Dun-Pikin Farm

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United States
Pasadena, MD
Dun-Pikin Farm

Riding Lessons, Pony Parties, Petting Animals, Horse Boarding Dun-Pikin Farm is a small family operated horse boarding and lesson barn in Pasadena, Maryland.

We offer beginner and intermediate riding lessons for children and adults. Horse training. Boarding. Pony Pal program. Pony parties. Pony rides. Stop by and see us some time (visit by appointment only.) We'll see you 'Down on the Farm!"

Dun-Pikin Farm is a Maryland Horse Industry Board Certified Horse Discovery Center.

06/01/2026

It seems everyone and everything is on a schedule at Dun-Pikin. Everyday like clockwork we feed at 3 PM. The horses always line up at the gate the minute they see anyone near the barn. For the last 3 days at feeding time a doe has wandered in. Unlike the horses the doe is not waiting for us, but is coming in to feast on the mulberries that are currently ripening on the trees. I think it’s fascinating that it comes at the same time every day.

I will say it’s been a bit un-nerving to be moving the horses around with the deer calmly eating about 20 feet away. I’m always expecting the horses to spook and take off running. I suppose the deer and horses must see each other more often than me, because the deer barely looks up when we walk by. Though it may make me a bit anxious, I must say the horses completely ignore the deer too. I’ll never understand horses I guess. They can lose their minds over a squirrel that crosses their path on the trail but they calmly walk by a deer almost as big as them.

I guess when there are delicious, sweet mulberries on the line, everyone is on their best behavior! It’s just another beautiful, unpredictable afternoon out here. If you want to see what kind of surprises a day at the barn can bring, grab your boots and Come Ride With Us!

- Cindy🐴

05/31/2026

Reach for the stars (or maybe some clover), when you Come Ride With Us!

Cindy 🐴

05/30/2026

Except for maybe petting a horse over the fence no one ever does anything with the horses mounted or unmounted without talking about safety first. Horses are dangerous animals just by virtue of their size. It’s very easy to get hurt accidentally. A misplaced foot, a quick turn of the head or even an accidental bump can cause at the very minimum a bruised foot, a headache or a painful fall. Believe me I speak from experience.

Understanding how horses see and react to the world, helps keep everyone safer. It seems like everyone knows not to walk behind a horse, though seldom do they know why. Few people know about a horse’s blind spots which are directly in the front and back. Sudden movements when standing in these spots can cause a horse to kick out of fear. No one seems to know either that it’s best to talk to a horse when approaching. That it’s best to touch their neck or shoulder first. It can startle a horse touching their face or nose first. It’s also best to not run or yell around horses either. Sudden noises can cause a horse to bolt. You should also always stay on your feet and never sit or kneel down next to a horse. You need to be able to move quickly in case you need to.

There are many more safety rules. Never wrap a lead rope around your hand. Never drape a lead rope over your shoulder or neck. Only tie a horse to solid objects with a quick release knot. Always turn a horse’s head to the gate when you’re turning a horse out. Always wear closed toed shoes or boots with a heel. Always wear a helmet. There are hard and fast rules when it comes to safely tying, trailering, mounting, tacking up, feeding treats, grooming and many more. Learning the rules helps keep everyone safe. If you want to learn more … all you have to do is Come Ride With Us!

Cindy 🐴

05/29/2026

Today is Thursday, so let’s make it a Throwback Thursday.

I dug up this old photo, which I think is from about 1984. You can see we had a really nice crop of Silver Queen corn growing. For 17 years, Rick and I grew vegetables and sold them out front on Mountain Road.

Today that green barn you see when you drive up the hill now stands right where all this corn was growing. In the picture, on the left is the corn crib that is still with us. And just a little piece of the old stable where my granddad kept his mules is visible on the right. Today we call our farm “Dun-Pikin” because, well, we are "done picking" vegetables, get it?

We sure did love growing those vegetables, but it's also great to see horses grazing where the corn used to be. We’ve definitely come a long way since the early 80s, and we hope you get a chance to see all the great things happening here at Dun-Pikin Farm. Check out our newly designed website at www.dun-pikin.com and Come Ride With Us!

Cindy 🐴

05/28/2026

I tried to tell Buffy it was impolite to lick the bowl, but … as you can see, she didn’t really care. Today was “loose hay” day. Instead of serving up flakes of hay, I raked up all the little pieces of hay off of the mats. Some would call it the dregs, you know the tender tasty pieces that fall out of the flakes. Anyway it’s Buffy’s favorite day. She was actually bold enough to claim it for her own, and chase Charlie away. He eventually wandered off to the hay bag.

Just for the record before anyone gets upset, that particular blue bucket is marked in huge black letters NO P**P! HAY ONLY. Never ever has it seen a forkfull of p**p. We take our bucket boundaries seriously here.

If you need a lesson in cleaning your plate, Buffy can give you some. If you need a lesson in riding a horse, Come Ride With Us!

Cindy 🐴

05/27/2026

Today Shine and I had quite the showdown. I have been trying to convince both Shine and Cash to come to me to take off their feed bags. It seems unfair that they come trotting up when it’s time to get their bags put on, but when it’s time to take them off I have to trudge across the field to retrieve them.

Cash has caught on that there’s a treat waiting for him if he comes over to me to get his bag taken off. He now comes over to the fence for me to take it off almost as quickly as when he wants me to put it on. Now … Shine, not so much. Shine just stares at me, waiting … waiting for me to come to him. I decided today was the day that no matter what and how long I had to wait. He was going to either come to me or he was going to keep the bag on.

I decided today was the day that Shine was going to get with the program. I called him several times but he just stood in the run-in staring at me. I decided to leave him be, go back up to the barn, do a little barn work and then come back and try again. I walked back and forth to the barn 4 times. Each time I would stand at the fence and call him and wait a few minutes. When he didn’t come I just went back to the barn. Finally … on my fourth try he walked over to get his treat. I was very relieved when I took his bag off. I didn’t have many more trips back up the hill to the barn left in me.

I’m hoping Shine and I had a breakthrough today. I’m hoping tomorrow when I go to retrieve the feed bags both Cash and Shine come trotting over. If not, Shine and I will go at it again. Book your tickets now for ‘Showdown at the Gelding Paddock.’ See how it goes when you Come Ride With Us!

Cindy 🐴

05/26/2026

Meet the last additions to our Dun-Pikin menagerie. We were asked if we could give them a home several months ago. Since then they’ve been fostered by our friends Amie, Lillie and Dan until we could build an appropriate enclosure for them. Not only did they end up fostering them but Dan ended up building them a “duck chalet” and engineered a cover for the pen to keep them safe. Truth be told I think he was getting anxious we might never take them back. He finished today, and the ducks arrived back at Dun-Pikin around feeding time.

They were just little ducklings when they first arrived, but as you can see they are now all grown up. We will be adding them to our petting zoo. They will be making their debut at our Farm Friday Night in June. In the meantime we’ll be working to socialize them. The ducks are always a favorite.

They do need names though. That’s always the first question we get about all the animals. What’s their name? One of the ducks is a male, the other a female. If you know of any good duck names, I’m open to suggestions.

It’s true the horses are the true stars at Dun-Pikin, but the other animals are always popular too. You can meet them all when you Come Ride With Us!

Cindy 🐴

05/25/2026

Usually, I tend to take the weather in stride. After all we can’t do a thing about whatever Mother Nature throws at us, so why stress about it right? Compared to what other parts of the country have endured, we’ve been pretty lucky here in Pasadena. To be honest though, this last week has been a bit stressful. We went from it being 95 degrees on Wednesday afternoon to being in the low 50’s Thursday evening. It may not seem like a big deal to many, but such extreme weather changes can cause real issues with the horses. We’ve had 2 scares this week.

On Tuesday the temperature was in the low 90’s. The mares were in the barn for the day. After having their dinner we began to turn out. We noticed when we turned Olive out she walked about 20 feet from the gate and immediately laid flat out. She didn’t roll, she just laid there. Every other horse out there took a turn coming over and sniffing her. Olive just laid there. It may not seem alarming to you, but Olive typically strutes out with her ears pinned back, reminding all the other horses who’s in charge. Normally, she would NEVER lay down and NEVER allow the other horses to come near her much less sniff at her. What was even more shocking was they were even brave enough to go near her. They must have sensed something was off with her. We had no clue why she was doing what she was doing, but it was odd and very worrisome. While we were trying to decide what to do, she suddenly sat up, stood up, and shook herself off. She immediately walked to the water trough, took a good long drink and went and stood in the run-in. She seemed perfectly normal. We watched her through the evening and as an added precaution we brought her into the barn for the night. Thankfully whatever was going on seemed to resolve. Was the extreme weather a factor? I guess we will really never know.

Tonight, after feeding we realized Buffy our donkey was choking. Evidently, she had something stuck in her esophagus. I’m guessing she did not chew something completely and it became lodged in her esophagus. She was pacing, drooling and coughing. She looked and sounded really bad. After about 40 minutes without it resolving, we decided we needed the vet. Thankfully the vet was already in Pasadena on another emergency. She would let us know when she was on her way to Dun-Pikin.

We brought Buffy up to the barn to wait. We realized after about 15 minutes in the stall that she finally resolved the choke on her own. The drooling had stopped and she was nosing around in the stall looking for dropped grain and bits of hay. She was looking much better. Thankfully Buffy seemed fine and we were able to cancel the vet. Her reward for healing herself was a few minutes of grazing on the grass.

The vet told us to 'keep our wits about us.' The crazy weather swings were causing a lot of issues with horses. It certainly keeps us on our toes. With the scares behind us, we are looking forward to much calmer days ahead on the farm. Grab your boots and Come Ride With Us!

Cindy 🐴

05/24/2026

The rain gauge at the house is sitting at a little over two inches, and the "parking lot pond" at the farm completely agrees. My aching bones are hinting at exactly how many hours were spent mucking stalls today.

Most of the horses didn’t argue with the game plan: we turned them out just long enough to clean their spaces, then brought them right back inside to fresh bedding, flakes of hay, and clean water buckets.

The good news? While the rain makes for plenty of mud, it’s not that dreaded, deep 'mud season' mud. Plus, that massive parking lot puddle doubles as a pretty great boot-rinse station before hopping into the car!

If this all sounds a bit disjointed and more like a ramble than a story, I’m 100% guilty. It has been a long, wet day, and my brain is feeling a little waterlogged. I think I'm going to take a cue from our barn cat here, curl up with something cozy, and catch a serious nap.

There's more rain on the horizon, but I’ll be back at it tomorrow. Once the weather clears up and the boots dry off, make sure to put this at the very top of your to-do list: lace up your boots, head on down to the farm, and Come Ride With Us!

— Cindy🐴

05/23/2026

When I turned Tic out this morning the smell caught my attention right away. It smelled like something fermenting. It was a strong odor. After looking around I realized it was the water trough. Not only did it smell but it had this milky white look to it. When I looked closer I realized it was full of mulberries that had fallen off the tree branches above. Evidently the berries were creating a kind of “mulled cider” in the trough. I laughed when I thought of Tic Tok and Lillie drinking out of it. Would we have had 2 tipsy horses grazing out in the field?🐴🍷

Obviously I dumped and scrubbed the tub. Before refilling it I moved it, hopefully out of the mulberry drop zone. Unfortunately we’re probably going to have to connect 2 hoses together now to reach the trough. Thankfully the berry season does not last that long and even though the berries are a hassle, the trees provide a lot of shade. Shade that Tic Tok and Lillie enjoy every day. It’s a classic case of taking the good with the bad.

We love keeping our horses happy, hydrated, and completely sober under the summer sun, so grab your helmet (and your berry picking basket) and Come Ride With Us!

Cindy 🐴

Address

4808 Mountain Road
Pasadena, MD
21122

Website

http://www.dun-pikin.com/

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