Riding Lessons 2025

  We are excited to get started with horsemanship lessons on our two trusty horses, Mindy and Junior (Skyfall)!

  We are working on our fencing for our small shaded riding arena, preparing for a new horse's arrival and impatiently waiting for the ground to dry after our winter storm at the beginning of January.

  We are also planning summer camps! Probably second and fourth weeks of June 2025. 

  Can't wait to see what the next few months bring as we move forward with our new horse adventures!

There and Back Again

 

I have a story that needs telling. It's a story of time and dreams. It's the kind of story that can only be explained by God moving parts and pieces that you had no idea would amount to something someday.

When I was a teenager, I had the opportunity to work on a Rocky Mountain Horse farm in Vermont with wonderful people who patiently taught me about this wonderful breed of horse. It was a fall in- your- lap sort of opportunity.  I didn't go looking. It literally just fell into my lap.  A neighbor recommended my friend and I to the owner of the farm when he started looking for some help with the horses.

I loved evey second. I learned to care for foals, handle youngsters, ride unridden horses, ride a stallion, show, care for pregnant mares, trail ride, trim hooves, learn about breeding horses, genetics, you name it. I enjoyed every aspect they threw at me except the occasional goodbye to horses we loved. 

I dreamed of have my own horse farm someday.

Fast forward, I got married, had a family, had a couple horses early on, sold them, had more babies, spent time painting pictures of horses, and finally got to have my Rocky gelding; our family horse. My kids ride him, my husband has ridden him. I trained him myself. My 11 year old at the time helped get him certified. We are blessed to experience this wonderful breed!

The farm I worked at was sold as the owners retired to Florida and sold all their horses.

Here's where the story takes an interesting turn.

Through a casual search of the Rocky Mountain Horse pedigree database, which I occasionally look at to see where some of their horses ended up, I found out that one of the fillies they raised had been bred and had a colt. So I looked up his name to see if I could find out where he ended up and found him at a farm two hours away from me.

I decided to click their sale page to see if he was on it and I find the mother, one of Cedar Grove Farm's mares they raised staring back at me listed for sale with a March 2025 due date for her next baby! I had helped work with her mother when she was young! I even have a painting of the mother on my living room wall.

At this point I was just thrilled to see she was being utilized as a brood mare and that my friend's horses were continuing the line.

But I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask for a price, expecting full well for it to be out of my price range.

I tell my husband, I tell my friends about finding one of their old horses and I even prayed that if it wasn't meant to happen, the door would be solidly closed. Then I waited to hear back.

When he e-mailed me with a fair price, I nearly cried. I send the info to my husband, still unsure if we could pull it off, but knowing this was a ridiculous find that may never show up again and he came back with a definitive yes to it.

So I make arrangements to visit and make a deposit and set up a plan to get her home.

Somewhere in the midst I realize that I had met her before when I lived back in Vermont briefly while my husband was away for the army. My older kids had even seen her and I happened to find a photo of them petting her when we had gone to visit.

So seeing her and petting on her was just unreal and felt like I was dreaming.

I never imagined I would actually start my Rocky Mountain Farm with a Cedar Grove Farm mare. It was too big a dream to imagine it coming true in that way. I always thought I'd find a mare that would have some familiar names in her pedigree. This is way beyond what I ever imagined would be possible.

So here I am, trying to patiently wait for my dream horse to arrive next month.

I have a few things to do to get her paddock and shelter ready for a baby, but I eagerly wait for this amazing story to come full circle. Nothing could have prepared me for such a special story and start to my own Rocky Mountain Horse farm.

Dream big, friends. You just never know what might be in store a few years down the road.

 Sky Fall Certification

Sky Fall is officially a certified Rocky Mountain Horse, as of November 2023!

We began getting Junior ready for his certification in the beginning of September, and his gait has definitely improved! He's a little on the lazy side of things... but he's gaiting, and a lazy gait is still a gait!  The video was a little messy, but that's okay. Hopefully Sky Fall will continue to improve... and get his gait a little faster!

By Naomi Hooser

Skyfall and His Girls

Skyfall is starting his job of teaching my girls some riding skills. He's only 4, but he is so chill!

He is helping CH get comfortable posting to the trot and AH is learning to flex and one rein stop at a walk.

I think it may be time to invest in a child's saddle so their legs can reach his sides! Lol

I have officially completed teaching all of Clinton Anderson's Fundamental exercises to Skyfall. We are fine tuning some of the riding exercises this week and then June we will focus on getting him in gait under saddle and certified!!!

Also, Naomi has helped me create a logo for Hooser Horsemanship... isn't it cute??? 💖

Skyfall and the Method

 Skyfall has officially been taught every exercise in Clinton Anderson's Fundamentals series. This is the first horse I have put through the entire process. Right now we are fine tuning a few exercises we are weak in (usually due to user error).

I probably haven't ever ridden a horse as enjoyable to ride as this one. He is willing, soft and supple, and easy to teach.

I have just shy of two weeks left in May to finish off the Fundamental exercises and then I will be spending June getting his gait down. He's already giving me some gait, so it shouldn't take a lot of time to push him up a little faster so I can have him certified.

So far, teaching both trot and gait is working swimmingly. He understands that when I post and ask with a big two leg squeeze on a loose rein that I want trot, but when I ask with a small squeeze and light contact on the bridle that I want something different. He isn't certain what that looks like all the time yet but he is trying to find the answer and succeeds with a few steps here and there.

I'm hoping to bring him to a show in late June or July sometime to have him evaluated for his gait and officially certified. This will complete his Rocky Mountain Horse requirements.

Here are some video links of some of his recent training.

https://youtu.be/aKcE9CPd0O8

https://youtu.be/TbrFH9oeE2Y

https://youtu.be/EfKBtGy_Noc

https://youtu.be/anRCWaLPvF4

https://youtu.be/KJ4u55lijwo

https://youtu.be/HhKHGBnTKJo

https://youtu.be/IW759QUqpm8