Maple Grove Farm

05/25/2026

05/11/2026

So true ❤️

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?

03/01/2026

Regionals yesterday- so proud of our riders also a big thank you to everyone who came out to help and support the team! ❤️🍁

12/31/2025

We are happy to announce the winners of the stall decorating contest. With everyone putting in such great work, the decision was tough. A three-way tie has been declared, which was not an easy conclusion to reach.
Congratulations go to Makenzie, Ella and Abby, Nicole and Camila
Thanks so much to all the participants.

12/29/2025

The kids have been busy these past few weeks. Decorating some of their favorite horses' stalls. This is such a fun time and we have the best stall decorators. I am so proud of how much love, attention, and hard work went into doing this.

12/26/2025

Our team had so much fun the other weekend at the annual end of season Christmas party!
Also a special surprise for our graduating senior ! We also did some competitive games-congrats to Ella Paul winning the “snow ball race” and Cecily getting reserve! Then in the team gingerbread barn competition congrats to “group 4” Nickole and Gianna getting first and to Maddie and Raine’s group and Ella’s and Abbie’s group tying for second!

12/26/2025

Our team had so much fun the other weekend at the annual end of season Christmas party! Also a special surprise for our graduating senior ! We also did some competitive games- congrats to Ella Paul winning the “snow ball race” and Cecily getting reserve! Then in the team gingerbread barn competition congrats to “group 4” Nickole and Gianna getting first and to Maddie and Raine’s group and Ella’s and Abbie’s group tying for second!

12/12/2025

This ⬇️

"The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. So I give you some of my favorite pearls of wisdom, in no particular order. Some of these are from trainers of mine, both past and present, some are widely recognized from BNT, some have nothing to do with horses by origin but still apply, and some are from my own head.

- If a horse says no, you either asked the wrong question or asked the question wrong.

-An average hunter course has 100 strides. Only 8 of them are jumps. Don’t sacrifice the 92 for the 8.

- On approaching a fence: good riders wait until it’s time to go. Great riders go until it’s time to wait.

- Don’t squat with your spurs on.

- It is NEVER the horse’s fault. Yes, sometimes a horse may take advantage of a situation, but there is ALWAYS something the rider could do differently to change the situation.

- Pass left hand to left hand.

- You can only lie to your horse so many times before they call your bluff.

- Horses do not know what they are worth. They do not know, or care, what they are capable of. They only care about the way you treat them.

- Injuries and colic happen almost exclusively at 10:00 pm on a Saturday.

- Shoes get lost almost exclusively when preparing to leave for a show.

- If you work hard, try your best, and never give up, your efforts will not go unnoticed.

- And you will be rewarded with opportunities when you least expect it.

- If you work hard, try your best, and never give up, you will still fail sometimes.

- Video doesn’t lie – after being told repeatedly that I was lifting my right hand before every fence, and swearing up and down that I was certainly NOT lifting my right hand before every fence… I was—in fact—lifting my right hand before every fence. Sometimes your brain lies to you. Video does not.

- On being nervous going into the show ring: you’re just not that big of a deal. No one at the show is watching you close enough to know every mistake you might make, except for the judge and your trainer, and you are paying them to watch.

- Be patient – there are no shortcuts. Any shortcut you may try, will actually be the long way.

- Check your personal issues and emotions at the door. Your horse will know. It usually does not go well.

- If your horse is in front of your leg, you have options.

- We never lose. We either win or we learn.

- Ride like a winner. You cannot act like flip flops and expect to be treated like Louboutins.

- If you have to pick only two things to think about during a course, pace and track are the two you should choose. The rest cannot happen without pace and track.

- Give yourself and your horse brain breaks. Go have fun, go hack out in the woods, go swimming ba****ck, read a book in the paddock, whatever. Just allow yourself time to have fun.

- At home there’s no reason to jump as big as you show every time. The basics are the basics regardless of the jump height. Save your horses legs.

- The horse world is very small. Remember this and don’t burn your bridges and be mindful of your words.

- Clean your tack. Groom your horse. Properly. Every day. If you can control nothing else, you can control your turn out. There is no excuse to not do the minimum effort.

- No matter what the problem is, the solution is almost always add more leg.

- Ride the horse you have today. Not the one you had yesterday. Not the one you want to have. The horse under you at this moment is the only one that matters.

- You go where you look. The human head weighs 10 pounds. Unless you would like to end up on the ground, do not look down.

- Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.

📎 Save & share this article by PonyMomAmmy at https://www.theplaidhorse.com/2020/09/15/equestrian-advice-to-ride-and-live-by/

12/07/2025

Last show of the season for our team at Rising Star, our middle school won reserve champion! We had some great rides today congrats everyone!

11/25/2025

Team MGF killed it this weekend at Willowbrook farm’s IEA show, our future team got reserve champion + qualified for regionals and our school team won reserve with only two divisions!! 🏅Ella P.🥈Varsity Intermediate fences🥇Varsity intermediate Flat 🏅Erika M. 🥈Future Intermediate fences🥈Future Intermediate flat 🏅Abbie H. 🥇Junior Varsity Novice Fences🥈JV Novice Flat 🏅Violet L. Fourth in JV Novice fences 🥉JV Novice Flat 🏅Lianna B. 🥉JV Novice fences, fifth Junior Varsity Novice flat 🏅Gianna W. 🥉Future Novice Fences 🥉Future Novice Flat 🏅Sofia D. Sixth place in Future beginner w/t/c 🏅Elizabeth M. had great ride in future beginner w/t/c 🏅Lily S. Fifth place in Future beginner w/t 🏅Mackenzie J. Sixth place in future beginners w/t Congrats everyone!

11/15/2025

Another great day at Holiday Acres Equestrian center! We had some great rides today and our middle school team won reserve champion!