God Given Farm

04/24/2025

Our 2 Day Groundwork and Riding Clinic with KJ Horse and Mulemanship has been POSTPONED and will be rescheduled at a later date! All individuals directly affected have been notified.

For all those planning to audit, please stay tuned as we announce more demonstrations and future clinics! We hope everyone stays dry during the upcoming storms this weekend!

04/20/2025

Happy Easter! He is Risen!

04/18/2025

‼️Upcoming clinic details below‼️

First, some pictures of our training paddock under a rainbow and a gorgeous sunset over the roundpen last night!

If you have not registered for our two day clinic NEXT WEEKEND, contact us asap! We still have a few spots available, as well as some stall accommodation. The beginning stages of Liberty work will be covered on day one, so you don’t want to miss it! Don’t be ashamed to make mistakes, that’s what this clinic is for! Easy access and ample trailer parking is available. No need to worry about backing a trailer. This will be our only riding clinic for a bit, so don’t miss out!!

04/13/2025

Don’t forget to register before it’s too late!

‼️UPCOMING CLINIC‼️

April 26-27th, 2025*

To register:
•Contact God Given Farm
•Proof of Negative Coggins Required
•Cost for the entire clinic: $300 (Half required as a nonrefundable deposit)
•$150 Non-refundable deposit to reserve your spot (remaining $150 due prior to the start of day 1)

Limited stalls available upon request for additional fee.

For any questions, concerns, more information, and to register, please contact us.

We are so excited to work with KJ Horse & Mulemanship again!

04/07/2025

‼️UPCOMING CLINIC‼️

April 26-27th, 2025*

To register:
•Contact God Given Farm
•Proof of Negative Coggins Required
•Cost for the entire clinic: $300 (Half required as a nonrefundable deposit)
•$150 Non-refundable deposit to reserve your spot (remaining $150 due prior to the start of day 1)

Limited stalls available upon request for additional fee.

For any questions, concerns, more information, and to register, please contact us.

We are so excited to work with KJ Horse & Mulemanship again!

03/28/2025

With the recent influx of wildfires in North Carolina and Virginia, we have a few pastures available for those needing to evacuate. Please contact us if you need assistance or pasture space. Praying for all affected🙏

03/25/2025

Two stalls and a private tack/feed room are up and leveled! While we still have to put in the base for the stalls, gravel for mud prevention outside the stalls, and finish the fencing for our new training paddock, we are now accepting applications for our training waitlist.

We will be offering 30-90 day training options this summer.
Included:
•24/7 access to hay
•24/7 access to fresh water
•24/7 access to loose minerals and salt licks
•1-2x daily stall cleaning with pine shavings
•24/7 Turnout (weather permitting)
•Fly Spray as needed
•Holding for any vet, farrier, or bodywork
•Daily grooming and health checks
•High quality performance feed as needed
•Locked Private Feed & Tack Room
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•A minimum of 5x weekly training sessions
•A minimum of 1x weekly picture/video updates
•1 weekly lesson for you with your horse
•Trainer lives on-site
•60’ Grass Roundpen
•120’x80’ Soft Dirt Arena

For more questions, pricing, and to join our waitlist please fill out the form below or send us a message!

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/3SCKH27

03/13/2025

Horse training isn’t just about physical skill—it’s a mental game too. Patience, consistency, and emotional control are just as important as technique. We’ve met a lot of riders out there that could use a tad bit of help in technique in order to get to where they are and want to be faster, but were already doing great due to the level of emotional control and consistency they had. We all think training horses should be exciting, but it’s really not. It’s mundane work day in and day out and it takes time to learn to master your own body control and emotions. But we must first do that in order to expect the horse to follow and do the same. Change Yourself first, and the horse always follows.

Photo from Michael working with one of our students horses in the Level 1 Apprenticeship program currently going on.
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03/12/2025

A common struggle we see is when a person’s goal becomes more important than the horse’s mental and/or physical health. Goals keep us motivated, but it’s important to prioritize your horse. Shut down and compliant is a completely different thing than engaged and well mannered, but they can look similar if your eye is not well trained to spot the differences.

Far too many regard “ good horse training” as the ability to achieve obedience at any cost.

Many people don’t factor in whether or not the trainer is actually being considerate of the feelings of the horse and training in an ethical manner.

Being a good horse trainer should involve considering the unique needs of horses as a species and training in accordance with those needs.

Being able to train horses to stand for hours a day without any hay doesn’t make someone a good trainer, they are setting horses up to be ulcerated and uncomfortable in the stomach due to going without forage for hours at a time

Similarly, being able to train young horses to do incredible athletic feats very quickly doesn’t make someone a better horse trainer, because they aren’t factoring in the wear and tear it takes on the body for a horse to be brought along so quickly.

While these things may make things easier and more profitable for humans, they don’t factor in whether or not it is fair to the Horse.

Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.

Horses are living beings, and if we are going to partake in a sport where we have to operate alongside another living being, we need to consider how our actions make them feel.

For anyone who doesn’t wanna have to consider how their training methods impact the Horse: consider getting a dirtbike or joining another sport where you are working as an individual.

It isn’t good training to seek results at any cost, and to expect obedience to the point where the horse has to pretend to not be impacted by having a lack of met needs.

Far too much of what many regard as “good “training results in a shut down Horse.

What is the point in being involved in a sport where we are supposed to be enjoying the time we share with horses if we don’t actually want them to behave like horses?

If someone is just looking to work with obedient little robots, do they even like horses?

And this isn’t to say that you can’t create obedience ethically, but the extent of obedience that some expect is reliance on a lack of personality and the horse succumb to unfair working conditions.

The fact of the matter is this: truly good horse training needs to involve actually being good to the horse. Not just what we are able to make the horse do for people. 

03/10/2025

Registration is now open!

03/10/2025

Even days off are filled with horse things! Today Journey had her first ride in the arena and second ride total. It was all no nonsense, lots of thinking, and perfect stops! I am so proud of her, and so blessed to have such a wonderful mare here at God Given Farm.

03/09/2025

03/04/2025

Per popular request, we will be adding a Youth Horsemanship Class for those interested in a small group lesson for kids ages 5-10 years old.

Your child will get to spend quality hands-on time with the God Given Farm lesson horses while learning safety, how to brush and care for horses, and enjoy some horse related educational crafts!

Spots are limited to 4 participants at this time. These sessions will take place on Saturday mornings, starting April 5th.

Contact us for more information and to reserve a spot!

02/28/2025

“Horses regularly trained with ground work are more relaxed when ridden”

A recent study of dressage horses in Germany that looked at rein length and tension revealed a surprising finding: horses who were regularly trained in ground work/in-hand work had lower heart rates during ridden work than all of the other participating horses. This wasn’t what the researchers were investigating, but it was clear in the results. From this, the researchers concluded that, “Perhaps horses trained in ground work had more trust in their rider.”

So why would it be true that horses who regularly learn via ground work/in-hand work are more relaxed? There are a few possibilities.

1) Horses trained regularly with ground work are more relaxed because their trainers are more relaxed. It’s possible that humans who take the time to teach their horses from the ground are less goal oriented and more concerned with the process. They may be more relaxed in general and foster this same relaxation in their horses. As you are, so is your horse.

2) Horses trained regularly with ground work have trainers who are more educated about a horse’s balance.

Their horses learn to move in correct balance which allows them to be healthy and sound in their bodies and, therefore, more relaxed. Physical balance is emotional balance.

3) Horses trained regularly with ground work understand the trainer’s criteria better. They have mastered the response to an aid before the rider mounts and know the “right answer” already once under saddle. They don’t experience any conflict when the rider asks for a behavior because the neural pathway has already been installed. They are more relaxed about being ridden because it rarely has caused confusion for them.

For us highly visual humans I think that ground work is often a better way to begin exercises because we are much better at seeing our horse doing the right thing than feeling it from the saddle. Often, my feel in the saddle is enhanced by the fact that I have watched my horse perform an exercise over and over in our in-hand work. It feels how it looks. In-hand work is also a good way to teach our horses because our own bodies are often more in balance when we are walking beside our horses. With the ground under our feet we are able to be more relaxed if something goes wrong and less likely to be so busy wrapped up in our own balance that we give our horses conflicting or confusing aids. It’s a good place to figure things out. I am a huge fan of in-hand work.

I’m glad to learn research revealed ground work is good for horses. Horses with a low heart rate are relaxed and relaxed horses perform better and live longer. In this day and age of people starting horses under saddle in under an hour and increasing monetary rewards for the “young horse dressage program“, everything seems to be done in a hurry. The entire horse culture seems to privilege “getting up there and riding your horse”. But as one of my favorite writers and accomplished horsewoman, Teresa Tsimmu Martino writes, “In today’s horse culture there are clinics that brag about starting a c**t in a day, as if the quickness of it was the miracle. But old horse people know it takes years to create art. Horses as great masterpieces are not created in a day. An artist does not need to rush.” We need more scientific studies like this one to encourage us to slow down and take our time with our horses.

So why were the horses in the study more relaxed? Likely it was a combination of all three factors – a relaxed trainer, better overall balance and clear understanding of criteria.

These are things that matter to your horse, and yes, will allow him to trust you when you ride. Take some time to slow down and work from the ground, learn a bit more about equine balance and teach new things in-hand before asking for them under saddle. You can take your riding to a whole new level and help your horse become more healthy and relaxed in the process.” - from the article by Jen of Spellbound Horses https://spellboundhorses.com/2013/03/07/horses-regularly-trained-with-ground-work-are-more-relaxed-when-ridden/

02/27/2025

Don’t forget to relish in the progress you have made.

As horse owners, we tend to always have a goal in mind for our horses. Whether we hire trainers or do it ourselves, don’t forget to take time to enjoy the process. The moment when your horse stops running when you enter the pasture, when they no longer need to run aimlessly in the roundpen before a session, when they shift their weight on their own as you go to pick up a hoof, when they don’t shy away from a bridle, and my personal favorite; when they become emotionally involved in the work you are doing.

A quote I see often from higher level trainers is, “It takes 1 year to get a horse broke, 2 years to train one to a discipline, 3-5 years to season one, and 10 years to truly finish one”

If we don’t learn to enjoy and appreciate progress, we’ll spend 10 years unhappy with our horse, rushing, pushing too far, and ultimately setting ourselves back.

What you’ve accomplished recently may not be perfection, but it’s still good.

A little glimpse into Journey’s ground driving session yesterday. It wasn’t perfect, and it’s certainly not our end goal, but she had me smiling from ear to ear the entire time!