Willowbrooke Farm

09/01/2025

Happy Labor Day! No lessons today & the new fall/winter schedule begins tomorrow, Tuesday September 2, 2025 If you have any questions as to when you ride, just reach out to Jen.

08/31/2025

Good weekend with a small group at the north adams show. Congratulations everyone!

08/27/2025

Great night to ride outside with beautiful rainbows 

08/13/2025

Willowbrooke farm schooling show Saturday, August 16, 2025. Sign up today. We have 2 stalls that just became available if anyone wants them. Call/text Jen for more info 313-938-9221. Entries are due Wednesday, August 13.
Sign up on Horseshowing.com

08/13/2025

Willowbrooke Farm summer BBQ - Sunday, August 17, 2025. 4:30pm in the observation room any Willowbrooke family, friends and neighbors are invited. Come have fun with us.

08/05/2025

The Willowbrooke store is open now through 8/15! New warm coats available!

Online ordering for Willowbrooke Farm Apparel 2025 Fall ends on Fri, Aug 15, 2025 (11:59 PM EDT)

07/23/2025

📣 Mark your calendars! Split Rock Kentucky National returns September 16–21

🌟 Feature classes include:
• FEI CSI2*
• Amateur Hunter National Championships
• Gladstone Cup Equitation Classic – Amateurs
• Take2 Thoroughbred Finals
• USHJA National Hunter Derby
• Maclay Regional Championships
- THIS Adult Equitation Area Championship
- Hamel Equitation Area Championship
- ⁠USHJA Zone 5 Horsemanship

📍 Kentucky Horse Park
📅 Sept 16–21
🔗 Prize list & info in comments

07/15/2025

The HJAM Medal Finals are right around the corner!
The generosity of our past sponsors has always funded the awards and prizes. Please consider sponsoring this year to help make a great HJAM Final!
For sponsorship and medal questions and/or information, please contact Melissa Donnelly at [email protected], (248) 210-7341 or Sarah Robertson at [email protected], +1 (248) 321-8092.

07/14/2025

"At Heritage, my team sits down at the end of the year/beginning of a new show year with each of our students and their families, where we’re saying, ‘Where do want to be a year from now?’ You have to have goals, some long-term and some short-term, and you have to create a show schedule that allows you to successfully—or what you hope is successfully—achieve those goals. You’re picking out shows that either have an atmosphere or a venue of some similarity to the championship event you’re trying to go; are close to home; or offer classes that you think you may need—or a combination of these factors. At the start of the year, that’s what we are doing at Heritage. We try to create a roadmap for each and every customer that will allow them to feel like they can reach these goals—or exceed them. We’re not showing just to show.

Because what I’ve found is that we’ve become a little bit of a society where when we’re not showing, we’re not practicing. When you’re not showing, it is not the moment to disappear or to take your foot off the gas. If I go to big event, and I don’t receive the results I was looking for, I come home and have to reassess: Do I have the right horses? Is this the right program? Am I teaching the tools that are needed to get the results? I take a look at myself and say, ‘That didn’t go the way I wanted.’ I hate that feeling, and I immediately think about what I can do to make that change.

That’s sort of the overachiever in me and the underdog mentality that is still ingrained in my own mind. It’s that fear of failing. I was that kid that didn’t want to go to school without doing my homework, and today I don’t want to go to a show without doing my homework. The kids I most admire are the kids that are telling their parents, ‘I don’t want to go on vacation. I don’t want to miss a day of riding.’ I don’t want to go to an event unprepared, and I love hearing that in Division 1 athletics, if you don’t go to practice, you don’t play. That’s the mindset we should be instilling.

To that note, I think it’s very important, and I’ve always said this, that you identify: Are you in this for sport? For recreation? Or somewhere in between? You need to be very honest with yourself about where you fit into that spectrum.

The sport is bigger than ever, which is a great, healthy thing. I think we’re of the mindset that, if you’re fortunate enough and can have enough horses, you don’t have to stop showing. The problem is, there’s only a certain amount of learning that is happening when you’re just competing. The art of learning how to compete is indeed an art: There’s an atmosphere, there are pressures, there are times allowed, and there are demands that come with showing that you can’t replicate. But it’s impossible to hone the skills for you and your horse over a single schooling fence in what has become an increasingly smaller schooling area."

🔗 Read the full article from Andre Dignelli at https://www.theplaidhorse.com/2022/07/19/ask-andre-are-we-showing-too-much-and-practicing-too-little/
📸 © Kind Media

07/14/2025

Willowbrooke clients - don’t forget about the IEA meeting tonight (7/14) at 6pm in the observation room. All levels - walk-trot through jump , grades 4-12 are welcome. Plus bring your riding/show clothes if they no longer fit to sell to someone else. If you can’t make it, don’t worry about it as we have a sheet with information on it and please feel free to reach out to Jen or Nicole with any questions.  we’re hoping to have everyone signed up by the end of the month. 

07/08/2025

The Capital Challenge Horse Show continues its legacy in 2025 as a premier horse show destination in 2025 celebrating its 32nd edition at Prince George’s Equestrian Center from September 24-October 5, 2025.

Keep your 👀 open for the 2025 schedule coming soon.

07/05/2025

Happy 4th of July! 🎉🇺🇸