Meadow Wood Farm

03/20/2026

Congratulations to our very own Josivi Decarlo!!! We are so proud of you!!! 💯💪😍👏🔥🙌

02/24/2026

True story! 👏 ❤️🐴

01/10/2026

I agree 100%!!! Going slow with a horse or rider (or both) is never ever a negative. It reinforces confidence and ability for both horse and rider.
I've had people upset with me over going "too slow" in the past. I didn't change my strategy, I let them move where they could go "faster" and the sad reality is most of them don't ride anymore.

In a sport that rewards ambition, speed, and visible progress, “going slow” can feel counterintuitive. But for Jimmy and Danielle Torano, patience isn’t hesitation. It’s a strategy.

Across decades at the top of the sport, the Toranos have learned that whether you’re developing a young horse or a promising rider, there is one mistake you almost never make: taking your time. “You will never make a mistake going too slow,” Jimmy said. “You’ll never make a mistake going too slow with a rider. And you’ll never make a mistake going too slow with a horse.”

When new horses enter the Toranos’ program, they don’t debut at the highest level they’re capable of jumping. Even when a horse is age-appropriate for young horse classes or technically ready for a bigger division, they start lower.

“We probably start them a division or two below where they should be,” Jimmy explained. That decision is about building confidence, both for the horse and the rider. Letting a horse settle, understand their job, and feel successful creates a foundation that holds when the questions get harder.

Especially when young riders are developing horses, the Toranos see patience as protection. “We want to make sure everything goes right—or as right as it can go,” Jimmy said.

One audience member at the live podcast summed it up simply: success breeds success. Jimmy agreed.

“The minute you overface a horse is when you get into trouble,” he said.

The same principle applies to riders. Moving someone forward before they’re truly ready—physically or mentally—can undermine confidence far faster than it builds experience. Going slower allows skills, confidence, and decision-making to develop together.

For the Toranos, patience is intentional. It’s paying attention to how a horse responds. It’s listening to what a rider needs on a given day. And it’s resisting the urge to rush simply because the calendar suggests it’s time.

📎 Continue reading this article at https://www.theplaidhorse.com/2026/01/10/you-will-never-make-a-mistake-going-too-slow-a-training-philosophy-for-horses-and-riders/
📸 © The Plaid Horse

12/09/2025

"The lights need to stay on" is what most don't understand. Another great read!! 👏❤️🐴
People with a passion for horses (not just riding) are always an asset!

The last article that I had seen was about how junior riders aren’t being given the opportunities they once were.

I’d like to, from a SMALL trainer perspective, give some insight from my own personal experiences, which may help shed some light on 1️⃣a smaller barn’s struggle with providing these opportunities, and 2️⃣ how riders can help secure better opportunities in the future.

Growing up (25 years ago… I know,
I’m soooooo old…) in order to become a working student, you had to first be a student at that farm. That meant either in active lessons on barn horses, a leased, or your own horse.

🤷🏻‍♀️In other words, you had to be a financially contributing member of the team.

👉A working student position meant you got freebies for proving your dedication by helping with extra chores around the farm, and making the farm owner and trainer’s life easier, while still helping to keep the lights on.
🫶We showed up at 6 am to do stalls and turn out.
🫶We learned to check for shoes and how to blanket properly; how to move efficiently while also giving the full standard of care, so we could spend more time having fun in the saddle.
🫶We cleaned all of the tack at the end of the day.
🫶We dedicated our time to our sport, not saying “well I can only come once a week because of theater, basketball, soccer, and debate.”
🫶We were there when the other kids weren’t. 🫶We did the things the other kids didn’t want to do.
🫶We didn’t get paid in cash, we got paid in experience.
🫶We rode the devil ponies, we rode the babies, we rode the lame ones working back in PT.
👉And we didn’t care.
🫶We trail rode, lunged, flatted.
🫶We took the saddle time and ran with it.

My personal trainer in my early teens didn’t just give me saddle time. She was my drill sergeant. She took my stirrups and reins away and had me 2 pt for a half hour on her ponies, three times a week, for a year to learn better balance. She would put me on an old fuddy-duddy that didn’t do enough hard work that week, and make me do transitions with no stirrups. She had me get on the pony that laid down in the corners, she had me ride the stoppers, and the dirty little evil things. 7 horses a day on the weekends, 2-3 after school. With farm chores. And I was in charge of cleaning my tack and grooming. It was just me, her, and sometimes her assistant trainer, and we got it all done, on top of my homework, and helping my mom with house chores.

🙌I learned grit, I learned useful life skills, I learned how to really ride, I learned efficiency and time management, and I learned that the faster I went, the more Jo-Ann would let me ride. If I didn’t do it right? I did it again, and lost out on saddle time. 👉No one fixed my mistakes but me; my mom didn’t help, my dad wouldn’t set foot on a farm, and Jo-Ann definitely wasn’t going to help. She already had a schedule for that day. It was up to me to help her make it Happen, because that’s how the lights stay on. If we aren’t working, the horses aren’t eating. End of story. 🙌

🐴At no point in my working student career did I ever not own or lease a horse. That was rule number one: the lights must stay on.
If you couldn’t help make life run smoothly, you couldn’t be there. It’s not fair for everyone involved.

🤷🏻‍♀️That’s how it was working for Tartan, Robin, the Muldoons, and Marlene. You had to contribute, and in more ways that just saddle time and half hearted labor.

👉Everyone👉Had👉To👉Contribute.

🤷🏻‍♀️Why am I telling everyone this? Because this just isn’t what people think of when they think of working students anymore.

🧡We used to call working students under the age of 18 Barn Rats. When they became an adult, they were called Working Students. We 👉worked to be students. And students contribute. ❎If the lights don’t stay on, we don’t have a farm to learn on❎

Fast forward to the last 3 years of the industry, and the dread I have of looking for a working student.

I will post: looking for a working student for a few times a week, minimal stalls, occasional feeding, clean tack, lots of flatting, trail rides and occasional jumping. 2-3 horses at the most.

The responses I get:
🤷🏻‍♀️How much does this position pay?
🤷🏻‍♀️Do you provide housing?
🤷🏻‍♀️Do I get a free stall?
🤷🏻‍♀️I’ve never ridden before in my life, can you teach me, and I’ll need paid.

And what I find, sadly, is that 9/10 “applicants” come out, ready to go, that has wanted paid, asked for housing and free board and lessons can’t find a diagonal, don’t know what a lead is, and can’t post in a balanced manner. To top it off, most hadn’t discussed this with their trainer. 😅I had one girl cry when I told her it’s not a good fit, and begged me not to call her trainer because she didn’t tell her trainer she was coming. This particular young lady showed up in spurs with a whip and then gouged my horses side (sans spurs) to ask him for a soft trot after I told her to be gentle. ❌She was also a half hour late to her interview and called me from Dunkin’s asking if I wanted anything, at the time she was scheduled to be there. 👉Side note: if I’m offering you an opportunity to ride my horses because I’m too busy to keep up, I don’t have time to wait for you to get your caffeine fix.
‼️Punctuality‼️is‼️kind‼️of‼️a‼️big‼️deal‼️

This is just one of the many head shaking experiences I have had, personally, from people that have wanted a working student position. ❌I’ve had “upper level” xc riders show up and gun my dead quiet hunter into a fence and then yank his face off when he charges the fences, which is what they asked him to do. ❌I had another drop my pony at every jump so my pony finally side stepped in the landing, and she fell off. she screamed he was dangerous. No, he’s tired of doing his job and yours 🤷🏻‍♀️

❌I’ve had “experienced” riders tack up the horses wrong.

❌I asked one girl to make sure the horse got a full bath and she responded with “I’m not being paid to be a groom.” You aren’t being paid to ride either, so take care of the horse you just rode or leave.

❌And many times these young ladies won’t get off their phones long enough to notice if the horse was missing a shoe when he walked in.

Now this is not to say that I haven’t had some wonderful ladies show up. Haley, Emma, Nicole, and currently Izzy and Ash. They give their all when they are here and want to learn.🧡

But every single one of these girls understands what goes into having sound, level headed horses to ride, a farm to ride on, and my time given to them. I break it down their first day: average barn labor is paid 15/hour. Average lessons are 75 in the area. 🟰That’s 5 hours of work for a free lesson. Average cost to maintain a horse with front shoes in the area (everything, not just board) is 1350 a month. Many of us small people don’t have largely funded backers, or barns full of expensive training projects (most of which don’t want working students on their horses anyway…) So what does this mean? It means that their payment for the work they do is their lessons, the knowledge and the experience they get.

❌They aren’t assistant trainers.

👉They’re at my farm for a maximum of 3 hours 2-3 times a week, they contribute to the work load, and they get an opportunity to work towards a goal that they’d otherwise have to pay for.

🧡Many of these girls understood that they had huge gaps in their education, and those gaps were not helping my horses, so whenI asked them to take a step back and learn how I do things, none of them were offended.

I have my two, and they help at shows, help out with paying jobs, and help save money, so it’s worth it for this small peanuts person to have them here. Many barns can’t foot the bills and pay/house part time working students and provide solid good horses for them to learn on.

👉👉👉It has to be a give and take or we won’t be able to continue with smaller trainers giving these young riders the opportunities They crave. And those small trainers are the ones who a. Need the help, and b. Will take more chances on the riders.

👉Here are some ways junior and young riders can help our smaller people out:

🧡Start with your trainer: ask if there are any opportunities at the farm you are already an established client at to ride other horses. Soak up every lesson you can, and help with the farm chores. You are never above mucking a stall or holding horses for the farrier.

🧡If you don’t have opportunities left at that farm, discuss it with your trainer, and seek out a new trainer to continue your education. Take your horse (if it is truly your horse) to that farm. Don’t ask someone to give you opportunities while paying someone else that can’t help you. You must contribute to keeping the lights on where you are being helped, and your old stall WILL get filled, I promise.

🧡Pay for a lesson. Even if it’s just one a week. Contribute to the electric bill. The feed bill. Something. Horses are expensive. Don’t leave all that expense to your trainer.

🧡Pick up shifts at the barn, even if you can’t ride that day, or don’t get an opportunity to ride that day. Barn time is barn time, and barn time will teach you things that just sitting in the saddle won’t.

🧡If you don’t have a horse, lease or partial lease one that you will be riding the most.

🧡Be open to relearning basics. Even the greatest riders in the world focus on basics. Basics build greatness. No one is above practicing basics.

🧡Be open to criticism. No one is perfect, and not every trainer does the same techniques. Learn from everyone and take all the lessons with you.

‼️And keep in mind, if you want to be paid for your work, you must be able to provide a service that warrants being paid. This will seem very harsh, and I don’t mean it to be, just realistic: if I am paying for someone to ride my horse and I have to go back and retrain that horse after every ride, that isn’t helpful. That creates more work. Much like if I pay someone to do a stall, and when they leave I have to redo them. It’s counter productive for any business to pay someone do the work twice. Understand that it’s not our job to sacrifice our riding time to do stalls so you can enjoy our horses. Help everywhere. Be a member of the team.

👉This relationship has to be mutually beneficial or this relationship won’t happen, and from my latest experiences, this is part of the reason we aren’t seeing many of these opportunities left.

👉Working students aren’t meant to be paid, nor are they meant to be full time. That’s an employee.

🧡They’re meant to be taught.

🧡They need to be open to being taught.

🧡And they need to contribute.

🧡Everyone needs to contribute.

🧡At the end of the day, the lights need to stay on.

12/07/2025

Turnout, forage and footing are soooooo important!

"Equine professionals carry a majority of the responsibility in the horse industry. I often find myself climbing up on my soapbox to talk about the key factors in what I describe as a good horse care program’s “recipe for success”.

No matter the level, in my experience, if you are able to provide these things in a meaningful capacity, you’re more likely to have a partner that can grow and develop properly.

1. Turnout
This is the first thing on my list for a reason. I’m well aware that there are lots of high level programs in all disciplines that do not turn their horses out or limit turnout because of the liability factor, or viewing the high dollar horses as an investment or property. The thought being, I assume, they are somehow safer in a stall than in a field. I am not here to say those programs are “wrong”, but I will say that personally I want my horses outside as much as possible. This is my philosophy as to why:

Horses are grazing animals, and herd animals. If they are in a position to socialize and move their feet during the day while eating, their bodies and minds benefit greatly. Grazing (whether it’s a grass paddock or hay is provided outside) affords them the ability to walk and eat all day, which is what their bodies are evolutionarily designed to do. It keeps their weight healthier, their bodies relaxed, and greatly lowers the risk of GI issues like ulcers and colic. Emotionally, having access to other herd members and living in a structured hierarchy with their pasture mates gives them the ability to learn the social cues that we as riders need for our own dynamics. Lessons like “don’t encroach on my personal space”, for example. As a trainer, I find that if horses don’t learn this socially from other horses, they’re much less likely to respect it when we assert our own boundaries.

Horses that get a substantial amount of daily turnout tend to be easier to work with, and less likely to be spooky and anxious. Is it a cure all for these issues? No. But it certainly helps to allow them the space and time to be horses, eat, move, enjoy fresh air. Kids in school need recess or they’re sulky and distracted in class. Horses are no different. Are you risking a pulled shoe, a laceration from a fence, or a hot tendon? Sure. But if I’m being honest, I’ve seen stalled horses hurt themselves in a box. Bubble wrapping the horse creates more problems than it fixes.

2. Forage
I will talk about hay until I’m blue in the face if you let me. It’s incredibly foundational to equine health. They are not designed to eat 3 square meals a day and go hours in between with no food. As I mentioned above, ulcers begin forming in a horse’s gastrointestinal tracts immediately once their stomachs are empty. They naturally create gallons of stomach acid a day and without a constant intake of hay, the stomach begins eating away at itself instantly. Free choice hay is the best and only way to ensure happy healthy digestive tracts, and any good barn makes this a priority. Hay is expensive, yes. Especially high quality hay. But so is ulcer treatments and replacing chewed stall boards from hungry frustrated horses boredom habits. In my program, the horses have piles of hay 24/7. The ones that eat too fast or mess their hay have hay nets. But they never have to go without.

Side note: Alfalfa in any form is an amazing addition. Soaked. Flaked. Cubed. Absolutely fantastic for horses’ overall health. I swear by it.

3. Footing
This is another thing that barns have to maintain properly and often. Drags, footing replacements when necessary, and hiring a knowledgeable arena company that can help guide you in proper footing and base maintenance. I know when riding and teaching I can see a substantial difference in the way my horses work when they’re comfortable. The long term effects on their soundness is noticeable as well. If footing is hard, slick, or uneven, your horses will suffer the effects one way or another.

4. A knowledgeable trainer that matches your goals
If you intend to show Grand Prix, you need a trainer with Grand Prix experience. If you want your c**t started with 60 days training, you need a trainer who starts c**ts. If you lost confidence jumping, you need a trainer who specializes in helping riders regain confidence. There’s no such thing as a trainer who’s perfect for everyone! Yes, there are great trainers, and there are also terrible ones. We’ve all seen and can think of examples of both. But there’s many who just as well may be really good for you and not so good for someone else.

The most important thing is choosing the right one–you need to put your horse under the care and supervision of someone who can get you and your horse where you both need to go. The environment for the horse and the rider have to match in order for both to achieve success."

📎 Continue reading Ariel Univer's article at https://www.theplaidhorse.com/2024/12/23/the-pillars-of-my-equine-care-system-as-a-lifetime-horse-woman/

12/05/2025

👏👏👏 that's how you learn! By doing..... ❤️🐴

“They’re just children!”

No. They aren’t.

👉They are the future generation of adults.

👉They are the future generation of our sport.

They are the future caregivers of our beloved horses.

👉They are the future teachers of the following generation.

‼️Stop spoon feeding them.
🧡Make them figure it out on their own.
‼️Stop making excuses for them.
🧡Hold them accountable.
🧡Ask them to analyze their own mistakes and how to fix it the next time.
🧡Ask them why something happened instead of giving them the answer.
👉Make them carry their own saddle.
👉Make them pick up a pitch fork.
👉Make them work a weekly feed shift at the barn.
👉Make them pack their own show clothes.
👉Make them clean their own tack.
👉Make them prep their own horse.
👉Make them handle a colic, and then Go over what contributes to colic.
👉Make them rehab a horse, and teach them how that horse got injured, and how to prevent it.
👉Make them work with an auction horse.

✅Let them fail, so they learn humility, and how to regroup.

✅Teach them to have grit.

✅Teach them actions have consequences.

✅Teach them to own their mistakes. 

✅Teach them to overcome challenges instead of passing the buck.

✅Teach them how to respect the horse, and everyone that contributes to that horse’s welfare.

✅Teach them to do right by the horse.

✅Teach them how to make things last instead of throwing it away and buying new.

I know it sounds harsh, but if we do not start preparing the next generation of adults properly, we will not have a generation of adults; We will have a generation of spoiled, overgrown children who have to ask ChatGPT how to do everything instead of thinking for themselves.

It takes longer to have those conversations and takes more effort to be that kind of mentor, but I promise you, it’s worth it 🧡

11/03/2025

Aladdin aka Laddie (the OG of MWF) is available for on farm lease. He is availabie for full or half lease. Please pm or text for more info.
Always in the ribbons, even at A shows. Has shown everywhere, Vermont, Hits, Northampton, Old Salem and both old and new Saratoga. An amazing canter and soft jump, auto swaps. He has it all. Reliable as the day is long!

10/22/2025

Better late than never, congratulations to Amelia Mickle on her lease to Point Man aka Zach. And Hanna Gavel on her purchase of LJ aka Junior!!
Horses are like potato chips, can't have just one ..... 😂❤️🐴🥳

10/04/2025

Cool Krymsun night
barn name- koolio , 6 yrs old, 16 hands. Same horse everyday. Has been trained slow and correct. Koolio has a beautiful rhythmic canter and beautiful movement at the trot. No vices. loads, clips, ties, bathes, trail ride alone or with friends, great in traffic, turns out alone or with friends.
Ready to move into the 2'6 ring today with scope for 3ft. A derby contender for sure!!
Low to mid five figures to purchase.
We can get very, VERY creative if he stays at Meadow wood farm. This is a wonderful opportunity to lease a very talented ,quality horse for a care lease price. Pm for more details or text 518-836-6412
Located in Rotterdam NY

09/05/2025

Zach and Amelia 🔥🚀👊

08/23/2025

❤️🐴🙏

We are heartbroken that Ron Turcotte, Secretariat's Triple Crown-winning jockey, has passed away at age 84. Ron was a great jockey, a great man, and a great friend, and we will miss him dearly. Please read about Ron's inspiring life and legacy, and leave your condolences for his family and all who mourn his loss: https://www.secretariat.com/ron-turcotte-press-release/