came out to support our crew (Shirley Dau, Mady Wallace, Nora Wallace, Wjotek & Asia, Eric, Cari’s lovely parents)…..

And speaking of seeing friends, we were beyond excited to see Margret Schrant’s longtime BFF Athena in the ring with her new mom! Athena looks like a million bucks and it was so fun to see her doing so well ❤️❤️❤️

Thanks as always to Helmut for the schooling rides (though these ladies are getting pretty damn good and he actually didn’t have 1 million rides this show! Gotta take it easy on the old man 😜), the coaching, and keeping this crazy train on track….mostly. And on the subject of crazy, the most insane thing we saw last weekend was Helmut drinking water. Those of you who know him know that that’s….not normal. It was weird. He almost puked.

Next up is the IDCTA Summer Kickoff show at Silverwood!