Meadow Brook Farm

08/11/2025

Happy Monday y’all!

We wanted to start the week on a note of positivity and gratitude and highlight Vanessa Carlson, owner of Woodridge Farm. Vanessa has been a business partner to MBF for MANY years in standing stallions, breeding mares, and producing/selling young stock. Those babies have gone on to be competitive in all manner of sport horse pursuits-mainly jumpers and dressage-but more importantly, a lot of them grew up into trusted, safe and beloved partners for their amateur owners.

Two of those babies have grown up at MBF and are still there-Rohccoca WF (owned by Vanessa and spoiled by Margret Schrant) and Alluwe WF, owned and treasured (to an obsessive degree) by April Morris. While both farms have wound down their breeding programs, it’s so fun to have these two lovely mares in the barn as a reminder
of what careful, conscientious breeding and correct training can produce.

The breeding game-and horses in general-are NOT for the faint of heart. MBF is so grateful for Woodridge’s valued partnership and support over the years, through many ups and downs, and Margret and Helmut are equally as grateful for Vanessa’s friendship. ❤️

Thank you Vanessa! Looking forward to seeing you in Florida!

08/05/2025

👀 👀 👀

08/03/2025

Welp-it took an entire week, but we’ve finally wrapped our heads around the Stubben-less dressage show and as such feel strong enough to post about the actual show 😜

Small group last weekend-3 riders, 4 horses-and everyone was VERY successful despite the heat 🥵

🌟Olivia Pilch Dressage’s young horse Lord Europe Dancier continues to knock it out of the park, finishing the weekend on a 72% at T3 🔥 Dancer is LOVELY and so fun to watch in the ring!

🌟Olivia and her Mollegardens Fashion put in a couple of beautiful early morning tests, with the highlight being a 67.083% at Fourth 3 ❤️

🌟Devante LDS, owned by Duewer Rich Teri and shown by The Boss 😎, literally improved every single time he came out and finished with a 67.568% at Third 1. This little dreamboat has been in Helmut’s program on and off for a few years now and it has been SO cool to watch him gain strength and confidence. (Also he is for sale in case anyone’s looking for a Barbie horse…😍)

🌟April Morris’ Alluwe WF put in some very solid and relaxed tests, incuding a 69.400% at T3 and a 68.333% at First 1. Aloof is getting more consistent as the season goes on and we are so proud of her for getting back to business after a long layoff 🥰

Special thanks to Emma Kane-Mikan for braiding the ponies, to Margret Schrant for coming up to cheer us on (and she brought breakfast!), and of course, a million thanks to The Boss 😎 for keeping us all in line and pushing us to do our best even though we complained about the weather alllllll weekend.

Next up: Helmut has already started the fall inspection tour so he’ll be in and out over the next two months-but he’ll be home Festival week and we’ll have a good group at the Lamplight Dressage show that weekend!

📸 and 🎥: Teri Duewer, Margret Schrant, Olivia Pilch

07/28/2025

🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨

GUYS

HELMUT RODE IN A DRESSAGE SADDLE FOR AN ENTIRE SHOW

HIS OWN DRESSAGE SADDLE

HE DIDN’T EVEN BRING THE STUBBEN

😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮

We’ll do an actual show post later when we’ve recovered from the shock. 😳

07/21/2025

Just a few snapshots of MBF happenings lately….including Bailey Elizabeth Finnestad and her Open Aire finishing on a dressage score of 28 🔥for 2nd place in their first rated HT at Silverwood this past weekend! Also big shout out to Emma Kane-Mikan for her 3rd place finish in a big novice division 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

We’ll be back at Silverwood this coming weekend to sweat it out at their dressage show 🥵🥵🥵….

07/03/2025

Lamplight Summer I & II:

We had a big, fun group at the show last weekend and despite the gross weather our crew knocked out some realllly nice tests.

A few quick highlights:

🤩 The Boss 😎 and Kate Wallace’s Opportune K scoring a 70.80% (2nd place Open) in a big T3 class

🤩 Cari Shanks winning 🥇 the AA 1-3 class with a lovely test that earned a 69.027%

🤩 Kate and her Oliver made their show debut as a team-this was Oliver’s first time out this year and Kate’s first show in 4 years! You’d never have known though-they casually laid down 1-1 scores of 67.307% and 68.269% like they’ve been doing this for years…..we ❤️ this pair!

🤩 Margret Schrant and Vanessa Carlson’s Rhoccoca WF beating Helmut at 3-1….it’s kinda fun to beat The Boss sometimes especially when The Boss is also your husband 😂😂😂

🤩 Olivia Pilch Dressage had a STELLAR weekend-her Salino won two PSG classes, her Lord Europe Dancier took second at 1-3 with a 69.305%, and her Mollegardens Fashion won a 4-3 class and took second in another. Bonus: Helmut only gave her a litttttle bit of a hard time for scratching some Sunday classes and going home early 😆

🤩 Duewer Rich Teri’s Devante LDS improves each test and tries his heart out-his efforts earned him a 64.594% at 3-1–and we just 😍 this little horse more and more….such a good boy! We missed Teri this weekend but she was a bit busy baling straw on the farm 🚜

🤩 Jaclyn Plock’s Sullivan, despite still being a youngster, acts like a veteran at every show and his businesslike attitude kept him in the high 60s all weekend at 1-1 and 1-2 despite a few rider errors 😬😬

Now, if you’re still reading this, we want to tell you about The Shirt. The Shirt was honestly the best part of our weekend.

Those of you who’ve known Helmut a while know that he really loves his poofy white shirt when coats are waived. It’s hard to miss-it’s approximately 3 sizes too big and billows around like a boat sail when he rides.

A discussion was had on Saturday about that white shirt. Margret gently suggested that perhaps other garments were available that might present a more modern and polished, professional appearance. Witnesses to this conversation confirm the constructive tone of this suggestion and also confirm that it was met with absolute scorn and disgust.

However.

On Sunday morning, the white Ram truck (thankfully back from the dead) was seen blasting down the Lamplight road at a questionable rate of speed only 15 minutes before Helmut was supposed to be on a horse. Weird, but he is weird, so we moved on.

Shortly thereafter our friend Martin Kuhn StarWest pointed out in the warmup ring that he had never seen Helmut ride in anything other than a white shirt. Those of us standing there had to do a double take (we blame the heat for our lack of awareness)-Helmut was, in fact, wearing a really nice blue shirt. What?! How?! An hour earlier he’d been doing his usual marshmallow man impression…..

Turns out, if you let Helmut stew on things for 12 hours or so, he MIGHT decide you are right and he MIGHT drive all the way home between classes to change clothes. Well played, Margret. Well played. 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

If you see The Boss 😎 out in the wild, please feel free to ask him about this story. He really loves talking about it. 😬🤣

To end this loooong post: thanks so much to the huge group that came out all weekend to support us and thank you Nora Arnold for the beautiful braids and general sharing of misery 🤣

Photo credits: Andrew Ryback Photography, LLC, Jaclyn Plock, Mady Wallace, Olivia Pilch

06/30/2025

The MBF team this weekend except for Kate Wallace who said, and we quote: “That was WAY more fun that I expected!” 🤨

Real update to come once we’ve recovered from the usual horse show hangover with a side of heat stroke.

06/24/2025

IDCTA Summer Kickoff recap:

✅ 5 good ponies
✅ 3 students
✅ 17 tests
✅ 4 high point awards
✅ 5 errors 🫣
✅ 1 jump saddle
✅ 1 Boss 😎
✅ ……a few adult beverages
✅ 3 really educational show days

MBF had a small crew at the IDCTA dressage show at Silverwood Farm this past weekend. It was hot and windy and dusty but all horses & riders did well and more importantly, came away with some really good insights and homework for the rest of the season. We also learned that EVERYONE (cough cough 😎) forgets their test sometimes….AND if you don’t physically attach the helmet to Helmut he will 💯 leave it somewhere it shouldn’t be.

Highlights:
⭐️ Olivia Pilch Dressage winning both of her First Level classes on her absolutely LOVELY young horse Lord Europe Dancier

⭐️ Duewer Rich Teri’s Devante LDS keeps getting stronger and more confident at Third Level, ending the weekend on a 66.216% at Third 1

⭐️ Vanessa Carlson’s Rhoccoca WF and Margret Schrant scored a 64.595% at Third 1; this pair has really formed a solid partnership and it’s so fun to watch them in the ring

⭐️ April Morris’ Alluwe WF (also bred by Vanessa Carlson) joined the crew again and topped out at a 67.200% at T3-not bad considering the 🚀🚀moments in warmup 😬

⭐️ Finally, we were so pleasantly surprised to find out our group earned FOUR high point awards at the conclusion of the Summer Kickoff show on Saturday! Congrats to:

Olivia and her Mollegardens Fashion, High Point at Fourth Level AND High Point at First Level with baby Dancer

Teri Duewer’s Davey won the High Point Breed Award for British Warmbloods

April’s Aloof received the High Point Breed Award for ISR-Oldenburg N.A.

All in all a really great show! Thank you Silverwood Farm and IDCTA for a fun show; Emma Kane-Mikan for the gorgeous braids; our friends at Heather McCarthy Dressage for the laughs (Sara Liard Stone Nora Arnold) and as always, The Boss for his coaching, support, last-minute rides in dressage saddles, and helpful comments like “you finally learned how to use both your hands when you ride.” 🙄

06/16/2025

👀 👀 👀

Duewer Rich Teri

🤦🏻‍♀️

Entries Close at Midnight Tonight for the HITS Lamplight Summer Dressage I & II Show! 🔔🕰️✨

Come join us for another great weekend of Dressage Competition at our renowned facility in Wayne, Illinois❕🏙️

06/13/2025

We wanted to take a minute this morning to highlight our resident eventer Bailey Elizabeth Finnestad! Bailey has been with MBF for a couple of years with her homebred Open Aire (Ariel); she and Helmut have very patiently and methodically brought along this big young mare and last weekend Ariel completed her very first mini event at Fox Valley Saddle Association!!!!!! 👏🏼🍾🎉😍

Ariel is out of Bailey’s retired Prelim mare Allegra and has had a somewhat rocky road on her journey to being a grown up event horse-but as so many of us know, and as we’ve written on this page a hundred times, the young horse journey can be hard and challenging but it is SO incredibly rewarding…..and it’s even more special when that young horse has been with you since the day she hit the ground ❤️

We have a lot of fun pictures from Sunday’s mini event but we are just going to leave you with this one-it’s our favorite. Congratulations Bailey, MBF is so proud of you and Ariel!

06/03/2025

Windy City Dressage by the numbers:

🐴 Number of horses: 5 **fun fact: all 5 were broke/started by The Boss 😎**
🐴 Number of tests: 19 🫠
🐴 Number of scores above 65%: 5-not bad for our first time out this year 💪🏼
🐴 Number of times Helmut rode in a dressage saddle: 4
🐴 Number of times he whined about it: 0 😱
🐴 Number of times Helmut drove all the way back to MBF to get the Stubben so he didn’t have to do more tests in a dressage saddle: 1
🐴 Number of times Helmut was convinced we were hiding things from him (smokes, lead ropes, our will to live): 4
🐴 Number of riders having a mental breakdown and insisting they were going to scratch while riding into the ring anyway because The Boss 😎 said so: 1 🤪

Overall it was a good first outing of the season! Every horse and rider ended the weekend a little more confident than they started and we all went home with loooots to work on before the next show.

Margret Schrant and Vanessa Carlson’s Rohccoca WF put in a couple of solid tests at Third-these ladies get more polished every day!

Jaclyn Plock’s Sullivan knocked out a stellar 67.40% with Helmut at First 1 🥇

Duewer Rich Teri’s Devante LDS keeps improving at Second Level and banged out a super nice Second 3 test with The Boss 😎 with a 68.095%!

Cari Shanks and her Pjoter (baby Peter!!! 👶) had a SUPER first horse show; their first show together and his first show ever! AND he already got his qualifying score at First Level (show offs 🙄). Welcome back to Illinois Cari!!!!

Finally, we wanted to congratulate April Morris and her lovely mare Alluwe WF on their return to competition after nearly 2 years; injury sidelined this pair for quite a while and we were so happy to have them back with the team!

Thanks to everyone who came out to cheer us on, take pics and video, and supply us with adult beverages: Nora Arnold, Mary Pettey, Kate Wallace, Bailey Elizabeth Finnestad, and Shirley & Glenn! A big thank you also to Emma Kane for the gorgeous braids!

Next up: FVSA Mini Event this weekend and IDCTA at Silverwood in 2 weeks!

03/30/2025

And with that, the 2025 Florida season comes to an end. 🥲 The first two loads are already home and the last one will be back at MBF by lunchtime today.

We had an amazing 3 months! Baby horses grew up (Bailey Elizabeth Finnestad), riders gained confidence (Jaclyn Plock), and the seasoned horses were just happy to bask in the sun. PLUS, we had a new horse join the MBF family (congrats Mary Pettey on your new girl!!! 💗), a veteran team ended their FEI career on a lovely graceful note (Margret Schrant), and we got to know the newest, youngest, and bravest rider addition to the MBF team (you’re a rock star Sophie!! 🤩 Sara Liard Stone).

We are so incredibly lucky to be able to do this and we don’t take any of it for granted—there are so many people that help make this happen and we are so grateful:

😘Jen Moskal Biebel and Brendan Biebel for their incredible hospitality again this year; Jen and Brendan are the most gracious hosts in sharing their beautiful farm with us-the horses are so happy there-thank you for putting up with us, we love you both!

😘Vanessa Carlson for her never-ending support and friendship!

😘Cesario Cardenas and Sara McKiness for taking care of everything at home through the yucky winter months—thank you!!!

😘Christina Schrant and Liz Overstreet Kuhn for being amazing co-pilots and helping get all of our horses safely to FL and then back to IL-that is a looooong haul and you guys are troopers!!

😘All the spouses, partners, parents, kids and family who support us in this absolute insanity; the “horse lifestyle” is not always an easy one so thank you to everyone close to the MBF team who lets us chase the dream south each winter!

😘And obviously last but NEVER least, thanks to The Boss 😎 for being the conductor of this crazy orchestra 🤪 Helmut coordinates the logistics for these trips; he hauls for those of us who don’t have our own rigs, he cares for the horses himself the whole season….he teaches (at 3 barns!), rides, schools, shows, coaches, horse-show-husbands….stacks shavings and hay, fixes the $hit we break, and provides never-ending support, encouragement, patience and comic relief. Thank you doesn’t seem like enough, but it’s all we’ve got—we appreciate you so much! ❤️❤️❤️

&sporthorses