Dun-Pikin Farm

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United States
Pasadena, MD
Dun-Pikin Farm

Riding Lessons, Pony Parties, Petting Animals, Horse Boarding Dun-Pikin Farm is a small family operated horse boarding and lesson barn in Pasadena, Maryland.

We offer beginner and intermediate riding lessons for children and adults. Horse training. Boarding. Pony Pal program. Pony parties. Pony rides. Stop by and see us some time (visit by appointment only.) We'll see you 'Down on the Farm!"

Dun-Pikin Farm is a Maryland Horse Industry Board Certified Horse Discovery Center.

10/31/2026

Happy Halloween...if you dare...Come Ride With Us!

Cindy 🐴

10/31/2026

Digging into the farm archives for Halloween Eve, we wanted to share a classic throwback of Kemerton! We'll never forget Kemerton for many reasons, especially his knack for making us laugh. Somehow he managed to slide his fly mask all the way down his nose into the ultimate accidental Halloween mask.

He may be gone, but memories like this still keep us smiling every day around the barn. Our current crew is ready for all the treats and none of the tricks, so Come Ride With Us!

Cindy🐴

10/29/2026

Rick here again, taking over the blog to give the boss another day to rest her eyes post-surgery. I caught this quiet moment in the arena the other day and had to take a picture. That's Aleta with Ruby and Roxanne with Durango.

Now, three decades of living alongside the horse world has taught me just enough to know what I don't know. I saw Roxanne had a lunge line and neither horse had a saddle, so I knew riding wasn't on the immediate agenda. What struck me most, though, is how differently two horses can share the same space—Ruby is a well-trained veteran who takes care of our riding lesson students, while young Durango is still working on his fundamentals before he takes his first ride at the farm.

Even after pitchforking and helping cover Cindy’s daily chores during her recovery, Aleta and Roxanne still want to spend their downtime right here in the sand. It’s a pretty special bond, whether you're on the ground or in the saddle—Come Ride With Us!

Rick (for Cindy 🐴)

10/29/2026

Rick here, hijacking the keyboard for the evening while Cindy rests her eyes after round one of her cataract surgery today. You know it’s officially a strange day around here when the contents of her barn jeans pocket are sitting unattended on the counter—especially that blue pocket knife. I can’t remember the last time she went a whole day without reaching into her pocket to pop the twine on a hay bale or trim some random piece of farm life that needed an immediate fix. Judging by the pocket cross, the lucky rocks, and "Little Jesus" standing guard next to the blade, it takes both a sharp edge and a little divine intervention to keep this place running.

While the knife is my clue that she’s actually following doctor's orders for at least a day or two, the photos coming in from her hardy and loyal crew tonight show a peaceful, well-fed herd. Knowing the horses are in great hands is the best medicine she could ask for right now. She’ll be back in the groove before we know it, and until then, the crew is holding down the fort so you can still Come Ride With Us!

Rick 🐴

10/28/2026

I don’t know many people who own or manage a barn full of horses that take a lot of vacations. Making the arrangements to be away from the barn for more than a day tends to not be worth the hassle. Especially if you throw in a pig, a couple of goats, a few rabbits and 2 chicken coops with birds, all who need care too. Today I updated the feed chart, labeled all the meds and supplements, dumped feed in the feed bin and left a few notes here and there. I’m gonna be away for a few days.

I have really great dependable help and have no worries that things will be fine. They know where every horse goes, what they eat and what needs to be done. I just feel bad leaving so much work for everyone, and want to make things as easy as possible. After all, everyone is doing me a big favor. Thankfully the weather looks good, and that always makes everything much easier.

Unfortunately I’m not going on vacation. I’m having cataract surgery tomorrow. Thank you Amie, Jody, Roxanne, Aleta and Scott. I know the farm will be in good hands. Come Ride With Us!

Cindy 🐴

10/27/2026

These two characters work for us here at the farm. As regulars in our petting animal "herd," their job kicks into gear whenever we host pony parties—which include unlimited pony rides and unlimited access to our petting crew for the whole party.

It’s been a couple of weeks since our last party, so these guys are currently biding their time. Honestly, I’m always amazed at how they manage to keep their pure white outfits looking so clean and sharp while living on a farm!

Being a good petting animal takes a special twist of personality—staying quiet and tolerant around curious kids and adults. These two do pretty well, though they occasionally like to make a game out of standing still. It’s hilarious watching them dodge and duck (yes, ducks really can duck!) to avoid the up-close-and-personal attention that’s actually in their job description.

That’s where we step in to help facilitate the introduction. Our best trick is having our visitors get down low and sit very quietly, convincing a curious duck to waddle over and see why the humans are suddenly acting so much like ducks. We know we’ve succeeded when we see a smile—on the ducks, that is!

Have you ever seen a duck smile? Come see it for yourself when you Come Ride With Us!

Cindy 🐴

10/26/2026

If you ever wondered what goes into keeping a farm running behind the scenes, today’s after-lunch adventure summed it up nicely. We need to replace the leaky roof on the donkeyt shed, which meant Phase One was simply finding the roof underneath a massive tangle of vines and overhanging limbs. Since we dove right in and forgot a "before" photo, an old winter picture will have to do to show the sad state of affairs!

Rick was eager to test out our newly acquired battery-powered pole clippers and chainsaw from the top of a ten-foot ladder. My job was hauling brush to the debris pile and making sure gravity didn't get the best of him—especially since the majority of what we were battling turned out to be poison ivy! I couldn't let him fall off that ladder anyway; he still has to do the actual roof repairs for Phase Two, not to mention the rest of my mile-long fix-it list. Thankfully, we wrapped it up in about an hour with zero injuries and a donkey shed roof that can finally see the sun again. While we handle the endless farm chores and upkeep, all you have to do is show up for the fun part and Come Ride With Us!

Cindy 🐴

10/25/2026

It seems Chef Gordon Ramsey has officially entered the barn, AKA Shine. Evidently Shine did not give me a good review of this morning's breakfast. Maybe his alfalfa pellets were a bit dry. Or maybe I shorted him on his pump of oil that adds calories to his meal. Perhaps it was the lack of his Ultimate Finish that normally tops off his meal, whatever it was, I did not get a five-star review from Shine. When I checked to see if he was done eating this is what I found. I would not consider a foot in the bowl a stellar review.

I suppose it could have been the plating. Maybe it was the rubber bowl. Whatever it was, obviously breakfast did not live up to his refined equine palate. Oh well … Amie made his lunch this afternoon, he did a bit better with that. Thankfully he cleaned his dinner plate tonight.

It seems everyone’s a critic these days. Tough crowd, but we wouldn't trade our equine critics for the world. Ready for your own barn adventure? Come Ride With Us!

Cindy 🐴

10/24/2026

Gosh, it has been a long day. I’m just walking in the door at 9 pm. This certainly wasn’t the way I planned on my day going. I was thinking maybe a leisurely evening with the grandkids. Well, they had other plans and the universe had other plans for me.

But, I don’t wanna talk about my screwed up evening. Let me tell you about a real accomplishment for today. Cleaning out the goat pen had crept to the top of my todo list and for good reason. I’d say the litter in the yard was about 2 foot deep – mostly waste hay with a measure of goat p**p mixed in.

Some folks actually raise their goats intentionally on deep litter though usually indoors in winter. The litter composts and actually provides some heat in the winter. But even then you do have to do a seasonal cleanout of the litter.

Back in ‘the day’ we raised 100 chickens in a block building coop on deep litter. At that time it was mostly shredded paper we got from the back door of the school complex. I guess you could say it was one of those win/win sorta deals.

Well, anyway, back to the goat pen. Cleaning it out is always a back breaking job. I got this bright idea that maybe I could recruit Tycen and his handy John Deere tractor with the grapple attachment and see how well that would work. As you can see in the pic he was able to take big grabs of the litter. He’d just grab a chunk, back out and run it down to the manure pile.

That is a nifty, and handy gadget. I still had some hand work to do to fine tune the finished job, but I’m grateful for that mechanical assist. Thank you, Tycen! And oh yeah, thank you Jody and Roxanne for helping with this huge job.

Rick put in a couple hours with me this afternoon to help finish up the job and put the pen back together. We wrapped it up about 3 this afternoon just before feeding time. As I mentioned when I started this story, I never got to go home till way after dark. I missed dinner, that was the most painful part. But all that is a whole other story. I’ll save that for another day. And while you are still here, let me remind you to Come Ride With Us!

Cindy 🐴

10/23/2026

Something special today. Right from the horse's mouth, so to speak.

Cindy 🐴
*-*-*-*_____*-*-*-*
Hi! It’s me Tammy.

I have lived at Dun-Pikin longer than I can remember. In the old barn, out front. Nobody really knows what breed of pony I am. I am a pony; did I say that yet? So yes, I am a pony. I have spots and roan on me and white on my face. I have heard it mentioned that I could be a "pony of the America's" or part that, which I don't necessarily want to be, because we have one in our barn, Dually Delicate Dynamite, aka, Olive and her personality has a lot to be desired if you ask me.

I have never been a lesson favorite and I know it. It kind of bothers me because the complaints about me are all things I can't help, well except for maybe the occasional mouthful of grass here or there, I take full responsibility for that.

Riders complain that I'm scary because I carry my head up high. I guess you haven't noticed that the way I was built is with a very upright neck and front end. Meaning that I'm naturally going to prefer to have my head up since that's how nature made me.

Since I like to go with my head up, I tend to have choppy gaits, again this has a lot to do with my body and not me trying to do anything intentional. My high head leads to tight back muscles which cause me to move in a choppy manner. The older fancier riders know how to work with me to push forward from behind lift my back and stretch my neck down and reaching. But that is big kid stuff, and since I'm a pony, doing anything fancy isn't in my job description.

I think the very best thing about me is that you will always know where I stand. I make my body language very obvious. Whether I'm relaxed or tense, I try and make it really obvious with my body, so you people know what to do. All you have to do is pay attention. Which is why I kind of get grumpy when I'm telling you and you don't notice or care to pay attention. That's the thing about us equines people—see, we can't talk to you in words like you talk to each other, but our body language and expression in our eyes says it all. You just have to be willing to be quiet, not just your volume, but quietness in your body and mind, so you can really observe us! That's when you will begin to really understand.

Oh yeah, one more thing you should know about me, I'm blind in one eye, so please use extra caution not to startle me and if I want to turn my head around to look at something please let me because I just want to try to get a better look.

Requests for My Riders
Please keep your hands nice and still and low. It feels terrible when I have my head in its natural place and it feels like you are trying to yank it up higher.

On behalf of all my other friends, quiet voices and slow movements make us feel safer.

I can teach you a lot! To be an assertive leader on the ground because sometimes I try to eat grass or go to my stall and it's your job to keep me under control!

I will teach you the importance of having quiet hands because if your hands move a lot, I will have to put my head higher and higher.

My choppy trot can tend to make you want to ride in a "chair seat" with your legs out in front of you. I will teach you why you need that straight line from shoulder, hip, to heel.

On behalf of my other friends who will probably say the same thing, we are all different just like you and your human friends are different and unique. No horse or person is better than another, we are all just ourselves. If we were all the same life would be way too boring!

Tam Tam’s Advice of the Day
"If you want to be a good horse person, learn to understand our silent language. We say a lot without saying anything at all. And most of all, it's okay to be your sassy self, embrace who you are and keep on keeping on."

— Tam Tam
with a little help from our guest blogger Ellison Hartley

Come Ride With Us!

Address

4808 Mountain Road
Pasadena, MD
21122

Website

https://www.dun-pikin.com/

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