Wild Springs Farm

08/24/2026

Finished the Blue and Gray series with some of my favorites. The classes were HUGE, the venue was lovely, the weather was beautiful, and the horses were magical. Next stop Colonial Classic! Thank you Amanda and Lilly for the help ❤️

08/21/2026

Andre Dignelli writes, I get this question a lot: How do I get from A to B? How does an aspiring rider competing on a local circuit get an opportunity to break through to the top level?

At Heritage, we understand this concept, because we were those people. We are that story.

Patricia [Griffith] had already completed her junior career when she started at Heritage as a working student, and she had her big moment when finishing second in the 1998 USEF Talent Search Final, which springboarded her career a bit. Laena [Romond] found her success later. When she came to our team, she had already graduated college; she didn’t have access to the circuit early. For myself, it happened a little earlier. I rode down the street from Coker Farm, and my brother [Michael] took me there to try to get an opportunity, and I was a working student.

It really stems from having the courage to speak up and go after a dream. Looking back at riders like Cooper Dean, Taylor St. Jacques and Geoffrey Hesslink—they all approached me in the heat of the moment. What they wanted to accomplish, at the time, seemed difficult or out of reach, and they took the brave step to say that ‘Where I am is comfortable, but this is where I want to be.’

With that, there is usually a lot of sacrifice. You have to drive a great distance, stay with a family member that lives nearby, share a house, go to school remotely, or something else. If you’ve followed any kid’s journey pursuing a sport, whether you’re following baseball games or gymnastics—those athletes are all traveling. It’s a big commitment, and your family has to be somewhat on board. You need an advocate, because it can be disruptive to make a move.

If you want to make that next step, sometimes you need to take interim steps first. Connect with the best local trainer in your area that’s also open-minded enough to co-train you with a top operation, which we’ve done. We’ve done those collaborations in addition to having riders traveling long distance to ride with us.

My best advice is, you don’t need to know a thing about horses to know what good training and instruction looks like. At the horse show, you should be observing all of the advanced rings. You’ll see and hear what looks correct. Follow that. Follow what looks to be good instruction, what looks to be good care, and what looks to be an organized program. That’s a start.

📎 Continue reading this article at https://www.theplaidhorse.com/2021/03/10/ask-andre-for-aspiring-riders-how-do-you-break-through-from-the-local-circuit-to-the-big-stage/
📸 © Kind Media

08/16/2026

At Wild Springs Farm, we use EVERYTHING 💩as a teaching tool. (Task: make a circle around to 💩). Thank you Erica Fleck for capturing this epic moment. 😉🤪🩷

08/11/2026

Nothing could be more true in this sport!

08/10/2026

08/10/2026

07/29/2026

This!!!!! Some adults learn too.

As horse trainers, we all see a lot of angst, drama, fear, and anxiety at horse shows, Daphne Thornton writes. Sometimes, it’s not even ours. Kids and drama seem to be able to find each other in a crowd. When you add in horses, judging, and parents spending a ton of money… things can escalate quickly. Sometimes perspective is hard to achieve.

I like to look at it this way—horse shows are nothing more than a great big bowl of life lessons. You can take a bite. You can eat the whole thing. Or, you can go hungry.

What lessons can you learn at horse shows that apply elsewhere in life? Well, for starters, these:

1. Very few people will know, or care, if you do well. Those few include your mother, your small handful of close friends, and your trainer. This is actually a good thing. All the people who you think are watching you actually aren’t.

2. A small-ish number of people will actively hope you do not do well. As we say at Two Bit Training, “That’s fair. I can live with that.” And, most of them aren’t watching either.

3. The rest of the world…Does. Not. Care.

4. 80% of the work that is done in the world every day is done by people who are hot, cold, tired, or hungry. You will be hot, cold, tired, or hungry some days. Keep going as best you can. And if you need a break and can take one, do it.

📎 Continue reading this article at https://www.theplaidhorse.com/2022/11/28/horse-shows-are-a-big-bowl-of-life-lessons/
📸 © Evelyn Szczepanek / ES Equine Photography