Wild Child Farm

08/06/2026

Our horses go out every day in all weather (unless it’s super icky or dangerous), but they are all stalled at night. Some of them would be happy out overnight, but several have told us that they prefer their stall. Some sleep outside, several don’t. We have selectively bred our horses for sport and that means that they won’t all retain their “wildness”. Most humans could no longer survive naturally either. Listen to your horse and treat them as an individual. Too much of anything can be too much!

03/06/2026

We are a farm with a nice indoor and happy horses ❤️. It’s the community of a barn that makes it great and I couldn’t hope for better. I hope everyone finds their special, perfect place.

🐴 The $300 Horse Boarding Problem

If you own a horse, this post might make you uncomfortable — but it needs to be said.

As someone who has spent years feeding horses before sunrise and cleaning stalls long after dark, I’ve watched this pattern happen over and over again.

You see the ads everywhere.

“Full care board – $300/month.”
Hay 24/7. Grain included. All the amenities.

And you wonder…

How are they doing it so cheap?

Because the truth is — horses aren’t cheap to care for.

Even if someone grows their own hay there are still costs:
fuel, equipment, repairs, labor, land, and time.

So when board is that cheap, something usually gets cut.

Maybe it’s feed.
Maybe it’s stall cleaning.
Maybe turnout quietly disappears.
Maybe water buckets only get filled once a day.

It doesn’t happen overnight.

It happens slowly… until one day someone sees your horse and says:

“Wow… he looks thin.”

You go home, look at old photos, and realize they’re right.

So you move your horse to a higher-end barn.

Now board is $700… $800… sometimes $1,000+ a month.

Your horse looks great again — but now you’re working so many hours just to afford it that you barely get to see them.

And that’s when people start leaving the horse world completely.

But there’s a third option that often gets overlooked.

Small private barns.

Not the mega barns.

Not the ultra-cheap barns.

The quiet, middle-of-the-road places where the owner does the work themselves because they can’t afford employees.

The places where your horse isn’t just a stall number.

Where feed is adjusted individually.
Where someone notices if your horse doesn’t finish dinner.
Where care is personal because the barn is small enough to truly manage.

These barns often sit half empty because they’re not flashy and they’re not the cheapest.

But many of them offer the best balance of care, affordability, and peace of mind in the horse world.

Sometimes the best place for your horse isn’t the cheapest or the fanciest.

Sometimes it’s the place where you can walk out to the pasture after a long day, breathe, and simply watch your horse be a horse.

❤️

And if you’re lucky enough to find one of those small barns that truly cares, hold onto it.

Those places are usually run by people who love horses more than profit, who do the work themselves every day, and who treat every horse like part of their own herd.

Small barns are the heart of the horse world.

⸻

Now I’m curious…

Horse owners — what matters most to you in a boarding barn?

• Price
• Quality of care
• Amenities
• Quiet environment

And barn owners — what do you think is the biggest challenge in horse boarding today?

👇 Let’s talk about it.

11/23/2025

If you are unaware of the EHV outbreak, please take time to search and educate yourself. We will be limiting visitors to the farm and asking that visitors change clothes and boots and wash hands well if coming from another equine facility. While it hasn’t reached Maine yet (that we have heard) the neurological version is not prevented by vaccination and can be completely asymptomatic until the horse shows signs of paralysis, yet they can shed the virus during the two week incubation period. This webinar will be worth your time to help stop this outbreak before it harms more animals and threatens to cancel competitions and clinics in the coming months.

Amid the widespread social media postings about the current EHV-1 outbreak, please look to credible sources for information. Here is one: a webinar for horseowners this Monday 11/24 at 7PM EST. Sign up (soon) below!

Boehringer Ingelheim is excited to take the next step in supporting our equine community. We’re hosting a special session just for horse owners - because informed owners make all the difference when it comes to protecting our horses. This talk will break down what’s happening, why it matters, and the practical steps owners can take to keep their horses safe and healthy.

Here are the details:

📅 Date: Monday, 11/24/25

⏰ Time: 7PM EST

💻 Format: Zoom *Please register early...this will be a very popular webinar!

🔗 Registration: https://boehringer.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ob0krmkLSX6Yb4Kry7cguw #/registration

🙋🏻‍♀️Questions: Horse Owners Can Pre-Submit Questions They Would Like Addressed HERE - https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZZFCLZS

06/30/2025

Wild Child Farm Horse Camp 2025
July 14-18
8:30 am to 3pm
$400

Our week includes skill building in the stable, daily riding in group lessons, lessons in basic first aid, grooming, tack care, etc. plus lots of time for kids to be kids!

We have a few spots left for the week. Most of our campers fall between ages 6 and 13, but we are open to all ages (as long as they are old enough to pay attention and follow instructions).

This is a great option to introduce kids to riding before committing to a weekly program.

Please send me a private message, email [email protected] (put horse camp in the subject) or text 207-485-1070 (due to my schedule and hesitancy to answer unknown numbers, text is the best way to reach me).

I’m happy to answer any questions, so please ask!

05/19/2025

I love this. Taking care of 2 horses is really hard. Taking care of 20 plus requires a lot of attention, hard work and patience. I agree with all of these points. If you’ve never had horses at home, commit to some job shadowing at the barn (not a few hours, a few days). You’ll be exhausted and have a new appreciation for what your barn owner/manager is actually juggling EVERY day.

By JAMIE SINDELL There was a time when I boarded my horse and got heated. I’m talking full-blown righteous fury over what I saw as egregious examples of poor care. Mistakes that made me seethe with rage. But now? I own my own farm. I’ve spent almost three years caring for my own horses. And […...

04/13/2025

We had Toby and Classy who were unicorn lesson ponies and absolutely beginner safe. Two lesson ponies out of many good school horses over the years. So many times I’ve had to explain the reality of horses to people. Good riders make good horses, unless you’re exceptionally lucky and find that needle in the haystack. Any horse can be untrained or soured with time.

Beginner safe???
Instead of asking if a horse is beginner safe, maybe we should be asking how many days in a row a horse is expected to stay beginner safe?
Lots of horses are beginner safe for a ride or two on good days, but that doesn’t mean a beginner could handle them and ride them day after day without that horse stressing out and losing his beginner safe status!!!! And that’s assuming an instructor is still present and deeply involved!!!

Pictured is Lise and Jenn with Dudley. On a good day Dudley is a great beginners horse. On a bad day Dudley can see dead people- and he’s not cool with it. Jenn would probably struggle with Dudley on her own, but with Lise’s help, she can ride Dudley even on his bad days. I have two other students who can also pilot Dudley on his bad days with my help.
They sometimes ride Dudley when I’m not there, and they know that if he’s tense that day, maybe they should not canter, but they are competent enough to do well with him walk and trot.  As long as those three are working with him I don’t have to get on him to work through anything. If any of those three riders owned him and worked him on their own without help, long term, eventually bad things would happen. That said, when this guy is good, he’s great, and we can put certain beginners on him.

Out of the eight horses I am currently using for Lessons, there is only one that I think would deal with a beginner day in and day out for a year or more before I think it would all fall apart. I have horses here that failed other lesson programs, but flourish here…. Because Lise and I know how to keep the horses happy. If we see a horse is getting a little bit beginner sour, we put an advanced student on them and work specifically on  whatever that horse needs to get back into a stable, emotional homeostasis again. (This also is amazing for our more advanced riders because this is real life! Helping horses emotionally regulate is the number one thing that makes a rider a good rider!)

I’m not exactly sure how to quantify all the skill sets that someone should require before riding a horse daily, without instruction, and expect to be sustainably safe, but certainly you should at least be able to walk, trot, and canter competently, have some idea of bending walk and trot, and be able to speed up and slow down off seat ON MULTIPLE HORSES before thinking you should own one and ride it regularly without an instructor there.  

03/26/2025

Spring PSA!

It’s here! Kind of… some days… or hours…

As our barn gathers winter blankets to send for washing, I wanted to give a quick PSA on blanket care to help you all keep those expensive blankets functioning longer.

As tempting as it may be, DO NOT pressure wash your turnouts. Saddle pads, stable blankets, anything non-waterproof can be pressure washed, but not waterproof turnouts.

DO NOT use standard detergents. These can break down the waterproofing. Use a detergent specifically designed for waterproof fabrics or a gentle soap like Ivory.

DO NOT heat dry. Hang them to dry.

Waterproof blankets are made by laminating (gluing) a waterproof membrane to the back of the fabric. This membrane is cool because it allows moisture to pass through from the warmer side to the cooler side. This is what manufacturers refer to as “breathable” and it’s why your blanket is dry underneath when you take it off the horse but annoyingly wet when you go to put the blanket back on. Without the horse’s body heat, the water is no longer pushed out and will settle on both sides of the membrane (why it’s best to let your turnout dry on your horse rather than taking it off when they come in). This membrane has to be on the back of the fabric to avoid damage. If you’ve ever had an old sheet with a ripped lining, you’ve probably seen the waterproof film peeling.

Damage to the waterproofing on your blanket is called delamination. This can be caused by heat, chemicals or intense pressure breaking down the bonds between the fabric and the laminated waterproof layer. Once delamination occurs, you can’t get it back. You can re-waterproof the blankets with wash-in products or use a silicone spray, but these methods won’t give you the same waterproofing and won’t last as long. I was once told by a blanket rep that it may be better not to clean your blankets than to clean them too often.

So how should we clean our gross winter turnouts?

At home, you can wash by hand using a garden hose, an appropriate detergent and a brush to gently scrub away the dirt. Rinse well, hang to dry in a shady place or in the sun for a short time. Make sure your blanket is completely dry before storing.

If you have a washer that can accommodate something as large as a horse blanket, you can wash in cold water, waterproof-friendly detergent and hang to dry. Home machines often don’t get blankets very clean and are prone to plugging with horse hair.

Send your blankets to a professional cleaner. It’s usually a very reasonable charge per blanket and saves you a lot of time. Just make sure your cleaner uses detergents and methods appropriate for horse blankets.

There it is! I hope this saves some of you some time and money! Happy Spring cleaning!

12/21/2024

As a former eventer, position and effectiveness were vital for safety. Now we focus primarily on dressage, and while our daily work is less dangerous (usually), position is just as important as we try to give our horses clear, well-timed aids to develop their bodies. If you don’t sit with balance and a supple position, it’s not possible to feel the horses movement and detect tension. If you can’t feel the horses, you can’t aid correctly. Instead of turning to stronger aids, whips, spurs and stronger bits, take the time and put in the work to develop your position and feel. Riding will be easier and your horse will be more willing as a result!