RKR Farm

06/25/2026

Here is the link for professional photos that were taken at our inaugural Flight For Independence Show!

Thank you Flight Line Dressage Shows for making this dream come true for us, and for Christina Stewart for capturing the day!

2026 Flight for Independence I - Christina Stewart

Christina discovered a love for horses at a young age and took hunter jumper and dressage riding lessons. She began taking horse pictures in 2006 to help friends advertise sale horses, and discovered a love for photography. Christina is available for horse shows/events, equine & farm sessions, as we...

06/13/2026

Some days are just....perfect..

There are so many people to thank for today. Andrea Davenport Himel and Flight Line Dressage Shows for managing the show today. Velvet Court Society for supporting this endeavor and for providing lunch for everyone. Each and every competitor for making our first show such a success.

Huge thank yous to Roger Reynolds for working tirelessly to make everything perfect and for today. To Haley Anthony and Lilli and Gabriella Miabella, who kept things moving and who are such a wonderful support system. Jordyn Martin who provided the gifts for the officials and who helped in so many ways behind the scenes. Linda Whalen, Gloria Brown Wolfe , Sandy Walter Rosvanis for everything. ❤️ Sarah Louise for sharing your Fritz with us, and Brandie Snyder Miller and Royd Miller for providing the after party and for all of your support. And Lisa Hall abd Elgin Panichelle for everything you do to help us grow.

Our program wouldn't exist without our lesson parents and riders. I cannot thank you enough for everything.

I hope I didn't forget anyone. It seriously takes a tribe, and we have the best one.

God is so, so good. ❤️

06/13/2026

🤣🤣🤣🙌

06/12/2026

Happy birthday to our sweet Honey Girl!!

06/09/2026

I wrote this a few years ago, and love seeing it shared. ❤️

Things your riding instructor wants you to know:
1. This sport is hard. You don't get to bypass the hard…..every good rider has gone through it. You make progress, then you don't, and then you make progress again. Your riding instructor can coach you through it, but they cannot make it easy.

2. You're going to ride horses you don't want to ride. If you're teachable, you will learn from every horse you ride. Each horse in the barn can teach you if you let them. IF YOU LET THEM. Which leads me to…

3. You MUST be teachable to succeed in this sport. You must be teachable to succeed at anything, but that is another conversation. Being teachable often means going back to basics time and time and time again. If you find basics boring, then your not looking at them as an opportunity to learn. Which brings me to…..

4. This sport is a COMMITMENT. Read that, then read it again. Every sport is a commitment, but in this sport your teammate weighs 1200 lbs and speaks a different language. Good riders don't get good by riding every once in awhile….they improve because they make riding a priority and give themsevles opportunity to practice.

5. EVERY RIDE IS AN OPPORTUNITY. Even the walk ones. Even the hard ones. Every. Single. Ride. Remember when you just wished someone would lead you around on a horse? Find the happiness in just being able to RIDE. If you make every ride about what your AREN'T doing, you take the fun out of the experience for yourself, your horse, and your instructor. Just enjoy the process. Which brings me to...

6. Riding should be fun. It is work. and work isn't always fun.....but if you (or your rider) are consistently choosing other activities or find yourself not looking forward to lessons, it's time to take a break. The horses already know you don't want to be here, and you set yourself up for failure if you are already dreading the lesson before you get here.

7. You'll learn more about horses from the ground than you ever will while riding. That's why ground lessons are important, too. If you're skipping ground lessons (or the part of your lesson that takes place on the ground), you're missing out on the most important parts of the lesson. You spend far more time on the ground with horses than you do in the saddle.

8. Ask questions and communicate. If you're wondering why your coach is having you ride a particular horse or do an exercise, ask them. Then listen to their answer and refer to #3 above.

9. We are human beings. We make decisions (some of them life and death ones) every day. We balance learning for students with workloads for horses and carry the bulk of this business on our shoulders. A little courtesy goes a long way.

Of all the sports your child will try through their school years, riding is one of 3 that they may continue regularly as adults (golf and skiing are the others). People who coach riding spend the better part of their free time and much of their disposable income trying to improve their own riding and caring for the horses who help teach your child. They love this sport and teaching others…..but they all have their limits. Not all good riders are good coaches, but all good coaches will tell you that the process to get good is not an easy one.

*thank you to whoever wrote this! Not my words, but certainly a shared sentiment!

06/05/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1NbwvVqMRg/

06/03/2026

Congratulations Gloria Brown Wolfe on your purchase of Shezobsessedwithjohn (Quinn)! I am excited for her future with you, and can't wait to be part of the process! I'm VERY excited that she will be staying here at RKR!

Thank you Gretchen Grubbs Belan for trusting us to sell her, and for making this possible!

06/03/2026

Why is my rider not making progress, and how can I help them improve?

Let me start by saying that everyone who rides does so for different reasons. This sport meets you where you are, and you can be as relaxed or competitive eith it as you want.

Regardless of riding discipline or level, the ultimate goal is always the same......to improve our communication with the horse. ❤️

So what does keep a rider from making progress toward this goal? Sometimes that is a difficult question to answer. I'll list the most common reasons that I see with lesson riders, and give some tips for how to help.

1. Are they teachable? Everyone has days when they aren't teachable. Sometimes they are overwhelmed, sometimes tired, sometimes there is fear (whether they acknowledge it or not). All of these factors can keep a rider from being teachable on any given day. But riders who are consistently argumentative, unfocused, or struggling may need to make some changes to get the most from their lessons. Riding on a different day or time, arriving a few moments early to focus before the lesson begins, and being reminded to really LISTEN to the instructor's direction are all key to helping the rider's skills improve.

2. Do they understand the directions? If not, are they asking questions? I leave my lessons and replay them in my mind later (yay anxiety brain!). "Did she really understand that exercise?"
"What was happening that made that break down?"
Sometimes riders don't want to acknowledge that they don't understand something, so I try to describe it in different ways during the lesson. If I see that they almost have it, we often go do something else and try to come back to it at the end of the lesson. If they really are struggling, I change the focus in that moment and make a plan after the lesson to try again a different way.

3. Can they physically do the exercise? This one is big. There is a fine line between pushing someone to help them build strength and skill, and setting them up for failure by over-facing them. Break skills down. Then break them down again. And give riders exercises to complete between lessons.

4. Are they communicating in a way that the horse understands? Is the rider using their leg and rein aids, even incorrectly? Or are they babnling to the horse so much that the horse shuts down? This one is tough, because this as an instructor we have a responsibility to build better horsemen and horsewomen.....and this means reminding a rider that they can't just boss the horse around. They have to work WITH the horse by learning to communicate with them.

5. Are they riding regularly? This one seems simple, but you would be amazed at the number of people who think progress comes from intermittent lessons. Although there are exercises that riders can do to improve strength and fitness off the horse, regular lessons and ride time are necessary to truly improve.

I hope these help you or your rider get the most from your lessons! Your instructor is your biggest fan, I promise. ❤️

06/02/2026

Riding is a marathon, not a sprint. When the process becomes frustrating and starts to feel hopeless, keep this in mind:

The process IS the accomplishment.

Geno recently helped me earn my final score for my Bronze medal, an honor that has taken me 11 years to earn.

My biggest flex from that day, however, wasn't the medal. It was how his confidence grew with each movement of the test. Every movement that we have spent months learning, even the ones that rocked us for a bit as we worked to figure them out.

Did we do them perfectly? Not even close.
Was my horse so exhausted by the end that he slept for 2 days? Absolutely.

But, as we went through the test, he attempted each movement with more and more confidence. He relaxed and we danced and it was one of the rides I'll remember forever.

And I wouldn't have fully grasped the importance of those moments without having gone through the whole process with him. To feel a horse who couldn't canter and sneeze at the same time as a four-year-old complete his first public flying changes and half passes was truly....magical.

This journey with our horses is such a blessing...every step of it. ❤️