Wyndover Farm

05/31/2026

Duke gets a chance to stretch his legs in the Jump Pasture, this evening. It's 4X the size of his pasture.

I think he enjoyed himself. 😉😎

Thanks to Thomas Holkenbrink for taking Duke for a romp and captured these videos, while I did chores.

05/29/2026

Picasso is home!

Intern Lena Voronovich and I traded horses while Pip was here for a review of training and measuring for her harness. Lena is training her to drive, under my direction. She's worked with me, start to finish, on a few horses.... Now she's using the same recipe to make her pony a driving pony.

Once Pip's harness comes in, we'll again trade horses (Picasso goes to Lena's to keep her mare, Arro, company while Pip is here. Picasso helped raise Arro from a foal.) Lena will then put first drives on Pip, with me on the safety line. She's done all of the work. I've not introduced anything to Pip. I just spent a month reviewing all the things she SHOULD (and does) be know/able to do. She's ready for a cart.

05/29/2026

For the love of all that's holy, people, keep your reins in your hands!

It is NOT impressive to see that you can step away from your "he's so good he would NEVER... Walk off, spook, decide he's done and leave".

If the horse is put to a vehicle, there MUST be hands on the reins, at all times.

You're not impressing anyone with the "look ma no hands" BS.

05/29/2026

Duke has Reyna saying, "Picasso, who?"🙄 Horse barns are like high school ... Tell me I'm wrong.

05/28/2026

Lola Harness and Cart Fit
05-27-26

Lola and her new ComfyFit harness from Chimacum Tack! Both Lola and Lautrec have new harnesses that also work together as a pair. That's coming later this year, when they are ready. Now, all of my ponies/horses wear ComfyFit.

This is also her first time in Captain's cart. The one I'll use for both Captain and Lola at our competitions this summer. The first of which is the last weekend in June. My cart is one of the first Modern Carriage Company Sprint carts sold to the public. It's also featured on his website. That lovely dark green with tan seat....yeah, those are my picks. Jim worked with me to add adjustments so I can fit a wider range of ponies.

05/28/2026

New ComfyFit harnesses are here for Lola and Lautrec from Chimacum Tack !!
..But I wanted to give a demonstration.

When I first got Captain's harness last year, his back wasn't as developed as it is now. But because of that growth and development..... Remember it's conditioning that builds a lovely top line.... Not feed 🙄🙄

Now, because of this, Captain's saddle no longer has the spine clearance that every driving horse needs.

The second saddle is Lautrec's new saddle and the next size group up. Quite a difference between a small pony saddle and a pony saddle.

I will be getting Captain a new saddle.

05/28/2026

Repost with updated video (with audio and 2nd view)

Duke and the Tire
05-26-26

Meet Duke. Percheron/Friesian cross. Big, beautiful, and absolutely convinced the tire I asked him to drag today was probably going to kill him.

Duke came to me with a driving background — trained and working. On paper, he's a "been there, done that" horse. But here's the thing: when I take on a horse I've never personally seen driven, I don't just climb in and see what happens. I go back to the beginning. Every step. In order.

Why? Because I want to find the holes before they find me.
There's a difference between a horse that has been taught to drive and a horse that has been developed as a driving horse. One is a set of learned responses. The other is a horse whose body and mind are genuinely prepared for the job — methodically introduced to every piece of the puzzle until nothing is a surprise.

When I'm doing a full start with a young or green horse, I spend many sessions on each step before moving forward. With a refresher, I move through all the steps in rapid succession — but I still do all of them. The difference is pace, not process. If at any point I feel the horse isn't comfortable, we slow down and repeat until he is.

Today with Duke: I ground drove first. I needed real communication — not just forward. Then I had him drag and step on his traces. A horse who's never felt a strap around his legs or something following him is not ready for shafts, regardless of what his paperwork says.

His traces were too short without extensions, so I added those, attached the singletree, hooked up the tire — with a quick release, because smart beats sorry every time.

He was unsure pulling the tire. Hesitant. That's fine — unsure means he's thinking, processing, trying to figure out what I'm asking. We worked through it quietly.

Here's the thing people don't always want to hear: just because the wheel hasn't fallen off doesn't mean it's on tight. In other words — a horse that has never had a problem may not be a horse without problems. He may just be a loose wheel that hasn't hit a pothole yet.
This is why the steps matter. Not as a formality. Not because I don't trust the horse. But because every step is information. Every step tells me what he knows, what he's comfortable with, and where we need more time.

A horse can go forward, turn, and stop and still not be ready. Has he been driven outside an arena? Has he been introduced to the whip as a communication tool? Is his body conditioned for the actual demands of the work? Has he been exposed to the world before being put between the shafts? And just as importantly — has his owner been taught any of this?

When horses come here for training, owners are welcome to attend every single session. Once things are going safely, the owner gets in the cart with me. We talk through every cue their horse now knows. We go over harness fit and adjustment. We practice putting to and unhitching until it's muscle memory — not guesswork on a day when something's already gone sideways.

The horse gets the same treatment. We build the body and the mind together. We teach confidence — out front, no handler at the head, learning to find and trust the line of communication from the bit. Think of it like walking with a toddler. Take the hand, guide gently, let them find their footing. Don't drag them into the job and hope it holds together.

We ground drive everywhere we plan to eventually drive — roads, trails, past all the things the universe can throw at them — before a horse ever sees the shafts. Hours of it. At minimum, they get their steps in. 😄

Duke pulled that tire today. He figured it out. And next session, it'll be a little less new.

Because we're not skipping steps here. We're building a horse properly, for safety, and long term harmony between horse and human.

05/27/2026

[climbs on soapbox]

On Amish-Trained Horses, Online Marketing, and the Trainers Who Do the Bare Minimum (those 3 both individually and collectively).

Let's talk about something the driving community dances around.
If you've spent any time shopping for a driving horse, you've seen the ads. Professional video. Smooth, confident movement. A horse going beautifully in harness, often paired beside another horse — calm, forward, obedient. The description says "Amish trained" like it's a credential. The price feels reasonable. The seller has a name that sounds established.

And then you get the horse home.

Here's what those videos often don't tell you: the horse in that video may have done every mile of his training next to a seasoned partner. A veteran who already knows the job, who is calm and utterly unbothered — and who did much of the actual steadying. The green horse learned by proximity. He went along. He looked great.

What he didn't develop?

- Confidence on his own.
- A relationship with the whip as a communication tool — many draft trainers don't use them. or worse, trainers who use it as punishment.
- A response to anything unexpected, because the veteran beside him handled the unexpected.
- A concept of working out front with a human behind him and no horse to follow.

You can make anything look good in an edited video.

I've seen this firsthand more times than I'd like. I retrained a Standardbred/Welsh cross gelding named Magic Mike. He came with significant whip fear, among other gaps. He hadn't been trained — he'd been pointed in a direction and sent. after his 'Amish Training' — trained by this gentleman (no wonder he was afraid of the whip.
https://www.tiktok.com/.eq/video/7624320726257913119

My own mentor owned an Amish-trained horse, trained by that guy, who was so reactive to a whip that he had to retire him from driving entirely. That's not a training success story. That's a liability in harness.

And it's not just the Amish. The driving world has a broader problem: there are people calling themselves trainers who do the bare minimum to get a horse going in harness and call it done.
Let me be specific, because some of you have bought these horses and don't even know it yet.

Trainers who only ever drive in an arena. A horse who has only worked in an enclosed space is not prepared for the road, the trail, or the showground parking lot. That's not a driving horse — that's a horse who hasn't been tested yet.
Trainers who wrap their traces and drive without breeching. Breeching exists so a horse can hold back a vehicle on a downhill. A horse who has never worked against breeching will have exactly zero idea what to do when a hill appears. That's not a detail. That's a safety system.

Trainers who never introduce the whip. The whip is a communication tool — the equivalent of a leg aid under saddle. A horse who has never been schooled to it will react when a new owner reaches for it to ask for a lateral movement. They could leap sideways. The owner will be terrified. Nobody wins. Except the ER, maybe.

Trainers who send horses home without educating the owner. A full handoff means the owner knows what the horse knows and how to ask for it. They know how to fit and clean their harness. They've sat in the cart and driven the horse themselves, with guidance, before they're on their own. Anything less is handing someone a loaded gun and wishing them luck.

Here's the truth people figure out — usually after something goes wrong: just because the wheel hasn't fallen off doesn't mean it's on tight. In other words, a horse that hasn't blown up isn't necessarily a safe horse. He may just be a horse who hasn't been in the right circumstances yet. The loose wheel that has yet to hit a pothole.

The horses aren't the problem. They do exactly what they've been prepared to do — and no more. When they react "violently" or "out of nowhere," it's almost never out of nowhere. It's out of a hole in the foundation that nobody bothered to fill.

These horses end up back on the market. Then at auction. Then in killpens. Because a horse who was rushed into a job he wasn't ready for, sold to an owner who wasn't educated, and then labeled "dangerous" when the predictable happened — that horse pays the price.

Buy carefully. Ask hard questions. Watch the horse work without a companion. Ask to see the whip used. Ask what happens when something spooks him on the road. Ask what you're being taught before you take him home. Even if driving isn't your thing....yet ...(you'll love it when you try it) you should understand how all of the features on your new car work.

And if you can't get straight answers — that tells you something too.

343 likes, 32 comments. “Raymon Helmuth, you need to do better. And to the person laughing behind the camera, you also need to do better.”

05/27/2026

I've reposted this with an updated video.

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1CURZjnyA1/

Duke and the Tire
05-26-26

Meet Duke. Percheron/Friesian cross. Big, beautiful, and absolutely convinced the tire I asked him to drag today was probably going to kill him.

Duke came to me with a driving background — trained and working. On paper, he's a "been there, done that" horse. But here's the thing: when I take on a horse I've never personally seen driven, I don't just climb in and see what happens. I go back to the beginning. Every step. In order.

Why? Because I want to find the holes before they find me.
There's a difference between a horse that has been taught to drive and a horse that has been developed as a driving horse. One is a set of learned responses. The other is a horse whose body and mind are genuinely prepared for the job — methodically introduced to every piece of the puzzle until nothing is a surprise.

When I'm doing a full start with a young or green horse, I spend many sessions on each step before moving forward. With a refresher, I move through all the steps in rapid succession — but I still do all of them. The difference is pace, not process. If at any point I feel the horse isn't comfortable, we slow down and repeat until he is.

Today with Duke: I ground drove first. I needed real communication — not just forward. Then I had him drag and step on his traces. A horse who's never felt a strap around his legs or something following him is not ready for shafts, regardless of what his paperwork says.

His traces were too short without extensions, so I added those, attached the singletree, hooked up the tire — with a quick release, because smart beats sorry every time.

He was unsure pulling the tire. Hesitant. That's fine — unsure means he's thinking, processing, trying to figure out what I'm asking. We worked through it quietly.

Here's the thing people don't always want to hear: just because the wheel hasn't fallen off doesn't mean it's on tight. In other words — a horse that has never had a problem may not be a horse without problems. He may just be a loose wheel that hasn't hit a pothole yet.

This is why the steps matter. Not as a formality. Not because I don't trust the horse. But because every step is information. Every step tells me what he knows, what he's comfortable with, and where we need more time.

A horse can go forward, turn, and stop and still not be ready. Has he been driven outside an arena? Has he been introduced to the whip as a communication tool? Is his body conditioned for the actual demands of the work? Has he been exposed to the world before being put between the shafts? And just as importantly — has his owner been taught any of this?

When horses come here for training, owners are welcome to attend every single session. Once things are going safely, the owner gets in the cart with me. We talk through every cue their horse now knows. We go over harness fit and adjustment. We practice putting to and unhitching until it's muscle memory — not guesswork on a day when something's already gone sideways.

The horse gets the same treatment. We build the body and the mind together. We teach confidence — out front, no handler at the head, learning to find and trust the line of communication from the bit. Think of it like walking with a toddler. Take the hand, guide gently, let them find their footing. Don't drag them into the job and hope it holds together.

We ground drive everywhere we plan to eventually drive — roads, trails, past all the things the universe can throw at them — before a horse ever sees the shafts. Hours of it. At minimum, they get their steps in. 😄

Duke pulled that tire today. He figured it out. And next session, it'll be a little less new.

Because we're not skipping steps here. We're building a horse properly, for safety, and long term harmony between horse and human.