Black Walnut Farm

E and I were able to make a trip out to Black Walnut Farm on Wednesday. It's only about 12 minutes from the house, and is on one of my most favorite streets in town. The property is surrounded by wheat fields and rolling hills that lead up to open land. Very pretty.

The owner, Anna, invited us to watch a lesson and then gave us a tour of the facility. She has one boarder leaving and consequently would have space for us. It was wonderful to watch her work with a girl a bit younger than E; she was patient and kind, and not a minute of the lesson was wasted. Even during warm up/cool down she asked questions about tack and animal.

Her boarders have access to a "break room" complete with bathroom, fridge and lockers. There is an indoor tack room as well. Everyone is allowed to use both the indoor and the outdoor arena. Horses are given a 12x12 stall with bedding and have daily turnout into small individual fields. Board includes feed (grain too), daily mucking and daily hoof picking. Sounds wonderful, doesn't it? Unfortunately, the price is 5 times what we are currently paying - and consequently too much for my budget. We would probably be okay if we had only one horse, but with another in the works, it's just out of our reach.

E and I do plan to take lessons, however. We both really liked Anna and think we could learn from her. Her focus is English, which would be a big change for E. But I know that I would like to learn to ride both Western and English and E has expressed an interest in English as well.

E's first lesson is scheduled for next Thursday. We will bring Curly out and since we don't own an English saddle, E will ride Western. Anna would like to see what E knows and perhaps offer some suggestions for improving both her riding and her horse's training. It turns out that although Anna is considered an English instructor these days, she began her riding in Western saddles and didn't learn the second discipline until she was an adult. Anna said we could also borrow an English saddle to try on Curly - who knows, maybe he'll like it!